Could a locally-driven news-talk format succeed in the state capital? The immediate market is relatively small but state news/guests would be of interest to listeners in Lexington and Louisville.
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Local News-Talk in Frankfort?
- Thread starter newzradiorow
- Start date
If it was a powerful enough signal maybe. And that's a BIG maybe. In the past, Lexington, and to a lesser extent Louisville, have taken care of the news/talk for Frankfort. Still though, it IS the state Capital and one could surmise that a market exsist for that. Me personally, having worked in N/T in Lexington and knowing how 'it's done' there, I doubt it would work on an AM stick. It would HAVE to be FM and have a reach that got into atleast Lexington. The political connection would almost certainly have to be exploited between the two big cities and Frankfort. Good question though!
A local news talk in Frankfort while being appealing would cost too much money. You would have to pay all local talent as opposed to the national shows. Perhaps a split format with some national programming. However getting the Rush's, Glenn Becks, etc would be difficult because they are cleared in markets close to Lexington.DJOnAStick said:If it was a powerful enough signal maybe. And that's a BIG maybe. In the past, Lexington, and to a lesser extent Louisville, have taken care of the news/talk for Frankfort. Still though, it IS the state Capital and one could surmise that a market exsist for that. Me personally, having worked in N/T in Lexington and knowing how 'it's done' there, I doubt it would work on an AM stick. It would HAVE to be FM and have a reach that got into atleast Lexington. The political connection would almost certainly have to be exploited between the two big cities and Frankfort. Good question though!
I think the new Froggy 101.7 WVKY would work as a N/T signal. It could be branded as the "Voice of Kentucky". Seems the signal gets into Louisville well. It appears it gets into Lexington too.
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WVKY&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WVKY&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
microbob said:104.9 briefly had a News talk format and it didn't last long. I'm not sure how much of it was local though.
104.9, then WKYW, had a pure news format than ran in 30 minute cycles back around 1999-2000. Used AP news, KNN news, local news and other features on a 30-minute clock. Lasted about a year and a half.
1490, now WKYW, had a talk format 5 or 6 years ago with a local show 6-9 a.m. Then they tried again a couple of years ago with no local show. (Imus in the morning.) No local news or sports, though they did have local weather. That incarnation had Fox sports on weekends.
So that's 3 efforts. They were, to me, decreasing in listen-ability each time. I liked 104.9; listened to it on my 30 minute commute. First effort on AM started out strong, lost momentum and--to an untrained listener--lost station support. Second effort was really half-hearted. As I said, no local block in am or pm and no real local insets, save weather.
I think that WHAS serves that market niche in Frankfort.
Did 1130 run CNN News at one time? Perhaps 20+ years ago?
As Oxford said, it's been done before and didn't work. Between 840, 590 and 630, there just isn't any need for a local talk format for Frankfort.
Bengalsfan said:As Oxford said, it's been done before and didn't work. Between 840, 590 and 630, there just isn't any need for a local talk format for Frankfort.
Make that 840 around the clock and 590 during the day. 630 has a pronounced null to the west leaving little for Frankfort and 590 disappears at night.
Frankfort radio fizzled out in the eighties. 1490 WFKY stayed the course until it was no longer relevant. Meanwhile 104.9 stayed automated. 1130 WKED took the town by storm in the late seventies and by the early eighties a new owner took it satellite country (SMN) then standards and finally it went dark. WKED-FM signed on around 1990 and was satellite delivered.
One would think that someone at WFKY/WKYW would have done more with their FM, perhaps move WFKY to FM thirty years ago, but they didn't.
Thanks for the feedback. WHAS covers the Louisville metro well. They also pick up stories from across the state for KNN and will cover the legislative session. However, much of their coverage is aimed at Louisville (as it should be). WVLK and WLAP are focused on Lexington even more than WHAS is concerned with Louisville. A lot of city/regional Frankfort news is swept under the rug. I feel like that local news combined with state government coverage would appeal to Frankfort residents, state government employees commuting to the capital, and beyond. It would be an expensive endeavor to launch but I think profitable ultimately and extremely valuable to the city. Finding an FM signal would enhance the station's appeal. It would have to be locally driven though. Syndication has been tried and would fail again.
Nostatic1 said:Every station you named has Conservative talk shows. Now, how about a Liberal talk show in Frankfort along with news? Would that draw a different audience? Although it would seem that most liberals don't seem to be emotionally motivated enough to support these type of programs.
As I recall, 1490 had Ed Schult's radio show on. Does the name "Air America" ring a bell with you? If so, you'll see that liberal talk radio does not work.
newzradiorow said:I feel like that local news combined with state government coverage would appeal to Frankfort residents, state government employees commuting to the capital, and beyond. It would be an expensive endeavor to launch but I think profitable ultimately and extremely valuable to the city. Finding an FM signal would enhance the station's appeal. It would have to be locally driven though. Syndication has been tried and would fail again.
Then buy a station and try it.
newzradiorow said:Thanks for the feedback. WHAS covers the Louisville metro well. They also pick up stories from across the state for KNN and will cover the legislative session. However, much of their coverage is aimed at Louisville (as it should be). WVLK and WLAP are focused on Lexington even more than WHAS is concerned with Louisville. A lot of city/regional Frankfort news is swept under the rug. I feel like that local news combined with state government coverage would appeal to Frankfort residents, state government employees commuting to the capital, and beyond. It would be an expensive endeavor to launch but I think profitable ultimately and extremely valuable to the city. Finding an FM signal would enhance the station's appeal. It would have to be locally driven though. Syndication has been tried and would fail again.
The two Frankfort FMs are good local radio. Yeah, the AM is a jukebox, but at least it's a uniquely formatted jukebox. What local advertising for radio that exists in Frankfort is probably pretty well captured with the formats as they are. I seriously doubt that the revenues necessary to support a live-and-local talk format would ever exist. Since CC sold them, the locals seem to have been very well run. If live-and-local talk would work, they probably would have tried it. It would probably make decent local radio, but it wouldn't make money, break even, or come close. Maybe that's not the way it should be. But it's the way it is.
And, Rob: 630 is still booming to the west, 6 months after that fact was first discussed here. Lingering problems with the antenna system I suppose.
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