KRTY-FM along with KRTY-FM1 and KRTY-FM2 have been sold by KRTY Ltd to Educational Media Foundation.
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KRTY-FM Los Gatos has been sold
- Thread starter Frequency1
- Start date
The last rodeo for country in the Bay Area, perhaps? (Unless Santa Rosa counts as Bay Area, though the Santa Rosa stations do not reach either San Francisco, Oakland, or San Jose.)
KRTY does have good ratings but I cannot imagine KBAY or KEZR flipping. And KVVF is out of the question; Uforia/Univision does not do country. KUFX is likely to stay.
KGMZ and KITS are likely candidates for flipping, though these frequencies are not the strongest in the South Bay, where KRTY is strong.
Wow, here's a small local owner, not a big corporation, selling to EMF. That says a lot:
Roughly a $3.1 million purchase price, similar to the price EMF paid to the owners of the late WABB-FM. But KRTY covers roughly as much people as WABB does within its respective 60 dBu despite being a class A.
Why does EMF want a small signal for?
They'll probably put Air1 on 95.3 and bail off of 87.7. That might free up space for something else on 87.7, assuming this is what they do.
$3.1 million for one of the top stations in the SJ market!? I’m surprised they weren’t billing more than that per year!
It really is difficult to be a small operator these days….
It really is difficult to be a small operator these days….
Changing demographics exceeded in KRTY's demise. We all expected it would happen at some point. But unfortunately it happened sooner.
I'm wondering if Bonneville ever came to play in this. They probably would have kept the format and sold it combo with KUFX.
I wouldn't hold my breath. The reality is that Audacy, nor any other major operator, will likely fill the void of this flip. I can't imagine country is a desirable demo for their cluster strategy.
Isn't KRTY #1 in the San Jose Market?
Country is just a tough sell in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Then-Entercom hasn't had success with 95.7 The Wolf. But Audacy has thrown a curveball and flipped WDZH in Detroit abruptly to alternative after the demise of the alternative format in CIMX. That's not to say there's a high possibility of Audacy succeeding with a flip to country given the poor billing of WNSH in NYC.
Billing could tell a different story. $3 million is a low price for a Bay Area FM signal.
The South Bay has lost an incredible amount of English language commercial stations over the past couple decades. KFFG, KSJO, KCNL, KARA and now KRTY.
KUFX, KEZR and KBAY are now all that's left in terms of commercial FMs with English language programming.
I'd like to see the KRTY intellectual property deployed elsewhere, or at minimum, I'd like to see someone flip to Country.
Alpha probably didn't bid on 95.3 because they figured its flip to religious programming would directly benefit its incumbent stations, so they'd have little to gain by adding an additional signal.
If the reported bargain basement price is accurate, either an honest marketing process was not conducted, or there are significant obligations the buyer must be assuming. Stick value should easily command double the price mentioned by R-I. EMF paid $12 million for 102.7 in Metro Detroit just a couple years ago, and they decided to relocate the TX to a third party tower site (meaning EMF is now on the hook for tower rent payments).
KUFX, KEZR and KBAY are now all that's left in terms of commercial FMs with English language programming.
I'd like to see the KRTY intellectual property deployed elsewhere, or at minimum, I'd like to see someone flip to Country.
Alpha probably didn't bid on 95.3 because they figured its flip to religious programming would directly benefit its incumbent stations, so they'd have little to gain by adding an additional signal.
If the reported bargain basement price is accurate, either an honest marketing process was not conducted, or there are significant obligations the buyer must be assuming. Stick value should easily command double the price mentioned by R-I. EMF paid $12 million for 102.7 in Metro Detroit just a couple years ago, and they decided to relocate the TX to a third party tower site (meaning EMF is now on the hook for tower rent payments).
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Alpha is at its cap. They already have 5 FMs in the San Francisco Market which is what would be counted for ownership. KKDV, KKIQ, KUIC, KBAY and KEZR. San Jose is a subset of San Francisco.
I know KUIC may be linked to KKDV and KKIQ, but I believe Vacaville is part of the Sacramento DMA? I know Solano (save for Vallejo, etc) isn't really frequently considered to be the Bay Area, though some Bay Area commuters have moved into Fairfield/Vacaville for relatively low cost of housing.
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