Next thing you know they will be buying KABC, and KEIB... IHR wants to own the whole AM dial in California! That's probably what, the 10th acquisation in a year? This is much like how K-LOVE is on 400 FMs and Air 1 is on 350... waste of channel, waste of money, 0.0 rating in the PPM...
-crainbebo
It's all part of the master plan put together by Clear Channel and Immaculate Heart to make every radio station part of
I Heart Radio one way or the other.
As far as "waste of channel" goes...what better use is there for the old KHJ and most other AM stations? IHR is not a media product I'll use, but it extends the life of a media outlet that is basically 100-year-old technology and you have to give credit to anyone who feels they can get some benefit from it. They have bought enough stations so far for us to assume they've evaluated the usefulness of AM radio and concluded it works for their mission and goals and that the money spent was not wasted.
We have to remember that the 930 AM operation has been floundering for 34 years, since it switched from from Top 40 to country in 1980. I don't know if the owners have made a profit since then, but honestly, for most anyone on this forum, 930 AM has not been a listening option for over three decades. I, for one, am kind of amazed that anyone would spend almost $10 million for something we think has been dead or dying for 34 years.
I worked at KHJ during its last year as Top 40 and at KCBQ during a similar time and for those of use who recall how these stations went gang busters during their heyday, it's still hard to get a grasp on what dinosaurs these media outlets have become (teenagers who listened to these stations during their final year as Top 40 are now pushing or over 50!).
I was trying to think of another medium that has lost as much usefullness as has AM radio. Newpapers come to mind, but that medium is several centuries older than AM and there are still newspapers that command influence and sell lots of ads. I thought about that when I picked up last Sunday's newspaper from the driveway: the big bundle seemed to be mostly ad inserts and it made me think that major advertisers still have a big committment to that medium, so maybe it's not a good comparison to what's happened to AM radio.
What's ironic is that many if not most of us now carry three two-radios in our pockets (phones with cellular, wi-fi and bluetooth transceivers) yet the advertising community still has not figured out monetize that the way they did AM in it heyday. There must still be one ancient ad exec lamenting the good old days when he could place buys on KHJ and a few other top AM's and have his client covered. Now the buyers face a very fragmented radio market, hundreds of TV channels, all matter of internet adversting, plus traditional print and other options.
I'd suggest that the tremendous impact and influence of KHJ and it's ilk back in the day is why we still care enough to spend several pages of this forum debating what is happening long, long after the impact disappeared.
Maybe it's appropriate that KHJ is in the hands of priests: it finally gets the last rites it deserves.
RIP
