There is a 50,000 watt (non-directional, daytime) AM station in a major market that has been on the air since the late 1940's under the same ownership that has, to the best of my knowledge, always existed on brokered time shows (mainly preachers), relying very little on spot advertising. My questions: are there stations in other markets, with a comparable big signal, programmed similarly? And: why would a station waste a good signal on what I feel is lazy programming choices? The station I refer to is not even listed in the ratings.
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Lazy Radio
- Thread starter jimoneal
- Start date
jimoneal said:
What type of format would you suggest to the owners that would take advantage of the signal? I'm sure its rough having to go to the bank and make all those deposits. It would be so much more fun to take off all those programs, which are probably prepaid, hire sales people, run spots and wait 30 days, if you're lucky, for the checks to come in. Not to mention finding programming that you are going to have to pay for and hope you can generate enough revenue to pay all the expenses and leave a little left over to buy the baby milk and cookies. And I'm sure they hate they aren't listed in the ratings. Again, I have to ask, what programming do you suggest that will improve the station's bottom line?
Well you were the one who categorized it "Lazy Radio". And yes, there are numerous examples nationwide of 50kW AM stations that do mainly or entirely paid/block programming. In most instances, these stations have a more consistent and reliable revenue base than an equivalent news, sports or talk AM station, with much lower operating expense.
Although not in a major market, 50-kw KXEL has quite a bit brokered content. They have syndicated conservative talk shows (already delivered via their competitors) in the morning and early afternoon, leaving evenings, night, and most of the weekends to brokered content. They have occasional sports programming, but they do not bring anything unique to any of the markets they reach and therefore have bad ratings.
In my opinion it is a complete waste of a station, but they are doing fine and don't seem to have any plans on changing. Despite being AM, I think they could make a serious go playing Country and vastly increase their listeners, but it will probably never happen.
In my opinion it is a complete waste of a station, but they are doing fine and don't seem to have any plans on changing. Despite being AM, I think they could make a serious go playing Country and vastly increase their listeners, but it will probably never happen.
Contrary to your or my personal tastes, I'm sure they don't consider it a waste of a station, nor do those who buy blocks of time. Remember as BigA stated; radio is a business.
jimoneal said:
How are listeners being hurt? I'm a listener. I have no use for infomercials, therefore I don't listen to stations that run them. It doesn't hurt me at all. In fact, I couldn't care less about a station that makes its living on BS from gold sellers, real estate scam artist, and Colon Blow. That's their problem, not mine. If they make money, great, but they won't get a dime from me.
But you're making an assumption that no listeners are being served and that's wrong. Is the station pulling in measurable numbers or winning ratings battles? No. But that doesn't mean no one listens. The fact the ministries or companies continue to buy time on the station should actual tell you that there are enough people listening to keep the people who are leasing the time happy. If those clients didn't get a response from their program or a return on their investment, they would not continue to buy time on the station. Whether a sponsor is running 30-second spots or 30-minute programs, the expectations of getting a response are the same.
jimoneal said:
WGUN ?
Casey said:
KXEL has been brokering time at night to preachers since at least the 60s, maybe before that. The money from the preachers is probably what has kept them on the air all these years.
Their ratings aren't great, a 3.9 in the last book, but that's higher than they were getting the last couple of years they were country.
The country music landscape has changed greatly since they played it. The number of stations playing the format has been on decline in Eastern/Northern Iowa and Cumulus/Clear Channel have taken over many of the largest stations. A well programmed station could grab the listeners looking for an alternative, of which there are a lot. Especially in the Waterloo and Cedar Rapids markets, where the markets are dominated by a single Country station pulling over a 10 and 15 respectively.
KXEL reaches multiple of Iowa's largest markets. Whether or not Country would be successful is debatable. However, there is no doubt that playing the same nationally syndicated talk shows as other major stations is not the most effective way to gain listeners. If they would get local talk hosts or go part-time to a music genre, I seriously doubt they would do worse than they are now.
KXEL reaches multiple of Iowa's largest markets. Whether or not Country would be successful is debatable. However, there is no doubt that playing the same nationally syndicated talk shows as other major stations is not the most effective way to gain listeners. If they would get local talk hosts or go part-time to a music genre, I seriously doubt they would do worse than they are now.
Casey said:
When Bahakel bought 1330, they should have put the news-talk station there, since it had been the news station for Waterloo for decades. But they didn't... and proceeded to throw away all that news heritage. (Nobody read a news story like Eldon Ebert on the old KWWL-AM)
KXEL's always been a dog. They were successful with country for awhile in the 70s until little 500-watt 1250 KCFI went country and took away their Waterloo audience. Then KOEL-FM took over. KOEL-AM 950 may be filling some of the need for another country station, with classic country and farm.
Cedar Rapids does have two other country stations... KMJM 1360 (the old KHAK-AM) with classic country and KKSY 95.7... but they both had less than a share in the last book.
jh said:
I am not sure about a lot of the history surrounding KXEL and KWWL in the early days, but I have gotten the impression for years that things could certainly have been done better in the more recent years.
92.3 KOEL-FM was pretty good, no doubt. But the current 98.5 KOEL is not so great, though I have heard worse. The stupidest thing I have ever seen Cumulus do, was to change the formats on 92.3. The station was immensely popular, and had superior coverage. I have no doubt that it was a top station in the market, if not the top.
Clear Channels' country stations in Cedar Rapids are terrible. KKSY plays "new country" but has only a local morning show, leaving the rest of it to syndication or computer and a bad playlist. Currently if you tune into the station, you will notice a weaker signal than usual, with an extremely painful shrill treble-sound, with very weak audio. It has been like that for several days. Numerous times in the past the station has buffered like internet stations do, only every 3 seconds for days at a time. KMJM on the other hand has only syndicated content, playing the exact same classic songs they played since they launched, with the exception of some Rodney Atkins who someone managed to become a classic artist. The station has extremely irregular times that they choose to power up. Sometimes they are right on time, sometimes they wait until noon. Sometimes they don't power down. Clear Channel seemed to think they could grasp a sizable chunk of KHAK's 18-19 rating, but failed to provide decent programming and fail to even reach Iowa City. Both have been a complete failure. If they want to make a serious go of it, they will have to make severe changes, or move WMT-FM over to country.
Wait, we are talking about AM stations here aren't we? Who in their right mind would consider doing non-Spanish music on AM and expect to remain in business longer than six months? The answer is simple..nobody with half a brain.
You guys appear to ignore one major factor in your flip assumption that a station would be more successful or profitable by doing something more expensive. Playing brokered or block programming out of a computer is about 300% less expensive than hiring an airstaff, paying music royalties, AE's, having studios and offices, etc. Stations that play paid or block-paid programming don't rely on ratings, but on reach and market size that appeal to providers.
And because you're a listener or hobbyist who has never signed a paycheck or made that payment to the bank each month, means you are completely missing the key business parts of owning a station.
You guys appear to ignore one major factor in your flip assumption that a station would be more successful or profitable by doing something more expensive. Playing brokered or block programming out of a computer is about 300% less expensive than hiring an airstaff, paying music royalties, AE's, having studios and offices, etc. Stations that play paid or block-paid programming don't rely on ratings, but on reach and market size that appeal to providers.
And because you're a listener or hobbyist who has never signed a paycheck or made that payment to the bank each month, means you are completely missing the key business parts of owning a station.
Casey said:
Getting even further off topic, Waterloo historically has been a really strange radio market. WMT-AM was originally in Waterloo, moving to CR in the 30s, but keeping a studio in Waterloo for some years. By the 50s, KWWL had the only Waterloo TV station, so they had the news department. You would think their AM would have been MOR, but the adult audience was split between WMT & KXEL, so they went Top 40... with a farm hour from 6-7am, a hour of news 7-8am, full noon hour.
In the 60s, KWWL had a 50+ share... since they had both the news audience and the top 40 audience. MOR KCFI picked up their older audience after the news in the morning, while WMT had the even older audience. KXEL was a hodge-podge, lots of farm, MOR, a polka show before noon, country PM drive, and the preachers at night.
Waterloo also had two FM countrys before one FM AC.
Music on AM does not necessarily mean no-listeners in these markets. A perfect example would be 1kw KMRY, which usually has a 5-6 rating despite being AM. They have a loyal and dedicated listening base. The station did just take over an FM translator in the last couple months, but it is not because of falling ratings. Content seems to be the leader in these markets.
Anyway, back on topic. I have no doubt that what KXEL is doing is profitable for them, that was not the question here. The question was asking if it seemed like a waste, and yes it does. A 50kw station like KXEL could be doing much more, even a strictly news format would no doubt pull more ratings. Being able to reach Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Des Moines, and Mason City Markets with strong coverage, many others with weaker, is no doubt an advantage they could put to good use. But would it be profitable? No one will ever know.
From a business stand-point, KXEL is doing the safest thing. From a listener stand-point, it is a complete disappointment, as we only have 2 Class A's in Iowa.
Anyway, back on topic. I have no doubt that what KXEL is doing is profitable for them, that was not the question here. The question was asking if it seemed like a waste, and yes it does. A 50kw station like KXEL could be doing much more, even a strictly news format would no doubt pull more ratings. Being able to reach Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Des Moines, and Mason City Markets with strong coverage, many others with weaker, is no doubt an advantage they could put to good use. But would it be profitable? No one will ever know.
From a business stand-point, KXEL is doing the safest thing. From a listener stand-point, it is a complete disappointment, as we only have 2 Class A's in Iowa.
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