WILL AM 830 KLAA EVER GET RATINGS?

[SuperRadioFan]

OK radio pros.... That's my question. I thought about asking it even before Don Barrett's open letter to Arte Moreno (owner of KLAA and the Angels) in today's LARadio.com. Given their signal limitations in many parts of Los Angeles County, Don suggested to Arte to find an FM station to carry the Angels games for next season in addition to the "flagship" station of the Angels next year AM 830 KLAA.

So I ask the question will they EVER show up in a book or trend? How will the coming PPM impact ratings, if any, for them? We all know hockey radio broadcasts here in SoCal do zilch for ratings but what about Major League Baseball? In every market that has a major league baseball team, are there any "flagship" radio stations that have no ratings? Aside from hockey and baseball and now some NFL games (Sundays and Monday night), KLAA does carry some recognizable talk show hosts --- Glenn Beck 6 - 9 am and Michael Savage 3 - 6 pm. Then there's the dreadful infomercials and brokered programming that populate the balance of the schedule. It's curious to me, given Arte Moreno's fortune being made mostly from billboards, why you see no billboards advertising KLAA anywhere. Also their transmitter is in Norco (Riverside-San Bernardino market??) and their City of License is Orange (LA Metro market). Which market do they belong to? Or both? So do you think they will ever achieve ratings?

If YOU were the PD, what changes if any would you make to get a 50kw D, 20kw - N DA in the ratings book some way somehow?

 

[Shoot From Hip]

* Their billboards are easily mistaken for Angels billboards. That's why you don't recall seeing them.
* Until the programming (across the board) is where they want it, it's not smart to promote the station. People tend not to give you a second chance if they don't like what they find on first listen. The drive time syndicated shows you reference are going to have an uphill battle against local and already-engrained national shows...a challenge only made more difficult by the infomercials that separate them.
* No station can depend on ratings for play-by-play sports. Even the biggest draw in town...the Lakers...generates little more than a blip for KLAC due to TV saturation. If KLAC's getting only a blip for Lakers, how do you suppose hockey rates?
* Don's right-- the KLAA signal at night in the west San Fernando Valley/Conejo Valley is almost as tough to hear as KFWB's Dodger broadcasts.
* Which market they belong to is irrelevant. They're free to position themselves however they see fit. City of Orange, by the way, is inside the LA Metro, and given that LA is the largest revenue market in the country, where would you position yourself?

 

[nmoore6676]

When I was a kid in Ohio, the Cincinnati Reds "flagship" station was WKRC (5kwDay / 1kwNight). They had a network of local stations in the surrounding cities (like Dayton and Columbus) and you could hear the games wherever, just changing the dial if you were driving to the best available signal. It was good for the fans and good for the local stations who could sell the local avails to their community businesses at good rates.

I don't see this exclusive market situation that you have here, though the Red's games are now on WLW. I don't know if they still have local stations picking up the games. Of course WLW is a strong signal at 700 with 50KW unlimited and non-directional so it covers most of Ohio as well as Indiana and Kentucky for the areas where they consider themselves Reds fans. Here the only comparable strong signal is KFI which I don't think is interested in either The Angels or The Dodgers.

 

[Shoot From Hip]

When I was a kid in Ohio, the Cincinnati Reds "flagship" station was WKRC (5kwDay / 1kwNight). They had a network of local stations in the surrounding cities (like Dayton and Columbus) and you could hear the games wherever, just changing the dial if you were driving to the best available signal. It was good for the fans and good for the local stations who could sell the local avails to their community businesses at good rates.

I don't see this exclusive market situation that you have here, though the Red's games are now on WLW. I don't know if they still have local stations picking up the games. Of course WLW is a strong signal at 700 with 50KW unlimited and non-directional so it covers most of Ohio as well as Indiana and Kentucky for the areas where they consider themselves Reds fans. Here the only comparable strong signal is KFI which I don't think is interested in either The Angels or The Dodgers.

Back in those days, KABC was generating double-digit ratings in large part due to being the Dodgers flagship. Twenty years ago, baseball was an exclusive to a station. Now, there's TV, Cable, Satellite, Internet, Wireless...not just of your team, but of every other team playing if you choose to pay the freight. If the flagship isn't generating the kind of ratings and/or revenue that baseball used to generate, how tough is it to convince a station in an outlying area to become an affiliate if they can't generate ratings or revenue from it.

 

[ajhenderson]

So I ask the question will they EVER show up in a book or trend? How will the coming PPM impact ratings, if any, for them? We all know hockey radio broadcasts here in SoCal do zilch for ratings but what about Major League Baseball? In every market that has a major league baseball team, are there any "flagship" radio stations that have no ratings? Aside from hockey and baseball and now some NFL games (Sundays and Monday night), KLAA does carry some recognizable talk show hosts --- Glenn Beck 6 - 9 am and Michael Savage 3 - 6 pm. Then there's the dreadful infomercials and brokered programming that populate the balance of the schedule. It's curious to me, given Arte Moreno's fortune being made mostly from billboards, why you see no billboards advertising KLAA anywhere. Also their transmitter is in Norco (Riverside-San Bernardino market??) and their City of License is Orange (LA Metro market). Which market do they belong to? Or both? So do you think they will ever achieve ratings?

If YOU were the PD, what changes if any would you make to get a 50kw D, 20kw - N DA in the ratings book some way somehow?

The PD is basically a moot point. They aren't going to give up the infomercials until they can get everything in place (all Spanish gone, Angels in English). So, you won't get anything until next Spring at the earliest. Michael Savage, who may do well nationally, never did well in this market. Between Leykis and John and Ken, he gets clobbered, particularly seeing how J&K are among the best on the immigration issue, which Savage is a big proponent of.

While we're talking to the PD, how about some #*@*ing news? One minute of NBC, which populates fifth-tier stations nationally, at TOH is insufficient. You're left with people tuning to KFI, KABC, KRLA, KFWB, KNX, et al, to get news and miss their five-minute stopsets where they play the same spot on how to search for gold over and over ad nauseum since they have no local spots. Until one of the half-dozen or so sales people over there can bring in dime one, how about at least a full-length network cast like CNN, at TOH AND BOH.

And, while the question was answered, the determining factor for which market one is in is COL. So Orange, being part of Orange County, makes the station an LA station (BTW, the tower is in Chino, not Norco). Of course, that's a mere formality for radio people. If you can hear a station, what listener cares? Just like a station licensed within a metro that covers very little of it. If KSPA gets its 50kW upgrade, for example, wouldn't it cater to its newly enlarged LA County audience? (Of course, Ontario isn't in the general R-SB market either)

 

[XRQKFM]

Where KLAA's signal out performs the rest of the L.A signals is in northern Los Angeles County, and the High and Low Desert, it has the next best L.A. signal to 710AM in Bakersfiled & Ridgecrest. it blows KNX away, KNX is really in the mud up here for a 50kw ND signal. even 1260 blows it away up here.
At one time when 830 AM was 2500 watt KPLS they had clean splatter free signal right under the 850 AM towers in Thousand Oaks, one would think the 50kw ND increase would improve the signal there.
If you can't get 830 AM in Southern California, It's time for a new Radio. Even with my cheap aftermarket Jensen radio, I have yet to find a location where I can't get a good signal.

Steve
www.avnewstalk.com

 

[davideduardo]

Where KLAA's signal out performs the rest of the L.A signals is in northern Los Angeles County, and the High and Low Desert, it has the next best L.A. signal to 710AM in Bakersfiled & Ridgecrest. it blows KNX away, KNX is really in the mud up here for a 50kw ND signal. even 1260 blows it away up here.
If you can't get 830 AM in Southern California, It's time for a new Radio. Even with my cheap aftermarket Jensen radio, I have yet to find a location where I can't get a good signal.

A lot of diary analysis has shown that LA area AMs do not get much listening outside the 10 mv/m contour, and most is in the 15 mv/m contour. This has a lot to do with being able to overcome man-made noise.

KLAA has a daytime 10 mv/m that is south of Hollywood to the north, and around Laguna Beach to the south. Nights, it's interference free barely makes the downtown LA area to the north.

The Antelope Valley coverage misses most of the population; there is not even a daytime 5 mv/m over Lancaster, but the noise there is lower. So the potential for much audience there is limited by signal, and the fact that the area is only a tiny part of the LA MSA population.

For the average in home or at work listener, the usable area is the SGV, and the area south of downtown LA to the lower OC. And nights are even more restricted. It is not a viable LA market signal.

 

[Shoot From Hip]

Quote from: XRQKFM on Today at 12:12:22 pm
Where KLAA's signal out performs the rest of the L.A signals is in northern Los Angeles County, and the High and Low Desert, it has the next best L.A. signal to 710AM in Bakersfiled & Ridgecrest. it blows KNX away, KNX is really in the mud up here for a 50kw ND signal. even 1260 blows it away up here.
If you can't get 830 AM in Southern California, It's time for a new Radio. Even with my cheap aftermarket Jensen radio, I have yet to find a location where I can't get a good signal.


Perhaps a drive through the LA Metro...particularly west San Fernando Valley and along Pacific Coast Highway...would give you a different impression. Especially at dusk and after dark....which is when most Angels games are played.

 

[ajhenderson]

So, David, considering your comments here on 830's signal, what is your opinion of the $42 mil Moreno paid for it? Way to much? A little too much? I don't know what Radiovisa billed, but I presume it was insignificant and that the purchase price was basically stick value. Yes/no?