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Pillar of Fire acquires Max Media Denver

david said:
...and radio thus becomes less and less interesting.
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How did these two stations help radio's interest level? They were two of the lowest rated FMs in town.

If a tree falls in a forest, and no one's around, does it make a sound? Who cares?

The story here is Pillar of Fire is spending money. Are they the new EMF? That's really all that matters,
 
TheBigA said:
The story here is Pillar of Fire is spending money. Are they the new EMF? That's really all that matters,
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I tend to doubt that they will be the new EMF. Pillar (as they call themselves on the air) has longstanding ties to Denver, and to Westminster in particular. Pillar has had KPOF(AM) since 1927. Pillar has previously stuck to areas where they have an institutional presence. This acquisition doesn't change that.

I suspect that one of these signals will be a KPOF simulcast (the 102.7 translator is at the KPOF transmitter site in Westminster rather than one on of the mountains west of Denver, which limits its coverage). KPOF isn't an exclusively preaching station; it does have some time periods with contemporary Christian music.

The boosters for each of the FM stations to be acquired (which are, essentially, rimshots otherwise) are in a little pocket of unincorporated Arapahoe County tucked in between Denver and Aurora off Iliff Avenue. They're pretty effective in east Denver; I don't know how well they do west of downtown.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
I find a craft market a hell of a lot more interesting than a Walmart.
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They were two of the lowest rated stations in Denver. Obviously very few people found them interesting. That's why they're gone.

Craft markets and beers and that kind of thing are all wonderful. But they need to attract enough customers to stay in business. Otherwise they go away. That's what happened here. People NEED to support local radio. They need to listen, they need to engage with those stations. When they don't, the stations become vulnerable to being sold to religious broadcasters.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Great. Now these bible thumpers have three stations in Denver occupying the commercial FM Band.
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Pillar of Fire isn't a "bible thumper" organization. They just hired a former EMF programmer. So they're more like a moderate AC station. And if you like that kind of thing, it's good for radio. The radio device is agnostic in terms of what it likes. So if people listen for religion, that is as good as if people listen for rock music. Either way is just fine for the radio. Also these are suburban rimshots. One station is an hour north of Denver, the other is 40 minutes away,
 
TheBigA said:
Pillar of Fire isn't a "bible thumper" organization. They just hired a former EMF programmer. So they're more like a moderate AC station.
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That may be where they go in the future, but there are some overtly right-wing political elements to the KPOF schedule (Cal Thomas, Focus on the Family). If they've got an ex-EMF programmer on board, I would anticipate that such programming would be cut back over time. Right now, KPOF is a mixture of music and spoken-word.

Pillar of Fire has had a history that's ugly, but they've repudiated it and have publicly asked for forgiveness.

TheBigA said:
And if you like that kind of thing, it's good for radio. The radio device is agnostic in terms of what it likes. So if people listen for religion, that is as good as if people listen for rock music. Either way is just fine for the radio. Also these are suburban rimshots. One station is an hour north of Denver, the other is 40 minutes away,
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Those are the main signals. As I mentioned upthread, each station has 20 kw boosters that are right on the east edge of Denver. One is licensed to Commerce City and the other to Aurora, but they are in the same physical location. The signal will do just fine in the city and its southern and eastern suburbs; to the northwest is where there will be deficiencies, but that's also where KPOF(AM) and its translator are located.
 
Mark Roberts said:
That may be where they go in the future, but there are some overtly right-wing political elements to the KPOF schedule (Cal Thomas, Focus on the Family).
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I'm familiar with Pillar's WAWZ Star 99.1, and that station is mostly CCM. They air Focus in fringe time (5AM or 11PM)

Program Schedule

Monday - Friday Collapse STAR 99.1 Music: MIDNIGHT - 5 AM Focus On The Family: 5 AM - 5:30 AM The Brant Hansen Show: 5:30 AM - 9 AM Skip Mahaffey: 9 AM - 11
star991.com star991.com
 
Denver, at least until recently has had one of the higher rated K-LOVE stations among the few that use ratings. There's clearly at least somewhat of a demand for the music. There's different variations of the format, some might want more variety in the music. K-LOVE is really safe because of its footprint. Some might want more Contemporary Worship, some might want to hear older songs mixed in. Some might want to hear some preaching added in. EMF actually does yearly concert events at Red Rocks. They did a Contemporary Worship event this year for Air1. It was packed.

KPOF has your general Christian preaching and music hybrid format. Most of it is nationally syndicated. I never was a huge fan but they have an engaged audience.

The Christian audience is one that still listens to radio, and that can be a variety of different people even though the music format is aimed at 40 something females.
 
TheBigA said:
What makes you think they will follow the AM format on these FMs rather than the Star FM format used in two other cities?
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That's not exactly what I wrote. I wrote that they might simulcast the AM on one of the stations. Remember that they are buying two signals. The AM station does have an FM translator but its coverage is quite limited. They could consider using something like their contemporary Christian format on the station that isn't simulcasting - or they could chose to do two different music-intensive formats. Moreover, I pivoted from your comment about a programmer coming from EMF to say that KPOF's future direction could well be different than it is today. While the contemporary Christian space could be getting crowded in Denver - EMF and Way FM are already here - the Christian preaching/political space is even more crowded, even if it's mostly on AM. At this juncture, anything either you or I will have to say about it is going to be speculation.
 
Some markets can handle a few of them. There was a period of time when Milwaukee had about 7 or 8 Christian stations. Entercom owned one of them, it ran preaching and Contemporary Worship. It was not their format but they waited 5 years before flipping it to Sports. It took over a year for the new format to bill as well as the Preaching did. Saga owned another, which ran CCM and more local preaching. It's all preaching now. They went fulltime preaching not long after Salem sold their stations in the market. It's also home to VCY's flagship and has a Family Radio signal.
 
JeremyAndrews said:
Some markets can handle a few of them. There was a period of time when Milwaukee had about 7 or 8 Christian stations. Entercom owned one of them, it ran preaching and Contemporary Worship. It was not their format but they waited 5 years before flipping it to Sports. It took over a year for the new format to bill as well as the Preaching did. Saga owned another, which ran CCM and more local preaching. It's all preaching now. They went fulltime preaching not long after Salem sold their stations in the market. It's also home to VCY's flagship and has a Family Radio signal.
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I'll just say that Pillar must be pretty confident in order to spend nearly $8 million. It's really a small operation. We shall see.
 
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