KOGO TO FM

[Ryan Williams]

SDRadio.net is reporting that Clear Channel is blowing up New Country 95.7 on Monday to add an FM simulcast of KOGO.

Another AM domino falls.

 

[RadioStarOne]

They just added 950 KJR to 102.9 FM in the Seattle area too.

 

[Gregg]

To clarify, 95.7 is a North County signal, licensed to Carlsbad, about 30 miles north of San Diego. Yes, it was a Country station. But I'm not sure San Diego needs two Country stations. LA has only one. San Francisco has none.

So I assume, since the North County is where a lot of San Diego's growth is, this will give those folks a clearer signal at night.

Also, KJR Seattle is being simulcast on a low power FM translator at 102.9. No loss of an FM format there.


Gregg
[email protected]

 

[Ryan Williams]

To clarify, 95.7 is a North County signal, licensed to Carlsbad, about 30 miles north of San Diego. Yes, it was a Country station. But I'm not sure San Diego needs two Country stations. LA has only one. San Francisco has none.

So I assume, since the North County is where a lot of San Diego's growth is, this will give those folks a clearer signal at night.

Also, KJR Seattle is being simulcast on a low power FM translator at 102.9. No loss of an FM format there.

Gregg, basically everything you said here is wrong. 95.7's city-of-license is Carlsbad, but the antenna is on Mount Soledad. It is just as much of a San Diego full-market station as any other. Clear Channel is targeting the whole San Diego market with 95.7 not just North County.

Also, the KJR simulcast is on a huge Class C FM station (the highest available class) with 79,000 watts at 2192 feet (HAAT). It is not a low power translator. The problem is that it is a southern rimshot and not a full market signal.

 

[radio-darn]

To clarify, 95.7 is a North County signal, licensed to Carlsbad, about 30 miles north of San Diego.

Their transmitter is on Mount Soledad and they are a north county station only on paper.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

KUSS uses a directional antenna and has some resulting coverage issues to the south.


Relative Field values for directional antenna Relative Field polar plot
Relative field values do not include any pattern rotation that may be indicated above.

0° 1.000 60° 1.000 120° 0.743 180° 0.616 240° 1.000 300° 1.000
10° 1.000 70° 1.000 130° 0.766 190° 0.588 250° 1.000 310° 1.000
20° 1.000 80° 1.000 140° 0.766 200° 0.719 260° 1.000 320° 1.000
30° 1.000 90° 1.000 150° 0.743 210° 0.891 270° 1.000 330° 1.000
40° 1.000 100° 1.000 160° 0.695 220° 1.000 280° 1.000 340° 1.000
50° 1.000 110° 0.935 170° 0.643 230° 1.000 290° 1.000 350° 1.000


Additional azimuths:
105° 1.000

 

[Ryan Williams]

KUSS uses a directional antenna and has some resulting coverage issues to the south.

It is a directional signal, but the difference between 95.7 and 94.5/96.5/98.1/100.7/102.1/102.9/103.7/105.3, even as far south as the border, is only 2-3 dBu. It's a full-market, viable signal.

 

[crainbebo]

FCC...why are you doing this? Leave FM music radio alone! The news belongs on AM...if this keeps happening AM will become a graveyard of brokered time and ethnic/religious stations. Did the Performance Tax pass?

-crainbebo

 

[600kogo]

It is a directional signal, but the CC press release says its 50KW obviously they can't read their own license its only 27.8 KW!!

The original KOGO-FM (94.1) was 100KW now due to antenna replacement it is only 77KW. The FMs on mout soledad are all either 30KW, 26.5 or 26. 95.7 is also on the shorter tower at Channel 10, better known as the "H" Tower. And KOGO is 86 years old not 85! Too bad for historic reasons that they didnt put it on 94.1, but it is understandable.

Maybe they will put KLSD on KOGO-FM-HD2??

Is 105.3 next to switch and become sports talk?

By the way I dont see much on the new KOGO lineup with the exception of Limbaugh that is compelling to listen to ? Chump Franklin is terrible, Ladona is not bad, but the rest is not too great.

 

[600kogo]

FCC...why are you doing this? Leave FM music radio alone! The news belongs on AM...if this keeps happening AM will become a graveyard of brokered time and ethnic/religious stations. Did the Performance Tax pass?

-crainbebo

KOGO AM will be fine for a simulcast, and the country music (if you want to call it country) was like a milk toast version of KSON. They can obviously make more money with news talk!

You need to re-read the FCC rules they dont care about programming or simulcasts as long as there is no profanity, EAS is ran, and there are legal IDs. Programming is irrelevant to the FCC!

 

[crainbebo]

The thing is, we are losing so many music radio stations to News/Talk and Sports. Just look at WYSP in Phily, and how the switched to 94 WIP a few months ago. A couple decades from now, the AM radio we once knew will probably fade away into history...

Another thing is more and more people are getting rid of their old radios and turning to iPod-only for music.

-crainbebo

 

[600kogo]

The only thing that will save music radio is local compelling personalities on it that will distinguish it from the ipod and make you want to listen! Why would anyone want to listen to someone elses choice of automated music with canned or no DJs?? I can do that with my iPhone and youtube, except I dont hear a terrible bland dj voice tracking from BFE.

That is the reason FM music is failing there are not enough "personalities" on the air. When you compare the DJs still on the radio in SD just listen to them they sound as canned and boring as the voice trackers! Less Dave Masons and more Shotgun Toms!!

 

[Radio3787]

It's interesting they do this after the ratings have been going up. There was a time two years ago where KUSS was a 1 share and they kept the same country format.

 

[davideduardo]

The thing is, we are losing so many music radio stations to News/Talk and Sports. Just look at WYSP in Phily, and how the switched to 94 WIP a few months ago. A couple decades from now, the AM radio we once knew will probably fade away into history...

Another thing is more and more people are getting rid of their old radios and turning to iPod-only for music.

You are missing the real issue: AM stations with successful and viable formats are moving to FM because the bulk of people under 55 (in other words, those who advertisers pay to reach) have no use for the band and don't regularly use it.

So, stations that are marginal or unprofitable in a music format can be used to simulcast or replace AM signals that have good formats on them that are viable if on FM.

This is not a replacement for music formats; it's a replacement for bad music formats in an attempt to protect better formats that are now on AM.

 

[raccoonradio]

Agreed. The consensus now is AM will be relegated to ethnic/religious stations (but some of the
more powerful ones, like WBZ in Boston will stay the same), FM will have some music and also
talk, sports, NPR etc., and people have other options for music if they'd like (sat. radio, HD, mp3s etc.)
(AM also may have some news/talk/sports but the hot band these days is FM).

The Perf. Tax hasn't passed but it was said if it did, you would see more talk-based formats on FM, etc.

In Boston the debut of sports on FM (CBS's WBZ-FM, 2009) caused problems for WEEI (AM). WBZ-FM
has Patriots and Bruins, WEEI has Red Sox and Celtics, and each have local and national talk shows.
The younger audience wasn't so quick to embrace AM and soon found "The Sports Hub" on FM. After dragging its feet, Entercom, owner of WEEI, finally put the station on FM and even though they're
still on AM, they accent the FM's frequency etc. Add to this the fact that AM radio can really stink.
Coverage problems, interference, sunset powerdowns or pattern changes, etc. And those who have mp3 players with radios, guess what, had FM only....Entercom was dragging its feet because they had a "Jack"-like station, "Mike 93.7"--no jocks, low cost, but people liked the music. Did OK, if not good in ratings.
But they also couldn't let their WEEI brand of sports talk go down so they had to kill off "Mike". If they had another FM signal to put WEEI on, then you would have seen that, but they didn't (they do have
2 other FMs in town, WAAF and WKAF, the latter simulcasting the former--which has trouble reaching Boston proper--and they weren't about to kill them)

 

[pjc1961]

SDRadio.net article which includes CCC press release with "KOGO to 95.7 FM" announcement - link here:

http://blog.sdradio.net/4587/i-swear-kuss-drops-country/

AllAccess.com article - link here: http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/98629/kogo-a-to-simulcast-on-95-7-fm

Apparently what is essentially a "Hedgecock for Roberts" swap is going to happen.
Bryan Suits of the former "Kennedy and Suits" KFI show is joining KOGO along with Bob "Sully" Sullivan from the syndicated "Big Biz Show" to host weekdays.

KOGO AM 600 Listen Live direct URL link here: http://kogo-am.akacast.akamaistream.net/7/250/19789/v1/auth.akacast.akamaistream.net/kogo-am

KUSS FM 95.7 Listen Live direct URL link here: http://kuss-fm.akacast.akamaistream.net/7/575/19790/v1/auth.akacast.akamaistream.net/kuss-fm {for now, anyway }

KOGO AM 600 Listen Live iheart player link here: http://www.iheart.com/#/live/257/?autoplay=true

KUSS FM 95.7 Listen Live iheart player link here: http://www.iheart.com/#/live/261/?autoplay=true {for now, anyway }

 

[pjc1961]

Clarification on the KOGO lineup additions/changes:

Noon-3pm: Bryan Suits
3-6pm: LaDona Harvey (FM 95.7 only until end of 2011-see below-will get this slot on AM and FM in 2012)
3-6pm: Roger Hedgecock (AM 600 only until end of 2011 when contract expires)
6-8pm: Bob Sullivan

Format/station switch occurs on 95.7 FM at 7am Pacific Time on Monday 11/7/11.

 

[philosofy]

Have they run any promos on 95.7 about the upcoming flip? If not there's going to be a few surprised people on Monday when they try to tune in Toby Keith and get Chip Franklin instead.

 

[emprex]

Is like Domino Effect. If one talk/news station have success rating on FM dial at one market, the rest of radio stations from different market would do the same thing. Monkey sees monkey do. Is like a migration of Spanish Radio then talk on the FM dial, and more and more people would have less choices for music. What's left for musics on FM? Rhythmic, Top 40, Classic Rock, Adult Hits, Lite Rock. You have fewer choice for music! AM is for bone yard.

 

[davideduardo]

Is like Domino Effect. If one talk/news station have success rating on FM dial at one market, the rest of radio stations from different market would do the same thing. Monkey sees monkey do. Is like a migration of Spanish Radio then talk on the FM dial, and more and more people would have less choices for music. What's left for musics on FM? Rhythmic, Top 40, Classic Rock, Adult Hits, Lite Rock. You have fewer choice for music! AM is for bone yard.

Spanish language radio began as a useful alternative for bad AM signals, and grew greatly in the 70's as second-tier music AMs became third or fourth tier as FMs grew. As the Hispanic population boomed in the 80's and 90's, it became viable to put Spanish language formats on big AMs, and then on FMs. With many markets in the Southwest at thirty percent Hispanic or more, that's only logical; since Hispanics populations are younger than general market, that made FM even more significant.

FM as an alternative for aging but viable talk formats has shown to be very successful in many markets. Since nearly all AM talkers have the same aging audience issues, the solution of going to a band that under-55 year olds actually use makes lots of sense.

The music alternatives are very fragmented. Talk and many ethnic formats don't yet have the internet alternatives, so it is a simple conclusion that we will see a wider variety of FM offerings as AM dies.