Sorry, I missed that post.
A lease to an ethnic broadcaster, is most likely, maybe one that would like to upgrade to a better signal.
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KSFO To 810
- Thread starter lanceventa
- Start date
A lease to an ethnic broadcaster, is most likely, maybe one that would like to upgrade to a better signal.
Interesting you mention that four- letter word. New York Times article, should be a gift link: Slash First, Fix Later: How Elon Musk Cuts Costs How Elon Musk Cuts Costs at Tesla, SpaceX and X
Sign of the times.
I was going by what was reported in Radio Insight, that KSFO is all syndicated talk.
What schedule are you looking at? All I see is syndicated talk. They used to have a AM show, but replaced it with Armstrong and Getty.
I listened to KSFO, KSCO and other local stations when I lived in the Bay Area. KSFO's local stuff didn't have any listener interaction at all, which I didn't like, but I don't know how many listeners it had either. I listened to one Gil Gross show until I figured out he wasn't going to take calls or read tweets and it was just going to be a really dry show. After that I just tuned in to hear Lloyd Lindsay Young do the weather, he was actually entertaining.
KSCO was better because they actually had people calling in. I never listened to KGO. I listened to more music on FM though, I mainly listened to KSCO for their morning show and their legal call in show Thursday nights. I tried listening to Lamont and Tonelli, but they replayed their bits so often that it got boring.
I never asked my roommates about what they listened to, but I think they mainly listened to K-101 or stations like that. I know one of them went in and met Don Bleu when he was on K-101, because she told me about it and said he was a really nice guy.
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That's why I don't understand all the negativity about Pittman, Field, and Berner. How they're ruining radio and pitching baloney. They're doing what people who run businesses do. This isn't about public service. That's a very different thing.
I had also mentioned that yesterday. I could even see "turn right to 810" as a slogan of sorts.
(I'm having lunch at a bar in Des Moines where Awolnation's "The Best" is currently playing on the sound system. So weird ideas may pop into my head.)
Well, how many posters here are former radio people, or people who aspired to it but then went to another field of work? That may explain some of it.
I'm not former, I'm current. I've watched it all happen from the front row. When I hear them talk, I know what happens next.
That "uber left" station had conservatives and libertarians on the airwaves throughout its history.
What I don't understand about your euphoria is that conservatives HAVE talk radio. They've dominated that medium. In pretty much any market, I can choose from three or more conservative talk signals and not hear one moderate or liberal host. I'd think if you were concerned with "echo chambers" you'd at least recognize that your format of choice IS one in the majority of the country. The decline of AM radio leading to an upgrade for a station that already existed and is a duplicate of a few hundred others with local IDs inserted, in 2024...well, if that's what makes you giddy, I'm a bit envious of your lack of real world problems.
Ultimately, none of it really matters. No more people will listen to those shows than already do, it just might be easier for those who haven't made the jump to streaming. Mostly people of a demographic that's a hard sell especially in the Bay Area. How many local gun shops can an AE at KSFO book?
The majority of the market will continue to ignore it, and the people who really nerd out on local and state politics will be on the public stations and the podcasts. And the majority of the people who cared for a long time about what 810 did that are left will appreciate it in memory. Cumulus already messed with them once, with the news experiment. They tried evolving KFOG too. Where'd that get them?
I used to be so much more upset about these things. Now I'm realizing time and "progress" is cruel, and even if I had good reason to love something, it will never come back as good as it's remembered. KGO was a great radio station for the time it was. AM 810 in 2024 is a power bill and lines on the books of a company in decline, in a city that no longer needs it.
Enjoy your "win" I suppose. I'll be over at KEXC and KALX with the music makers and "weirdos" that keep California culturally interesting and getting actual hard news and analysis from KQED and podcasts. I miss a lot of what this business was, but there's no going back, and if anyone had the solution, you wouldn't see things like this being done in the first place.
Resentment. I've often said most people don't hate capitalism, they hate arrogance. Look at the last election - people perceived they were talked down to, or not cared about, and to some extent, that impacted the results. A lot of radio people resent Pittman because he will speak in lofty terms about these things that affect talented, decent people who are often very loved by their audience on a local level in the sort of towns Pittman's flying right over in his corporate subsidized jet. THAT is what people resent. They sense no compassion or sacrifice on his part.
People often can deal with things better if they feel the pain isn't only visited on the lower class while the elite are insulated. Pittman's not worried about collecting unemployment or the cost of his groceries. The people he considered replaceable are.
Here's where AM is in San Francisco:
The highest-rated AM that is not a simulcast of an FM is KSFO.
It is 21st in the October book, with a 1.4 share and its weekly cume is 124,400 people.
In Sacramento, market #30, there are FOURTEEN radio stations with more people listening every week than KSFO.
So, don't expect to see much effort or...any...money expended on whatever's next on 560 or on the "new" KSFO 810 other than telling people it's moving.
The highest-rated AM that is not a simulcast of an FM is KSFO.
It is 21st in the October book, with a 1.4 share and its weekly cume is 124,400 people.
In Sacramento, market #30, there are FOURTEEN radio stations with more people listening every week than KSFO.
So, don't expect to see much effort or...any...money expended on whatever's next on 560 or on the "new" KSFO 810 other than telling people it's moving.
As I said, get ready for more of it, just not in radio.
It's so funny. I read comments wanting iHeart to be broken up and stations turned over to real broadcasters. How do they expect that to happen?
You want to know what's next? This is the model:
iheartsportsbayarea.iheart.com
iHeart Sports Bay Area - The Bay Area's iHeart Sports Talk + More
Don't miss out on the latest from iHeart Sports Bay Area, The Bay Area's iHeart Sports Talk + More
Agreed, I don't know where people who want to "break up" these companies think the other owners get capital.
I see the occasional experienced broadcast programmer or talent buying smaller stations, but that to me seems more like an enjoyable hobby, not a solution for most of these stations. Of which there's too many.
I see the occasional experienced broadcast programmer or talent buying smaller stations, but that to me seems more like an enjoyable hobby, not a solution for most of these stations. Of which there's too many.
What, no more of that delicious 810 (the) Spread? The jars are all empty?!? What am I gonna put on my toast tomorrow morning??
Sorry, I just couldn't resist. 😆😆
Sorry, I just couldn't resist. 😆😆
Which four letter word, Elon or Musk?
Grab an old AAA Bay Area map and find Woodside High School, near where Redwood City, Woodside and Atherton all meet (Woodside Road @ Alameda de las Pulgas). Use a straight-edge to draw a line through the high school to the KGO transmitter site just north of the east end of the Dumbarton Bridge. Now extend that line northeast and southwest, and go to any spot along that line and check the KGO signal. I think you'll be shocked how distorted it is. (As it was explained to me once by their former chief engineer, that is where phase cancellation is happening between their main lobes and the side lobes of their pattern.) There's a similar pattern cancellation line to the northwest-to-southeast, and you can find that by doing the same thing, only find the Britain Avenue exit off 101 in San Carlos as your anchor point. It's a big "X" with its center point being the tower array next to the transmitter.
Take your pick!Which four letter word, Elon or Musk?
You’re not wrong. It’s too bad it’s come to this. I’m gen Z, and therefore AM is supposedly irrelevant to my generation. But with that being said, I would have absolutely no issue at all with tuning into AM for spoken word content that I want to seek out and listen to. At the same time, I’m also on board with shutting down a lot of the existing AM band. I wouldn’t mind a future where an only a handful of the “good” AM stations stick around, as at least these are the stations people can hear loud and clear around the market.810's highest and best use is to run 24/7 syndicated programming?
I mean, maybe.
Reality check---and this won't be popular with a lot of people on this board.
Remember two years ago, when KGO went sports betting, I used the concept of "AM Mall"?
Well, stuff's gotten worse since then.
Look at the dial (and let's just look at the better-than average signals):
560: Future unknown. Unlikely to be anything that requires money to be spent.
610: In five months, it will have been Family Radio for 20 YEARS.
680: It's on the air, but I'd love to see a breakout of how much of the listening is actually on 104.5. The AM fills in where the FM can't reach.
740: Same. KCBS is really KFRC-FM at 106.9. The AM fills in what can be a spotty FM in some places.
810: For the past two years, Cumulus didn't have a better idea than sports betting. Now they don't have a better idea for replacing that than to move KSFO (which is 21st in the ratings) onto the signal.
910: It's behind sports betting on KGO and the KSAN-FM stream in the October ratings.
960: It has a 0.1.
There are no other AMs showing up.
And the other thing that should really stand out here----
There is NO programming on any of those AM stations that is created specifically for that AM station. It's either syndicated or a simulcast of an FM (at this point, you really have to understand that KNBR and KCBS are FM stations being simulcast on AM, not the other way around).
That sound you hear are the bulldozers. AM Mall is essentially Bayfair.
What will happen to the Bay Area’s millions of square feet of closed mall space?
Bayfair Center mall in San Leandro, which permanently closed earlier this year, is the latest Bay Area commercial space to be reimagined in the post-Amazon age.www.siliconvalley.com
But if you’re talking about KNBR or KCBS, I’ll go to the AM before I’ll bother with the FM. I’ve always felt like a strong AM station sounds better than FM for talk and news programming. You don’t really get any choppy static. Listeners close enough to the FM might feel the opposite, but if you live anywhere toward the edges of the market, I’d prefer to listen to KNBR or KCBS on AM.
But back to the main point: 810 is a station that provides extremely solid coverage all around the market. I don’t think 560 is that bad either. Perhaps this isn’t the ideal next stage of life for these stations, but I’m glad they will at least get another stage.
It’s interesting you mention that. I’ve never had an issue with KGO when I’ve driven around the area, but I do not doubt for one second that what you described is true (and is therefore problematic). From my own experiences driving up and down 101, and crossing to the east side, I’ve never heard any static on 810. I always thought that was pretty impressive.
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