WHY IS K-WAVE SO HEAVILY PROMOTING A BAKERSFIELD AM SIMULCAST?

[amisdead]

I don't understand the strategy.

At some point Calvary Chapel picked up an AM in Bakersfield and are now simulcasting K-WAVE. They are very heavily promoting 660 AM on 107.9, even though the AM is not even kind of usable here.

A bad station on a dying band in a small market. If 107.9 was in Fresno, I could understand, but this is Los Angeles.

Good grief.

 

[K6JHU]

While the radio-locator maps are not necessarily believable, it looks like the daytime signal of the 660 AM has quite a coverage area in the valley. So if I had a simulcast signal in the valley, especially religious programming, I would be promoting it too.

 

[nmoore6676]

I don't understand the strategy.

At some point Calvary Chapel picked up an AM in Bakersfield and are now simulcasting K-WAVE. They are very heavily promoting 660 AM on 107.9, even though the AM is not even kind of usable here.

A bad station on a dying band in a small market. If 107.9 was in Fresno, I could understand, but this is Los Angeles.

Good grief.

Why not promote it? It is their signal and their audience might care to know. Why did Jan and Paul loudly proclaim each new outlet for TBN.

I for one would prefer that these guys take over dying AM stations rather than occupying all of the LPFM allocations that were supposed to be community stations serving the localities they cover.

 

[Michael Rivers Kramer]

I don't understand the strategy.

At some point Calvary Chapel picked up an AM in Bakersfield and are now simulcasting K-WAVE. They are very heavily promoting 660 AM on 107.9, even though the AM is not even kind of usable here.

A bad station on a dying band in a small market. If 107.9 was in Fresno, I could understand, but this is Los Angeles.

Good grief.

The KWVE-FM signal is nearly worthless in Los Angeles, but covers Orange County.

The religious radio market in Bakersfield/ Kern County is very competitive and supports Air1, K-Love, KDUV, KAXL, KERI, Family Radio's KFRB, KFHL and Immaculate Heart's KJPG. There's even a translator for KAWZ. This market (Pop 600,000 12+) is even more conservative than Orange County. My guess is that the non-com religious broadcasters see this area as attractive when it comes to donations.

 

[K6JHU]

Look at almost any small market area down on the FM non-comm band. You will find all sorts of religious stations there. Since there was not that much competition for allocations and the licenses were cheap, the religious broadacsters got into the small markets early.

 

[amisdead]

A couple of follow-up thoughts. First, 660 doesn't cover any of the market with a usable signal except for maybe the Antelope Valley. Secondly, I am not doubting that Bakersfield could be a desirable market for their programming, what I can't figure out is why they are pairing two different, totally-unequal market stations together.

Why confuse so many LA and OC FM listeners with another station option none of them can even hear anyway? They aren't just naming Bakersfield at the top of the hour, it's every time the station name is mentioned.

Like I said before, if this was Fresno or Visalia I can understand the cost-saving simulcast, but this is Los Angeles (okay, Orange County).

 

[musicman3355]

The KWVE-FM signal is nearly worthless in Los Angeles, but covers Orange County.

In a car, I can get KWVE in the LA area, though its pretty weak. I can't get it at all on my walkman unless I'm near or in Orange County.

Anyway, its pretty useless promoting the 660 AM simulcast. Everytime I go to the 660 AM frequency, the station is KTNN Window Rock, AZ, which I'm pretty sure KTNN's signal go through most of the LA area including Orange County. No point of promoting the simulcast on an LA station if the frequency is already occupied.

 

[nmoore6676]

A couple of follow-up thoughts. First, 660 doesn't cover any of the market with a usable signal except for maybe the Antelope Valley. Secondly, I am not doubting that Bakersfield could be a desirable market for their programming, what I can't figure out is why they are pairing two different, totally-unequal market stations together.

Why confuse so many LA and OC FM listeners with another station option none of them can even hear anyway? They aren't just naming Bakersfield at the top of the hour, it's every time the station name is mentioned.

Like I said before, if this was Fresno or Visalia I can understand the cost-saving simulcast, but this is Los Angeles (okay, Orange County).

You answered your own question in the last sentence, "cost cutting". I suppose that they could just run the simulcast with distinct ID insertions, and they may as time goes by.

However the name of the game is expanding reach and unless Saul Levine finally throws in the towel on AM1260 and gets in a charitable mood or they can finagle to purchase KFWB there is no place to get a signal for LA county. So they have what they can get and are making the best of it.

We have a local 250 watt AM in Ottumwa Iowa that in their liners say that from highway 35 to the mighty Mississippi everyone has them cranked up. Well I don't think so, but it sounds good if you didn't understand the physics and distances.

 

[Neel]

I wish they would just give up the 107.9 frequency and put some new non-religious station on it. Wonder if that would ever happen (look at what happened to 96.3)...

 

[Tom Wells]

We have a local 250 watt AM in Ottumwa Iowa that in their liners say that from highway 35 to the mighty Mississippi everyone has them cranked up. Well I don't think so, but it sounds good if you didn't understand the physics and distances.

All depends on how you are listening and where. I used to listen to a 250 watter that was decent quality all the way from South Bend IN, around the bottom of Lake Michigan, and good up to Evanston Ill. Perhaps they mean IF you have an AM radio with a tuned RF amplifier ahead of the mixer and have managed to avoid RF-trash producing products ( and neighbors with such noisemakers ).

When I was looking for a house in 1993, I only looked in areas away from major power distribution lines and 3-phase service.
I settled in a place with a park across the street, bounded on its other side by the river, and as soon as I moved in, removed all the TV cable.
Then I called the cable company and told them to come remove the drop from house before I yanked it out of the distribution box.

I have repaired and replaced products in both next door neighbor's houses at my expense to keep things clean.

I'll bet that Ottumwa station sounds fine in Brighton and Washington "out on the farm".

 

[davideduardo]

I wish they would just give up the 107.9 frequency and put some new non-religious station on it. Wonder if that would ever happen (look at what happened to 96.3)...

96.3 is a viable LA metro signal with coverage similar to that of KROQ and KYSR. 107.9 is a deep OC signal, and there is no defined OC market, as many stations have learned.