They'll continue to buy as long as companies want to sell, and apparently no one else is interested.
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Report: WDRQ To Be Sold
- Thread starter TheBigA
- Start date
They'll continue to buy as long as companies want to sell, and apparently no one else is interested.
I suppose I need to keep an ear peeled for rumors up here in Market 221 (down from 217), where we only have a K-Love station (WZKC 103.1 Royalton, VT), which doesn't cover anywhere close to the whole market with a city-grade signal. It formerly was a 24/7 simulcast of AAA WNCS Montpelier. Could one of the Upper Valley's four country stations be ripe for the picking as EMF looks to get Air1 onto our airwaves?
What if I told you K-Love also sells stations and translators they no longer need?
Sad but true.
A lot of things can be blamed for this. Incompetent management and / or under-capitalized ownership, the general decline of AM radio, the 80/90 docket, poisoning of the well by the local newspaper, pick your fave excuse.
EMF does not buy AM stations, so that neither directly nor indirectly affects them unless we consider that it reduces the availability of viable stations.
80-90 increased the FM count dramatically and made many whole markets have a net loss for all radio. That made more stations available at lower prices for EMF.
Newspapers have not been a radio factor in nearly all of the three decades EMF has existed. When the press lost the main revenue sources of cars, employment and home sales to the web, it was downhill from there. But most of the huge revenue sucked up by print went to new media.
I'd say your selection of 80-90 is the closest to reality. Too many stations for too little money. The remaining stations should welcome EMF and other non-commercial stations to their markets, as they make fewer stations fighting for available money.
What a shock that the commercial operators love to see EMF and others of their ilk swoop into town and remove their competition.
In fact, wouldn't the biggest conglomerate in town be delighted to see ALL the other stations get sold off to religious operators. Then they could have their 8-station monopoly all to themselves, and count their money without having to put any of it into producing quality programming whatsoever. I'll bet the executives will throw themselves a helluva yacht party when that day arrives.
Tell me about all the 'quality programming' at Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, and all the others. They just play songs.
Two ways to lock out religious broadcasters: Some new owners get into radio, or the FCC allows the current owners to buy more stations. Until one of those things happen, the religious folks will buy up quality properties at fire sale prices.
Bloated owners that took on more stations than they can afford is what has led to the fire sale prices in the first place. They definitely don't need more.
But the point is there's nobody new coming into the business. Except religious non-coms.
Actually, the issue was not how many but how much. Were it not for the 2008 recession, they would have come out fine. Consolidation was the answer to the FCC's overpopulation of the FM band and it did work until the economy went sour.
It was the FCC that overpopulated the FM band and made is so that by the early 90's half of all stations in the US did not have a profit.
Ain't happening. Just like rock and country and other formats, there is a limit to how many religious stations can get the needed contribution to continue. Free markets tend to be economically self regulating.
Apple Music actually has curated radio. How "good"you think it is depends on your tastes, but they do have a decent amount of talent doing shows between their three channels. Sure, some of it is "celebrity" DJ stuff like you'd find on SiriusXM, but I've enjoyed the shows from Zane Lowe and Elton John among others.
I’m just glade it ain’t Willis’ Broadcasting Company.
They've been known to do it when they get a better full-power signal
Yes, there have been cases of "trading up". Since EMF doesn't care about "Metro Survey Areas" and "Markets" but "population covered, they look for the best ways of covering people. That may mean a series of rural stations and larger city facilities combined to cover an area, not just stations in the largest metro areas.
I see a couple of cases where huge areas are covered by several stations but a central large city has one of those stations covering "the north side" and another covering "the south side". All they seem to care about is reaching people, not "markets".
They do, and they've spent millions on it, but it has zero impact. In general, people don't subscribe to streaming music services for hosted radio. If you ask them, they will tell you the reason they subscribe is to avoid hosted radio. But you're right, and most of it is celebrity-hosted radio mainly in three formats. They also have their own version of TuneIn.
I do not think WDVD is long for this world
Grand Rapids doesn't have either K-Love or Air1 (the market has two local CCM stations (91.3 WCSG and 99.3 WJQK) that do well; WCSG is the usual top dog (!!) in the market and WJQK doesn't do half bad considering its rimshot signal). Smile FM (based in Lapeer) also has a full-power station, a simulcast on a commercial station's HD2, and two translators.
Going north along US-131, the Traverse City-Petoskey market only has Air1 (on 100kW 98.9 WAWM). Some parts of the area are able to pick up weak K-Love signals on 88.9 (WCRR) or 90.5 (WPFF). There are a solid handful of CCM stations, such as the aforementioned Smile FM, which has three full-power FMs and two translators. The Promise FM (based in Gaylord) covers most of the market with the notable exception of the immediate Traverse City area. Fuel FM (Traverse City-based) has simulcasting FMs rimshotting from both sides of Traverse City, but doesn't cover the northern half of the market at all.
Going north along US-131, the Traverse City-Petoskey market only has Air1 (on 100kW 98.9 WAWM). Some parts of the area are able to pick up weak K-Love signals on 88.9 (WCRR) or 90.5 (WPFF). There are a solid handful of CCM stations, such as the aforementioned Smile FM, which has three full-power FMs and two translators. The Promise FM (based in Gaylord) covers most of the market with the notable exception of the immediate Traverse City area. Fuel FM (Traverse City-based) has simulcasting FMs rimshotting from both sides of Traverse City, but doesn't cover the northern half of the market at all.