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Mapleton in Chico

A

audiophantom

This just in from the rumor mill up north…..after mass layoffs, community uproar, plummeting ratings and almost non-existent sales figures Mapleton Communications is ready to unload its 4 station cluster, plus one translator in Chico, California. The rumored asking price is somewhere between 2 and 3 million.

Whoever buys these stations will be starting from scratch, since word is there is only one full-timer left in the building and a handful of sales people. All management, business, traffic and engineering support is taken care of by Mapleton’s much more successful cluster out of Redding, California.

There are some great heritage stations in the market with KFMF and KALF. It’s sad that legendary call letters like KZAP are attached to this mess, it’s even sadder that they are now attached to a conservative talk station. Also former Sacramento call letters KQPT are used in Chico for 107.5, which is running an awful satellite delivered Hot AC format. This cluster was once the crown jewel of radio in the market, often billing above 300K a month. Not bad for a small market. I wish the best of luck to those left at the Chico stations, maybe new owners can give life back to this once thriving radio operation.
 
I was in around Chico this weekend and have heard how bad these stations are, and none of them have websites, not to mention live streams. KFM is O.K. but I do prefer Thunder 100.7 and KALF is a pretty good station (At least when KNCI isn't coming in) I actully like Bold Talk 96.7, they have Glenn Beck, the standard TRN Line-up and news from KHSL. 107.5 The Point is a pretty sad station, is it Hot AC? Because the music sounds awful. Their stations in Redding don't sound too much better, but at least they have some local talent. So anyone have any idea who might buy? I think that with just a little TLC all of those stations could do pretty well. Chico could also use a good CHR, KSFM is kind of weak up there.
 
travisl5678 said:
......107.5 The Point is a pretty sad station, is it Hot AC? .....
Click to expand...

As a non-industry person stranded in the area for the past 16 months, I have listened to 107.5 for most of that time. It was truly horrid a year ago, with outdated commercials airing, two songs playing at once, faulty voicetracking ("It's Sunday", when it was actually Saturday), as well as countless times that the 107.5 signal would go off-line.

Now that it's 100% automated and satellite, the worst thing that happens is they repeatedly come back from local commercial inserts halfway (or 75% of the way) through a song. The local commercials are no worse sounding than on any other local Chico station. It seems that at least 75% of advertising is national.

They broadcast the Dial-Global standard Hot AC format (took me awhile to google around and find the industry website that promotes the schedule for local buyers: http://www.dial-global.com/DGTotal/djs_and_bios.php?format=5). I'm not sure what you expect, but the playlist is standard Top 20 Hot AC, with mostly professional-sounding DJs. The contests are rare, extraordinarily cheesy, and give away exciting prizes like a "free CD". It's clearly not local, but being stuck in this %$*#$*%, the last thing I want to have is "local yokel". I used to listen to The Mix's Manley In The Morning. Egad. Cheese City.

The Elvis Duran syndicated morning-drive show isn't all that great, but that is probably due to it being on 3 hour tape delay, with poor quality audio, with way too many (uselsss) cast members. They play 4-5 songs an hour and spend way too much time on "pop culture" for my taste. The afternoon drive is the somewhat vapid Cooper Lawrence Show, which is also way too reliant on Lindsay Lohan, National Enquirer tidbits, and other pop-culture-dom, which is the rage on TMZ, ET, Extra, JoyBehar.

Weekends don't sound voicetracked and there is a female who actually has a decent personality, though she can get too chatty. On Saturdays, they drag out syndicated Nina Blackwood 80s shows for 6 hours and Todd Baker "12 Inch RetroMix Show" from 8PM-12AM. I think all three shows may be out of production as the station seems to play repeat after repeat after repeat. Since they are 80s Music, having "fresh" content isn't all that critical.

There's no need for traffic reports in this area, although a weather notice now and then would be nice.

Is it great radio? No. Sad? Somewhat. I probably call it "acceptable".
 
I think Results is far better than Mapleton, although they do have some hertige stations(KFM and KALF) and I think the only reason why those stations get ratings is because people are simply in the habit of listening to them. According to the July Arbs KFM and the much better and stronger Results-owned Thunder 100.7 were tied for a 4.1, I can't remember where KALF is, but I'm sure KHSL 103.5 is beating it.
 
I haven't heard 107.5 for sometime now...the signal doesn't come in anymore where I live (east Sac county). It used to be decent, but no longer. May have something to do with IBOC, as radio locator shows their tx location and erp to be unchanged.

107.5 used to be really good back in the 90's when it was "the river". Had a Triple-A/Classic Hits flavor that was laid back, and professional sounding. I wished (at the time) Sac had something like that. Not sure if Mapleton was the owner during that period...likely not.

Off topic - Thunder 100.7 (Results Radio) is a solid station, esp for a small market like Chico/North Valley. I enjoy tuning in at lunch in the foothills (where I work) as they play some deeper tracks. From what I can tell it's all local jocks. If 100.5 went off the air, they'd be listenable in most of the Sac area.

It's sad to realize what radio has become, just in the past 10 years. There are still some stations (and operators) that "get it" and put out a quality product, but so much continues to become stale and streamlined.
 
Results stations are better online too, Results stations have websites that look good and professional, and all of their stations stream, while mapleton's Chico stations have no websites (Some outdated remains are left of The Points website) and of course they Don't stream. Their Redding Stations at least have websites but they look pretty bad, and I'm not sure If they stream (I know KQMS 1400 streams their morning show. Even when I'm back in the Bay Area I like to listen to some of the Results Stations from the North Valley. So Kudos to them and the great job their doing, keep it up so I don't have to DX Sac Stations when I go up north.
 
travisl5678 said:
Can anyone tell me how the cluster fell into its current state?
Click to expand...

Mapleton was highly leveraged, and when they couldn't service the debt they went into receivership. This was (somebody help me) maybe a year ago? I don't know the exact timeline of everything, but safe to say they quit putting any $$ into that market just like they did everywhere else.

Dave B.
 
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