KTAQ Being Sold

[tripinva]

London Broadcasting is buying KTAQ. They own KCEN, KYTX, and others.

On an unrelated note, London Broadcasting's stations hold the affiliations for MeTV in their respective markets.

Things that make you go "Hmm..."

- Trip

 

[arnoldevns]

This is a very unusual purchase for them. You can bet the primary channel won't be religious or Spanish unless they lease it out to someone else.

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

This is a very unusual purchase for them. You can bet the primary channel won't be religious or Spanish unless they lease it out to someone else.

I agree that is totally off the traditional path for London. Maybe this is their first step in "going big"?

On the other hand, KTAQ's main channel does get must carry and now that Mike Simons is out of the picture, it's paid program after paid program. The overhead has to be low. Unlike KDTN or KDTX, this offers an opportunity for local ministries on a full power outlet.

Since the purpose of a business is to make a profit, here's what I'd do (all 480i, of course):

47-1: Keep this exactly as is and keep counting the money as it comes in.

47-2: Continue it as a lease. It's currently Lee Sherill's UAN but if he goes away, find someone else who wants a full-market signal.

47-3: Definitely keep it as is with Mexicanal on a big signal. I'd guess this is also a lease operation so it's another low overhead income stream.

47-4: This is the subchannel where there's possible room for play. Maybe MeTV could end up here but it would have to be run so that a barter arrangement can be worked out.

There's simply no room in this market for a third indy. It's my understanding that KFWD mostly nets only hashmarks in the DMA Nielsen ratings. If they weren't paired with WFAA, I doubt this station would get any agency business at all.

And trying to assemble a crew of street hustlers for non-transactional business would be a daunting task in the current economic climate. So, if I were London, I'd run KTAQ as cheaply as possible and use it as the money machine for the rest of their properties.

As big as D/FW is, it's just got too many TV stations for all of them to be financially viable. We've got 18 full market signals (I'm excluding the dozen LPTVs -- they're just noise). That's more than Chicago and arguably more than New York (since many cover only parts of Jersey and Long Island).

 

[arnoldevns]

Let me clarify one point: KFWD gets more than hashmarks for most of the day. The Dr. Oz reruns frequently get around a 1 in households. Other shows on that station get close to that as well.

 

[compubit]

Had KTEN not put ABC on a sub channel, I could have seen London trying to move the station toward the Sherman market as an ABC affiliate, buti guess not...

J

 

[fredcantu]

ABC could have an out where an HD main channel trumps a subchannel. But that would be a kick... a station actually moving OUT of a major market.

 

[arnoldevns]

Never happen. The problem there is a lack of coverage in southern Oklahoma. KTAQ would still put most of its signal over this market if it moved as far north as it possibly could.

 

[gbranch]

Jim, I had basically the same idea, except my thoughts were to move the transmitter to between Greenville and Tyler and serve the Tyler-Longview DMA as either a full power My Network affiliate or a Christian station. But it doesn't really make sense to move from market #5 to market #110.

 

[TexasTom]

I can't imagine London Broadcasting shelling out $18 million for KTAQ and then moving it to either Sherman or Tyler/Longview -- it just wouldn't be worth that amount of money to get a start up into either market.

As for the ratings that KFWD manages to earn -- while their ratings are far from impressive, they're still doing better than hash marks. The latest ratings I have are about a year old (from last October), and showed them getting anywhere from a 0.1 to 0.8 rating with their non-infomercial programming. In the same period, the highest rating on KTXA was a 1.3, and on KDFI the highest was a 1.0.

Could London Broadcasting do better with KTAQ? Truthfully, I suspect that just running the ME-TV feed on 47.1 would at least match what KFWD is currently doing. Doing better would take a lot of work, but certainly isn't impossible -- Weigel Broadcasting up in Chicago demonstrates what is possible for a small group with a large market indie.

 

[arnoldevns]

Without going into too many details, I can tell you that in yesterday's ratings, KFWD's highest rated quarter hour was over a 1 household rating. KTXA cracked a 1 for a few quarter hours too. KDFI's highest rated quarter hour was more than a 2 rating. It is doubtful to me that London could compete with any of those stations with Me-TV without a ton spent on promotion.

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

Could London Broadcasting do better with KTAQ? Truthfully, I suspect that just running the ME-TV feed on 47.1 would at least match what KFWD is currently doing. Doing better would take a lot of work, but certainly isn't impossible -- Weigel Broadcasting up in Chicago demonstrates what is possible for a small group with a large market indie.

To clarify something I posted, my source (out of the market) who told me that KFWD gets mostly hash marks explained that these were in the 18-49 demo. I didn't push him any further to get the specific hours since he was already sharing information that's not generally public.

One thing Weigel has going for them is that they're the sole general market indy in a top three DMA. WCIU's main channel has the typical expected fare along with a healthy diet of big league sports. The various MeTV offerings are on WCIU's subchannels and LPTV outlets.

Being a frequent visitor to Chicagoland, I admire what Weigel does. They've got some hustlers in the sales department because the breaks are filled with spots for local business (some of them small mom and pops) as opposed to PSAs, promos and PI. I'm sure that some of its must be agency but a lot looks retail.