Why Is KTCK #1 While KRLD-FM Is #14 in Dallas?

[Gregg.]

KTCK, owned by Cumulus, is #1 in the Dallas ratings for both January and February 2023. It is on 96.7 FM, a rimshot frequency, with its tower in Rosston, about 30 miles north of Fort Worth and 40 miles northwest of Dallas. (It's squeezed between KSCS is at 96.3 and KEGL is at 97.1.) KTCK is also on AM 1310.

KRLD-FM, owned by Audacy, is a full Dallas signal, 100,000 watts at 105.3. It is the Cowboys and Rangers flagship station, with access to the players and coaches on both big teams. KTCK is the flagship for the Dallas Stars hockey team. Hockey in Dallas is probably not as big as football and baseball.

Maybe in Men's demographics, the stations are not that far apart. And this is hockey season, with baseball spring training only getting underway now and football season long over.

But with all of Audacy's experience in Sports Radio, it's odd that KTCK has almost double the listeners of KRLD-FM.

 

[AceBiscuits]

The teams are important, but also consider the personalities of the stations.

 

[chrocket87]

I’ve also been surprised by the success of KTCK, compared to KRLD, but more so in terms of billing. One would think the station with the Cowboys and Rangers would be the top billing station in the market, not the one airing the Stars.

Are there too many PBP network spots in place of what could be local advertising, or is something else at play here?

 

[salemjedi54]

KTCK, owned by Cumulus, is #1 in the Dallas ratings for both January and February 2023. It is on 96.7 FM, a rimshot frequency, with its tower in Rosston, about 30 miles north of Fort Worth and 40 miles northwest of Dallas. (It's squeezed between KSCS is at 96.3 and KEGL is at 97.1.) KTCK is also on AM 1310.

KRLD-FM, owned by Audacy, is a full Dallas signal, 100,000 watts at 105.3. It is the Cowboys and Rangers flagship station, with access to the players and coaches on both big teams. KTCK is the flagship for the Dallas Stars hockey team. Hockey in Dallas is probably not as big as football and baseball.

Maybe in Men's demographics, the stations are not that far apart. And this is hockey season, with baseball spring training only getting underway now and football season long over.

But with all of Audacy's experience in Sports Radio, it's odd that KTCK has almost double the listeners of KRLD-FM.

Well since The Ticket has been on the air since 1/24/1994 and The Fan has only been on the air I think for about 15 years give or take 1 or 2 years. KTCK had a head start on The Fan. 96.7/1310 has IMO better personalities and is more entertaining.

 

[Huff]

Maybe in Men's demographics, the stations are not that far apart. And this is hockey season, with baseball spring training only getting underway now and football season long over.

But with all of Audacy's experience in Sports Radio, it's odd that KTCK has almost double the listeners of KRLD-FM.

MEN 25-54
1. KTCK
2. KLNO 1.8 shares behind
3. KMVK 2.1 shares behind
4. KRLD-FM 2.7 shares behind
Not odd at all.. KTCK has tremendous heritage in its brand and personalities, and its figures also include listening for its stream, so signal isn't as much of a detriment as it might have been in the past.

 

[Will_H_69_9]

let's see, The Ticket has been around since 1994, making it the oldest station of the 3 sports/guy talk stations in town, The Fan was launched in 2008 to replace Live 105.3 which had already been transitioning to Sports by the middle of 2008, and the newest sports/guy talk station is The Freak, which launched last October after making the transition to sports from Hard Rock when they picked up a sports talk show in Ben & Skin in the afternoons and then picked up the radio rights to the Dallas Mavericks from the now defunct 103.3 ESPN Radio
The Ticket is a establish brand since 1994, been on 1310 AM for the entirety of it's time as a sports talk station, launched a simulcast on 1700 AM for Sherman at first, then launched 104.1 as it's FM home for a while, then gave up on 1700 and moved to a simulcast of KLIF, gave up the 104.1 slot and then took over 96.7 as the FM home when Cumulus felt that The Ticket need the FM dial location more then WBAP did when they ended the 820 AM/96.7 Simulcast in favor of the 96.7 FM/1310 AM simulcast.

meanwhile, The Fan launched at a time where their completion were 1310 The Ticket and ESPN Radio 103.3, they had a hard time establishing themselves but managed to make to almost 15 years while ESPN 103.3 died at the hands of Disney giving up on the radio industry and Cumulus taking over the station via LMA until they ended it and then Disney sold it to VCY America ending it's run as a sports talk station.

 

[davideduardo]

...and its figures also include listening for its stream, so signal isn't as much of a detriment as it might have been in the past.

We often forget to consider streams when analyzing stations with seemingly deficient signals.

 

[Antruiz]

"seemingly deficient signals"

They are, or are not, deficient.

 

[davideduardo]

"seemingly deficient signals"

They are, or are not, deficient.

No, not always. A good example would be a station targeting Black or Hispanic audiences which has less than a full market signal, but which is very strong over the HDHA and HDBA areas. Those "seem" deficient, but for their purpose, market and audience they are very viable.

And today, a "deficient signal" can be filled in via promotion for the stream and the use of SLR to actually be full-market stations.

 

[101tm]

No, not always. A good example would be a station targeting Black or Hispanic audiences which has less than a full market signal, but which is very strong over the HDHA and HDBA areas. Those "seem" deficient, but for their purpose, market and audience they are very viable.

And today, a "deficient signal" can be filled in via promotion for the stream and the use of SLR to actually be full-market stations.

This. And it’s especially obvious with translators. In (way smaller than Dallas) some markets in the southeast, it’s not uncommon to see Spanish language or especially urban formats on a translator do quite well on a translator signal, because in a lot of areas, the 250 watt translator covers the primary or largest areas where that community spends most of their time listening to the radio and in many cases working and spending money.

And on the flip side, that’s why you wouldn’t see country on a class A in downtown Dallas. By and large, country stations in most markets have thrived and been known for having strong signals with coverage outside of the immediate city areas of the market.

This can be one of the many reasons why you see stations/formats change signals on occasion to better align with their target audience.