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KDWN and KXST ceasing operations

Ryan Williams said:
It's okay if you don't like or care for that brand of talk radio, but why do you say it is a waste?
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You hit the nail on the head with sports. Sports bills typically higher than what they are currently airing on KDWN, from my understanding, even when you consider the slate of leased time currently on 101.5. It will also allow for possible opportunities for play-by-play and for Audacy to clear their own network programming (namely BetQL) on an FM signal.

I don't care for conservative talk radio, but I'm pragmatic about things like preventing competitors from stealing KXNT's thunder.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Were I inside the Beltway in a position of authority, I'd look carefully at how Mexico and several other nations in our hemisphere reacted to the slow decline and, now, imminent death of AM: they changed the second adjacent channel separation requirements to allow more full, licensed FMs in more congested markets. By doing so, they were able to move about 80% of all existing AMs to the FM band with full facilities ranging from what in the US would be A's to complete C's.

The US separation requirements for FM stations were established to the greater extent over 60 years ago when FM receivers were not as selective and were subject to drift. Transmitters were not endowed with today's technology and the creations of Messrs. Orban, Oginowsky and Foti were decades away. It's time to revisit the FM band and declare AM to be obsolete.
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Perry Michael Simon today goes where I went six months ago in comparing AM to a mall, and essentially agrees that the time has come for migration to FM:

AM Devitalization by Perry Michael Simon
 
Now I'm wondering, did Audacy put one over on Beasley? Audacy traded Beasley FM Alternative station 107.5 KXTE so it could get 720 KDWN. Audacy probably knew it would quickly sell KDWN's North Las Vegas transmitter site. But did Beasley know this? Did Beasley simply think, well, Audacy has two other AM stations in Las Vegas and KDWN can be marketed in combination with them.

What does a full power FM station go for these days in Las Vegas? KXTE is #17 in Market #32. What's that worth? $15 million? But Audacy will get to sell the land on which KDWN and KXST have their towers for $40 million.
 
Gregg. said:
Now I'm wondering, did Audacy put one over on Beasley? Audacy traded Beasley FM Alternative station 107.5 KXTE so it could get 720 KDWN. Audacy probably knew it would quickly sell KDWN's North Las Vegas transmitter site. But did Beasley know this? Did Beasley simply think, well, Audacy has two other AM stations in Las Vegas and KDWN can be marketed in combination with them.

What does a full power FM station go for these days in Las Vegas? KXTE is #17 in Market #32. What's that worth? $15 million? But Audacy will get to sell the land on which KDWN and KXST have their towers for $40 million.
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I’m sure no one in the deal was naive. Beasley wanted the FM more than it wanted KDWN. Audacy wanted $40 million more than it wanted any of them.
 
I don't believe Vegas is a typical "small" market, iHeart when big in the music festival business like many other event organizers when they launched iHeartRadio Music Festival every September, so does many Vegas resident shows in casinos, music award shows occasionally in Vegas casinos, and finally we have not one but 2 music arenas the T-Mobile Arena and the upcoming MSG Sphere. Do u even have a heart when a major artists appear occasionally on their local Vegas stations other than the sports ones like the NHL's Golden Knights, the WNBA's Aces and the NFL's Raiders.
 
michael hagerty said:
I’m sure no one in the deal was naive. Beasley wanted the FM more than it wanted KDWN. Audacy wanted $40 million more than it wanted any of them.
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Beasley didn’t feel like it was being screwed. They had to pay rent to Audacy for KDWN’s site. Beasley could simply stop the land sale by refusing to trade. But that’s not in Beasley’s best interest because they’re stuck with the AM. The FM is far more valuable
 
>>>I’m sure no one in the deal was naive. Beasley wanted the FM more than it wanted KDWN. Audacy wanted $40 million more than it wanted any of them.<<<

So you are saying Beasley wanted the #17 station in Las Vegas more than it wanted $40 million? "Hey Audacy, let's swap. I'll take KXTE and you get a transmitter site worth $40 million!"

Maybe Beasley executives would be interested in a bridge to Brooklyn I could sell them?
 
I just drpve from Las Vegas to Kingman. It looks like there is all sorts of land outside Las Vegas. A little bit of directional array and 50 kW looks like it will put more than enough signal over Las Vegas. It looks like they just want to kill the AM rather than giving a new array a try.
 
K6JHU said:
It looks like they just want to kill the AM rather than giving a new array a try.
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Correct. It is probable that an investment in a new antenna site (several million dollars) would never pay off.
 
K6JHU said:
I just drpve from Las Vegas to Kingman. It looks like there is all sorts of land outside Las Vegas. A little bit of directional array and 50 kW looks like it will put more than enough signal over Las Vegas. It looks like they just want to kill the AM rather than giving a new array a try.
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The station's night signal has to be highly directional to protect the large coverage radius of a (former) 1-A station in Chicago. So locating to the southeast would not be adequate.
 
Hard for me to believe Audacy would take KDWN silent and not KXNT (840). When I lived in Vegas I preferred KDWN over KXNT. I guess with the 101.5 signal it doesn't matter, but they already pulled KXNT off of FM when it was on 100.5.

Heck they would probably be better off combining 840 and 720's signals into one site (from the KXNT site) although I think 720 still has a much better pattern day and night vs 840.

I guess in their case it's better to only operate only one talk station versus two, but they already do this in the NYC Market with 1010 WINS and WCBS 880.
 
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KyleAndMelissa22 said:
Hard for me to believe Audacy would take KDWN silent and not KXNT (840). When I lived in Vegas I preferred KDWN over KXNT. I guess with the 101.5 signal it doesn't matter, but they already pulled KXNT off of FM when it was on 100.5.

Heck they would probably be better off combining 840 and 720's signals into one site (from the KXNT site) although I think 720 still has a much better pattern day and night vs 840.

I guess in their case it's better to only operate only one talk station versus two, but they already do this in the NYC Market with 1010 WINS and WCBS 880.
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There’s a huge difference between New York (Market #1) and Las Vegas (Market #31).

And seriously—-Las Vegas is an FM town. The only AM that does better than KXNT is KDWN. Signal and dial position aren’t the reason for that, so why not take your former competitor off the air, make $40 million instead of spending money on a transmitter move and promotion and ride 840 for as long as it lasts—which is probably ten more years, fifteen tops.
 
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michael hagerty said:
There’s a huge difference between New York (Market #1) and Las Vegas (Market #31).
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And, overall, Las Vegas is a terrible radio market. It is, like many isolated western cities (Boise, SLC, Denver, Phoenix, Albuquerque, over-radioed because all the 2good frequencies" are in the few big cities.

The local economy is so thoroughly tourism based that local business like retail and services does not move the money like a similarly sized city elsewhere. The example a station manager there gave me some time ago is, "a plumbing company is not going to want to sign up individual homes when they can get service contracts for a hotel, casino, club or tourist area shopping area".

Rates are lower, talent tends to be transitory. It is a move up in market size for talent, but a lot of people who go there tire of it... and the heat... quickly.
 
DavidEduardo said:
And, overall, Las Vegas is a terrible radio market. It is, like many isolated western cities (Boise, SLC, Denver, Phoenix, Albuquerque, over-radioed because all the 2good frequencies" are in the few big cities.

The local economy is so thoroughly tourism based that local business like retail and services does not move the money like a similarly sized city elsewhere. The example a station manager there gave me some time ago is, "a plumbing company is not going to want to sign up individual homes when they can get service contracts for a hotel, casino, club or tourist area shopping area".

Rates are lower, talent tends to be transitory. It is a move up in market size for talent, but a lot of people who go there tire of it... and the heat... quickly.
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All true. And even when I lived there—-1984-86–AM was in decline.
 
I remember hearing KDWN 720 the first day they went on in the 70's, at night in California. They asked distant listeners to call, and I did. They mentioned my location & name on the air . . . got it recorded too!
When my wife & I went to Vegas I often go by the KDWN transmitter site that they sold in 2022.
At the time I felt they were a decent operation, pushing their signal west at night they were loud in California at night.
Al
 
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