> > I'm with Shortwave and the rest of the Rock crowd... GO
> > ACTIVE ROCK and start kicking ass! You know you can!
> > KISS/San Antonio, which Cox owns, should be an example of
> > what they need to do here. I just don't understand it.
> >
>
> Cox isn't committed to the Houston market - just a caretaker
> who takes no chances.
>
I agree whole heartedly with Stan, Cox is so uncommitted to their Houston cluster that it is disgusting. All four stations KKBQ 92.9, KTHT 97.1, KHPT 106.9 and KLDE 107.5 have been on autopilot for so long that I guess there is no body home in Houston to run the operations. Cox is sitting on four great frequencies, even rimshot KTHT covers from the Oklahoma state line to around Victoria, fantastic coverage {Thanks to the person that gave me the southern limits for KTHT}.
Cox missed the boat on having a real profit center for them if they had staffed Country Legends KTHT with more than Tubby, who does an admirable job, but you can not expect one person to carry a format like Classic Country, which is a personality driven format. Now every little town with a station flipped to Classic Country and hired air personalities or went to syndicated programming from Satellite like Jones or ABC and have the audience that KTHT could have owned if whoever is in supposed to be in charge of the cluster got up off their ass and did their job.
I would love to see Cox sell their Houston cluster and let the door hit them in the ass on the way out. Buyer, Cumulus. Cumulus is in the process of getting a new line of credit for $700M. unless there is a snag in the next few days it is a done deal. That would easily buy all four stations and have money left. This puts Cumulus one over on the FM limit, but Good Bye 97.5 would be a dream come true for Cumulus. I'm not sure who would buy the station, but it will sell for around $50M, possibly Radio One and they finally put Urban Gospel on the air. Move KFNC and KIOL to 106.9 and 107.5, invest some more effort into Country 93Q (I know Cox has added a new am show) and Country Legends 97.1 and move KLDE (where Cox has actually made a few great additions) over to 103.7. Cumulus would be a big time player in Houston and making an obscene profit in no time.
This doesn't leave a station for "Jack", unless Cumulus picks up on an AM station like KGOL 1180 which has another application with the FCC to stay 50kW days and go to 3kW nights. It still doesn't serve much of the city of Houston, but with a new night site in NW Harris County and 10kW+ would solve the nighttime issue. Move Oldies to AM 1180 as KLDE and make 103.7 "Jack".
I know there will be some objection to moving KLDE to AM, but in reality Oldies are rapidly becoming the Adult Standards stations of 2000's and where did Adult Standards wind up, on AM, where many have finally met their demise. I realize that KLDE has nearly a three rating and in 14th place, but WCBS-FM in NYC had a rating of 3.3 and 10th place, WJMK in Chicago had a 2.9 rating and good for 11 th place, while KLDE matches WJMK's ratings and is 14th, so don't be surprised to see the plug pulled on KLDE if another company owns Cox's stations. A big reason for not moving KFNC to AM is coverage. On 106.9 KFNC will have an advantage that neither KSEV 700, KTRH 740, KPRC 950 or KNTH 1070 can ever do and that is match the coverage of all of metro Houston at night with a great signal like 106.9 provides. It could be just the edge to give KFNC number one News-Talk bragging rights. In the winter months am and especially pm drive times, the AM stations will be on night pattern and power, while 106.9 is still blasting out 100kW non-directional. For many commuters 106.9 will be the only station they can receive with a great signal on the drive home or the early morning when the crunch is beginning to build.
Another possiblitiy is Radio One. La Mera Mera was DOA and the not getting any better, no surprise when a station is DOA. The sooner R O flips KROI 92.1 the better. Radio One does a variety of formats, not just Urban and a flip to "Jack" on 92.1 would be a good move on the part of R O. Radio One also has an application to move KROI to a different tower that will be a little closer to Houston.
The new tower is just to the east of Liverpool, but the important point in this move is the tower is a little over 600 meters tall and KROI will have their antenna at 526 meters and drop their power to 22kW to stay with-in their Class C1 status. I am very confident that KROI will be applying for Class C0 or Class C status, it can been done with the movement of a few stations, but nothing like the 20+ stations when then KRTS upgraded from a Class A at 1400 watts and 148 meters. I will post a list of the stations that will be short spaced later after I check out the spacing again. This would give KROI a City Grade signal {70dbu-3.14mV/m} to nearly The North Beltway; between Mission Bend and Katy; past Richmond-Rosenberg; nearly Bay City; east side of Galveston Bay and Mont Belvieu. The Service Grade signal which is a good strong signal yet (60dbu-1.0mV/m)would cover up to The Woodlands; Tomball; Sealy; El Campo; Winnie and Liberty. KROI would easily cover Conroe; Cleveland; Beaumont; Brenham and Palacios if they go to a full Class C station.
My vote is for Radio One to drop the Spanish-language programming and go "Jack", they already have great Houston metro coverage and with-in a few years could have excellent coverage of even the fringe commuter cities. R O would have another station that would be a ratings success to go along with Magic 102 and 979 The Box. If the planets all line up perfectly the Cumulus-Cox idea is not out of the equation any longer and 97.5 could be Urban Gospel with a rating that will make the station profitable, and a high rating would not be necessary for a format like Urban Gospel to make money. What Darrell Martin will do with KWWJ 1360 Baytown, KYOK 1140 Conroe and KANI 1500 Wharton all currently Urban Gospel, will be interesting. I am not aware of Darrell Martin programming anything but Urban Gospel on his stations.
If KZNE 1150 in College Station leaves the air like it is suppose to as it's five years of "simulcasting" is up next on February 2nd 2006, and 1130 KTMR Edna-Victoria moves to the northern San Antonio suburbs if it's application from the Major Modification window last year is approved, 1140 could become a station with at lease 25000 watts daytime and cover all of metro Houston with a great signal. Since XEMR 1140 Monterrey is highly directional away from Houston, although the signal is the most important signal to protect day and night as it is an official Mexican "Clear Channel" station (not the company). Even nights could have very good coverage of metro Houston by using a different night site. A very smart move on Martins' part would be to apply for the new parameters now, before someone else does and kills the chance for a very meaningful upgrade to a AM station that could serve all of metro Houston, that currently serves Conroe and a lot of empty land to the east. This would make 1140 a good Houston station and the value of the station could very easily be over $10M. Martin could try Urban Oldies on 1140, keep the Gospel on 1360 KWWJ, the station does have a dedicated audience and burn down KANI's transmitter hut and dog houses and cut a few guy wires for the three towers or blow them up and end the history of 1500 in Wharton or possibly simulcast KWWJ on KANI fulltime. Radio One going Gospel in Houston would definitely hurt D Martin and his three stations.
If by some miracle Cox were to actually sell and Cumulus buys the cluster, the Houston FM radio dial will be in for some big changes. Look for Clear Channel to make some changes to both The Arrow KKRW 93.7, which is broadcasting in Ibiquity's digital IBOC or HD-Radio and The Buzz 94.5 once the Spring Book is ready to come out with the ratings, which should be early August.
Mike O
