KPLU Intent to sell to KUOW

[crainbebo]

We are slowly closing into the end of an era. KPLU won't be "NPR News and All That Jazz" for much longer. However, their ratings have been abysmal lately - in the 2's! On the other hand, the news programming all goes to 94.9 - whose signal is quite weak and noisy 25 miles from the transmitter. KVTI may get a boost in the ratings.
They are also changing callsigns for 88.5. I'm going to predict KJUW will be the new calls come 2016.

 

[semoochie]

We are slowly closing into the end of an era. KPLU won't be "NPR News and All That Jazz" for much longer. However, their ratings have been abysmal lately - in the 2's! On the other hand, the news programming all goes to 94.9 - whose signal is quite weak and noisy 25 miles from the transmitter. KVTI may get a boost in the ratings.
They are also changing callsigns for 88.5. I'm going to predict KJUW will be the new calls come 2016.

I'll go with KSJZ. They'll have to wrestle them away from a station in North Dakota though.

 

[crainbebo]

I've caught KSJZ FM here via e-skip. "Mix 93.3" in Jamestown. I'm still going for KJUW "Jazz, University (of) Washington".
90.1 Olympia could be KJOP (also a Catholic AM station in California). "Jazz, Olympia"
89.3 Port Angeles? How about KJPV? "Jazz, Port (Angeles) Victoria".

 

[xmtrland]

It's just not the main KPLU license that's involved here. KPLU has built a nice set of translators and low power fm stations. KUOW must have been thinking of this for a long time based on how fast they have a redistributed the translators and the smaller FM's. KPLU brings 7 translator licenses and 3 small fm's to the table for KUOW. One of those a 250 watt translator in West Seattle that I do not see in the new distribution of translators for each station, K221fr, 92.1, 250 watts. I also do not see k284BM, Longview, 41 watts. K288GG Mount Vernon, 105.5, 43 watts. Wonder if these translators will be for sale in the near future. I know one group that would be interested in two of those translators.

All in all that's a boat load of Licenses that KUOW is getting.

I'm sure all the clusters in Seattle are eyeing this deal, especially how KUOW just scooped up all those translators and stand alone FM's. I'm curious, and this would be a question for some one that does agency buys. How would a combo by on KIRO-fm, 710ESPN, KTTH be different for KUOW/KLPU? One is commercial the other sponsored. Will KUOW/KPLU be marketed like KIRO AM/FM or KOMO/KPLZ on a combo purchase or is it different for Non Commercials. When it comes to buying time I don't think this is going to change things much for Seattle/Tacoma stations. For one thing the Seattle stations sell Everett to Olympia at the most and just metro Seattle at the least. Centralia, Aberdeen, Bellingham, Port Angeles are not on the sales radar of most Seattle stations. This seems to only be a bonus to public broadcasters as far as marketing in that they then can pull in donations from individual donnars from these areas versus advertising dollars for commercial stations. KUOW may be able to actually get local sponsor donations from businesses from Port Angeles versus KOMO trying to sell time to a business.

And what about those three translator not in the new coverage maps, they are all in the commercial band so any commercial station could buy them. Allot of speculation on Entercom's 103.3. What about the KPLU translator in west Seattle that is not mentioned in the new plan? Then again Mount Vernon and Longview might make great translators for KEXP.

I bet by the time you figure in STL, backup transmitter sites and all it's a small filling cabinet full of licenses that KUOW is getting from PLU.

 

[AQH]

These kinds of sudden changes are rarely just what the press releases suggest they are. In non-comm radio we've seen some shady and quick sell-offs in Houston and Miami recently, that also sharply reduce the amount of non-comm programming, and make room for even more of the same ol' time religion you already hear from eight other stations. Remember, these are stations that thousands of people invest in as members. They are not considered by their listeners to be merely commercial real estate that the rest of the dial has become since deregulation of their public service requirements.

I suspect the majority of KLPU's listenership and revenue was not from its jazz programming, since they've been reducing it on weekends in the past year. So dropping the news and going fulltime jazz ("because Seattle is such as jazz mecca!") is a lot more cynical to my ears than anything I'm writing here. Like most hybrid music and news NPR affiliates, the bulk of the audience and underwriting support comes from the talk and NPR programming, and their local inserts in it - not from the music dayparts, nice as they may be.
As much as I personally welcome a fulltime jazz outlet, and perhaps some new air talent, I don't think UW would go to this trouble, and make such a sudden move an hour before the university regents met to vote on it, if everybody was being honest and transparent, and had the listeners' interests as their priority.

Competition between two full power stations with local newsrooms gives us better radio. The KUOW and KPLU audiences do not overlap as much as you commercial observers might suspect, from what the KPLU GM confided to me a couple years ago. And a recent trend showing gains most months in KPLU's audience share suggest a lot of it may be at the expense of KUOW, since KUOW started to chop up all of the national news programs to insert legal IDs and slogans every five minutes, and pretend to be hosting national shows, instead of letting the actual national hosts take care of the interstitials between the news features.
Just listen, for heaven's sake.

I don't know water to reply seriously here or just brush you off, because your post is loaded with speculation and emotion, and comes off like a rant than a fact-based argument based on something that has been news for a only 24 hours. I don't know the situations in Houston or Miami, nor do I care. Does what happened there mean that same scenario is what the UW will do here? No.

How can you say that your "inside information" says the audiences do not overlap, yet you say KUOW took a lot of the KPLU audience? And it's being done because KUOW is inserting local IDs at the clip you say they are? Seriously, you're really grasping at straws here. I'll indulge you in one thing: the average attention span of most people nowadays is shrinking rapidly, that might be one of the reasons KUOW identifies so often. And what's so wrong with them trying to localize the sound?

 

[fordranger797]

Signal commentary aside, it's a shame that journalism students at PLU will no longer have KPLU as a resource for internships, experience, etc.

 

[bobdavcav]

Well, there was that AM revitalization plan put forward a couple weeks ago, I wouldn't be surprised if KIRO or maybe even KKDZ goes after those translators.

 

[xmtrland]

I would put Salem on the interested in translator list, they have a few AM's that could benefit. Also Mr. Skotdal might be interested in a couple of them.

But this make me wonder exactly what KUOW is getting. Clearly these 3 translators are not listed in the new coverage maps for the combined operation, and are owned by KPLU pre sale. PLU could sell them separate from the sale of KPLU and the remaining translators and low power FM's to KUOW. This would maximize the income for PLU in the deal. these 3 translators might be sold, but who will sell them and keep the money and of course who will buy them. Now this is fun speculation!

So what exactly gets transferred to KUOW in the sale, all of the translators or just the ones in the new coverage maps? This could be why they are not addressed at all on the KUOW site.

 

[TheBigA]

Signal commentary aside, it's a shame that journalism students at PLU will no longer have KPLU as a resource for internships, experience, etc.

Are you sure that they won't be taken care of somehow by UOW? Typically some accommodation for student training is included in the sale.

 

[fordranger797]

Are you sure that they won't be taken care of somehow by UOW? Typically some accommodation for student training is included in the sale.

Not entirely. However, I do have a personal friend who has interned at KPLU while pursuing a degree in journalism at PLU. She told me that her internship will be terminated as a result of the sale. Not to say it's the same situation for all employees, though.

 

[TheBigA]

Interns aren't employees. Most colleges place students in outside professional internships, so it's possible PLU journalism students will do internships at KUOW or other area media outlets. Those internships are subject to the rules of those organizations. It's certainly easier when the university owns an outlet. Surprised that PLU isn't offering an online radio station for students, unless one already exists.

 

[Rob Piotrowski]

Are you sure that they won't be taken care of somehow by UOW? Typically some accommodation for student training is included in the sale.

First of all, it's UW, not UOW. Do some research before making comments in markets you know nothing about.

Secondly, there's no obligation for UW to accommodate PLU student's internships. It's just the stick and translators UW wants.

Finally, PLU will take the $8 million and put it in the general fund - not to build an online station.

 

[semoochie]

First of all, it's UW, not UOW. Do some research before making comments in markets you know nothing about.

Secondly, there's no obligation for UW to accommodate PLU student's internships. It's just the stick and translators UW wants.

Finally, PLU will take the $8 million and put it in the general fund - not to build an online station.

I think he meant 'UOW, as in KUOW.

 

[TheBigA]

Do some research before making comments in markets you know nothing about.

I know something about it, so I don't need your scolding. My use of "UOW" wasn't for the licensee, but short for KUOW.

I asked the question (and it WAS a question, not a statement) because several other recent college sales, including those in Houston and Atlanta, included provisions for their students. I never said there was an "obligation," although some schools DO feel some responsibility to provide experience for their students. My post #31 covers that. I expect it will be tough for PLU to justify a journalism program without some way for students to actually practice what they're being taught. But then again, that course of study may not be core to the university's mission any more.

 

[Kelly A]

That's okay BigA, he's an equal opportunity 'scolder'.

My guess is PLU was seeing the end of the road as a radio station licensee and best to get out now while there was an opportunity. There hasn't been any curriculum related to the radio station for years, combined with the decrease of CPB funding and decreasing public fund raising opportunities, the writing was on the wall. I suspect too, the whole Jazz format supporting a large market public station was rapidly running out of steam.

Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood (suburb of Tacoma) cut their pretty popular radio station and program, instead doing an LMA with Washington State University a few years ago. Bates Technical College in Tacoma did something similar with their former station. Really, PLU was the last of any size tied to an educational institution in the area.

 

[TheBigA]

I suspect too, the whole Jazz format supporting a large market public station was rapidly running out of steam.

That's the scary part of this story. If PLU couldn't support a station that ran both news & jazz, how will UW keep it alive with just jazz? There is only one public station I know of in the entire country that is all jazz, and its audience and funding is declining. WBFO Buffalo was a jazz/news station that was sold a few years ago to a community licensee, who limited jazz to nights. At some point UW might be faced with the same situation University of Houston is facing now with KUHA, which they bought from Rice, flipped to classical, only to discover they can't make enough from classical to keep it alive.

 

[KXA]

I would not be surprised if the UW said at sometime in the not to distant future that the jazz format on 88.5 is unsustainable and moves KUOW to 88.5 and sells off 94.9 to a commercial broadcaster. (I honestly think that this IS there plan, and that the 24/7 jazz format is a smoke screen to reduce opposition to the KPLU sale. And no, I'm not a conspiracy nut.)

 

[Kelly A]

That's the scary part of this story. If PLU couldn't support a station that ran both news & jazz, how will UW keep it alive with just jazz? There is only one public station I know of in the entire country that is all jazz, and its audience and funding is declining. WBFO Buffalo was a jazz/news station that was sold a few years ago to a community licensee, who limited jazz to nights. At some point UW might be faced with the same situation University of Houston is facing now with KUHA, which they bought from Rice, flipped to classical, only to discover they can't make enough from classical to keep it alive.

My guess is KUOW will relegate Jazz to an HD-2 channel, possibly on both stations. The KPLU TX site on West Tiger Mt. has a full market signal from a Tacoma-centric station, whereas KUOW, a Seattle station with a lower elevation mainly downtown signal, clobbers KPLU from a ratings and support news-listening audience. Speaking of which, I believe NPR has raised their affiliate costs over the past couple years, so that may have added to the pile-on of reasons PLU decided to exit the radio game. In spite of KPLU having the wider coverage, it is still a Tacoma station with the association to a Tacoma College. Stations have been gradually, physically abandoning association with Tacoma for several years.

 

[xmtrland]

KUOW lets the dust settle after the first round. Maybe we find out where those 3 commercial translators go.

Round two, KUOW will give reasons for a change. KOUW moves to 88.5 News on the main channel and HD1 puts jazz on HD2, keeps any translators/LPFM's they want. Sell's 94.9 to the highest bidder, sells remaining translators and LPFM's to KEXP or other non profit FM like KBCS, KSER, KYFQ or even WSU. Sell commercial translator in Olympia to highest bidder along with the AM maybe as a package just to get rid of the AM. If KUOW were to sell 94.9 who's to say KEXP would not buy it and some translators, KEXP knows how to raise money. KEXP could sell 90.3 to KSER, WSU or other non profit that wanted an LPFM in Seattle. KUOW might be able to make a return on the money they spent for the initial deal for KPLU.

 

[fordranger797]

I would not be surprised if the UW said at sometime in the not to distant future that the jazz format on 88.5 is unsustainable and moves KUOW to 88.5 and sells off 94.9 to a commercial broadcaster. (I honestly think that this IS there plan, and that the 24/7 jazz format is a smoke screen to reduce opposition to the KPLU sale. And no, I'm not a conspiracy nut.)

I would assume that 94.9 is a MUCH more valuable frequency than 88.5 is for a potential buyer. I could see that happening. Great point!