SA and Austin to be combined to one market by 2013?

[Kent]

From New Braunfels I can get to DT Austin in 35 minutes and DT SA in 30 (without traffic)... It does baffle me to see that people don't believe that it is possible to see these markets come together, it is evident that within 20 years the population of both cities are going to be well above what they are at now and that would mean that people would be moving into suburban areas like Buda and Kyle and San Marcos and New Braunfels and Schertz which have all had exponential amounts of new residencies within the past decade..

I could get from Barton Springs Rd (think Zilker Park) to I-35 and 1604 in exactly one hour. However, don't kid yourself. Even if the two markets come together, you're not going to see people drive 70+ miles for everyday tasks. Keep in mind that the average Dallasite travels the roughly 250 miles to Houston more often than he travels the 25 miles to Ft. Worth. Yeah, Dallas and Ft. Worth are the same market, but it doesn't matter. It's been that way for more than 20 years, and it will probably always be that way. If San Antonio and Austin do combine into the same market, you'll see the exact same thing happen. Residents of one will only travel to the other in the case of special events.

My mother, by the way, lives in Oklahoma, and Tulsa and Oklahoma City are in a similar situation to San Antonio and Austin. I can get from downtown Tulsa to downtown Oklahoma City is an hour and twenty minutes. However, very few people commute from one to the other, and residents of one city don't visit the other very often. There's also a radio station in between that tries to service both cities but is lucky to break a 1 share in either market!

 

[stan]

If this happens, expect to see broadcast transmission facilities move like they did in D-FW.

 

[mmnassour]

To where, that mountain between San Marcos and New Braunfels? ;D

Folks, look, we're talking about SEVERAL different things here. We're well on the way to one large city from south Austin to NE San Antonio. I'm in Austin, but think nothing about driving to SA on the whim of the moment for whatever.

But these are two completely separate broadcast markets. Nothing that can be done will ever change that. And I never say never.

 

[willdav713]

This is assuming analog broacasts on FM and AM go fully HD like with Over the Air Television?
They are more low powered radio stations out there than that of Television, and you will have a big fight with the low powered station owners, plus it would cost a lot of money, I don't see this happening for at least 15 years, maybe 10. It also depends on who our elected officals will be. With all the hot water involved with Health Care Reform, I would not wager any bet on this happening until at least 2020 or 2025. One more thing Dallas and Fort Worth are 25 miles apart and San Antonio and Austin from distance marker to distance marker is a much larger geographical area indeed not to mention that fact the cell phone reception is horrible in the New Braunfels vincinty alone. Can anyone make a phone call down I-35 and talk on it without breaking up in any way shape or form through that whole stretch? Try it on all of River Road, you'll see so what makes getting reception any easier on the FM dial if such manuever where in place? I am sure you would have to find ways to blast mountains (try to convence the enviormental groups on that one)

 

[prodigy3]

Can anyone make a phone call down I-35 and talk on it without breaking up in any way shape or form through that whole stretch? Try it on all of River Road, you'll see so what makes getting reception any easier on the FM dial if such manuever where in place? I am sure you would have to find ways to blast mountains (try to convence the enviormental groups on that one)

I tune in to my iheartradio app and Kiss Kube app all the way from New Braunfels to both DT Austin and SA and my phone never goes out and I have AT&T and they aren't the best for having the greatest signal but on the interstates withing Austin and SA it works beyond fine...

And I do agree I don't think it would be a priority but I do believe that the growth of both cities is far greater than most other metro areas in the nation especially in the areas that are growing and it just happens that those areas that are growng are linking the two cities together. And I know plenty of people in the NE side of SA that tune in and know the Bobby Bones Morning Show from 96.7 so people are tuning in, and many many many college students are always traveling to parties at UT, UTSA, and TX State and a lot commercials on air are of clubs, what ever the case may be it is possible and it would only make radio I think more diverse and better for both SA and Austin and from the looks of it US radio is going to have to pick their game up because the younger people (which I hate about my generation) is slowly fading away...

 

[davideduardo]

If this happens, expect to see broadcast transmission facilities move like they did in D-FW.

Most stations are, today, locked to within a small number of miles of their current transmitter sites. It's highly unlikely that any could move to a point between both markets... and even then, they would not fully cover either market.

Dallas and Ft. Worth are in the center of adjacent counties... relatively close.

 

[fredcantu]

Actually, we may be coming to the end of the line for local broadcasting as we know it. The audience is moving toward online delivery at home and on smart phones. The Internet may not be the most efficient way to deliver the same content to the masses, but it is infinitely more customizable to the end user.

Localized inserts can be determined by the GPS location of the device. And cookies will further pinpoint which ads you receive. The technology is already out there. It's a matter of improving the bandwidth and making all of this mobile.

 

[grantchester]

Or maybe the same program will be on one Austin station and another in S.A., with local commercials inserted for the local audience...
Or maybe the value of the copper in the ground-system will exceed the value of the radio license, and we'll just rip it out and switch over to a cellphone/wifi hybrid.
Or maybe China will pop a big nuke in the ionosphere, wiping out every piece of electronics with an EMP, and we'll go back to a town cryer system...

 

[amisdead]

One more thought about this silly topic. Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD are two separate markets that also very close together. Separate radio. Separate TV. Washington is about 40 miles from Baltimore while San Antonio is about 80 miles from Austin.

 

[prodigy3]

Yea they are very far apart but we'll see what the future holds