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KGRG goes silent

e-dawg said:
I wonder if KEXP could purchase or LMA KGRG to provide extended coverage to the south. Since KEXP signal is null towards the south.
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It would hardly be worth it. KGRG’s contour was already small. If KGRG returns, there’s no reason not to move the transmitter to the campus itself (even if the footprint is slightly worse).

With that being said, KEXP wouldn’t benefit in this scenario. As Speer mentioned, they used to be heard on 91.7. Ironically, that was probably the best signal they had.
 
e-dawg said:
I wonder if KEXP could purchase or LMA KGRG to provide extended coverage to the south. Since KEXP signal is null towards the south.
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They get out OK to many sections of South King County. And those who are into the station are enthusiastic enough about it that they will move that antenna to clear up the fringe reception from any terrain shadows. And, as KellyA said, they have a popular stream.
 
KGRG was a landmark station back in the 90s, I knew many there who ended up doing radio in Seattle or other markets. GM Tom Krause retiring along with the shifting format late last year, not to mention Covid was kind of its death knell. They are fortunately still streaming, but they have a lot of competition in that field with newcomers from SeattleU KXSU-LP. KAOS in Olympia is still doing their thing but sadly the days of college radio are slowly coming to an end. Sad really
 
They appear to be back on the air -- at least KGRG-1 on 1330. I heard them clearly with alt-rock music, ID's and a spot for one of the Journalism courses, around 10-11 p.m. a few nights back, when the Auroral conditions were easing up. I can't receive KGRG-FM on any of my radios, so I have no idea if they're on or not.... But the AM is either on, or testing. The sound was good, considering it was AM at night.
 
Silent STA still in effect for both stations. Supposedly the KGRG AM STA was for a technical issue so maybe this was some quick testing after getting that fixed? You likely won't hear the FM any time soon as the antenna and transmitter was pulled down/out of the American Tower site it was at.
 
valvashon said:
Silent STA still in effect for both stations. Supposedly the KGRG AM STA was for a technical issue so maybe this was some quick testing after getting that fixed? You likely won't hear the FM any time soon as the antenna and transmitter was pulled down/out of the American Tower site it was at.
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I wouldn't know, but the audio sounded better than before the station went off the air. I haven't heard them over the past several nights. They were on the air about 3-4 afternoons ago, though. Perhaps it's intermittent testing?
 
KGRG-1 1330 must be testing again.... I've been hearing them since daybreak, with KGRG-1 ID's, also ID'ing as 'classic alternative', with a mix of newer alternative classics (ones that are probably 2000's/2010's that I'm not acquainted with ) and some older 90's stuff (Blink 182, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, etc.).
 
As a teaching tool, they could potentially keep their AM (assuming the transmitter is fully functional) and give up on the FM. This seems like the kind of scenario where listeners around the world might be interested in a college approach to alternative, and might tune into a live stream. The AM exists to provide some over the air presence. Who really cares if it's an AM on 1330? It exists to teach students about some FCC regulations while mainly using the webstream to provide training.

As I stated earlier; if they really want to keep the FM running, I would personally just look into the possibility of sticking the transmitter at the school itself. Nothing fancy, but something that's FCC compliant and cheap to install and maintain. Green River College is already located on Lea Hill, so the coverage wouldn't be that bad. I wouldn't waste any money on leasing transmitter space anywhere else and trying to expand the coverage by negligible amounts.

On the topic of programming: I'm not sure I would bother with trying to establish a marketable FM CHR (which seemed to be their intention before the FM went dark). That hardly seems worth it to me. Their classic alternative format is kind of unique, and people would probably garner some listeners online if they enhanced the webstream a bit. That seems like it would suffice as a teaching tool. It doesn't need to be anything fancy.
 
I'd love to get some local investors to just buy the FM and frequencies from Green River, turn it into a 501(c)(3) and bring back the classic Alternative format and sneak in a few new tracks. Go full KEXP with a streamlined format, over the air and streaming. It was one of the top college stations in the US for broadcasting way back in the day, of course this could be me seeing things through nostalgic glasses. The landscape changed significantly since Covid.
 
ZooMan7777 said:
I'd love to get some local investors to just buy the FM and frequencies from Green River, turn it into a 501(c)(3) and bring back the classic Alternative format and sneak in a few new tracks. Go full KEXP with a streamlined format, over the air and streaming. It was one of the top college stations in the US for broadcasting way back in the day, of course this could be me seeing things through nostalgic glasses. The landscape changed significantly since Covid.
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We all like to fantasize that this could be feasible in 2025. But the hard sad reality is that ship has long sailed on the terrestrial radio dial. I think we're going to start seeing more underperforming for the budget non-coms fade away into the ether as well. It's going to get REALLY expensive to start an FM station from scratch, if it isn't expensive enough already.

However, I also think we're getting closer to the stage where it could be possible to set up a home studio network and start a low budget internet station and have a go at it. If you got the capital, rent an HD FM channel to supplement it.

It saves you $$$ in FCC expenses, headaches and red tape. The station operator gets perfectly good rent for an otherwise unused sub-channel, the programming issues of it completely solved.
 
Getting close to? I'm sure the tech is there, the expenses would just be too high. If I bought the most expensive version of Station Playlist sold, I could be on the air for about $800, but that's just with music and nothing else.
If you want imaging, there's another expense. You can get packages of 10 spots for less than $100, but if you're looking for something specific, that can get expensive. I have a friend who has been looking for imaging for her radio show for years now, and she is looking for a young female voice. The voices she has found want between $300 and $500 as a monthly retainer.
There are streaming servers available for about $10 per month, but you're not going to be legal for that. For that, I have heard that the most budget-friendly option is Live365, and I think that's like $200 per month and at that price you have to put up with them inserting their own ads. I would guess that renting an HD channel will be about $1,000 per month, though I'm just taking a shot in the dark on that one.
Still, with no HD channel, you're looking at a cost of at least $550 per month, at least to sound even remotely close to commercial radio and be legal. I could probably get away with about $300 down, but knowing myself as I do, I'd probably go for the whole $800 package. So, when dirt cheap for something that sounds like commercial radio, which is at least what I would want to do, is $550 per month, that can get very unaffordable very quickly.
 
A lot of this is just theoretics, because aside from some over 50's people, no one wants to play radio anymore, and probably fewer people seek out independent, internet radio stations unless they're in the same demographics. The audience, or 'potential growth audience', just isn't really there, any more than it is for a small, public radio station in a metro where there are already a gazillion other options available.

It's just fact. For younger demos, if they want to 'play DJ', they all have music on their Spotify playlists, which they can share with others -- that's their version of 'playing DJ'. If one wants to be the equivalent of an on-air personality, you do an online podcast, or Tik-Tok. All it takes, at its most basic level, is a decent smartphone and a cell connection. There are probably minor league Tik-Tok influencers who have bigger audiences for their vids than many radio stations.

Not that I like seeing all of this happen. I'm a 'radio' guy. Worked in the industry for 20 years, always wanted to work in radio, still listen on the hobby level as well as for news. But reality is reality.
 
Certainly in my example you are right. The radio stations I seek out online are those available over the air in other markets, not internet stations that play the same music. There are just too many of those out there for any of them to get a sizeable audience, and lots of them are either jockless or maybe the owner does a weekday shift every afternoon. Personally, I would be more comfortable doing a shift on a music station where I have to only come up with content that lasts a couple of minutes at a shot, not a long-form thing like a podcast, where I have to talk constantly about a single topic. The only reason the show about the radio industry I co-host works is because I have someone to bounce ideas off of. If I just ran down the format changes that happened every week, that would get pretty boring after a while. We certainly would not have just celebrated 14 years on the air with that formula.
 
Maybe that's the future of radio, getting licenses for podcasts to broadcast over the air, instant syndication, sneak in a few records an hour or a more music focused times of the day (mainly do a mix of podcast and music during prime shifts), DJs I felt were the influencers before the Instagram/TikTok influencers. Use HD channels for more podcast or music focus. Spotify is doing ads like radio when I checked it out.
 
ZooMan7777 said:
Maybe that's the future of radio, getting licenses for podcasts to broadcast over the air, instant syndication, sneak in a few records an hour or a more music focused times of the day (mainly do a mix of podcast and music during prime shifts), DJs I felt were the influencers before the Instagram/TikTok influencers. Use HD channels for more podcast or music focus. Spotify is doing ads like radio when I checked it out.
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Public Radio Exchange has a show & stream called “PRX remix”. The show runs on some NPR affiliates but I don’t think the stream does:
www.prx.org

PRX – PRX Remix

PRX is shaping the future of audio by building technology, training talented producers and connecting them with supportive listeners.
www.prx.org www.prx.org

They’ve also partnered with public radio stations to create and discover new talent:
prx.org

PRX – PRX 20th Anniversary

PRX is shaping the future of audio by building technology, training talented producers and connecting them with supportive listeners.
prx.org prx.org
 
For some reason I was thinking about KGRG today and checked in on the stream. As someone in their mid 40s I always liked the original alternative format. Both streams are still up on iHeart and TuneIn...

The bad news is every once in a while they plan a recorded message that the station will go off the air "very soon". They're asking for folks to email memories etc.

A huge bummer but not a surprise given everything in this thread.
 
Created the post above last Monday but it was stuck waiting for my account to be approved. A week and a half later and the streams are both still up but I'm not holding my breath...
 


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