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KFYI Slashes Local Programming

M

micman

Guest
KFWhyEye has decided to cut local programming. It looks lkie it's national shows after 7pm. That means 16 hours of syndication a day and only 8 hours of local. So much for The Valley's Talk Station. Now it's more like A Clear Channel Syndicated Station. What a mistake whiel KT'R goes to FM, spends promotion moneys, and hires more people.
 
Is anybody listening to any AM station after 7 PM other than for sports play-by-play? If not, then why not run the syndicated stuff at that time?
 
Is anybody listening to any AM station after 7 PM

KT'R must luv being on FM.
 
The answer is, a station owes it's listeners something. It does a dis service to the community it serves when it runs hour after hour of network or syndicated programming. Phoenix is not a hick town and to say no one listens after 7pm is so totally wrong I can't believe anyone posting on a broadcast site would be so without knowledge of the power of night time in a major market.


Jay
 
It's a shame too. KFYI has some good talent to choose from for the 7-10 show. I hope they keep Broomhead for the weekends. (Maybe he's going to KTAR)
 
jayaz said:
The answer is, a station owes it's listeners something. It does a dis service to the community it serves when it runs hour after hour of network or syndicated programming. Phoenix is not a hick town and to say no one listens after 7pm is so totally wrong I can't believe anyone posting on a broadcast site would be so without knowledge of the power of night time in a major market.
Click to expand...

OK, let's see what we have after 7 PM on the English-language AM stations...

KFYI 550 - To be syndicated talk?
KTAR 620 - Sports 7-10 (staying on 620), syndicated talk overnights (moving to 92.3 only)
KMVP 860 - ESPN Radio, overflow for D'backs, Suns
XTRA 910 - J.T. the Brick, Fox Sports Radio, or Westwood One play-by-play
KKNT 960 - Syndicated talk from Salem
KXXT 1010 - Preaching
KDUS 1060 - Sporting News Radio or Coyotes hockey, some local talk until 8
KFNX 1100 - Michael Savage, then various brokered stuff - some might even be local
KOY 1230 - Currently Christmas music 24/7, otherwise Satellite-delivered music for old folks
KXEG 1280 - Preaching
KXAM 1310 - Various syndicated programming
KPXQ 1360 - Preaching
KAZG 1440 - Off the air
KPHX 1480 - Lib-talk from Air America
KFNN 1510 - Bill O'Reilly, Bruce Williams, syndicated money-talk overnights
KMIK 1580 - Radio Disney (aren't the kiddies in bed yet?)

So we have...
Sports on 620, 860, 910, and 1060.
Syndicated/brokered talk of various kinds on 550, 960, 1100, 1310, 1480, and 1510.
Soothing Sounds for Senior Citizens on 1230.
Kiddie fare (read: unrateable stuff) on 1580
Bible-banging on 1010, 1280, and 1360.
Nothing at all eminating from the lumberyard on 1440.

Add to that, Spanish-language programming on 740, 1150, 1190, and 1400. Their ratings are minimal.

Combine the not-exactly mass-appeal programming described above with poor nighttime signals on all of the above except 550 & 620. So, outside of maybe sports, the decent-sized audience is where? Not on the AM dial from what I can see.

I don't work in radio so I don't have access to Arbitron stuff (and even if I did, I couldn't post it here) and I don't know how well these stations bill (which is what counts anyway). If I'm wrong, tell me where and how.
 
ok, so what's worse, the soon to be 8 hours of local programming that KFYI has during the week, or the fact that they have more local programming on the weekends, sat 10 hours, and sun 9 hours.
 
KeithE4 said:
Is anybody listening to any AM station after 7 PM other than for sports play-by-play? If not, then why not run the syndicated stuff at that time?
Click to expand...

After 7p is about the only time I ever tune into 550 AM. Not that the "wheel of hosts" as has been labeled on these boards is such quality fare, just that without a Coyote game or Diamondback game, it's about all that the Phoenix AM dial has to offer after 7p. Sorry, but the KTAR talk offering in that time slot goes from bad to outright awful. The little sports talk that I can tolerate (and I used to be a big fan of the genre) is best done on other local stations, as gutted as their schedules have been.

Oh, and I don't think 1480 AM is "Air America" anymore, it's Nova-M radio. I like the Peter B Collins show and Thom Hartman has replaced Al Franken. Mike Malloy is too much for me (as is Rhodes, who is the detested "Limbaugh of the left". Looking forward to hearing John Loftus on 1480 AM as he's been added to the lineup of network hosts...
 
Who is to say that each one of those stations don't serve the community in some way? On TV does everyone like the history channel? Radio will serve the people that listen to each radio station and each station has some listeners. With ownership these days the job is to survive. Whatever you find to program that will make a profit with FCC approval GO FOR IT. Someone will always listen. More stations will be for sale in the next two years and here comes the small groups again. Thank goodness. Pus AM radio will survive and you will make a profit with a station, bank on it.
 
Intheday said:
Who is to say that each one of those stations don't serve the community in some way? On TV does everyone like the history channel? Radio will serve the people that listen to each radio station and each station has some listeners. With ownership these days the job is to survive. Whatever you find to program that will make a profit with FCC approval GO FOR IT. Someone will always listen. More stations will be for sale in the next two years and here comes the small groups again. Thank goodness. Pus AM radio will survive and you will make a profit with a station, bank on it.
Click to expand...

If these stations are making enough money to stay on the air, fine. But a station that caters to a mass audience like KTAR is doing the right thing by moving to FM.

I never said AM will be shut down completetly, but the mass-appeal programming won't be there anymore other than maybe a very few "legacy" blowtorches like WGN or KFI. It will be more like Cable TV - narrowcasting rather than broadcasting. AM will remain a specialty-programming band (sports, religion, ethnic, brokered), but its day as "standard broadcasting" (as it was called in ye olden days) is done.

What KTAR-FM is doing with its new frequency is another story (they have to quit catering to the old folks), but their move to FM was inevitable. KFYI will have to follow suit.

There are still technical issues that still have to be resolved, though, and not just on the AM band. Full-carrier AM on with a 10 kHz channel spacing on either the medium or shortwave bands just won't cut it anymore. Too much interference from computers, BPL, consumer devices operating under Part 15, etc. are making the frequencies below 30 MHz increasingly erratic. The ionosphere is also considered a liability these days, not an asset. I wonder if there is a real need for 50 kW blowtorches anymore either, with a few exceptions. This isn't 1970.
 
Right on the mark, Keith. Your description of AM couldn't be more accurate. That's why I think KFYI fits well there. What they do is niche programming. Stations like KTAR that are more news than talk are aimed much more broadly and have two or three times more listeners than stations that do nothing but conservative or liberal talk. That's exactly why Clear Channel, and other owners, aren't moving them to FM.
 
inthehouse said:
Right on the mark, Keith. Your description of AM couldn't be more accurate. That's why I think KFYI fits well there. What they do is niche programming. Stations like KTAR that are more news than talk are aimed much more broadly and have two or three times more listeners than stations that do nothing but conservative or liberal talk. That's exactly why Clear Channel, and other owners, aren't moving them to FM.
Click to expand...

KTAR is more news than talk? Not according to their own schedule.

They do news blocks for 8 hours on weekdays (approximately one hour being wasted by Paul Harvey), 3 hours on Saturday mornings, and none at all on Sundays. Local talk is Gerald, Simons, and Gaydos - not exactly a riveting lineup there. Jerry Seinfeld would love these "shows about nothing." Even Goyette would be an improvement. They were smart to move to FM, but they still program to the old folks who listen to AM. This has to change.

KFYI is little better anymore, but at least they're not gearing their programming to those who switch their radios strictly between 620 and 1230. They may skew older than, say, KZON, but they're not as old as KOY or KTAR. They'd be smart to switch to FM (96.9?) and be local from 5-10 AM and 4-10 PM (they'll never drop Rush & Hannity as long as their shows exist).

Right now, both stations are "classic" AM stations. KTAR will have to change to survive long-term IMHO. Like KOY, their audience is dying of old age. KFYI will have to get a bit younger (but not too young - the kids probably won't listen to political talk) and move to FM as well, sometime in the next couple of years.

And then, once IBOC (or a better digital mode if one comes about) receivers start selling more, the full-carrier AM signals will have to be turned off, although that eventuality is still at least 10 years away. Only then will the Medium Wave band become usable again. Analog voice transmissions on frequencies below 30 MHz are becoming obsolete.
 
Yeah, but those are people whose radios are still rusted to 550 waiting for Alan Chilcoate to come on.
 
Wow.

Bill Heywood
Alan Chilcoate
Michael Dixon
Sally Jesse Raphael

Who did middays? I can't remember...
 
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