Kkht 100.7

[The Rimshot]

Does anyone see a format flip in this station's future?

It has a great coverage area, as you can hear this station clearly from Sugar Land all the way to the west side of Lake Charles.

Could be a great Top 40 station with an EDM lean, or a Fox Sports Radio affiliate.

Seems like a waste of a great signal and potential advertising revenue.

What I mean by that is...what 100.7 The Word is programming would be better suited on an 88.1-91.9 basis.

 

[latinoradio]

How much could a station like this be billing?

 

[johndavis]

Does anyone see a format flip in this station's future?

It has a great coverage area, as you can hear this station clearly from Sugar Land all the way to the west side of Lake Charles.

Could be a great Top 40 station with an EDM lean, or a Fox Sports Radio affiliate.

Seems like a waste of a great signal and potential advertising revenue.

What I mean by that is...what 100.7 The Word is programming would be better suited on an 88.1-91.9 basis.

Where to begin?

1. You may be the only person who thinks it has great coverage. My radio rarely stops when hitting seek on 100.7. It's a rimshot.
2. Salem has two missions: preach the Gospel and elect Republicans. Only after they have filled those missions in a market do they consider any other format. As a publicly traded for-profit company, they can't buy a non-comm license and move its programming there.
3. The Word and stations like it are insanely profitable. It makes way more money that you think!
4. EDM doesn't make money. See point #3. Most commercial Christian preaching stations sell the time to the preachers. That means low-overhead, high profit.
5. IHeart owns Fox Sports Radio and they're not going to take it away from their own station (KBME) to give it to someone else.

So yeah, if Salem didn't own it, it might do something else. But Salem owns it and they're not going to sell it, because they're making money with it. So what you see is what you get.

 

[The Rimshot]

1) Do you live in Katy-Brookshire? Richmond-Rosenburg? Huntsville?
2) I'm not saying Salem would be the company that would flip it. They could sell it and move their programming to 88.1-91.9, a translator, an AM Station, an HD2, etc.
3) It certainly may. But then again, maybe it doesn't. I can't find any evidence to say either way. KCTA does very well, but I'm sure at least one Christian station that sells time is struggling.
4) I mentioned an EDM lean, not exclusively EDM. Top 40 stations with an EDM lean do well in certain markets (Austin, Miami, etc).
5) KBME could become 100.7, a la WEEI in Boston. There are several successful FM sports stations to cite. Some are owned by iHeart.

Are you completely sure Salem is making money with this station?

 

[johndavis]

Are you completely sure Salem is making money with this station?

Absolutely sure. Do they bill as much as a full market FM? No. But they're not a full market FM. And the programming they run costs them very little in overhead, so their profit margins are much higher than if they were to do something else.

You're also missing the key point: Salem is a FOR PROFIT company. That means they can't move their operation to the non-comm part of the dial. This isn't a non-commercial station in the commercial band, it's a commercial station in the commercial band, running the station for profit.

Salem stations never place high in the ratings book. They don't always subscribe anyway. But they always make money. Always. That company could not afford to do all that it does otherwise.

 

[The Rimshot]

So it's not suited for 88.1-91.9FM. Fair enough.

Do you feel like they could bill just as much on an AM station, but with less overhead?

I feel like this format is out of place on the FM dial. KCTA knows their place...on the AM dial.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I am of the opinion that sports or talk in general is out of place on the FM band. AM is better suited to the bandwidth. So I hate to see any FM frequency go talk or sports. Waste of bandwidth. Everybody knows my preference for a flip in this market. I am not alone. But if people make more money by playing toilet flushes 24/7, they will opt to make money playing toilet flushes - or worse.

It is amazing to me how similar the 100.7 situation in Houston is the 100.7 situation in Dallas. Both cities have local 100.3 and 101.1 preventing a move-in, condemning 100.7 to rim shot status. I know KLTY tried 100.7 for a while in Dallas, and regretted it. They bailed as fast as they could to get on their current 94.9. I think Salem grabbed 100.7 in Dallas as well. Rim shots seem to be to their liking.

KCTA is not the powerhouse they used to be. They used to be almost like a local in Houston. Daytime coverage that stretched from Midland to Hammond, LA. When they were playing Contemporary Christian, they had quite a following locally. Their present format is not compelling, and I suspect they are not making a lot of money and have dropped their electric bill by dropping power, or are not maintaining their tower site. Maybe their radials were hit by copper thieves. They are pretty weak now compared to 20 years ago.

 

[davideduardo]

Does anyone see a format flip in this station's future?

It has a great coverage area, as you can hear this station clearly from Sugar Land all the way to the west side of Lake Charles.

Could be a great Top 40 station with an EDM lean, or a Fox Sports Radio affiliate.

Seems like a waste of a great signal and potential advertising revenue.

What I mean by that is...what 100.7 The Word is programming would be better suited on an 88.1-91.9 basis.

The station was owned by Univision prior to the Salem sale in 2004, and it struggled even in the less competitive Spanish language segment. As it only has a usable in-home and at-work signal in Chambers and Liberty counties and a slice of Harris, it is not a competitive signal.

To be usable, a signal has to be 65 dbu or over for building and home penetration. 95% of all such listening happens in that contour, so whether you can hear it farther away, it will get little listening.

It is adequate for Salem, which is billing close to $3 million a year off of this rimshot. Salem is a successful for-profit company and they generally do not sell stations unless it is to trade up.

EDM is not working anywhere... and the CHR stations in Miami are not EDM influenced... they are rhythmic and hip hop influenced. As already posted, iHeart will not put Fox Sports on a non-owned station. And Salem will not do either of those formats. CHR is absurd when you have a full signal CHR in the market.

 

[davideduardo]

I am of the opinion that sports or talk in general is out of place on the FM band. AM is better suited to the bandwidth.

If you want the younger 18-34 sports listeners, FM is the best option. Look at Detroit, Philly and Boston where FM sports is generally #1 in adult males of all ages.

I know KLTY tried 100.7 for a while in Dallas, and regretted it. They bailed as fast as they could to get on their current 94.9.

No, they did not "regret it". They sold 94.1 to Hispanic Broadcasting for $65 million and loved the money.

 

[davideduardo]

Do you feel like they could bill just as much on an AM station, but with less overhed?

Why would you think an AM has less overhead?

 

[The Rimshot]

To be usable, a signal has to be 65 dbu or over for building and home penetration. 95% of all such listening happens in that contour, so whether you can hear it farther away, it will get little listening.

In your opinion, which is completely outdated.

KBPA, for the most part, is less than 65 dbu over the Greater Austin area, yet they have been very successful in Austin for the better part of 12 years.

 

[Ryan Williams]

KBPA, for the most part, is less than 65 dbu over the Greater Austin area, yet they have been very successful in Austin for the better part of 12 years.

That's not even close to true. 103.5 covers virtually all of Travis with at least a 70 dBu or greater. I say virtually because of a small, rural area in the northwest part of the county. The 70 covers the most heavily-populated areas of southern Williamson county too. And 103.5 puts a 65 over Georgetown even.

It's a very capable signal.

 

[Ryan Williams]

KLTY was owned by a local group back when it was on 94.1. That group sold the license to what is now Univision, while the KLTY IP and format went to 100.7 and was operated by Sunbeam? Sunburst?. Salem bought 94.9 from CBS/Infinity and built KWRD (Christian Talk). Later Salem acquired 100.7 and decided to swap the formats, putting the music on the stronger of the two metro signals. It's worked out okay for them.

 

[davideduardo]

In your opinion, which is completely outdated.

The laws of physics don't become outdated.

Ongoing analysis of listening locations shows that about 80% of in-home and-at work listening occurs in the 70 dbu contour and 95% happens in the 65 dbu contour.

KBPA, for the most part, is less than 65 dbu over the Greater Austin area, yet they have been very successful in Austin for the better part of 12 years.

KBPA, which is not a rimshot, has a 65 dbu that covers all the counties of the Austin MSA except for a swatch across the top (northern) half of Williamson County and the far edges of Bastrop County (which is a sparsely populated County and area). It has a totally competitive signal in 95% of the MSA. Of a metro population of 1.958 million, less than 100,000 live outside the 65 dbu contour.

I should add that, for radio, the market definition of Austin is Nielsen's Metro Survey Area. That includes all of Travis, Williamson, Caldwell, Hays and Bastrop counties.

 

[The Rimshot]

Ongoing analysis of listening locations shows that about 80% of in-home and-at work listening occurs in the 70 dbu contour and 95% happens in the 65 dbu contour.

Laws of physics may never go out of date, but your statement above certainly is.

 

[davideduardo]

Laws of physics may never go out of date, but your statement above certainly is.

No, it is not. It is based on listening location from Arbitron and, now, Nielsen data. It does not change over time.


The only change is in Nielsen PPM data, which does not break out at-work listening. So for those markets, analysis is for the ZIP codes of the at-home listening... where 95% is in the 65dbu contour using data as recent as mid-2016.

 

[johndavis]

Laws of physics may never go out of date, but your statement above certainly is.

You can't be number one if you can't be heard.

You can't be number one if you can only be heard in the car.

You can't be number one if you can only be heard online.

You can't be number one if you cannot put a good enough signal to be heard inside of a building over the majority of where people live inside the MSA.

And if you think I'm wrong, then look at the top 5 stations in the market. The two rimshots in the top 5 wouldn't be there without a simulcast partner.

Coverage matters. Streaming is important, but it doesn't replace a solid signal over the market.

 

[davideduardo]

You can't be number one if you can only be heard online.

Further, perhaps Mr Rimshot does not know that ever station "stream" is separately encoded... so internet streams are separately measured from OTA streams. And even if a station qualifies for Single Line Reporting, the sources of the listening are still separately measured.

 

[The Rimshot]

KCTA is not the powerhouse they used to be. They used to be almost like a local in Houston. Daytime coverage that stretched from Midland to Hammond, LA. When they were playing Contemporary Christian, they had quite a following locally. Their present format is not compelling, and I suspect they are not making a lot of money and have dropped their electric bill by dropping power, or are not maintaining their tower site. Maybe their radials were hit by copper thieves. They are pretty weak now compared to 20 years ago.

I'm amazed they were able to cover Midland to Hammond.

I'm impressed with the power KCTA has now. You can pull KCTA from Kerrville to Breaux Bridge, LA today.

KCTA still comes in like a local in Downtown Houston.

 

[Kent]

KLTY was owned by a local group back when it was on 94.1. That group sold the license to what is now Univision, while the KLTY IP and format went to 100.7 and was operated by Sunbeam? Sunburst?. Salem bought 94.9 from CBS/Infinity and built KWRD (Christian Talk). Later Salem acquired 100.7 and decided to swap the formats, putting the music on the stronger of the two metro signals. It's worked out okay for them.

Sunburst bought KLTY 94.1 from Rodriguez and turned around and sold it for more than it paid for it after it got 100.7 on-air. I don't remember what Sunburst paid Rodriguez, but I trust David when he said it got $65 million from HBC/Univision since he worked for them at the time.

Salem got KDGE 94.5 as part of the fallout from the Clear Channel/AMFM merger. It actually operated KDGE as a modern rock station for a brief period of time before swapping it to Sunburst for KLTY 100.7. Salem swapped the formats of KWRD-FM 94.9 and KLTY 100.7 around Christmastime 2000. Sunburst exited the business shortly after acquiring KDGE 94.5. It sold the intellectual property of the station to Clear Channel and the 94.5 signal to Radio One. I'm thinking it got around $50 million for 94.5. I don't think the sale price of the KDGE intellectual property was ever made public.