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Spirit FM (KCVO) Sale

Mark Roberts

Mark Roberts

From RadioInsight - the Spirit FM network based at KCVO Camdenton is selling to Northwestern. KCVO/Spirit FM has been around for at least 25 years or more. I wonder what the motivation is for selling now. It certainly has grown in recent years. That said, I have heard Northwestern's format on trips to Iowa; it seems to be a more laid-back format compared to some of the other soft-sell Bible-thumpers. Fortunately, Lake Area Foundation isn't selling to Bott (yecccch). Northwestern Media Expands Across Missouri With Spirit-FM Purchase - RadioInsight
 
When I worked for Cumulus, we were going to give McDermott $300,000 for KCVK alone. Of course, we needed KCVK to move KMAJ-FM in KC from Topeka, which is how Cumulus ended up with that dump water 107.7 in Stockton for years. Can't remember what Cumulus paid for then-KRLK, but I know it overpaid. The plan was to reduce the power, move it, and sell it back to Gilbert for a lot less than what he originally got for it. Problem was, Gilbert didn’t want it back.

After Cumulus bought Susquehanna, it found itself at the FM cap in KC. So, it called off the plans to move KMAJ-FM into KC and canceled plans to buy KCVK with it.
 
What will Northwestern do with 91.1 in St. Joe? That one comes into north KC where 88.5 comes too. Will they run the same format?
 
011nerve said:
What will Northwestern do with 91.1 in St. Joe? That one comes into north KC where 88.5 comes too. Will they run the same format?
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Your guess would be as good as mine at this point. I know Northwestern operates a couple different formats. The main one is the CCM format it runs on most of its FM's, but it also runs a talk-based “Faith Radio” network. I suspect you'll find that network being run on at least a handful of the stations that are currently airing Spirit FM and Elevate FM programming. I don’t think it airs a contemporary worship format, at least not full time, and my guess would be that it wouldn’t be looking to keep the Elevate FM format.

While I suspect most, if not all, of the Spirit FM programming will be discontinued in favor of a simulcast of KJNW or another station within the organization, Northwestern does originate a surprising amount of programming, especially in the daytime, from its individual properties. If the Spirit FM stations generate enough donations, some of the current staff could realistically keep their jobs after the new ownership takes over.
 
Hopefully the staff isn't eliminated.

Maybe they'll change to Christian rock or Christian rap. Urban Gospel? Southern Gospel? Even maybe Spanish? No doubt the new stations will be Christian-based.
 
Kent said:
Your guess would be as good as mine at this point. I know Northwestern operates a couple different formats. The main one is the CCM format it runs on most of its FM's, but it also runs a talk-based “Faith Radio” network. I suspect you'll find that network being run on at least a handful of the stations that are currently airing Spirit FM and Elevate FM programming. I don’t think it airs a contemporary worship format, at least not full time, and my guess would be that it wouldn’t be looking to keep the Elevate FM format.

While I suspect most, if not all, of the Spirit FM programming will be discontinued in favor of a simulcast of KJNW or another station within the organization, Northwestern does originate a surprising amount of programming, especially in the daytime, from its individual properties. If the Spirit FM stations generate enough donations, some of the current staff could realistically keep their jobs after the new ownership takes over.
Click to expand...
60 dBu contour of KJNW doesn't quite reach St. Joe (at best the southernmost edges of the city - recall that KJNW is a C1 and not a full one at that, and definitely isn't a C0); likewise, the 60 dBu contour of KSJI only touches the far northern reaches of the Kansas City metro. There's no overlap in those contours that I see. Conceivably, they could run the same programming with, effectively, little or no duplication of reach.
 
According to a friend of mine, Northwestern takes the keys Wednesday morning. He tells me the bulk of the programming on the current Spirit FM stations will be local with only a few staff members losing their jobs, but all of them will work shorter airshifts because they will have other off-air responsibilities to fill out their duties. I understand those not being retained by Northwestern were notified last week. I’m also told the “Spirit FM” name will be retained.

No word on whether the footprint of the current Spirit FM will remain the same. Seems possible the programming of some of the stations could be realigned, though. Also, no word on what will happen with the handful of stations running “Elevate FM.” My guess remains that Elevate will be replaced by Faith Radio, but we'll be finding out later this week.

The news could've been a lot worse for the people working at Spirit FM.
 
KSJI was fine last I heard it still running Spirit FM but with a low quality audio feed, think it's only 56 KBPS, or was according to their engineer a while back. Hopefully the new operator can get Google Fiber at the site or something and increase the audio bandwidth.
 
I'm amused that the coverage map wipes out the Missouri state line on two of the circles, but not the third.

I could see reason to switch a couple of the stations to a different feed, if that's what the new owners want to do.
 
KSJI still running Spirit FM with somewhat low audio quality.

I wasn't trying to say their engineer wasn't good earlier in this thread. But maybe 2 engineering teams is better than 1.
 
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011nerve said:
KSJI still running Spirit FM with somewhat low audio quality.

I wasn't trying to say their engineer wasn't good earlier in this thread. But maybe 2 engineering teams is better than 1.
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why dont you just quit making such educated and mis informed remarks? You do it to seem like you know what youre talking about and to contribute to conversation but you end up offering at least partially to entirely incorrect information that often ends up insulting or making the insinuation of stations or their staff not caring, not being good enough, not being knowledgeable enough, not wanting to fix, etc etc

I realize youve never worked in radio and no one here expect everyone or anyone to be a radio expert, but the constant calling out of stations gets a bit old after awhile

Theres alot you can find out by searching fcc documentation or contacting a station directly. A station who gets a genuine question from a genuine listener will often offer up some kind of response.
 
Well sir, I'm a fast typer. Sometime while doing it, I make mistakes and have to go back and correct them.

Dan <><

P.S. Amen to your recent responses. ;)

And...When something goes wrong, I fix it myself, since I live next door. If I'm unable to, then I'll call Mr. Chris and he'll take care of it.​
 
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