Las Vegas Las Vegas Radio Listeners Say "I Don't Wanna Know"

[Gregg.]

It is just amazing in the Las Vegas Nielsen ratings to see no spoken-word stations with any decent ratings. The highest ranked is NPR news/talk station 88.9 KNPR tied for #17. I don't think there's any other large market in the U.S. without a talk, news or sports station somewhere among the top ranked 15 stations. Geez, Boston has four in its top ten and two more at #12 and #13.

Well, you say, plenty of people from other parts of the U.S. have come to Las Vegas to work in tourism, entertainment and gaming. They're not invested in local news. Do the local TV stations know this? They all have the usual commitment to news. Are the roads free of traffic? Do taxes ever go up? Are all the political leaders working perfectly?

In recent years, Las Vegas got major league teams for football and hockey. It will soon get the Oakland Athletics baseball team. And the NBA is also thinking of expanding there. So why are there no successful sports stations? The highest ranking sports outlet is #30 KWWN 1100, affiliated with ESPN.

Vegas once had a 50,000 watt talk station at 720, K-Dawn, where Art Bell started doing his all-night show that became Coast to Coast AM. Most nights, it could be heard clearly in LA with a decent radio. You probably remember KDWN went off the air last year. Its tower site was worth more to Audacy than the station itself.

 

[TheBigA]

It is just amazing in the Las Vegas Nielsen ratings to see no spoken-word stations with any decent ratings. So why are there no successful sports stations?

Have you been to Las Vegas? It's not like other places. There are no clocks in the casinos. No windows. No connection to reality. That's Las Vegas.

You're right: They don't wanna know.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

Well, you say, plenty of people from other parts of the U.S. have come to Las Vegas to work in tourism, entertainment and gaming. They're not invested in local news. Do the local TV stations know this? They all have the usual commitment to news.

But equally bad ratings. The four broadcast stations didn't get a 2.0 rating for their 6pm shows combined in the February 2024 sweeps.

For comparison, WSB-TV by itself got a higher rating for their 6pm show than the four Las Vegas stations together in a comparably sized market.

 

[davideduardo]

Have you been to Las Vegas? It's not like other places. There are no clocks in the casinos. No windows. No connection to reality. That's Las Vegas.

No, that is not Las Vegas... unless you are a tourist.

There are gardening services, Walmarts, gas stations, schools, a fairly good university, and now some manufacturing. And lots of companies have "home offices" due to the non-taxation of nearly everything.

You're right: They don't wanna know.

What is a bit difference is commute times to the main employer, the casinos. When I was program consultant for KENO decades ago, we did out airshifts to match one of the peak drive times, which was 2 AM. We had advertisers on even overnight because of the crazy shifts. But most places operated "standard" hours, such as government, schools and services.

When I did research there twice a year for the two HBC stations, we did find that we could do one session at 2 PM and another at 6 PM instead of the 6 5 PM and 8 PM we usually settled on in, let's say, San Antonio. Because so many Hispanics worked in the service industry in hotels and clubs, we wanted to match their shifts.

 

[Bongwater]

Have you been to Las Vegas? It's not like other places. There are no clocks in the casinos. No windows. No connection to reality. That's Las Vegas.

You're right: They don't wanna know.

The stifling heat, no public places to sit down (kinda hard on older/disabled folks in that heat), the endless souvenir shops and tourist traps-it took me a whole week just to get through all the casinos and shops in the Fremont Street Experience alone, the packed city buses (car renting is not advisable here, too many pedestrians coming out of nowhere.) Streets just as crowded at 2am as 2pm, 24/7 everything. Money doesn't talk there, it screams.

You can be crazy for the bright lights, excitement and dizzying number of fun things to do and eat in Las Vegas any time you want and hate it for everything else.

The only place I remember hearing a radio last time I was down there was in that big souvenir shop on the Strip. They were playing Sunny 106.5.

Most of the local TV news I saw there last September was about the homeless problem. Of which was quite visible and the lack of public seating seemed to be a reaction to it. So, not quite as friendly a city as the visitors brochures might indicate.

You'd think in a town with so much sheer vice on open tap that there would be tons of headlines, filled with scandal and sleaze. But aside from some mundane city stories, a pet feature and a sports report and weather, not much else. In fact, Yakima, WA TV more has more action than Las Vegas. Maybe I came during a couple slow news weeks? I don't know.

So yes. Maybe they are tuned out. But when one lives in a town where they literally see everything. Daily. Hard numbness beyond oneself can be an inevitable by-product of such social conditioning.

Las Vegas is a good time girl. Have fun. Just don't fall in love.....