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New FM News Station Coming to Houston! News 92 FM!

M

MorningTFXdude

From a friend and former Clear Channel colleague:

Joining me in this venture are some of the biggest names in Houston radio and television, including Lana Hughes, JP Pritchard, Mike Barajas of Fox 26 news, Lanny Griffith of Fox 26 news, Jorge Vargas of channel 39 sports, Bonnie Petrie of KRLD, and many, many more.
 
MorningTFXdude said:
From a friend and former Clear Channel colleague:

Joining me in this venture are some of the biggest names in Houston radio and television, including Lana Hughes, JP Pritchard, Mike Barajas of Fox 26 news, Lanny Griffith of Fox 26 news, Jorge Vargas of channel 39 sports, Bonnie Petrie of KRLD, and many, many more.
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Wasn't talk radio on FM tried and failed on two different FM's 97.1 KKTL in the mid 90s and KKHU Talk/Oldies "You 106.9" in the early 90s?
 
willdav713 said:
Wasn't talk radio on FM tried and failed on two different FM's 97.1 KKTL in the mid 90s and KKHU Talk/Oldies "You 106.9" in the early 90s?
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First, all-news is not the same format as talk.

Second, in the last few years, there has been a move, becoming a rush, to put successful AM talk formats on FM, via simulcasts or full moves.

Putting a bad talk format on FM will not make it successful. Taking an established AM talk (or news) format to FM tends to work magnificently.
 
Yet another Fox driven radio news channel. Haven't you all noticed that Fox 26 has the lamest bunch of anchors and reporters in the business. It's a joke that you all think getting news from them is actually worthwhile.

Good luck to this station. You'll hear them for about 6 months at the most.
 
MyOp said:
Yet another Fox driven radio news channel. Haven't you all noticed that Fox 26 has the lamest bunch of anchors and reporters in the business. It's a joke that you all think getting news from them is actually worthwhile.
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What major market all-news stations are "Fox driven?" (whatever that means).
 
With this many talented TV and radio news types on the beach, this was only a matter of time.

The other upside of this is it will probably spur KUHF to get whatever local programming they have on the drawing board finally on the air.
 
Considering recent reports of Radio One's financial situation and that all-news is something they haven't done, could this be a LMA?
 
I was very skeptical that Radio One would blow up gospel for an all news station. They have some excellent local people involved here, even though their corp folks and Houston management have no expertise in this format. I'd like to see them succeed. Still, I wonder about the signal. Not as bad as those Cumulus move ins from Beaumont, but not on par with their other sticks. Nice to see a company actually HIRING people instad of cutting.
 
jd said:
Considering recent reports of Radio One's financial situation and that all-news is something they haven't done, could this be a LMA?
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I agree. All news is very expensive. They say they're partnering with ABC and Associated Press. But that still won't get them the kind of local content they need to succeed. It's a lot of time to fill, and a lot of script to write. And the BIGGER issue is attracting people to the bottom of the radio dial. They won't retain any of the gospel audience. So they're starting with zero. People don't scan the dial the way they used to. How will people know to go to 92 for news? The trick CBS has used for its news stations is combining radio & TV. They will need to also partner with a local TV station to get people to tune in during the day.
 
smartestguyintheroom said:
I was very skeptical that Radio One would blow up gospel for an all news station. They have some excellent local people involved here, even though their corp folks and Houston management have no expertise in this format. I'd like to see them succeed. Still, I wonder about the signal. Not as bad as those Cumulus move ins from Beaumont, but not on par with their other sticks. Nice to see a company actually HIRING people instad of cutting.
Click to expand...

And yet, if you had a second station like one of those Cumulus move ins from Beaumont (97.5, for example), you'd have good coverage paired with 92.1. I was amazed that the power on 92.1 is as low as it is. Perhaps it can get a boost?
 
stan said:
I was amazed that the power on 92.1 is as low as it is. Perhaps it can get a boost?
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No, since the reduced power still equates to the maximum for their station class at that antenna height. Their antenna is located down south due to spacing concerns, mainly KUHA. Conversely, KUHA is way up north because of spacing to KROI.
 
KROI sends a city-grade signal to Spring, Kingwood, Katy and Galveston. It does an acceptable job of covering the people it needs to reach. And 92.1 is a dial position many FM operators would kill to have. But the engineers need to turn their stereo pilot OFF! After that, it's all about content. Own the big stories! Make the listeners think that station is everywhere! If the crew puts on very solid news consistently, the audience will follow.
 
I salute them for starting this right. That list of includes a lot of damn good radio and TV people who've all been put on the streets by this or that idiot corporate bean-counter.

Good going KROI. So far you seem to be doing this right. Now let's hope it sells and stays on the air.
 
Im curious if they will have the normal news wheel format with things like "traffic and weather together on the 9s" or if they will attempt a more freeform format like some of the recent stations to go all news?
 
Yes - they're doing this correctly - get the best names in the business, the most recognized names both behind the scene and in front. Take Ed Shane for example - he is a well respected consultant in Houston and nationwide, and a former PD for KTRH - he knows what he's doing. As for their anchors and such, two of their new hires are personal friends of mine, Brent Clanton and Kevin Charles. Brent is well known all throughout Houston and he'll do well. As for Kevin, what the story in the Chronicle didn't mention is that he was the former Bureau Chief for Metro - a position he held for nearly 8 years before being let go as Metro was preparing to move their operations to Dallas - believe me, Kevin knows news and newsmakers in Houston.

As for the rest of their on-air staff, I've never had the opportunity to meet any of them, but they all have name recognition, and that obviously will be very helpful - I can see billboards and such going up in and around Houston very soon in an attempt to assist with getting the word out - and they'll obviously be using social media to help with this effort as well - they've already gotten their facebook page up and I believe they've got twitter going as well.

This my fellow radio folks is long overdue and as many of you have said, it's nice to see radio broadcasters getting back to work.
 
No one has addressed the problems News and News-Talk stations have in Southern and Southwestern markets. All-News is #1 in Philadelphia and Washington, #2 in San Francisco and Boston, #3 in Chicago and Detroit and #4 in Seattle. In NYC, WCBS and WINS combined get nearly a nine share.

But the Sunbelt is different. In LA, KNX is #11. In Dallas, KRLD is only #25. (KRLD tried to be All-News 24/7 but they've cut back their All-News hours to weekdays 5am - 7pm, with Talk nights and weekends.) There are NO All-News stations in the other big Southern and Southwest cities. None in Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego or Tampa.

Even Conservative Talk does poorly in the South and Southwest. KTRH is #17. It used to make the Top 10 consistantly. In Dallas, WBAP added an FM simulcast and still it's only ranked at #14. It used to be a top 5 station. No Talk station makes the Top 10 in Miami, Phoenix, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Raleigh, Oklahoma City, West Palm Beach or the aforementioned Dallas and Houston. The only exception in a large market is WSB/WSBB-FM Atlanta, which is consistantly the #2 station in that Southern city.

I've discussed this on this board before, trying to figure out why. There's just as much news, politics and crime in Southern and Southwest cities. Just as much traffic and weather to merit "Traffic and Weather Together" every ten minutes, something you can't get from a station running syndicated talk. You could be listening to Rush on a station that CLAIMS to be the news and traffic leader, and drive right into a back-up behind an overturned tanker truck. They're not going to break into Rush six times an hour for traffic.

So the new All-News 92.1 will have an uphill fight, despite having a respected staff of news professionals. Its signal is good: 21,360 watts on a 1725 foot tower. But most Houston FMs run close to 100,000 watts on taller towers located closer to downtown.

92.1's management will still not be CBS, Bonneville or Fisher, the only owners who have successful All-News operations in the top markets. But most importantly, it will have to overcome whatever trait it is in Southern and Southwestern radio listeners that they don't seem to care about News or Talk and just want music coming from their radios.




Gregg
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