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KAYL-AM in Storm Lake flips to ESPN Radio?

> For at least Monday-Friday, it sure looks like it:
>
> http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/affiliate?query=ia
>
> Can anyone confirm this? If true, how pathetic is that?
> Tiny Storm Lake has an ESPN station and yet Des Moines is
> stuck with the god awful Fox Sports Radio & KXNO :(
>
It starts this Friday, it will be seven days a week, except for a few hours on Sunday morning. It will be the only ESPN station between Omaha and Cedar Rapids.
 
> For at least Monday-Friday, it sure looks like it:
>
> http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/affiliate?query=ia
>
> Can anyone confirm this? If true, how pathetic is that?
> Tiny Storm Lake has an ESPN station and yet Des Moines is
> stuck with the god awful Fox Sports Radio & KXNO :(
>
I seem to recall posters galore wondering when KXNO was going to go with ESPN. I said then, will say today, and again years from now, KXNO will never make that move.

Forget about Clear Channel's relationship with Fox. The fact is KXNO, like WHO, is not prone to change. They are reactive, not pro-active. Not once can you say while listening to that station, "there's a fresh idea." Everything they do has been done before, and it has been done better before.

Case in point, remember when they first decided to do local talk? They went with a dull ex-coach, a duller ex-player, a former rock jock, and a girl who thought the all-time strikeout king was named "Ryan Nolan". No joke.

Only after Deace lost his second job did they decide to hire him, after he approached him. Not once did they get pro-active and try to hire him away. Cotlar sounds like the WHO afternoon hosts (that's not a compliment), and their fill-in hosts (Reed, Rickord, Morgan, Zubin, etc.) are unlistenable. They are Geoff Cohn's buddies, so they stay on the short list.

This is what you're going to get from "Des Moines' sports station". Get used to it. Until CC decides to pull the plug on the format. Based on their ratings, and the promos that saturate their local spot breaks, that should be real soon.
 
KXNO is an overall horrible station. Cotlar has his Iowa & Iowa State people, his own movie reviews, his local gripe hour. Fast forward 6 hours and Deace has his Iowa & Iowa State people, his own movie reviews, and a gripe hour. For crying out loud, they even have the same guests, just at different times, i.e. John Walters. Deace & Cotlar all but ignore the NFL and the national college football landscape and even then, when Cotlar does talk NFL or national college football, he's got to come up with some connection to tie it back to Iowa or the Big 10 and/or Big 12. I was thinking this morning that I haven't once heard Deace or Cotlar talk about the Iowa Stars this week and Deace is a hockey guy!

Not to mention, their Friday night football coverage is not even in the same ball park to what the old Jock did with Friday Night Lights.

At least when 1490 was on the air, Marty & Miller mixed things up between the national & local scene and weren't talking with the same guests about the same topics day after day, week after week.

Now back to the topic on hand, it's amazing that little Storm Lake will soon have the only full time ESPN radio station in nearly a 300 mile radius.

> > For at least Monday-Friday, it sure looks like it:
> >
> > http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/affiliate?query=ia
> >
> > Can anyone confirm this? If true, how pathetic is that?
> > Tiny Storm Lake has an ESPN station and yet Des Moines is
> > stuck with the god awful Fox Sports Radio & KXNO :(
> >
> I seem to recall posters galore wondering when KXNO was
> going to go with ESPN. I said then, will say today, and
> again years from now, KXNO will never make that move.
>
> Forget about Clear Channel's relationship with Fox. The
> fact is KXNO, like WHO, is not prone to change. They are
> reactive, not pro-active. Not once can you say while
> listening to that station, "there's a fresh idea."
> Everything they do has been done before, and it has been
> done better before.
>
> Case in point, remember when they first decided to do local
> talk? They went with a dull ex-coach, a duller ex-player, a
> former rock jock, and a girl who thought the all-time
> strikeout king was named "Ryan Nolan". No joke.
>
> Only after Deace lost his second job did they decide to hire
> him, after he approached him. Not once did they get
> pro-active and try to hire him away. Cotlar sounds like the
> WHO afternoon hosts (that's not a compliment), and their
> fill-in hosts (Reed, Rickord, Morgan, Zubin, etc.) are
> unlistenable. They are Geoff Cohn's buddies, so they stay
> on the short list.
>
> This is what you're going to get from "Des Moines' sports
> station". Get used to it. Until CC decides to pull the
> plug on the format. Based on their ratings, and the promos
> that saturate their local spot breaks, that should be real
> soon.
>
 
You're preaching to the choir

I'm trying to disagree with even one thing in this post......I can't.
 
I'm curious as to what prompted the change, which is now up on www.northpine.com. Looking at KAYL's coverage map from radio-locator, the signal barely reaches Sioux City, Ames, or Des Moines and that's during the day. One would think that the demand for an all sports station in Storm Lake would be fairly low.

Storm Lake has a high percentage of Hispanics in the town and I would think that if KAYL was going to change formats, a hispanic geared format would make money in Storm Lake before ESPN does.

Don't get me wrong, i'm glad to see an Iowa radio station picking up ESPN, just wished it was in Des Moines :(

> > For at least Monday-Friday, it sure looks like it:
> >
> > http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/affiliate?query=ia
> >
> > Can anyone confirm this? If true, how pathetic is that?
> > Tiny Storm Lake has an ESPN station and yet Des Moines is
> > stuck with the god awful Fox Sports Radio & KXNO :(
> >
> It starts this Friday, it will be seven days a week, except
> for a few hours on Sunday morning. It will be the only ESPN
> station between Omaha and Cedar Rapids.
>
 
> I'm curious as to what prompted the change, which is now up
> on www.northpine.com. Looking at KAYL's coverage map from
> radio-locator, the signal barely reaches Sioux City, Ames,
> or Des Moines and that's during the day. One would think
> that the demand for an all sports station in Storm Lake
> would be fairly low.
>
> Storm Lake has a high percentage of Hispanics in the town
> and I would think that if KAYL was going to change formats,
> a hispanic geared format would make money in Storm Lake
> before ESPN does.
>
> Don't get me wrong, i'm glad to see an Iowa radio station
> picking up ESPN, just wished it was in Des Moines :(
>
> > > For at least Monday-Friday, it sure looks like it:
> > >
> > >
> http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/affiliate?query=ia
> > >
> > > Can anyone confirm this? If true, how pathetic is that?
>
> > > Tiny Storm Lake has an ESPN station and yet Des Moines
> is
> > > stuck with the god awful Fox Sports Radio & KXNO :(
> > >
> > It starts this Friday, it will be seven days a week,
> except
> > for a few hours on Sunday morning. It will be the only
> ESPN
> > station between Omaha and Cedar Rapids.
> >
>
Could it be that joining ESPN will be a cheaper ride for KAYL? Are there anyone losing their jobs over this? Once again local content is being flushed down the toilet to hook up with a network feed. That is what is pathetic..if indeed that is the case. Ask Mr and Mrs Storm Lake if they're happy with a move like that? Probably the noisy 10% of the population (sports fanatics)are...the rest will find other options. Hopefully KAYL has an FM that carries a format that is more mass appeal.
At least KXNO has some local talent that talks about local things...Something the ESPN Network could never do.
 
> > Storm Lake has a high percentage of Hispanics in the town
> > and I would think that if KAYL was going to change
> formats,
> > a hispanic geared format would make money in Storm Lake
> > before ESPN does.

Would a hispanic station have more listeners? Probably.
Would a hispanic station make more money? I'm not sure. I cannot speak for Storm Lake, but some of the powers that be in a small business community may not like losing an anglo station for a hispanic station, or just the concept of a hispanic station in general. It may not be right, but it happens. Also, committing to doing a hispanic station, even if sat fed a lot of the time, would take a lot of investment in making sure bilingual staff was available to do spots/news/weather, receptionist duties, and sales calls.


> >
> Could it be that joining ESPN will be a cheaper ride for
> KAYL? Are there anyone losing their jobs over this? Once
> again local content is being flushed down the toilet to hook
> up with a network feed. That is what is pathetic..if indeed
> that is the case. Ask Mr and Mrs Storm Lake if they're happy
> with a move like that? Probably the noisy 10% of the
> population (sports fanatics)are...the rest will find other
> options. Hopefully KAYL has an FM that carries a format
> that is more mass appeal.

Was 990 ever "local" recently, or is this just a case of substituting one sat feed (adult standards) for another (espn)? If so, I don't think it would mean a big difference in staff. Maybe someone on here knows for sure what the source of the adult standards programming was before.

KAYL does have an FM that is mass appeal, a version of AC last time I heard it a few years ago, that might even be a bit too "mass appeal" at times (overly broad Hot to Soft). But, hey, if it works in western Iowa...
 
> Was 990 ever "local" recently, or is this just a case of
> substituting one sat feed (adult standards) for another
> (espn)? If so, I don't think it would mean a big difference
> in staff. Maybe someone on here knows for sure what the
> source of the adult standards programming was before.

Programming was local, old big band songs on a computer hard drive. One part-time announcer, who is staying on in another capacity. Most of the local content was simulecast from the FM. There will be no changes in staff.

The music was mostly from the 40s, some 50s. It hadn't been supported well by advertisers in recent years.

>
> KAYL does have an FM that is mass appeal, a version of AC
> last time I heard it a few years ago, that might even be a
> bit too "mass appeal" at times (overly broad Hot to Soft).
> But, hey, if it works in western Iowa...
>
Actually two FMs.

KAYL-FM is full-service hot AC, live and local 6am-10pm, somewhat less on weekends. A lot of local news, local involvement. And the music was tweeked recently, not as broad as it used to be.

KKIA-FM is country, local 6am-10am, then satellite.
 
> > Was 990 ever "local" recently, or is this just a case of
> > substituting one sat feed (adult standards) for another
> > (espn)? If so, I don't think it would mean a big
> difference
> > in staff. Maybe someone on here knows for sure what the
> > source of the adult standards programming was before.
>
> Programming was local, old big band songs on a computer hard
> drive. One part-time announcer, who is staying on in
> another capacity. Most of the local content was simulecast
> from the FM. There will be no changes in staff.
>
> The music was mostly from the 40s, some 50s. It hadn't been
> supported well by advertisers in recent years.
>
> >
> > KAYL does have an FM that is mass appeal, a version of AC
> > last time I heard it a few years ago, that might even be a
>
> > bit too "mass appeal" at times (overly broad Hot to Soft).
>
> > But, hey, if it works in western Iowa...
> >
> Actually two FMs.
>
> KAYL-FM is full-service hot AC, live and local 6am-10pm,
> somewhat less on weekends. A lot of local news, local
> involvement. And the music was tweeked recently, not as
> broad as it used to be.
>
> KKIA-FM is country, local 6am-10am, then satellite.


Actually, Storm Lake has 3 FM stations now...

KAYL-FM 101.7 "Iowa's Best FM" playing Hot AC,
KKIA-FM 92.9 "Wild Country 92.9 - The Moose" playing Country/Western,

And there's the 3rd FM, owned by Buena Vista University...

KBVU-FM 97.5 "The Edge" playing Modern Rock/Alternative.

For the most part, however, KBVU is mostly automated, though.

DeanSB2004
<P ID="signature">______________
Dance Music RULEZ!! :)</P>
 
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