Here's the thing: They tried having three country stations in Dallas in the 90s with KYNG. They did "young country." After a few years, they became just like everyone else and then finally flipped to something else. Dallas can support two country stations. The fact that they're both owned by the same company doesn't matter. I'm sure Entercom and iHeart would each love to own a country station in Dallas, but neither one of them has a station they'd was to sacrifice right now.
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Here's the thing: They tried having three country stations in Dallas in the 90s with KYNG. They did "young country." After a few years, they became just like everyone else and then finally flipped to something else. Dallas can support two country stations. The fact that they're both owned by the same company doesn't matter. I'm sure Entercom and iHeart would each love to own a country station in Dallas, but neither one of them has a station they'd was to sacrifice right now.
You don’t have to remind me. I grew up there. ;-)
I remember the battle between KSCS, KPLX, and Young Country. I was a senior in high school when Young Country launched Sunny 95 as a flanker.
Granted, there were more country shares in DFW at the time. WBAP hadn’t completely phased out music programming when Young Country and Sunny 95 launched either. Young Country, however, did quite-a-bit better than about half the stations in the market today, even at its lowest numbers. KVIL has numbers comparable to what KDGE had when it was new at 94.5. If I were running it, I'd give serious thought to going after Cumulus and its country combination. Maybe Entercom already had thought of that and had reasons that made sense to it not to do it. I won't pretend to have been in the know or involved in any conversations regarding KVIL and its present or future, but I know I wouldn’t be happy with the numbers it’s getting. Maybe Entercom has reason to feel comfortable with those numbers. I’m just glad I don’t own any ETM stock (unless my 403b has some in it)!
The format is getting similar numbers for Entercom around the country. Regardless they appear to be committed to sticking with the format, and I don't see them flipping for 90s country. I don't think they have any stations in the format.
Time for KRLD to move to FM, while Rush is in reruns at WBAP.
Sort of an interesting situation, as there already is a KRLD-FM.
Yep. Good example is right here: WBAP added 96.7 for several years. I supposed it helped some, but ultimately they ditched that and put KTCK there because they needed more help with their AM signal. KTCK also has a far younger audience than WBAP. After giving up the FM, WBAP did just fine.
pretty simple solution to that, blow up Alt 103.7, move The Fan to 103.7 and put KRLD on 105.3 since the calls are already parked there and established.
I think that the issue is that the KRLD audience was not proven to increase with an FM signal, as the core audience is quite old.
sure, you say that everytime i bring this idea up, but maybe KRLD should try to lean younger into my age group, the millennials and we are the key demo now in Radio as Gen Xers are aging out of the demos and we are pretty much the last major demo to keep traditional radio alive as gen z and all younger generations born post 1997 are pretty much more into streaming then listening to traditional radio. just give the news for a younger audience and put it on FM could help them win newer millennial listeners.
If you were going to move KRLD to FM, and I believe that is a big big IF, it wouldn’t make any sense to disrupt The Fan as part of that plan. Call letters can be moved around quite easily and The Fan can be assigned a new appropriate callsign, such as KDFN or whatever.
The only time 105.3 listeners even hear “KRLD-FM” is at the top of the hour. Getting “Jeruh” to cut a new ID may be the hardest part.
Entercom does seem to be making a concerted effort to put their successful news and talk stations on FM. Such as recently adding a translator to KDKA and a simulcast to KYW. The question though is... is KRLD and its future valued at the same level as those other storied outlets. Ratings wise and percentage of market revenue, I don’t think KRLD has ever been in the same league as KYW.
I think trying to get millenials to tune in to news on an FM station would require a tremendous amount of promotion (millions in TV ads, huge billboard campaign, direct mail, web ads, etc) and may not yield significant results.
KVIL should probably change formats, but I don't know what would work best for them there. They could try to recreate the Ron Chapman-era station by doing a format like Star 102.1, but I'm not sure that would get any better results than the mess they have now.
I strongly doubt Entercom will move KRLD to FM. I'm surprised that David Eduardo hasn't chimed in yet with his usual observation that all-news formats tend to do poorly in sunbelt markets. Shall we recall KEWS? And should also note that an all-news FM in Houston flopped a few years back...too expensive, lousy numbers.
All-news tends to do okay where it is a heritage format, going back decades: WCBS, WINS, WBBM, KYW, KCBS, KNX. Some of those have FM simulcasts that have different call letters, so no need to move calls around on FM (WBBM's FM simulcast is WCFS...while WBBM-FM is an entirely separate format.)
I abstained under the fear of being classified as a "broken record".
(How's that for a dated expression; many have no idea what it means let alone have experienced the condition)
I agree with the analysis you make that the successful stations are heritage facilities, often a family tradition that was passed by Baby Boomers to the next generation in some markets due to exposure. New stations in new markets don't have that heritage and custom of usage.
In case it wasn't clear, I do not think Entercom is going to blow up Alt or any of their FMs to add a 1080 simulcast. As much as i love spoken word formats, I am not really advocating this one either.
KRLD is not a new format in a new market like KROI and WYAY were attempting, but it just doesn't have the same ubiquity during multiple generations like KCBS, or WBBM, or WINS. I grew in the listening area and do remember being exposed to 1080, but it just isn't the same (And i do remember listening to KEWS on 94.9 too). Entercom obviously doesn't feel the same way about it either with the paid programming they accept.
My problem with KRLD is that they are not an all-new station. They are all-news for most of the day (and informercials on weekends). If they were 24/7 all-news (and cleared the "World News Roundup" and "World Tonight" long-form newscasts live), I'd be overjoyed. Entercom is not going to invest the money in doing that right now.
I would be overjoyed with a full signal Adult R&B station that I don't have to maneuver my antenna to pick it up clearly.
Notice that iHeart does a lot better with its Alternative stations than Entercom does.
1. NYC...WNYL (Entercom)...#20
2. LA...KYSR (iHeart)...#14 and KROQ (Entercom)...#22
3. Chicago...WKQX (Cumulus) #22
4. San Francisco...KITS (Entercom) #22
6. Houston...KTBZ (iHeart) #6
7. Washington...WWDC (iHeart) #7
8. Atlanta (no alternative station)
9. Philadelphia...WRFF (iHeart) #14
10. Boston (no alternative station)
Atlanta had a popular Alternative station in WNNX but that's now Mainstream Rock. Boston had Alternative on WBOS but that's now harder edged Classic Rock.
1. NYC...WNYL (Entercom)...#20
2. LA...KYSR (iHeart)...#14 and KROQ (Entercom)...#22
3. Chicago...WKQX (Cumulus) #22
4. San Francisco...KITS (Entercom) #22
6. Houston...KTBZ (iHeart) #6
7. Washington...WWDC (iHeart) #7
8. Atlanta (no alternative station)
9. Philadelphia...WRFF (iHeart) #14
10. Boston (no alternative station)
Atlanta had a popular Alternative station in WNNX but that's now Mainstream Rock. Boston had Alternative on WBOS but that's now harder edged Classic Rock.
Perhaps it is survivorship bias and iHeart is just more willing to kill off underperforming alternative stations.
I don't know about that, but iHeart is more rock and less pop than Entercom. That seems to be an issue these days.
iHeart also has some strong personalities in their markets. Elliot is very big in DC.
What you have to look at, also, is billing. KYSR bills "okay" but not enormously well. WRFF, for example, bills at the lowest of any full signal in the market. And so on...
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