I seriously doubt it. iHeart owns the two powerhouse 100kW stations in that market, 1 Full C, and C-1. Both of those stations completely cover Fayetteville North to well past Bella Vista, and South to Fort Smith. KUNR is a 'prairie pimple' playing mainly to groundhogs.
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Northwest Arkansas KURM to sign off
- Thread starter Kent
- Start date
The KURM-AM site is a major residential area adjacent to a school... incredibly grown up from what it used to be... the country.
Someone who is incredibly incredibly familiar with and worked in NW Arkansas for awhile and even owned stations there says the AM tower land is worth about $2mil
Someone who is incredibly incredibly familiar with and worked in NW Arkansas for awhile and even owned stations there says the AM tower land is worth about $2mil
You would probably know this better than I do. So, do radio stations even attract speculators anymore? With listening down so much, I could see it no longer being attractive as a potential investment.
KEZA is really the only station that reliably covers from the Missouri state line to Ft. Smith. KISR used to cover both Ft. Smith and Fayetteville, but it was iffy on smaller devices and not viable much of anywhere in Benton County. The Magazine Mountain stations will come in on good home stereos and car radios, but you otherwise won't hear them in Fayetteville. People in Siloam Springs can hear the Magazine Mountain sticks as the land is flatter between the two. KIX 104 used to not be viable in much of Ft. Smith as its transmitter was a little too low to clear the hills between the two markets. I understand it's no longer on Humphreys Hall in the middle of the UA campus, but it looks like it still has a similar height limitation despite being south of the area now. My one semester living on campus, I lived in Pomfret Hall, which is next to the Bud Walton Arena, and KIX 104 was all over the dial on clock radios and portables. I was at the bottom of the hill below Humphreys.
If I were to predict, KURM-FM will eventually be bought out by EMF, bringing K-LOVE to Fayetteville/Rogers (they have a full-power in Fort Smith, but it's not very strong up in Fayetteville). 100.3 will be tweaked to either move the transmitter to another site or increase the power to 25-50KW. Even with KLRC dominating the Christian radio scene in that area, EMF would love to get into every market in America...so...
Air 1 is already in Fayetteville.
Air 1 is already in Fayetteville.
By speculation, do you mean investments or purchases from Private Equity or hedge funds? Once Wall Street declared traditional media as dead man walking (from a potential growth perspective), interest in investment or mergers and acquisitions by PE or hedge funds pretty much ended. Traditional lending from banks also has hit the skids, because stations' or groups' valuations have dropped 60% or more. Devalued or risk of diminishing collateral means no interest in investing.
Cold.
Actually, there's no shortage of contenders for that sarcastic title on this board, most of them worthier of it than Paul.
There is nowhere for it to really go and no simple tweaks will get it upgraded to a bigger class, unless you are willing to buy out /option and move around other adjacent stations in the area, if that is even possible or they are available. It more or less is what it is.
If I were to predict, I would guess that EMF will have not have much interest.
If someone were to buy it, there are two towers not far away, one for KQIS 1340 and another for KYNG 1590, that could potentially be used to relocate 790. Not sure how feasible that would be from a technical standpoint, but I understand recent changes in the FCC's AM rules would make it more likely to be possible. Seems like Townsquare surrendered the 790 in Texarkana. So, that's one less station to worry about protecting. WMC Memphis, KFYO Lubbock, and KXXX Colby would seem to be the next closest 790's. I suspect the nighttime pattern that beams west is to protect WMC.
I knew private equity wasn't too interested in radio anymore and would be highly unlikely to be interested in any single station, especially one like 100.3 Gravette. I was thinking more like the individuals who applied for vacant FM allotments in an auction around Williston, ND thinking they might be good for a quick flip due to the growth of that area. Seems like they were disappointed in the end.
Correct. It can't move very far, if at all, to the east because of 100.1 in Kimberling City It can't go too far south because of 100.7 in Ft. Smith. Can't rimshot Tulsa either as there's a 100.5 north of Claremore and another 100.3 near Muskogee. I believe it could move a little farther to the north, but, even then, it's not going to be able to cover Joplin, at least not reliably, because it has to protect another 100.7 (Deerfield, MO, I think). Moving east could also put it into conflict with 100.5 Aurora, MO.
That's my thought, too, especially as the leadership there is in flux.
Speaking of KLRC, they've been simulcasting on 90.9 and 101.1 for years now. Heard they were looking to do something different with one of them, but haven't heard any movement on it.
IIRC Walmart's headquarters are close. I suspect any "local" business (except maybe Auto dealers) are extinct. Walmart has destroyed many "main streets" economically. I don't see how this area would be different.
When was the last time you were in Benton or Washington Counties?
Never but in 2018 I gathered SMA Data for the area. 45% growth was projected for Benton county census. They were wrong. It was 53%. I am not denying the area's growth. Great place for restaurants. Fast Food trend to use agencies which you can't "sell" directly. The decision maker can be a hundreds of miles away an uses point per formula to place orders. In my sales experience getting small restaurants to pay on time can be a challenge. The small merchants that don't challenge Big Box merchants are just that small with small advertising budgets. I wouldn't mind owning an Auto Dealership there. Even local auto dealers nationwide are selling out to large multi dealership companies with ad agencies.
If I was buying a station, I would look for the biggest populated area without big box stores.
hard to find these days.. even small town ord ne has a few chain stores including one that i know doesnt advertise on radio... pamida or alco or whatever
Then there is the smallest town's version of Walmart: Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar that weed out a number of local businesses. Probably 15 years ago I visited one little town of about 1,500 with a busy and vibrant square with only one vacant storefront. Today there's Dollar General and Family Dollar right across the street from each other and only one business still open on the square. It's not purely their fault. The Amazon delivery truck is as frequent as the UPS and Fed Ex.
Read the first post in this thread, or the RadioInsight article I posted. It signs off July 1.
Good luck with that!
Even if you found one, guaranteed several would be along within a year or two. And then, you still would be making those principal plus interest payments on your station, plus utilities, plus FCC lawyer fees, plus FCC admin fees, utilities, rent, payroll, payroll taxes, potentially B&O taxes, and federal taxes. I could go on, but you get the idea.Problem with that strategy is any such areas are small enough that the residents of those areas already know the local retailers, which means they have little to no incentive to advertise. On top of that, most areas that big box retailers don’t go can’t support very many local businesses either.
You've been describing a problem that has been happening for roughly 40 years (maybe closer to 50) now, and it's starting to impact TV, too.
I found the smaller the town the greater the support from the vast majority of businesses. Sure the monthly amount is low but it's there. I found upwards of 2/3rds will buy monthly and all it takes is community announcements and weather (maybe high school sports). No, you won't get rich but they don't want your service to the community to go away. This may just be a thing in places like Texas.
High School sports is so easy to sell. Just get last years football or basketball program and visit the sponcers. At least a 50% success rate on the first visit to the decision maker. Even higher if the business owner has a child on the team. If your station has a lot of sports play by play: pro, college, or NASCAR, a yearly "sports wheel" package is a steady source of money during evenings and weekends.
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