Because their current programming is in English. It's not far-fetcheded to believe Salem wanted to get in on a growing and emerging market of Spanish speaking conservative Hispanics.
Don't underestimate just how powerful ads or even small segments can have on the masses. Sinclair TV stations have successfully hidden political influences within their segments.
KFZO is a slightly weaker facility than KNRB...KFZO technically does not meet a full class C standard as it 100 kw but off a 1138' stick (a class C0 signal at those facilities). The have a construction permit to meet a class C standard by moving up to a 1588' tower height that would add a few more miles to its primary signal contour that would more mirror coverage like KRNB.
As others who know the Hispanic audience have said, if that was the intent, AM radio was not the way to do it. So yes, it was futile and ill-conceived, as other AM conservative stations have shown.
Because second generation Hispanics (including the owner) speak English.
The only thing that happened was a group of 20 stations were sold to a different group. If Salem had a plan to start a conservative Hispanic format, they still own hundreds of similar weak AM stations, and they own a syndication company to offer such programming to lots of other money-losing AM stations. As I've said throughout this thread, this happened at the same time that Salem was experiencing huge financial setbacks, forcing them to sell multiple stations, including a few profitable Christian music stations, as well as their company headquarters. So to assume they were in a position to carry out any plan to launch new programming, particularly on such a weak base of stations, is fanciful.
No one's saying they know what they're doing. If they were politically motivated, they would have done something political with the stations. They haven't. Their CEO resigned because she knew as much about radio as the two founders, which is nothing.
How many conservative Spanish language talk stations are there in the US to pick up syndication? Or just talk in general for that matter?
If this was the case, then why did LMN overpay for the Univision package?
Sure. But older conservatives are still more likely to use AM than younger liberals. I think it's safe to assume the same idea applies to the Hispanic general population.
Not because they don't want to. But because of sheer incompetence. They took over KLAT a long time ago and it is still simulcasting KQBU-FM.
As a matter of fact, they haven't done anything to this failing group of stations Univision unloaded. They all still have the same formats as before when they were losing money for Univision.
They had cash, didn't know anything about radio, and wanted to close a deal. Univision wanted cash and wanted to unload the stations. I'm not aware of the terms of the Salem offer. Was it cash? The fact that a company like Salem with experience in AM ownership was even interested in such properties says a lot about Salem. Maybe they're not as smart as others think.
I'm not an expert in Hispanic radio, but I would imagine advertisers view older Hispanics the way they view older non-Hispanics. So I don't see this as a marketable audience to build a network around.
Yes, when you have two inexperienced political "organizers" trying to start a radio company based on absolute dog facilities for the most part.
Maybe there is a message here: don't buy a radio station or a radio group.
No, just a bunch of conservative politicians in South Florida who are, justifiably, frightened of anything that smells like the actions that expelled them from Cuba... maybe even killing or imprisoning relatives. And now, the Venezuelan refugees as well as those from Nicaragua and, increasingly, Colombia, Ecuador and Perú have the same feelings.
To make money.
Their goal was political. If that was truly their goal, then they would have chosen people that have the will, motivation, and, most importantly, the experience to launch a minority owned company. And there are several people in the radio industry that fit this bill. Yet they were all skipped over in favor of these two democratic operatives?
No one has blamed their "labels" as women, Hispanic, or liberal for the source of their failure. Everyone that has been critical of this group has always pointed out at their lack of experience.
They were successful in blocking Salem. Everything after that has been a failure.
Which AM conservative spanish stations have failed?
But again, nothing about this station says they are directly targeting Hispanic listeners. You're just pointing at a factoid thinking it makes a point. It doesn't.
You're oversimplifying things to fit your narrative.
Again I ask, how many conservative Spanish talk stations are in this country?
Oh, but we are to believe that two DNC operatives with zero radio experience can get financial support from investment firms, but Salem can't?
Now you're just trolling.
Incompetence goes a long way.
I'm not inclined to believe that non-partisan investment firms wanted to see their cash burn. Do you really think a group of investors saw the CEO and founders backgrounds and said "were getting our money's worth!".
All efforts, past and present, over the last 30 years have shown you can not do national talk syndication. The differences in the interests of various immigrant groups are too extreme, as are the differences in language usage, accent and word meaning.
And even if there were, you can't do national syndication of shows in Spanish.
Because they did not have enough knowledge to even know that AM usage among Hispanics is even less than among the general market. They were idealistic and not realistic.
Not really. The government in Mexico decided AM was dead over a decade ago and proceeded to help about 80% of all AMs move to FM. AM is dead everywhere in Latin America except, to some extent, Argentina.
That is because they did not hire competent top level management to put together some kind of plan. They are looking to get the tires retreaded when the issue is a burnt out engine.
No knowledge of radio, and even less of Spanish language radio for first generation immigrants in the U.S.
Well, name them.
At least you now understand why Salem wanted to try conservative Spanish talk.
Name them.
And why do you think they had the cash? (Hint, they're both well known DNC operatives).
They were stations bleeding cash.
All we know is that LMN outbid and overpaid for the group of AM stations.
Could be. But LMN entered the bidding war with DNC money so we wouldn't find out.
We will never know.
She replaced, resigned. With all due respect, you can't be this obtuse.
All in Miami.
They believed they had an opportunity for mostly paid programming in Spanish. I think they were mistake, but they had the financing but did not equal the Soros group's offer.
Almost all buys are 18-49 or some subset. Families form at a younger age, and the massive flow of immigrants in the last 4 years has almost entirely been children and 18-34's.
It sure sounds like an "induced" resignation. Nothing was happening.
In my view, this was not a conventional investment. They're not looking to get paid back. This is more of a donation to a minority owned business. They knew who they were giving the money to, and how it was going to be spent, and they gave it anyway.
Once again, no DNC money. For some reason, you think George Soros is the DNC. He is not. Please try to get over this confusion.
Replaced means there's someone new. There isn't. You can't be this obtuse.
I think we all believe that Soros and the DNC march to the same drummer. Same goal posts, different uniform.
Assuming they even thought about it, the likely first step would have been to find an industry expert or two and pay for an overview. There are a number of us who could have put together "highlights" overnight and a full report in a week or two.
Salem put in a bid. LMN bid higher, Salem revised, LMN did and Salem dropped out. It only takes two "nations" to have a war.
Replaced in-house. They say it is temporary, but I would not bet money against the whole thing being dissolved. And the Democratic Party interests that may have gotten Soros' money involved have much bigger issues now than a bunch of dog radio stations.
Both political parties have access to billions. If the Salem bid was serious, and they just needed another few million, I'm sure some rich political donor would have provided. Republicans aren't poor. If they want to do something, there's lots of money available.
You don't think anyone at Salem has access to top people at the RNC? Really? The RNC seems to know that they can buy lots of airtime from Salem, because they do.
But I don't think that any people who might facilitate Republican assistance would have thought that such a purchase of a "radio dog pound" would be practical, useful or viable.
But Salem is a public company, and to facilitate such a deal the RNC would have had to prod its donor pool and encourage someone to buy. Again, the issue is that anyone who understands business... and not just politics... would not have given that idea even a minute of thought.
They had the financing and the money available for their bids. They chose not to go higher. I can't say more as I was still under agreements with one of the parties at the time.
Yes, the conservative people from South Florida insisted that their representatives "do something". They went through the motions, with all of us knowing that the political affiliation of a licensee is not something the FCC even requires on its forms.
Again, they made noise to keep their communities happy. I'm sure their staff told them that the FCC does not look at political affiliations when evaluating license transfers. That "protest" was all show for their constituents who are solidly conservative in Miami-Dade.
Then why did Salem think it was? How poorly informed are they, even after shutting down similar AM stations, to think this package was worth anything?
They are the national expert in making money with marginal facilities.
But then why did they get two "activists" from the DNC to run it? One has absolutely direct ties to Obama.
Few people in the real world understand the limitations of FCC regulation, and in their ignorance they make an incredible amount of noise.
The thinking was that they would have a powerful radio "big machine" in operation before the conventions. They ended up losing their NYC purchase, lost the decent night signal in Houston, created powerful ill-will in Miami and have made no significant programming changes anywhere.
They were both out of work. They needed jobs. They knew who & how to ask for financing. I think the idea originated with the two women, not the investment company. They have lots of other more qualified people looking for money.
How would those two lower level political organizers have ever found out about a group of Univsion stations that might be for sale? There was no listing on that package. In fact, at many of the for-sale stations the staff did not know until some put the pieces together after very obvious due diligence was done for the first offer.
