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KRTY-FM Los Gatos has been sold

TheBigA said:
What they have to remember is they're not playing to Nielsen anymore. They're playing for digital usage. That means creating more digital content for their users, pushing more clicks. The game is very different.
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Agreed. And right now, the website at KRTY.com is poor - it's a standard, off-the-shelf radio station website. It has some station info, some local events and some syndicated country music news that can be found on much better websites. There's nothing unique to bring a new user in and make them into a listener. It's "fine" as a website to complement an FM signal, but as the station's entire presence, it's sorely lacking. Even the branding is meaningless once the signal is gone - what "is" KRTY once it's no longer an over-the-air radio station? Who is going to search KRTY?

One big issue for me with online-only radio is discoverability. If you're on the FM dial, you're one of a limited number of stations that has that "store window". People will become aware of you just because you're one of 10-20 stations on their car radio. Once you're on the online "dial", you're one of an infinite number of audio choices. There's also the fact that you suddenly have a lot more competition - if someone has streaming apps installed on their phone or smart speaker and you aren't at the top of your game, your listeners can very easily go elsewhere.
 
TheBigA said:
My sense is that for now, all they're doing is targeting their existing fan base.
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I just really hope that they have a plan beyond "take the EMF check and spend it doing what we were doing on FM".

There's potential in taking the money and spending it on building an online country music platform - and they're in the right geographical area for expertise in doing that - but there's no future in trying to replicate an FM station without the FM signal.
 
Are they keeping the air staff for an online-only station? Has anyone heard? And if so, are they paying them full-time salaries? I hope they do, but once you lose the local jocks, it's just another one of thousands of places to get country music online.
 
TheBigA said:
It's a good question. What I know is the quantification of audience is different. While Nielsen will show streams of on-air stations, the posted numbers don't come near what station data indicates. Last week Beasley Broadcasting said their online listening accounts for 40-60% of their audience. That's not what Nielsen says.

www.insideradio.com

40% To 60% Of Total Audience At Beasley’s Biggest Stations Comes From Digital.

The majority of AM/FM listening continues to be over the air (89%) as opposed to streaming (11%), according to the latest Edison Research numbers. Yet as radio continues to evolve
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

But if what Beasley says is true, then there's money to be made with online radio.
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Nielsen measures radio markets, not streams with broader out-of-market reach. I suspect the difference here involves out of market listening. Remember, if a station is not subscribed in a market, we don't see the results.
 
radioinsight.com

KRTY Sets FM Sign-Off Date & Post Sale Plans - RadioInsight

Empire Broadcasting Country 95.3 KRTY Los Gatos/San Jose has announced the date it will sign-off from FM and the plans for its brand following its sale to Educational Media Foundation. KRTY’s final day broadcasting on 95.3 will be Friday, June 17 ahead of EMF taking over. The station, however...
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

Here is an update on the KRTY-FM changes. June 17th is the date to look out for the changes from Country to EMF programming.

Empire Broadcasting Country 95.3 KRTY Los Gatos/San Jose has announced the date it will sign-off from FM and the plans for its brand following its sale to Educational Media Foundation.

KRTY’s final day broadcasting on 95.3 will be Friday, June 17 ahead of EMF taking over. The station, however, will continue to operate in nearly its current form online at KRTY.com.
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I hope enough sale money is being used to put themselves at the forefront of the internet search engine, for people looking to hear Country music streaming online. How many hits for streaming will be interesting to see pan out. A big plus is no longer having the expense involved with operating a broadcast facility.

This is closely being watched, to see if a former broadcasting station can successfully transition to online, digital only. If it's successful, this may be the beginning of that happening elsewhere.
 
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KilowattKat said:
I hope enough sale money is being used to put themselves at the forefront of the internet search engine, for people looking to hear Country music streaming online. How many hits for streaming will be interesting to see pan out. A big plus is no longer having the expense involved with operating a broadcast facility.
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I did not see whether the estate of the station owner destined any funds towards maintaining the format. It's important to note that this new enterprise does not seem to have any affiliation with the estate.
KilowattKat said:
This is closely being watched, to see if a former broadcasting station can successfully transition to online, digital only. If it's successful, this may be the beginning of that happening elsewhere.
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A big issue is that without a radio station behind it, the artist/label rights payments pretty much make profitability impossible.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I did not see whether the estate of the station owner destined any funds towards maintaining the format. It's important to note that this new enterprise does not seem to have any affiliation with the estate.
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I got the sense that Nate Deaton was very involved in the sale, and worked directly with the estate.

The new enterprise is the copyright holder of the station's intellectual property. as well as some of the facilities.
 
TheBigA said:
I got the sense that Nate Deaton was very involved in the sale, and worked directly with the estate.
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But that does not necessarily mean that any of the final liquidation of the estate funds will go to the web station.
TheBigA said:
The new enterprise is the copyright holder of the station's intellectual property. as well as some of the facilities.
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Of course, the intellectual property had and has little value following the sale. The new owner did not need the facilities and likely was receptive to not having to spend money dismantling the studios and disposing of the left-over hardware.
 
I certainly hope that sale money wasn't earmarked for the salaries only. The music copyright expense I had forgotten about, needs to be covered, the server expense, maybe an upgrade, if a lot of people start streaming. And putting themselves ahead on the internet, can be very expensive.
 
Makes me wonder: what stations have “successfully” transitioned to online-only?

I remember when both 97X in Cincinnati and WFNX in Boston both signed off, they kept a presence as an online-only station.

…I do believe both went under within half a decade.
 
seattlesarchiebunker said:
Makes me wonder: what stations have “successfully” transitioned to online-only?

I remember when both 97X in Cincinnati and WFNX in Boston both signed off, they kept a presence as an online-only station.

…I do believe both went under within half a decade.
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Ditto for the ambitious continuation of WBCN in Boston. With so many more choices available for music, in KRTY's case country rather than rock, on the internet than on the airwaves, KRTY is going to have a very hard time retaining its old FM audience, many of whom I suspect were listening to the it in their cars rather than at home or at work. Those FM commuters will just switch to KBAY or SiriusXM.
 
Just a thought, I wonder if the copyright owner could have, or still possibly, lease an HD channel from another operater to air the webcast This way, they could still have a broadcast signal.
 
KilowattKat said:
Just a thought, I wonder if the copyright owner could have, or still possibly, lease an HD channel from another operater to air the webcast This way, they could still have a broadcast signal.
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I don't see why not, but the HD question, as always, is how many people use it or even know what it is, even after 15+ years. After all, a leased format on a station's HD2 or HD3 can't be relayed by an FM translator.
 
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