-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
KCAL FM shares
- Thread starter 30james
- Start date
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I don't know anyone who has access to the demo breakouts for the Riverside-San Bernardino market. I don't think David does, because Univision doesn't own stations in that market.
It's not going to drive me crazy because, having said that, I can now ignore the question.
It's not going to drive me crazy because, having said that, I can now ignore the question.
Rock doesn't do well in the ie as its mostly a Hispanic outlet
David E or hagerty what can be done to improve kcal's shares?
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I think James is closer to the mark on this than Neel is. KCAL's 1.7kW, in a geographically tight are like Riverside-San Bernardino, gets full market coverage. It helps that they are directional from a peak that is north of the population center and geographically in the approximate middle of the east-west axis. (KHTI is another matter entirely; without going off-topic, their COL makes it necessary for their transmitter to be more to the northeast, at a height that lowers their ERP to 180 watts. Not fixable.)
But to get back to what James said, the IE has steadily become more and more Hispanic over the decades. Just going from the 6+ numbers, which give some indication of that effect on the market, of all stations with at least a 1.0 share of all listening, seven stations are Spanish language, and three are English language but with formats known to have appeal to young Hispanics (KGGI, KQIE, and KDAY).
Another factor: KLOS outperforms KCAL by a factor of close to three. Since Meruelo acquired it, they have had less of an AOR-style presentation; they talk over intros, have produced sweepers, etc. They also, last time I listened, appear to have a playlist which leans closer to Classic Rock than to Active Rock (I will have to look in Mediabase when I have a few spare minutes to check them against KCAL on that point).
It may well be that KCAL is now a dinosaur.
But to get back to what James said, the IE has steadily become more and more Hispanic over the decades. Just going from the 6+ numbers, which give some indication of that effect on the market, of all stations with at least a 1.0 share of all listening, seven stations are Spanish language, and three are English language but with formats known to have appeal to young Hispanics (KGGI, KQIE, and KDAY).
Another factor: KLOS outperforms KCAL by a factor of close to three. Since Meruelo acquired it, they have had less of an AOR-style presentation; they talk over intros, have produced sweepers, etc. They also, last time I listened, appear to have a playlist which leans closer to Classic Rock than to Active Rock (I will have to look in Mediabase when I have a few spare minutes to check them against KCAL on that point).
It may well be that KCAL is now a dinosaur.
Lack of decent active rock friendly material certainly doesn't help. This has pushed the more successful active rock stations like KUPD to start to skew towards playing more of the 90's and 2000's rock.
I wonder if Meruelo decided to rock a little less hard than KLOS had been known for? In the last two hours, on the "Song History" page, I see a few pop-leaning titles, "More Than A Feeling" by Boston, "Fat Bottomed Girls" by Queen, "Start Me Up" by the Stones and "Magic Man" by Heart. Of course, there's plenty of Zeppelin, Linkin Park, Guns n Roses and ACDC. So it's still not a "mainstream" classic rock station. But I guess it's backed off some of its buzzsaw sound.
I always wondered why KLOS is so hard-edged? Is it the beach culture? When it had competition, maybe it staked its territory as the harder rock station. But with no one else playing Classic Rock, why is there no room for the core artists heard on most other Classic Rock stations? Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger, Steve Miller, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Elton John, etc. WAXQ plays these artists and it's #3 in New York. KLOS doesn't and it's #9 (and it had been around #14 a few months ago).
Define that - because modern hard rock is INCREDIBLY vast. The format has a huge range of music if they need. There is more active groups then 20 or 40 years ago.
The issue is the popularity is extremely mediocre, in my opinion.
I think it goes back to the history of the respective markets. I was an avid WPLJ listener. When I moved to the LA area in August 1978 the first station I checked out was their sister station KLOS. While WPLJ played Carol King, Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Elton John; KLOS played none of these artists rocking a lot harder with Rainbow, Triumph and Black Sabbath. WAXQ can tap into NYC market heritage and play softer rock songs.
I agree. Less AC/DC and more Eagles and Fleetwood Mac would do them good. LA has a tiny hard rock scene but it is magnified because of the Hollywood clubs (and even that isn't what it used to be). But most of their audience isn't doing the Hollywood scene and wants to hear what they know, and the fact of the matter is that the 70s and 80s classic rock has simply aged better than the 90s and 2000s grunge and active rock. I don't know anyone who wants to hear Alice in Chains.
It's not struggling everywhere. San Diego's KIOZ has been Active Rock for decades. And it does pretty well in key demos.
- Status