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When will this happen in L.A.?

radiofan2023 said:
Was that before or after 1150 was tandem with 690?
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1150 became the flagship station of the Dodgers in March 1997, which is when the calls were changed to KXTA. That lasted until 2003, when the Dodgers went to KFWB. That was when the simulcast with XETRA was begun.

That only lasted a couple of years; in February 2005 the sports format moved to 570, the Standards format that had been on KLAC moved to 690, and 1150 went progressive talk as KTLK.
 
ted chittenden said:
If the large commercial radio operations in Los Angeles (IHeart, Audacy, Cumulus) thought that sports radio would be a winning formula in the market, they would have flipped one of their stations to that format a while back.
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You forgot the fourth large operator, TelevisaUnivision. They tried sports on 50 kw 1020 AM and it did not last. Niche operator Lotus does Spanish language sports on 1330 and is profitable but with a very frugal operation.
ted chittenden said:
Do things change? Yes, they do, but, outside of technology, changes tend to happen over a very long period of time. The only real way that I could see the big companies reconsidering sports on FM in Los Angeles would be if both playing music over the air and streaming that music online became too expensive for even national advertisers to support but that is not the case now. I was considering if an all-sports in Spanish FM radio outlet might work in the Los Angeles market--but there is now only one national spanish sports network right now and KWKW has the rights to that.
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And there is is little all-sports in all of Latin America. It does not work well, starting with the fact that most markets have multiple "major league" soccer teams right there in the same city. And the partisanships are very team specific.
ted chittenden said:
So you believe that the 1540 story is old history and won't happen again if someone else tried it? I'd say in response: put your money where your mouth is. Go to your local bank, fill out a loan application, and then 1) try to buy a local radio station with it; and 2) program it with sports talk with no games. Then report back to us on how successful (or not) your venture was and why.
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That is theoretical, as no bank will finance a radio station today. But beyond that, there have been many instances nationally of second tier sports stations with no local team play by play, and either they "barely" get by or they fail, such as 1540 in LA did. In my experience, too many guys love sports so much that they "want to have a sports station" without realizing the costs, risks and downside.

Example in another area and format: the former CEO of Audacy let his passion for alternative rock lead him into some unfortunate format decisions based on personal taste rather than market realities.
 
Signal Geek said:
KLAC's signal is not weak. 5kw non-directional at 570 gets out well. It's probably the 3rd best L.A. AM signal (after KFI and KNX)
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Ok, stand corrected on the signal. But, question remains, irrespective of the bottom-line, why are KLAC's ratings way down the list compared to other market's all sports stations? Must be something about the LA market.
 
adradio said:
But, question remains, irrespective of the bottom-line, why are KLAC's ratings way down the list compared to other market's all sports stations? Must be something about the LA market.
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If you are referring to the 6+ numbers, they are irrelevant to both the stations and the agencies.

What matters is the billing, and KLAC is holding its own against the other similarly-formatted stations.
 
K.M. Richards said:
If you are referring to the 6+ numbers, they are irrelevant to both the stations and the agencies.
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Classic case: during most of its first two decades, WFAN was around 15th in 12+. It was also #1 absolutely in billing.
K.M. Richards said:
What matters is the billing, and KLAC is holding its own against the other similarly-formatted stations.
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Lots of people forget that there are ad budgets that only go to "sports". Some are specifically called "Sports Marketing" budgets, others are just allocations. But only the leading sports radio station will generally get in on this money... and lots of it.
 
michael hagerty said:
KLAC (mostly) covers the metro. All you have to do is hit where the likely listeners to an L.A. sports radio station would be concentrated---and more importantly where likely listeners with PPMs would be concentrated.

If they don't hit Palmdale or San Clemente or San Bernardino clearly, they might be missing a meter each. Maybe.
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Thanks Michael, I’m curious about percentage of listeners online vs terrestrial radio. So people listening to KLAC in Minnesota are virtually 100% online. But some locals in LA I assume listen online for a better signal than on AM. I’m curious if most locals listen to radio online or on their AM or FM radio. I’m impressed with the usually static free reception online. My guess is that as more people listen to podcasts they add online more for local stations as well.

I could answer my question by occasionally seeing 10 or 20% of listeners to KNX are online in the total ratings, but I wonder how accurate those numbers are and if the ratio online is quickly growing.
 
On Friday, the LA Rams announced they have extended their radio deal with KSPN:

www.insideradio.com

‘ESPN Los Angeles’ To Continue As Rams’ Flagship Station.

Good Karma’s “ESPN Los Angeles” KSPN will remain the radio flagship for the Los Angeles Rams, extending a partnership that began when the team returned to L.A. in 2016. KSPN
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com


What the articles fail to mention is the broadcasts are simulcast on KCBS-FM.
 
TheBigA said:
They're not accurate. The way to know the online number is from the station's server. That's the number SoundExchange wants. Not Nielsen.
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They are accurate in the MSA because the stream is encoded, too. If they fully simulcast, it is combined with the AM & FM numbers. If not, it's listed as a stream in the report.
 
davideduardo said:
They are accurate in the MSA because the stream is encoded, too. If they fully simulcast, it is combined with the AM & FM numbers. If not, it's listed as a stream in the report.
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But that assumes the listener is using a radio device that is readable by the PPM. What researchers have discovered is that online radio listening is being under-counted by PPM. That's why SoundExchange won't accept Nielsen numbers for royalty purposes.
 
TheBigA said:
But that assumes the listener is using a radio device that is readable by the PPM. What researchers have discovered is that online radio listening is being under-counted by PPM. That's why SoundExchange won't accept Nielsen numbers for royalty purposes.
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Sound Exchange won't accept any panel based or random probability sample for digital streams. It's part of their "rules".

And, since there is no PPM encoding in about 200 markets and all of rural America, the SoundExchange would miss a lot of streaming plays.

But within the market where the encoded station is located, the PPM is "accurate enough" for its intended purpose of selling advertising. That the SoundExchange wants total precision, whatever the cost, that is what we end up having to do.
 
TheBigA said:
Maybe. The topic of this thread is sports radio. KSPN doesn't subscribe to Nielsen. Obviously they feel PPM information isn't accurate for what they do.
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That is not true. They believe that the expense of ratings is not warranted, since sports radio is sold differently. And GoodKarma sells sports marketing that includes other media, not just spots.
 
Well if an FM does eventually go down this path, I hope they carry Scott Ferrall, so that the listeners can really appreciate the full range of his wonderfully irritating voice. I heard it once in Palm Springs in an FM translator and thought he made Nina Blackwood sound smooth. I remember him way back in the 90's on KSAC, 1240.
 
Michael Rivers Kramer said:
Well if an FM does eventually go down this path, I hope they carry Scott Ferrall, so that the listeners can really appreciate the full range of his wonderfully irritating voice. I heard it once in Palm Springs in an FM translator and thought he made Nina Blackwood sound smooth. I remember him way back in the 90's on KSAC, 1240.
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Not likely since he was most recently fired:

barrettmedia.com

Scott Ferrall Among Cuts at SportsGrid

"For everyone who has been asking, the show is unfortunately no longer on the air."
barrettmedia.com barrettmedia.com
 


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