By the way, whoever thought of the title for this thread is a little bit misleading because KJR-FM is still on 95.7 FM.
93.3 FM still uses the KUBE call letters.
93.3 FM still uses the KUBE call letters.
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KUBE Becomes SportsRadio 93-3 KJR-FM
- Thread starter TheBigA
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I guess the question to your question, is do what about what? Everything in media evolves to fit the next generation of media consumers.
What will replace angry white senior curmudgeon talk radio? If we live long enough, I suspect we'll find out. Then, complain about it.
1090 won't be much of a competitor. It will look and sound like KEIB in LA or Talk 1200 in Boston. The shows are just there for the market clear, not for local ratings or sales.
950 and 1090 could both stay sports as well. One clears the national net stuff and the other runs a national sports betting web. I have no special inside info, just another theory to throw out there. Guess we will know in a month.
I wonder if they intend to switch out the call letters or not?
They only use them once an hour for the legal ID. The rest of the time, they say "SportsRadio 93-3 KJR-FM." They say it on air, and it's part of their logo online. Obviously a change is in the works, and from what I've seen in other markets, it may take a month for the change to become official.
Sports Radio 93.3 KJR - Seattle’s Local Sports Leader
Seattle's Sports Leader, 93.3 KJR FM - Home of the Huskies and Kraken, Seattle’s Best NFL Draft Coverage, the NFL and Super Bowl, March Madness, Final Four and the Seattle Sounders!
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KJR-AM has been sports since the 80's. There should be no hurry to take the programming off of it just because they now have a full-market FM too. Something else may eventually take sports place on 950kHz, but legacy listeners still have that preset on their car radio. It costs iHeart very little to simulcast on both AM and FM for a while.
That's what I was thinking, but iHeart doesn't have a 24/7 sports betting network, at least not yet. The Gambler branded stations they run are a mix of Fox Sports and sports betting talk. That's why I was thinking 1090 could pick up CBS Sports full time again, until it was pointed out that that's a Cumulus product. Then again, isn't 1090 running some CBS Sports programming now? If there were a deal in the works to send 1090 to Audacy, then I could either see that going CBS Sports or BetQL, but as 1090 was a CBS station and then Entercom didn't want it when they bought the rest of the cluster, I can't see that happening. Perhaps 1090 goes talk during the day with what sports betting programming iHeart has at night, while 950 goes full time Fox Sports.
How is news/talk still a viable format that large operators still bother with and even waste valuable FM’s on? In NC/SC/GA and even a lot of FL markets it’s even migrated or simulcast on full market FM’s. I know the demographics have to be 55+ so I’m curious as to how news talk is acceptable in those demos but not other formats. These stations also generally have local news staff, at least an AM drive program (PM too in some cases), a meteorologist, etc. Seems expensive for a demo you can’t sell to.
Although "Baby Boomers" and even some Gen-X are difficult to sell to, they are the largest slice of the population by far. They make up a higher percentage than the next two generations combined, so it's worth a try. When you've found a format that resonates with an entire generation, it would be odd to give up on them. My local talk AM came third (I think) in the Nielsen ratings with a 3.1 share.
Because you can do things in terms of sponsorships and marketing with news/talk that you can't do with music, just as you can with sports talk. Why? Because you own the content, whereas with music, the record labels own the content. Plus, as I said with sports, you can cram in more spots and sponsorship mentions without it being perceived as commercials or interruptions in programming.
The other thing is that the news/talk audience is listening to the radio, rather than using it in the background. So it's a more active audience to sell products to. You have the host do a live read, and that gets your message across.
The surprising thing we see is that in some places, NPR news/talk can do well with younger audiences. KUOW is #2 with 25-54 as well as 18-49. You don't see KIRO doing that. Obviously most of the KUOW audience is over 40. But if more commercial news/talkers could find a way to duplicate that, they might have something.
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Taking 950 or 1090 to Talk is not about ratings, it is about clearance in Seattle of I-Heart Premiere Shows like Hannity, Beck, Armstrong and Getty, Ben Ferguson, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. IHeart doesn't need three sports signals and would definitely like to clear their talk programming in Seattle. Hannity airs in Seattle, but delayed and buried at nights on KVI. I-heart gets national dollars for clearance and locally can sell weekend airtime to local paid shows. Model for AM these days. I agree 710 AM should just keep doing what they are doing, but if a full market FM becomes available it will help them long term, same for KNWN-AM which is stuck with a south end partial market FM. If KPLZ doesn't pick up ratings with their new talent and wide variety playlist approach, would not be surprised to see a simulcast to allow KNWN to compete more 25-54 with KUOW-FM or KIRO-FM. KCMS also has a full time signal that Crista may want to part with at some point.
Don't some of those Olympic signals reach parts of Seattle better than those at Cougar or West Tiger?
Yes, and don't ignore the rapidly-growing west side of the Sound!
Some areas downtown Seattle shadowed by Capitol Hill. But in spite of being downtown, those aren't high listening-concentrated areas. Most workers in offices downtown use streaming, not portable radios. Of the two sites; Cougar has the advantage in downtown and the I-5 corridor, mainly because they are mostly 100kW ERP stations, 8 miles closer to the metro. Cougar also actually creates a pretty significant shadow along major sections of I-405 for W. Tiger.
I remember that FM antenna on the old KOL tower. Horizontal only I believe. Bet the multipath downtown was epic. Probably had great building penetration into the Smith Tower though.
Things may have changed since the original posting, but despite the "title" that appears on the link to the website (KUBE 93.3 - HITS 106.1 - Home of the Jubal Show on KUBE!), the link leads/redirects to the permanent link to what is now KUBE-93.3-HD2 (the hip-hop/R+B format that had been on the main signal + HD1).What is this website still up for? It just references “93.3” with the old KUBE logo. Seems a bit weird. This was the stunt website, seems like they’d redirect it to the KBKS website.
KUBE 93.3 - Seattle's #1 for Hip Hop
93.3 HD-2, Seattle's Home For Hip-Hop on the iHeartRadio app!kube933.iheart.com
The FM I built in a market even more mountainous than Seattle tried various experimental home made antennas, and finally settled for a 4 bay vertical only. It was marvelously better than only horizontal. Made it with copper piping from an HVAC dealer!
iHeart often flips stations to formats that need a national show syndicated into that market. When we were still speculating, I mentioned Alternative because iHeart may have wanted the Woody Show cleared in Seattle. Bobby Bones gets cleared for the exact same reason in some markets.
Clay Travis & Buck Sexton are missing tons of ex-Rush Limbaugh affiliates. KIT-AM Yakima (and now FM 101.3, translator) replaced it with Charlie Kirk. KTTH also replaced Rush with something that wasn't EIB (Dan Bongino, I think). So, I can agree with the rumors that iHeart has for 1090. Albeit, most of the conservative shows sound the same with the same opinions and arguments. If anything, I listen occasionally to Lars Larson's NW show (from KXL, carried on KPQ-560). Occasionally, he has decent topics.
I still remember 1090 as KYCW! Then they flipped to Progressive Talk. Does anyone remember if they had decent ratings even in very liberal Seattle? I mean, it was an AM station...
Clay Travis & Buck Sexton are missing tons of ex-Rush Limbaugh affiliates. KIT-AM Yakima (and now FM 101.3, translator) replaced it with Charlie Kirk. KTTH also replaced Rush with something that wasn't EIB (Dan Bongino, I think). So, I can agree with the rumors that iHeart has for 1090. Albeit, most of the conservative shows sound the same with the same opinions and arguments. If anything, I listen occasionally to Lars Larson's NW show (from KXL, carried on KPQ-560). Occasionally, he has decent topics.
I still remember 1090 as KYCW! Then they flipped to Progressive Talk. Does anyone remember if they had decent ratings even in very liberal Seattle? I mean, it was an AM station...
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