David: I stand corrected. And, given KFWB, I'd go Asian.
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Predictions for am fm radio
- Thread starter JohnnyOhJohnny
- Start date
DavidEduardo said:
You can put Chicago in that category as well. The only languages that would require a full-market (70-mile radius from downtown) signal there are Spanish and Polish. Most anything else can be done with a smaller station, as long as the ethnic neighborhoods in the city and inner suburbs are well-covered. Chicago has had ethnic programming on lower-powered stations as long as there's been radio.
TheBigA said:
Houston, like DC, likely comes next.
LA can sustain fulltime Korean, Vietnamese, Farsi, Mandarin and Cantonese and can support extensive programming in Thai, Tagalog, Japanese, Armenian and Russian.
Houston does not have the Iranians, and I don't think either Mandarin or Cantonese would last long... although the original KAZN model of blocks in a half-dozen Asian (or as the British said more specifically, "far eastern," languages) could work.
And there is even Fresno, with a considerable set of communities as well.
It makes me recall one of my first shifts in Cleveland, Sunday mornings, where the Greeks, Czechs, Italians, Hungarians, Poles, Germans, Yiddish speakers and a half dozen more came in for their half-hour shows. All liked to bring their traditional dishes, which was torture after about two or three "we brought you an early lunch..." episodes of about 1000 calories each.
Try St. Louis or even smaller markets like Springfield/Decatur or Bloomington in Illinois. There's not much to market to preteens and they're not marketing much to the Generation X & Y generations. With the gradual growth of Internet radio (despite many criticisms from AM/FM radio veterans), more preteens or even those from Generations X & Y tend to listen to Internet radio than the terrestrial counterparts.
The demise of AM/FM radio may be exaggerated, but when you look at larger markets like St. Louis or even Indianapolis, it may not be affected near as much. Look at the overall picture with smaller markets like Springfield/Decatur, IL and Internet radio could be more dominant. (Just in my region - and I'm smack dab in the middle of both STL & Springfield/Decatur markets in south central Illinois - I have counted 35 Internet radio stations and they have more listeners combined (including my station) than all of the stations in Springfield owned by both Mid-West Family Broadcasting (minus WQLZ and WNNS) and Neuhoff Media combined.
The demise of AM/FM radio may be exaggerated, but when you look at larger markets like St. Louis or even Indianapolis, it may not be affected near as much. Look at the overall picture with smaller markets like Springfield/Decatur, IL and Internet radio could be more dominant. (Just in my region - and I'm smack dab in the middle of both STL & Springfield/Decatur markets in south central Illinois - I have counted 35 Internet radio stations and they have more listeners combined (including my station) than all of the stations in Springfield owned by both Mid-West Family Broadcasting (minus WQLZ and WNNS) and Neuhoff Media combined.
WWPMMediaNet said:
The thing is that internet radio is basically cheap, easy, and unregulated. You could have a thousand stations in Springfield soon. There are no ownership limits. There are no towers, transmitters, or legal forms to fill out. And you can micro-program to small groups of listeners. Can't do that with a radio station.
This didn't happen yesterday. It started over 20 years ago when rock radio ignored grunge and rap. A lot of Gen Xers felt left out. This was before the 96 TCA. It hasn't helped that radio hasn't embraced some of the new bands. But music splintered into a bunch of smaller genres in the 90s, and radio couldn't absorb them all.
So what's left for AM & FM are a handful of major formats, like CHR, Country, Urban, and AC. Then news talk and sports on AM. If you don't have one of those 7 formats, you're out of luck. Brokered ethnic.
K
kenglish
Guest
KeithE4 said:
Might be a lot easier to just move the AM band to UHF frequencies, make it all digital, and buy everybody a new radio. ;D
Seriously though, even if you did ALL of the things you suggest, there would still be the problem of radio-frequency interference, which would still drive people away from AM. Nearly every device that is introduced to the market nowadays simply HAS to be digital (even as a marketing gimmick), and therefore "HAS" to add a few more dB to the noise floor.
The FCC cannot even spell "Part 15" any more. And, most consumers think of the FCC as some sort of government "Department of Clowns & Censors", and many will purposely do what they can to get around any laws they make.
How many people working in offices and living in MDU's can reliably get AM BCB reception on more than a small handful of stations? That's why so many AM stations are adding FM simulcasts.
TheBigA said:
And...once you have those 1,000 internet stations in town, you'll have to "niche" your station in order to get more than a dozen people to pay attention to it. Maybe even play fewer than your 7 thousand song library. You might have to (gasp!) repeat songs!!!!!!!!! You might have to "define your target" and go after it. Er, uh...gee...isn't that what radio does now?
I know...I know. I waste my time talking common sense...
I'd also like to see your "ratings" figures...show me how they translate into a reasoned "cume" audience (after all 100 accesses of a website over a month's time can come from 100 people...or 1 person. Show me your time spent listening..."total listening hours" doesn't show a whole lot you can show an advertiser.) I'd like to know how you are able to make the claim that these internet stations have more "listeners" than local radio.
The future of AM is probably hopeless for mass appeal, commercial radio. After all the big News, Talk and Sports stations migrate to FM, only ethnic and noncommercial programming will be left on the AM dial.
I think the FM band will continue to do well, though. In fact, I think FM will do better with an influx of News, Talk and Sports from the AM band. I would also like to see the non-com portion of the FM band become available for commercial access. Many not-for-profit enterprises would jump at the chance to sell their sticks to Clear Channel, CBS, etc. or swap their FM signals for cash and an AM signal. For example, Santa Monica College could sell FM 89.9 to CC for AM 640 plus cash. CC could then put either KFI or KHHT on 89.9 and the other on 92.3.
I think the FM band will continue to do well, though. In fact, I think FM will do better with an influx of News, Talk and Sports from the AM band. I would also like to see the non-com portion of the FM band become available for commercial access. Many not-for-profit enterprises would jump at the chance to sell their sticks to Clear Channel, CBS, etc. or swap their FM signals for cash and an AM signal. For example, Santa Monica College could sell FM 89.9 to CC for AM 640 plus cash. CC could then put either KFI or KHHT on 89.9 and the other on 92.3.
And then KCRW could wonder where all the listener support went.
The LEAST likely people in all of Southern California to tolerate AM would be KCRW's upscale Westsiders.
Your concept would probably work with some (but not all) of the religious broadcasters...Harold Camping yes, K-Love no...but NPR stations moving to AM? Not likely.
The LEAST likely people in all of Southern California to tolerate AM would be KCRW's upscale Westsiders.
Your concept would probably work with some (but not all) of the religious broadcasters...Harold Camping yes, K-Love no...but NPR stations moving to AM? Not likely.
There are also station ownership issues. CC and CBS are both at Market max. If we're talking a trade of frequencies plus cash though, that would work.
Can you imagine what one of those companies would be willing to pay for KPFK's killer signal that is currently wasted on commies, sandanistas, and other miscellaneous anarchists? And if CC could swing the deal, they could add the kicker of swapping the KTLK signal to them, home of your more "moderate" anti-Americans, while they slap KFI onto the boomer FM signal! Everybody would get consolidated where they belong. Win-Win baby!
Can you imagine what one of those companies would be willing to pay for KPFK's killer signal that is currently wasted on commies, sandanistas, and other miscellaneous anarchists? And if CC could swing the deal, they could add the kicker of swapping the KTLK signal to them, home of your more "moderate" anti-Americans, while they slap KFI onto the boomer FM signal! Everybody would get consolidated where they belong. Win-Win baby!
TheBigA said:
Yeah, the pirates have all the frequencies blocked. ;D
ChannelFlipper said:
I really don't think the non-coms (and their listeners/supporters) would just let go of their NCE FM frequencies without a MASSIVE fight. NPR, the CPB, Pacifica, countless schools and community organizations (possibly even those EMF/CSN cockroaches) would be out in FORCE. COMBINED........
Bongwater said:
How is EMF a "cockroach"?
Bongwater said:
I am not suggesting that the non-coms be forced to sell, I am just saying they should have the option to sell. They would still own their stations but have the ability to sell them to a commercial radio company if they want to, especially if they need the money and no longer want to run a radio station on a day-to-day basis.
For example, Santa Monica College is in the education business, not the radio business. They may have originally thought that owning a non-com radio station would be fun or interesting. But, if they got an offer they couldn't refuse from CC or some other company for 89.9 FM, they could put that money in a well managed investment portfolio, which would throw off enough returns to pay for a lot of things the college needs for its primary mission -- education. Right now, only another not-for-profit entity can buy 89.9 FM from them so they can not get top dollar for it. If the FCC opened up 88.1 - 91.9 FM to commercial operators, some not-for-profits would jump at the chance to cash in their stations. Don't forget, non-for-profit organizations are hurting for money, too, in this economy.
AM FM listener said:
To many NCE stations, radio is just an extended classroom. I know that seems strange in the context of commercial broadcasting, but the original intent of many colleges and universities was to use their radio stations to provide education to the community. That was the thought behind broadcasting classical music and other cultural programming. A lot of schools, particularly the private ones, don't see that as part of their mission any more. But at one time...that was the idea. This was long before NPR. Although there were some commercial stations that operated this way. WRVR, owned by the Riverside Church, was run as a cultural institution at one time. Hard to believe, but it's not always about profit and ratings.
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