Re: You guys are WRONG
We can spin these number around all day long and get nowhere. You cited Storm Lake. Well, Buena Vista County had 152.99 in retail sales while Benton had 191.41 according to ISU Extension. The station I work at is in a town with 68.18 in retail, the county does 99.14. We just came off our best year ever, and we're still growning for two reasons: We are a huge part of the communities we serve, and we have built a relationship with the area businesses who get results on our station. By the way...we have a Walmart too. Unfortunatly, this dialog is useless, because small towns in Iowa that could greatly benefit from a radio station will never get to, and I think that is sad. When a guy from Memphis TN can build a radio station licensed to Vinton Iowa just becuase he has money, but no interest what so ever in serving the community, I think there's soemthing wrong. They (KROJ) were running PSA's for the Tennessee National Guard for Christ's sake!!
The dream I had of owning a small town radio station has all but vanished, but fortunately, there's still a lot of small town broadcasters in Iowa who are doing it right, and I'm glad to be working for one of them.
> > >"There just isn't enough retail base in counties of this
> > size
> > >to support a radio station."
> >
> > You base this on what?
>
> Gut instinct initially, until you raised the questions and I
> did the research. Vinton has a population of just over
> 5000, annual retail sales of 57-million.
> By comparison, Storm Lake has twice the population, but
> considerably more then double the retail at 151-million.
> Cherokee, almost exactly the same population, retail of
> 101-million. (info from the Census bureau)
>
> The mean travel time to get to work in Vinton is 22 minutes
> (also from the census bureau)... too many people who live in
> Vinton work (and do their shopping) in Waterloo or Cedar
> Rapids.
>
> Benton County has 26,000 people,
> > including two Class 3A schools. If you know how to do
> LOCAL
> > Radio you could thrive in an area like this. It's being
> > done by alot of independent owners in this state right now
>
> > with LESS population!! The problem I have with the
> thinking
> > on this board is every single post about every single
> radio
> > station is this...
> > #1 The music. There's much more to a radio station than
> > what format of music they are going to play.
> > #2 The signal. There's a helluva a lot of people in this
> > state that DON'T live in a ranked market. They all have
> > radios, and money to spend.
> >
> > You put a 6,000 watt station in a county of 26,000 people
> > and talk about things that matter to them...Local high
> > school events...the city council...the cub scout soup
> > supper. You take tape recorders to these events and
> > interview the people there. You do the Obituaries. People
>
> > will listen. They will hear the ads...they will spend
> their
> > money in the businesses that are on "their" LOCAL RADIO
> > STATION.
>
> These days, most of them spend their money at Wal-Mart,
> which doesn't advertise on local radio. Vinton doesn't have
> a Wal-Mart, but there are several nearby.
> They will also shop at businesses advertising on "their"
> local TV stations, in CR and Waterloo.
>
> Yes...the people of of these small towns take
> > pride in having their own hometown radio station. You
> just
> > have to know how to do LOCAL RADIO.
> >
> I know how to do local radio, I've been doing it for nearly
> 30 years.
> And what you say about local radio is correct. But Vinton
> and Benton
> County is sandwiched in between two much larger markets.
> Look at what happened to the stations in Indianola and
> Anamosa.
>