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KOLI Wichita Falls

K

Kent

KOLI "94.9 The Outlaw" has posted to its Facebook page that it's leaving the air at midnight Friday. No word on what, if anything, will replace it.

www.facebook.com

94.9 The Outlaw

94.9 The Outlaw. 5,419 likes · 281 talking about this. The BEST Country.... with a TEXAS Attitude!
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com
 
Wichita Falls might be seriously "over radioed". At least 11 FM commercial stations with a City of license of Wichita Falls and and a few move ins just to make things interesting.

Compare Atlanta has only 6 commercial FMs with a COL of Atlanta. Everything else FM wise is move ins, LPFMs or translators.
 
secondchoice said:
Wichita Falls might be seriously "over radioed". At least 11 FM commercial stations with a City of license of Wichita Falls and and a few move ins just to make things interesting.
Click to expand...

It undoubtedly is. It was arguably overradioed in the early 90's with just eight commercial stations licensed and operating in the market. Almost nobody was making money. KLUR was profitable, and that was about it. Seems like KTLT 106.3 "Lite 106" was about break even, but I remember it being satellite outside of the morning show. QV103 blew out its entire staff in 1990 and replaced it with satellite oldies as KWFS despite it beating the pants off of KNIN. KWFS fared poorly with oldies and no local airstaff and was doing country about five years later. It only has three more commercial stations than it had 30 years ago, but the number of FM stations has doubled. That doesn't include the overlap with Lawton stations, though that was an issue in the 90's, too. Two of the AM's moved into Dallas/Ft. Worth, and only 1290 remains. If not for consolidation, it would probably be about the same situation it was then. KLUR would be profitable, and everybody else would be struggling just to break even with one or two others making a little money once-in-awhile.

secondchoice said:
Compare Atlanta has only 6 commercial FMs with a COL of Atlanta. Everything else FM wise is move ins, LPFMs or translators.
Click to expand...

Atlanta was relatively underradioed in the early 90's. 97.5 moving into the market in the early-to-middle part of the decade was huge news in the trades at the time. Atlanta's metro area was huge (and, in the days when long-distance was metered, it had the largest local calling zone in the US and Canada), but the urban core was relatively small at the time. Oklahoma City and Ft. Worth were larger in population than Atlanta and Denver in 1980. Both experienced explosive growth during the 80's, and it hasn't stopped since.
 
SnottyNose799 said:

***

Is KOLI coming back?
What format is the area missing? They could try a go at that one if Texas country didn't work out sales-wise.



I remember being told about them broadcasting dead air for a few days last December... Wasteful, and why don't the engineers install auto-shutoffs on the transmitters when the feed goes down?
Click to expand...
There is supposed to be a controller that will if the transmitter is running legally. Back when stations had studios most had a silence detector with an annoying tone. It depends on how the remote control unit was set up. You can make a silence detector call the station or whoever is responsible for the station being on air.

What you are describing is BAD MANAGEMENT.
 
SnottyNose799 said:
Is KOLI coming back?
What format is the area missing? They could try a go at that one if Texas country didn't work out sales-wise.
Click to expand...

Your guess is as good as anybody else's. I don't think anyone really knows, and that might even include the powers-that-be at Cumulus.

I mentioned in another thread that I had visited with some former co-workers at Cumulus. It was in a different market, mind you, but they said they weren't sure Cumulus would accept any offers on the stations it silenced, even though it had offers on at least a few of them. They said Cumulus might not even want the competition. If Cumulus surrendered any FM's, they could theoretically be brought back, but you also have to ask yourself who might be interested in bidding for them at auction.
 
secondchoice said:
If the FM allocation covers over 300,000 people with 60db somebody will be tempted.
Click to expand...
That's not KOLI... it reaches less than half that with a 60db signal. It covers most, but not all, of Wichita Falls due to the tower site being restricted out to the west near Electra.

With KOLI, there were 11 commercial FMs, which makes the market oversaturated for its size (and a stagnant market with zero population growth in recent years, 2020 census vs the new 2024 estimate released last month).
 
They filed an extension.

"...
Cumulus is in the process of
considering proposals by interested parties to purchase stations like this one that are
currently silent. Since there are several Cumulus stations that have filed for silent
authority, it has taken longer than expected to conclude the process. Accordingly,
Cumulus respectfully requests continued authority for Station KOLI to remain silent."
 
It's strange Cumulus can't get it together on KOLI, this other country station in a smaller market near it apparently does well but they've had construction permits expire on their other signals.

KEQX 89.5 in Hico TX is mono, they told me stereo cuts the range down in half so maybe Cumulus can go mono on KOLI to save it? I like KEQX's classic country format, just wish they would have both audio channels on the station/streaming. Small-town radio has bad wiring sometimes. :)
 
SnottyNose799 said:
It's strange Cumulus can't get it together on KOLI, this other country station in a smaller market near it apparently does well but they've had construction permits expire on their other signals.

KEQX 89.5 in Hico TX is mono, they told me stereo cuts the range down in half so maybe Cumulus can go mono on KOLI to save it? I like KEQX's classic country format, just wish they would have both audio channels on the station/streaming. Small-town radio has bad wiring sometimes. :)
Click to expand...
rolls eyes and shakes head

going mono wont be a savior for KOLI..... and comparing some small non comm signals to a commercial country station is like comptring apples to oranges
 
SnottyNose799 said:
It's strange Cumulus can't get it together on KOLI, this other country station in a smaller market near it apparently does well but they've had construction permits expire on their other signals.
Click to expand...

The real issues are whether Cumulus can find a buyer willing to pay its price and whether it even wants the competition. Most anything Cumulus would do on 94.9 would compete with its existing stations.
 
SnottyNose799 said:
If you ask me, KOLI should repeat Pure Country (KEQX) with 100 watts if they need to get on to satisfy FCC rules. :p
Click to expand...

A commercial station -- owned by one of the major group owners, no less -- should simulcast a non-commercial station?

I don't know what you've been smoking, but I hope you saved some for the rest of us!
 
SnottyNose799 said:
I looked into that non-commercial operation a bit more, and it's actually sad what is happening. They've applied for CPs on all their stations many times over the years, gotten them, only to have them canceled. The latest batch is from 2021-2024, and would have been a huge upgrade for all the stations if completed.
Click to expand...

That has nothing to do with the current thread

SnottyNose799 said:
If you ask me, KOLI should repeat Pure Country (KEQX) with 100 watts if they need to get on to satisfy FCC rules. :p
Click to expand...

Where do you come up with this stuff?
 
Soonerman82 said:
I noticed today that 94.9 was back on today, however it was simulcasting 99.9 KLUR.
Click to expand...
Cumulus has taken KOLI silent again, per a filing today with the FCC:

“Cumulus Licensing LLC (“Cumulus”), licensee of Station KOLI(FM), Electra, Texas, respectfully requests authority to discontinue operations. This Station was previously silent but was able to resume service for more than two weeks. Since then, Cumulus Media Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. As part of the reorganization process, Cumulus has taken KOLI off the air. Cumulus has an interested buyer and is in the process of negotiating to sell this Station.”
 


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