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LA Business Journal: KKGO Owner Is Still Dialed In at 93 Levine leads LA’s last indep
- Thread starter radiocph
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The marketer estimates Mt. Wilson's revenue is "maybe $6 million — in a good year.” Even if that is lessened by a third in this pandemic 2020, $4 million in revenue for a debt free organization is very sustainable. I hope Saul's children, Michael and Stephanie, desire to continue to maintain Mt. Wilson's independence when the sad day comes and Saul is no longer able to be involved in this industry he has so brilliantly operated in.
And there are several stations serving Asian communities that are independently owned, as is the Orange County religious station on 107.9.
KLTX Long Beac h
KFOX Torrance
KWVE San Clemente
KHTS Canyon Country
KGBN Anaheim
KLAA Orange (the Angels station)
KMPC LA
KJLH Compton
KYPA Los Angeles
That makes 14 stations, including Meruelo. And if you consider Lotus both local and independent, that makes 16.
Add in the independents in Lancaster-Palmdale, part of the LA market, and it is about 20!
Bad reporting!
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The figure for KKGO is around $10 million for the last several years... not $6 million.
Levine's skill has been to select marketable formats... jazz, classical and country... that nobody else wanted. No debt, frugal operations, huge community involvement. He does not get enough credit for his support of non-commercial stations which may be his most lasting achievement.
Levine's major error was not to sell at the peak. The station is worth under $40 million today, while the Radio One purchase around 2000 was estimated at nearly $400 million. Of course, it is easy to be a Monday morning quarterback.
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Probably, neither were on the writer's radar?
I would imagine that few people know that Stevie Wonder owns KJLH. The station has very limited coverage anyway,
As for Meruelo, I had to look them up. They're into a lot of other activities, from construction to gaming to banking. They got their start in media with the purchase of KWHY-TV 22 in 2014, according to their website. Again, not
generally well known. https://www.meruelogroup.com/?services=media-broadcast
It's not generally known that Saul Levine owns KKGO either.
This is what happens when amateurs attempt to report on something they don't know.
The job of a writer is to find stuff out before making blanket statements.
I agree. Levine probably told the reporter that his was the city's only independent station and she took him at his word. Reporters for publications that cover business exclusively are prone to doing that because many such newspapers/magazines/websites are more hype machines for local companies than actual journalistic publications. I'd wager that if the reporter had heard talk on the street that KKGO was doing poorly, Levine wouldn't have been contacted at all.
It has total coverage of the LA HDBA area in Nielsen, and its 60 dbu covers 5.6 million people, so that is not "limited" coverage at all. It cumes close to 400,000 persons in a market that is only 6.7% African-American.
Mostly forgotten today, but in the 1980's KKGO was a satellite superstation, fed to cable TV systems nationwide for their "Cable FM" offerings. It was the Jazz counterpart to Classical WFMT in Chicago, another such superstation. I used to frequently listen to KKGO on cable when I was living in west Texas--I still have about six hours of unedited airchecks from the 1984-85 timeframe. Interesting to hear the advertising from long-gone businesses such as Lincoln Savings (notorious for its later failure), Western Airlines, and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, not to mention stock market reports with the Dow around 1,300.
I would guess the satellite distribution of KKGO ended around 1989 when it flipped to Classical following the demise of KFAC. Anyone know when KKGO would have first gone on the satellite?
I would guess the satellite distribution of KKGO ended around 1989 when it flipped to Classical following the demise of KFAC. Anyone know when KKGO would have first gone on the satellite?
It's not a major error if he loves what he does, wants to keep doing it and doesn't want to sell. He doesn't have to please shareholders that demand incessant growth and endlessly increasing profit, he only has to please himself. Maybe he's happy with $10M in revenue per year. Does anyone really need more than that to live comfortably?
As the article points out, he has his two grown children running these stations. Other than them, it's very bare bones.
When the only tool you have in the toolbox is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. When you are a radio insider and all you can see is what a radio station's ratings and ROI are, then you measure everything in share points and dollars. Trying to convince these people that there are other considerations is a fool's errand, I know firsthand.
I am thankful that people like Saul exist. He doesn't program to the lowest common denominator and he is not looking to maximize every last dollar. He is going for something he considers to be greater. He programs for (1) himself and (2) listeners to niche formats that he likes. His achievements cannot be measured in dollars and cents, yet they are amazing. Some have the eyes (and ears) to appreciate this, some do not (Others will not).
$10 million in revenue is not a profit of $10 million. Start with taking the first 30% for sales and agency and rep commissions...
I'm sure he makes money, and has for many years, with some being better than others. But lets not exaggerate with the bottom line (which is not the same as gross billings).
You can't do any of the other things... the intangible ones... the community ones... unless you make money. First and foremost, you have to cover expenses and maybe make some money, too. Then, and only then, can you do a lot of the things that separate a good station from a great one.
Yes, Mr Levine's stations have presented formats that are not attractive to larger broadcasters. They do serve a constituency that might otherwise not have certain formats. I spent my first 4 years in Radio at an all jazz station in Cleveland. At one point I did Sundays from 7 AM to 11 PM. 16 hours, and zero commercials ever. That was at the time that Mr Levine first built his FM. I know what it was like, but of course I was not the owner, and was just 13 when I started. We did logs a month in advance where I would dictate PSA names to the manager, who would type them on the logs. We did carbon copies, so one week of logs was used for the entire month.
Unfortunately for Mr Levine, his station is worth about 15% of what it was valued at just 15 years ago. And during this pandemic, I would imagine that they have trimmed expenses to the bone as many if not most major market top tier stations are losing money each month. Because his station is fairly low rated, it is very possible that there is no BCF at this point.
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That was after the 2000 upgrade from 2,250 to 5,600 watts, right?
(I worked in the San Fernando Valley in the mid-1990s, and remember talking with people who had trouble hearing KJLH there.)
Cable wasn’t a regular fixture in my household growing up until 1991, but we did get a really good special deal in '89 and had it for a few months until the price went up. KKGO was indeed on it, and KLON (today’s KKJZ) replaced it when KKGO went classical.
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