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KTRB-860 to debut with Talk Format on March 15TH!

M

Madmansam

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...JN85UG1.DTL&hw=ben+fong+torres&sn=001&sc=1000

Well after all the talk surrounding KTRB's debut on March 1, it looks like the real debut will be two weeks later on March 15. There is a lengthy article about it by Ben Fong Torres in The San Francisco Chronicle today. Thanks for the tip, SFstatic. I thought Jim Pappas was going to surprise everyone on March 1? Instead he let the cat out of the bag today in the newspaper. They plan to officially announce it tomorrow on the air. And yes, it will be a Talk format, mostly if not all syndicated. He says the format will be situated between KIFR-Free FM and KGO. But to me it sounds alot more like the old KYCY-1550 All Syndicated Talk Format. Nothing to originate from their studios in San Francisco, at least not yet according to the article. Yes, there will be 2 Former Bay Area Personalities, bot I do emphasize, "FORMER". They won't even be originating here from San Francisco, but Chicago (Mancow) and Austin (John London). Let's see, how many Talk Stations do we now have in San Francisco? Hmm...KGO, KSFO, KNEW, KQKE, KNTS, and KIFR. That is 6. 7, if you include the podcasts of KYCY-KYOU Radio.Will they succeed? Not sure yet. They do have the 50000 watts to help them that neither the other stations have except KGO. I know KGO is not scared. Maybe not even KSFO. Question is, Since they are not having any local talk for now, What other syndicated talk programming is there that is not on any other San Francisco stations? I see plenty of Infomercials in their future. What is everyone elses opinions?
 
I think bringing John London back on Air is a great idea. His draw if large (FreeFm dropped off publish ratings after his release). ManCow has changed his WHOLE outlook on radio no more "Shock Jock" Not sure how well he will do. At some point a few talkers will have to start playing music or .... Two formats up for grabs would be county and Oldies. Both could easily be paired on AM stations. KGO shouldn't be "scared" more like worried, watch out if a few of these stations merge. They may not nock KGO from the TOP but a point or point an 1/2 could be HUGE in advertising dollars. We shall see!
 
Listeners either like talk shows or they don't. if Savage moved tommorow to Buffalo NY it wouldn't make any difference, he would still have a huge audience on KNEW. Madman your simplistic view of radio is outdated and irrelevant. If local was king, what about the success of Howard Stern, Sean Hannity, Dr Laura, etc.? Sure, a KGO is a heritage, basically all local talk station, but that doesn't work for everyone. KGO is successful for many reasons, reasons which could not be duplicated by other stations.
 
jestin said:
I think bringing John London back on Air is a great idea. His draw if large (FreeFm dropped off publish ratings after his release).
Click to expand...

John London had awful ratings at Free FM. And, dismal numbers at KNBR. Anyone with access to Arbitron knows that.
 
doublecashkgb said:
Listeners either like talk shows or they don't. if Savage moved tommorow to Buffalo NY it wouldn't make any difference, he would still have a huge audience on KNEW. Madman your simplistic view of radio is outdated and irrelevant. If local was king, what about the success of Howard Stern, Sean Hannity, Dr Laura, etc.? Sure, a KGO is a heritage, basically all local talk station, but that doesn't work for everyone. KGO is successful for many reasons, reasons which could not be duplicated by other stations.
Click to expand...
I agree with you that some syndicated shows do have excellent ratings and huge audiences but not enough to put certain radio stations in the Top 10. You need some local talk as well as syndicated talk. You can't just rely on syndicated talk. Look at KYCY-1550 during their talk era before switching to podcasts. They didn't do well at all.I can't see Mancow helping KTRB. Maybe John London can, but then again he didn't help Free FM except give them Free PR.Let's see what other talk programming they can get? Maybe Don Imus on tape delayed? G. Gordon Liddy? Ed Schultz? Alan Colmes? Lars Larsen?
 
Well, any hope for a decent format with local flavor is down the tubes. Syndication...woohoo! Another entry into the crowded field of crapola. KTRB means Keep the Radio Boring.
 
Madmansam said:
Well after all the talk surrounding KTRB's debut on March 1, it looks like the real debut will be two weeks later on March 15. There is a lengthy article about it by Ben Fong Torres in The San Francisco Chronicle today. Thanks for the tip, SFstatic. I thought Jim Pappas was going to surprise everyone on March 1? Instead he let the cat out of the bag today in the newspaper. They plan to officially announce it tomorrow on the air. And yes, it will be a Talk format, mostly if not all syndicated. He says the format will be situated between KIFR-Free FM and KGO. But to me it sounds alot more like the old KYCY-1550 All Syndicated Talk Format. Nothing to originate from their studios in San Francisco, at least not yet according to the article. Yes, there will be 2 Former Bay Area Personalities, bot I do emphasize, "FORMER". They won't even be originating here from San Francisco, but Chicago (Mancow) and Austin (John London). Let's see, how many Talk Stations do we now have in San Francisco? Hmm...KGO, KSFO, KNEW, KQKE, KNTS, and KIFR. That is 6. 7, if you include the podcasts of KYCY-KYOU Radio.Will they succeed? Not sure yet. They do have the 50000 watts to help them that neither the other stations have except KGO. I know KGO is not scared. Maybe not even KSFO. Question is, Since they are not having any local talk for now, What other syndicated talk programming is there that is not on any other San Francisco stations? I see plenty of Infomercials in their future. What is everyone elses opinions?
Click to expand...

Overkill of talk staions can't be good.
 
Once again I have to ask the question, how many talk stations will it take to knock off KGO from its number one status in the market 12+? The San Francisco radio market is now so totally saturated with talk programing will it not bore the listeners to death as one can only take so much of it all in one day much less for years and years.

All these stations with so much great programming and the sad thing is we can only tune in one station at a time. The slices of the pie keep getting smaller and smaller. The bubble is about to burst and there is going to be a lot of dead bodies wondering what happened. So much for the diversity of programming on the radio dial. The medium deserves to die a painful death. I'll pay $12.95 a month for XM thank you and enjoy not listening to all the static of the AM band and all the rambling talking heads heard there. San Francisco has too many wasted radio signals.

I said in a prior post when the new PD's name was released, KTRB 860 is going to be programed just like its clone station at 840AM and I was right! I bet they put on the same Vietnamese programs in the evening too which in my humble opinion puts Mancow and London to shame. KTRB 860 AM just another wasted signal in the bay area. Sad Sad Sad......
 
"Once again I have to ask the question, how many talk stations will it take to knock off KGO from its number one status in the market 12+?

I think adding KTRB to the mix might actually knock KGO out of the #1 spot for the first time in...what...a quarter of a century, I think. Not that KTRB will rate any higher than KNEW or KQKE. But KGO has lost about 3 ratings points in the last 5 years or so. It's like "the death of 1,000 cuts" - they used to have a monopoly on the talk audience, but now they will have 4 competitors with good signals - including their sister station KSFO. I think the growing success of KQED and NPR has cut into KGO's audience, as well.

Meanwhile KOIT has gained ratings points lately - I assume because former KFRC listeners have switched over. In another couple of rating periods, I wouldn't be surprised to see KOIT at number 1, with KGO a close second. But ABC can still comfort themselves by knowing they have still cornered most of the talk audience between KGO and KSFO.
 
Or Perhaps ABC/Disney or even Citadel will do the neighborly thing like buy the competition? Snap up KTRB 860 then let their crack engineers finish the job of installing KTRB's daytime transmitter site heavens knows they have the connections to get the job done! Then they can move the KSFO calls and format to 860 AM. Then the 560 signal could be sold to another religious broadcaster! Family Radio Maybe? WOW 610 and 560 AM What a "Double Wammy" for the bay area!
 
Talking Furniture said:
jestin said:
I think bringing John London back on Air is a great idea. His draw if large (FreeFm dropped off publish ratings after his release).
Click to expand...

John London had awful ratings at Free FM. And, dismal numbers at KNBR. Anyone with access to Arbitron knows that.
Click to expand...

The ratings at Free may have been bad but they were posting ratings when he was with them. They were a NEW station also. John was only on Board for 1 book so you can talk trash all you want but be truthfull about what was going on.
 
Madmansam said:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...JN85UG1.DTL&hw=ben+fong+torres&sn=001&sc=1000

Well after all the talk surrounding KTRB's debut on March 1, it looks like the real debut will be two weeks later on March 15.
Click to expand...

Has KTRB gotten its day site (the one with the three tall towers on the island NORTHeast of SF) on the air yet? I heard that the station has been running 24/7 from the night site southeast of Livermore. Even though it's a 50-kW signal, the pattern is very narrow, reaching neither San Jose nor Oakland very well. I guess there's nothing wrong with the night signal in SF itself or in most of Silicon Valley, but the day signal will be (is?) a killer, delivering more than 5 mV/m to Sacramento. The only other SF AM that may do that (and I'm not sure that it does) is KNBR. Until KTRB's day site is on the air, I would expect the combination of signal problems and what sounds like a weak program lineup and a ton of competition to keep the station from becoming much of a factor in the Bay Area ratings.
 
An idea from my wife, how about "Cosmo radio" a little sex talk mixed in with a little music. They could move this from satellite to broadcast radio (toned down of course).
 
Hi Folks:

Theres one thing I don't understand. The Ben Fong-Torres article (and postings on this site) state that the stations format will be "talk". But then why does the station run a snipe asking listeners to e-mail them with thier ideas on what would be a good format for the station?

Mike
 
You CAN have an all syndicated station do well, but with the pickings left, not here. KSFO doesn't have 50kW, as you point out, but it's frequency makes up for it... nevertheless, it's basically a syndicated station. But they have the top shows. Other than Glenn Beck, there's (almost?) nobody with over 1 mil the Talkers survey available.

As to their lineup, I don't see where the KGO reference comes in with Mancow and John London. Seems like a lineup (poorly) made for healthy heapings of brokered stuff, which is probably the best venue for them, anyway, seeing that 1550 turned away all the high-paying shows.
 
It is not a suprise to me as I always thought that KTRB would be a general interest talk station. I was surprised with the music but that is a good idea, especially if you don't have enough talk shows and you want to fiil time without being bound to a long-term contract.

What talk shows are not on the air in SFO? There are tons!

Remember San Francisco is a radio market just like anywhere else, it does not include San Jose, Santa Rosa or Sacramento. Just beacuse you can hear the show it is not part of the market. Based upon that here is a small list just from the top of my head:

CNN audio of headline news (on in San Jose) and it is boring!

Don and Mike Noon to 4:00 p.m.

Don Imus - 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. This is a cash fee program. I was up at 3:00 a.m. recently and tuned in Don Imus on CNBC. He is slow moving and the listener has to stay tunned through a lot of commercials. I am not sure a station would want to yeild to a New York program in a West Coast market. Plus who wants to pay cash for an out of market show when you could use that money to hire a local personality.

That makes me think of Mark and Brian for L.A. which would be available.

Is John and Jeff on Free-FM?

There are many right wing shows not on the air in SFO. The problem is that once you start picking up those shows it makes a statement about your station positioning. Whether or not that is the position statement the owners want to make.

Dr. Laura is not the only adivce show around. There is Dr. Joy Browne who has been around longer and is not as bitchy as Dr. Laura. However the bitchyness in Dr. Laura is what makes the program more compelling.

There are lots of weekend only non-political shows available.

The Clark Howard consumer advice show recently showed up on KYCY and therefore it is not available. Clark does sound like a nerd however his show is very good and he has a follwing.

It's Joey, Joey, the Joey Reynolds show is available and may show up on KTRB. The other Pappas station, KMPH runs Joey live weekenights begining at 10:00 p.m.

That's all I can think of. Any comments if any of this programing would work on KTRB?

Any other shows available that you can think of?

I will look for yoru replies.

Newsperson
 
The ratings at Free may have been bad but they were posting ratings when he was with them. They were a NEW station also. John was only on Board for 1 book so you can talk trash all you want but be truthfull about what was going on.


Ok, the truth is John London had lousy ratings at Free FM and, just as he did at KNBR, he was an a-hole to work with and he got fired.
 
Talking Furniture said:
The ratings at Free may have been bad but they were posting ratings when he was with them. They were a NEW station also. John was only on Board for 1 book so you can talk trash all you want but be truthfull about what was going on.


Ok, the truth is John London had lousy ratings at Free FM and, just as he did at KNBR, he was an a-hole to work with and he got fired.
Click to expand...

Sorry you feel this way! I find him to be very nice to work with. KNBR has BAD RATINGS Period. And to judge someone off 1 book is just not looking at the whole story!

Sorry you had a bad go of it with John.
 
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