I don't think the format was the problem, but the execution. Very weak marketing plan. That seems to be a common theme.
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KRTY-FM Los Gatos has been sold
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I don't think the format was the problem, but the execution. Very weak marketing plan. That seems to be a common theme.
On one hand, in today's age it's easy to find country music online on outlets like Spotify and YouTube. On the other, KRTY employed local personalities who engaged with the community. Although I am not into modern country (as opposed to Parton/Nelson/Cash era music), I am a San Jose State football fan, so I used DAR.fm to record head coach Brent Brennan's weekly interview on the station.
EDIT: In fact, I just looked up the San Jose radio ratings. KRTY's ratings had been going up in the past few months - jumping to #1 in February!
This was a small, locally owned station that was all live & local. Very active with local contests and promotions. Exactly the kind of radio station critics say we need more of. And they sell to EMF. Apparently without actively seeking competing offers. I would bet that the GM of the station could have rounded up $3 million to buy this station if he knew it was available. It's not a large sum of money in this part of California. In fact I wonder if there's more to this story that just hasn't come out yet. If the owner is retaining the "intellectual property," I imagine he has a plan for it.
Remember, San Jose is just an "embedded" part of the San Francisco market. There is little need for most agency buys to include it, which is why the total market revenue is off by half in the last 7 to 8 years.
Bob Kieve sold his other station in 2019 and it looks like he is retiring.
(Amended: Bob passed away two years ago. That is more than retirement)
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Solano Country is part of the San Francisco MSA. Radio does not have DMA's.
Counties are considered part of a metro is a certain percentage of radio listening goes to the stations that are home to a particular market. In this case, more listening is done to SF stations than to others.
Bob Kieve passed away in 2020 at the age of 98.
Thus this was likely an estate sale.
I was not aware.... a good broadcaster. That certainly explains the sale.
RIP Bob.
I suspect that another shoe is about to drop. What other south bay stations are ripe for a sale?? KSJO for a resell flip?
How about KSJO/Bolly 92.3 for a potential flip to Country? I can't imagine that the Bollywood format is making a ton of money, but perhaps I am wrong.
That's a lucrative ethnic population to tap, and the station has it all to itself. If they're not making money, I'd be very surprised.
Unless they were to sell it to somebody, absolutely not. Their owners are in it for serving a (South) Asian audience, hence the name Silicon Valley Asian Media Group.
I do wonder if Audacy May be considering flipping one of its lower-performing FMs to Country. Only time will tell.
The problem is that this is the Bay Area we are talking about. Lots of electric cars, in which not only do some lack an AM radio, but these vehicles can cause electrical interference on AM signals.
Also, I'm not keen that there are many 50kW AM signals left after KGO, KCBS, KNBR, and KTCT. Unless, KFAX and KTRB are willing to give up their formats.
The short answer is, NO.
"Silicon Valley Asian Media Group is the buyer of KSJO-FM 92.3 in San Jose and its FM booster in Pleasanton, Calif.
Gupta, who hosts a weekly finance-focus talk show on the station, holds one-third ownership, as a Manager, alongside Brad Behnke and Gregg Pirillo.
If those names are familiar, it is because Behnke is the VP of KSJO and COO for parent company Universal Media Access (in addition to serving as a senior partner in Anchor & Hope Music, which represents heritage rock act Squeeze and its lead singer, Glenn Tilbrook).
Pirillo serves as VP/Digital & Programming for UMA and its Principle Broadcasting, the Buffalo-based entity known for providing tactical and strategic operations for ethnic brokered time on radio and digital audio platforms.
Thus, it is a coordinated buyout, if you will, of UMA’s ownership of a station known today as “Bolly 92.3” and for the foreseeable future."
Plus KSJO is owned by an entity named Silicon Valley Asian Media Group, which bought it two months ago. One of the three partners is a talk show host on the station.
I have heard that the format is quite profitable.
Once again, EMF has removed a mainstream entertainment channel from the commercial FM dial and replaced it with its religious indoctrination. As we've seen in other markets where this has happened, the absence of a replacement frequency will likely shut the victim format out of the market, permanently. Chipping away at the FM band piece by piece, it looks more like what we saw happen to AM every day.
There are many bad parts about this, so don't get me started. But the main thing I want to say is there is absolutely no reason why other groups who have an interest in a certain kind of music can't do the same thing. Simply form a non-profit, raise some money, and buy radio licenses. It doesn't have to be religious. It can be oldies. It can be jazz. This is the only way to keep the radio dial from being over-run by these groups, whether it's EMF or VCY or Sacred Heart. But it takes money and commitment, and typically normal people don't have either. This is why these groups win over and over. It won't stop with the radio dial, by the way.
Give them all the same tax-free advantage the EMF "church" exploits, otherwise this is just patently false.
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