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Should LA Get An FM Sports Station?

G

Gregg

With Program Director Jhani Kaye leaving KTWV and KRTH, some are speculating whether CBS would flip one of those stations to FM Sports. CBS now has FM Sports stations in

NYC
Dallas
Philadephia
Washington
Atlanta
Boston
Detroit
Tampa
Cleveland
Pittsburgh

Just being on FM doesn't make a Sports station successful. Look at CBS's WHFS-FM Tampa. Its ratings are below a one-share, below a non-commercial FM run by the Catholic Diocese of Tampa. An FM Sports station in San Francisco owned by Entercom also has a hard time staying above a one-rating. KGMZ is ranked #25.

On the other hand, Sports stations, even those that don't get great ratings, often make good money. You can sell more spots per hour than with a music format. Advertisers aiming at adult men are often quick to buy the format, because men are harder than women to capture on radio. Sports is the top format for African-American men 25-54.

But it is expensive to do it right. A music station can just have a DJ in a studio by himself playing music for five hours a day, or not even be there if they voice-track. On Sports stations, most of the shifts are only three hours long and often are hosted by two personalities. Then you need producers/board ops/call screeners. You need a staff to do the local sports news updates every 20 minutes. And you need your own beat reporters covering the major teams in your city every day, and traveling with them for away games. Just taking clips from AP won't do it.

Sports stations get a big boost if they have an MLB team. In LA, Clear Channel already has The Dodgers, on 570 KLAC. And Disney/ESPN has The Angels for 710 KSPN and 830 KLAA. Could CBS steal one of those franchises? KLAC is only 5000 watts. Both KSPN and KLAA power down at night, when most games take place.

The ratings haven't been great on LA AM Sports stations. KSPN is currently tied for #21. KLAC is #26. Why is that? Meanwhile San Francisco has an AM Sports station, KNBR, that's almost always near the top. Why are LA radio listeners so-so about their AM Sports stations? Are LA residents mostly from other places and don't have much loyalty to LA teams? Is the market so Latino that few English-language spoken word stations, except for KFI, score well?

Just because CBS has a national sports network doesn't mean they'd simply throw it on an FM frequency in Los Angeles. All CBS-owned FM Sports stations take CBS Sports only overnights and weekends. The rest of the schedule is local. (A few take Jim Rome, now working for CBS, middays.)

While CBS has put Sports on many of its FM stations around the country, it hasn't done that in Chicago, SF, Houston, etc. even though it owns stations in those markets, some of them devoted to Sports. So LA is not alone in not having a CBS FM Sports station.

I'm a really big fan of KTWV and also think Oldies/Classic Hits still has life in it on KRTH. I'd hate to see either of them flip, especially The Wave. Sports on FM is not a slam-dunk or automatic home run, if you excuse the pun.
 
Gregg said:
Is the market so Latino that few English-language spoken word stations, except for KFI, score well?
Click to expand...

**DING DING DING!**
Pick yourself out a kewpie doll!

The only way FM sports has a snowballs chance in Hades is if said station had broadcasting rights locked up for Lakers, Dodgers, UCLA, and USC concurrently. Not even that could guarantee a format success in L.A.. Sports listenership in L.A. is flighty at best but realistically speaking, nonexistent. Not worth blowing a format up over that's for sure. That said, KTWV would be the one to watch if someone at CBS has the gall to try it.
 
Is it possible they would switch a station to sports to get clearance in market #2 as some sort of national strategy.

I know in the old days, one would not switch a major FM in a top 10 market for that purpose but in today's radio world maybe they would. Some have speculated that was one of the reasons New York now has a country FM.

The future is definitely going to see more "spoken word" formats moving off AM, so being the first Sports FM would have advantages and you know some of the teams would want to move their play by play as soon as the current contracts expire.
 
Actually 12+ KSPN is #21 and KLAC is 36th In demo KSPN is 17th and KLAC is 31st -- January. Feb is out today. Play by play based on time zones can be a mixed bag here. Many listeners of baseball are not in demo. Most sports stations don't sell on rating points
 
LA has the worst sportsradio. KSPN and KLAC are garbage. Nobody listens to KLAA. Last FM sports station in L.A. was on 107.1 and didn't last long in the mid 90's.
 
A few years ago, everyone other argument on this board was about when, not if, LA was getting its FM news station, presumed to be on 94.7 or 101.1 or 100.3. Now we're seeing this argument pop up about FM sports. Isn't it time to admit that FM news or sports is still in its infancy and struggles in many markets, and given LA's penchant for not being a great news or sports town on the AM band, it will be years before we see either of these formats move over to FM?
 
justpassingthough said:
A few years ago, everyone other argument on this board was about when, not if, LA was getting its FM news station, presumed to be on 94.7 or 101.1 or 100.3. Now we're seeing this argument pop up about FM sports. Isn't it time to admit that FM news or sports is still in its infancy and struggles in many markets, and given LA's penchant for not being a great news or sports town on the AM band, it will be years before we see either of these formats move over to FM?
Click to expand...

FM news will be a long time coming, but talk and sports are not. The only thing that has kept them away is that the music stations in LA as a whole are very well programmed to the LA audience and are profitable - no one wants to fix what isn't broke when jobs are on the line. Other cities that are different from LA (all cities are different from LA, demographically speaking) and are not as well musically programmed and/or do not require the variety of formats LA has to serve them, have had opportunities for talk and sports to move in on solid FM signals.

The poster who referenced the ill-fated KMAX sports on FM is not making a valid comparison to what that station was to the expected sports formatted station to come. That station had no significant national talent, no advertising budget, a bad signal at the end of the dial that does not blanket the metro, and no major sports properties. Getting Joe McDonnell, particularly without Doug Krikorian, is not the fast track to success in local sports radio, regardless of what his dozens of followers say. Ask any programmer.

For an FM station in LA to go sports, it must be part of a national network with recognizable personalities and sports properties, with the financial ability to actively market the station, pay for local team broadcast rights, and sustain initial first year losses as they try to build their brand. That is what will happen and that is the comparison between the two, which is why there is no comparison.
 
BMedina said:
LA has the worst sportsradio. KSPN and KLAC are garbage. Nobody listens to KLAA. Last FM sports station in L.A. was on 107.1 and didn't last long in the mid 90's.
Click to expand...

But KSPN reportedly billed nearly $23 million last year, and is 13th in revenue in the market... beating KHHT, KLOS and KYSR among others. Not bad for an AM.

KLAC is 20th in billing with over $16 million, up more than 50% from 2011. Another AM doing quite well.

Even KLAA, which is nowhere near a full market signal, billed nearly $9 million and serves as a marketing and promotional extension of the Angels brand.
 
Don Barrett says L.A. is close to getting a CBS SPORTS radio affiliate. To the poster regarding KMAX those are valid points. CBS has a chance to do something great here and leave KSPN and KLAC in the dust. If it's just about billing then I guess we'll be stuck with another mediocre sports station in L.A.
 
All you people who doubt that another sports station would succeed in Los Angeles, you'll be forced to admit you were wrong if we get a CBS Sports Radio outlet and it becomes the flagship station of our NFL team!

Oh wait.....
 
I still don't understand how sports stations with no listeners bill so well.

People will say that they do well with men in a certain demo, but many of these stations have no audience at all so how can you possibly do well in any demo when your 6+ PPM is basically ZERO.
 
For what it's worth, the Bay Area's year-old new FM sports station (95.7 The Game) has very poor ratings, and they do have Oakland As play-by-play.

Perhaps it's because KNBR 680 is such an ingrained habit with Bay Area listeners, and more popular than the LA sports AMs. And KNBR does have the Giants and the 49ers...

If Cumulus ever decides to simulcast KNBR on one of their FMs, The Game will be crushed like a bug.
 
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