The Temecula Valley Sub-Market

[Gregg]

There's the part of Riverside County that seems to be in no-man's land, between Route 74 and the San Diego County line. Would you call it the Temecula Valley? In a separate posting, David Eduardo describes the southern boundary of the Riverside-San Bernadino market as being Hemet, which is on Route 74. The Temecula Valley, while in Riverside County, falls below Route 74.

It has three FM stations, all owned by big players: Clear Channel's Rock station KTMQ Temecula and Smooth Jazz KMYT Temecula (yes, Clear Channel still owns a Smooth Jazz station!) and CBS's Country KXFG Menifee, which simulcasts KFRG San Bernadino. (KXFG's city of license was recently changed from Sun City when that municipality was incorporated into Menifee.) No AMs are in this area.

This region is equidistant from Los Angeles and San Diego. With only three local stations, I imagine radio listeners (who don't want Rock, Country or Smooth Jazz) have to pull in whatever they can get from the IE, LA or San Diego. For TV viewers, the cable systems carry the LA channels. But for over the air reception, with all the mountains between the Temecula Valley and LA, I'd guess they can get San Diego signals better than ones from LA.

Interesting that CBS spends the money to keep a stand-alone 6000 watt station, KXFG, as a simulcast of Froggy 95.1. In the latest ratings, KXFG contributed a whopping .2 toward Froggy's total in the Riverside-San Bernadino Market. KFRG got a 4.9 on its own. Clear Channel runs local morning shows on the two stations it owns, going with automation on KTMQ the rest of the day and using a syndicated Smooth Jazz service for KMYT the rest of the day. KMYT's local morning show is relatively new. The station had been using Dial-Global's service 24/7. Neither station shows up in the IE ratings.

 

[radio-darn]

There's a lot of people in that area, but for sure the only link they share with Riverside is being in the same county: lots of commuters to San Diego from there, but San Diego stations don't really reach into the market. I wonder if those FM's can generate enough revenue just by being local, strong signals? In the good old days, I worked at AM's in north San Diego County and they all made a nice living for us by selling ads to local businesses without having any sort of ratings: just being the local station was enough of a lure. Certainly southwest Riverside County has a lot of small businesses who don't use ad agencies or or insist on ratings.

 

[Pattern.Guru]

There's the part of Riverside County that seems to be in no-man's land, between Route 74 and the San Diego County line. Would you call it the Temecula Valley? In a separate posting, David Eduardo describes the southern boundary of the Riverside-San Bernadino market as being Hemet, which is on Route 74. The Temecula Valley, while in Riverside County, falls below Route 74.

You call it a Sub-Market, but it is probably more accurately dubbed a Non-Market, or, as I like to call these things, an Orphan.

You can find Arbitron's zoomable map here
http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/Arb_US_Metro_Map_12.pdf
If you zoom way in you will find the area which Arbitron calls Riverside County West Outer.

The boundaries of this area appear to be
On the South, San Diego County from the Orange County tripoint almost (but maybe not quite ?) to the Imperial County tripoint
On the West, the Orange County border
And on the North and East, the incredibly complex and convoluted and gyrating boundaries with the Riverside-San Bernardino market, the Palm Springs Metro, and Riverside County Central South which is part of Palm Springs TSA but not Metro.
So, Temecula and Murrieta would seem to be in Riverside County West Outer Orphan.

Just incidentally, San Diego TV stations seem to consider the Temecula area "local" for news purposes.

 

[Neel]

What about KATY? We listen at work all the way in Fontana only because it is one of the strongest signals in the building but they seem to target the temecula valley as well. They are the closest to a hot AC/pop station for that area.

 

[ksradiogeek]

Its like the same situation in Kansas. What would you call Lawrence? It lies right in between Kansas City and Topeka, and both markets do serve the city, as well as local station. Also, look in Maryland. Where would you draw the border of Baltimore and Washington's markets?

 

[davideduardo]

Its like the same situation in Kansas. What would you call Lawrence? It lies right in between Kansas City and Topeka, and both markets do serve the city, as well as local station.

But Douglas county is in neither metro.

Also, look in Maryland. Where would you draw the border of Baltimore and Washington's markets?

Anne Arundel and Howard counties are in the Baltimore market, while Montgomery and Prince Georges are in the DC market.