What's up in Seattle?

Seems like things are a little too quite up there in the PNW. Book just dropped and no one is commenting, posting, boasting, or trashing? Wow the ratings are pretty much the same for the most part so I guess there really is not point in saying the same ol' same ol' - Well back to the technical shop talk about band width, tower location, 1.21 jig-a-watts, and why the hell don't we hear "kokomo" more and the rumored return Robin and Maynard on KXRX...C'mon on Seattle - you can do better!

Robert Biltmore Jennings said:

Seems like things are a little too quite up there in the PNW. Book just dropped and no one is commenting, posting, boasting, or trashing? Wow the ratings are pretty much the same for the most part so I guess there really is not point in saying the same ol' same ol' - Well back to the technical shop talk about band width, tower location, 1.21 jig-a-watts, and why the hell don't we hear "kokomo" more and the rumored return Robin and Maynard on KXRX...C'mon on Seattle - you can do better!

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If you want a brutally honest answer: Few people who want to talk about what's really going on in radio care about TV morning show anchors, DX reports or what happens in the San Juans or in Canada. The regulars in this forum have the same access to radio ratings as the local barista. If there is any discussion, the analysis commonly boils down to "corporate blah blah blah" (which is sometimes true).

This forum is only as strong as its contributors.

Well let me get something going. With the parents being away this week I've been staying up a little later than usual and just about every night I've been tuning into KOMO for news as well as my usual morning check in. I could maybe understand doing this on the weekends when they go to 24 7 news right after the 11 PM newscast on TV, but why do they do it during the week when Art Sanders comes right back on after the TV news is over?

Nothing going on. A minor tweak in a playlist or somebody flushing a toilet at Hubbard isn't anything to get excited over. But let's face it, radio is getting boring. Lots of other things happening (and when you think about it, when no one HERE is interested. It's time to get worried...)

When radio makes some REAL noise. Then we'll talk.

Because they're bleeding money, like any business that takes new on debt to pay off the price of the sale. I'm surprised Sinclair hasn't put it on the block yet. There is still no mention of Sinclair Broadcasting during the top of the hour ID. Art is probably being used as a board op at night, unfortunately, with less staff being used.

Does every station have to identify its owner at the top of the hour in your opinion, Blatherwatch? I only know of a handful of companies and stations that do. CC is starting to use an iHeart Radio Station at the top of the hour but only on some stations, with others saying it at other times, Townsquare is saying a Pop Crush radio station on their pop stations, Cumulus identifies themselves as a Cumulus station, but those are the only ones I can think of. There are of course a handful of others, but nothing every company does that I can think of.

They don't have to, it does seem however that Sinclair doesn't want their name associated with ray-dio. Fisher radio properties being the size they were, were promoted at least once an hour.

It's too bad, KOMO radio is the last of the newsradio's left around here and I don't see KIRO stepping up to fill the void if KOMO departs the newsradio scene.

AQH said:

If you want a brutally honest answer: Few people who want to talk about what's really going on in radio care about TV morning show anchors, DX reports or what happens in the San Juans or in Canada. The regulars in this forum have the same access to radio ratings as the local barista. If there is any discussion, the analysis commonly boils down to "corporate blah blah blah" (which is sometimes true).

This forum is only as strong as its contributors.

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Yep, I'd say you got it AQH!

AQH said:

If you want a brutally honest answer: Few people who want to talk about what's really going on in radio care about TV morning show anchors, DX reports or what happens in the San Juans or in Canada. The regulars in this forum have the same access to radio ratings as the local barista. If there is any discussion, the analysis commonly boils down to "corporate blah blah blah" (which is sometimes true).

This forum is only as strong as its contributors.

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You can always open a new thread for new topics to discuss

Uh, Dan Lewis is important! So is the new people on Q13.

DX reports are filler here - most of the time Seattle is a boring radio city.
And I'll give a report right now - about two blocks away from my house I can hear tropo scatter or knife edge reception from KIRO, KBKS, and KJAQ, almost 24 hours a day, across big mountains from here in Yakima. Pretty impressive - I can catch up on what music Jack wants to play.

-crainbebo

Since this board is a little quiet, here is a topic that I find to be important:

We've been without "The Mountain" for some time now, and I still am waiting for the day that AAA comes back to town. I recently rediscovered KINK 101.9 from Portland, and it has not left my car radio since. The signal is not great in the Tacoma area, but i'm more than willing to put up with the static to hear quality music. I think that KINK is actually a lot better than "The Mountain" was at the end of their lifespan, actually. I would love to see some sort of carbon copy KINK format permeate the Seattle airwaves; even a simulcast on a full power signal (Just like KWJJ in Portland simulcasts some programing from KKWF).

Bottom line: Enough with having to choose between listening to current country, boring classic rock, or pop on the FM dial.

SHHHHHHH!!!!!! You must NEVER suggest anything else but rhythmic pop, country or classic rock. Because these are the three trending formats in Peoria and Seattle MUST sound EXACTLY like those stations.

Classic rock seems to be going away in a few markets replaced with news-talk and sports. 96.5 in Orlando was WHTQ Classic Rock for a couple of decades before WDBO 580 bought them out and put a wasteful news-talk station on. AC is sort of the same thing. Minneapolis-St Paul STILL doesn't have an AC station. WLTE flipped to BUZN KMNB a couple of years ago (country) and then the Love 105 simulcast flipped to sports.

-crainbebo

Yes, because Chris Mays left the Mtn to become KINK' PD a few years before the end. The Mtn had a lot of decent talent left over from KXRX and other stations, as well. I don't see any of the clusters in Seattle stepping up to become AAA as it really needs a live, local airstaff to promote local music and in studio big name interviews/performances with a "lounge"
KEXP attempts to do this but it is oh, so Gen X and twice as smarmy to be listenable.

Blatherwatch said:

Yes, because Chris Mays left the Mtn to become KINK' PD a few years before the end. The Mtn had a lot of decent talent left over from KXRX and other stations, as well. I don't see any of the clusters in Seattle stepping up to become AAA as it really needs a live, local airstaff to promote local music and in studio big name interviews/performances with a "lounge"
KEXP attempts to do this but it is oh, so Gen X and twice as smarmy to be listenable.

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KEXP is very good musically. But I agree on the smarminess. Yes, they play a great selection, but so does several other non-com radio stations you can get on the internet. The way KEXP promotes itself, you'd swear they were the ONLY hipster format non-com radio station in the world. There are days I would be in Seattle, hear the KEXP staff gushing over their station and run screaming to my iPhone to plug it in and listen to WFMU or Triple J.

I miss KCMU.

As I have stated in this board before, Country music is HUGE among teenagers and young adults today. Perhaps that explains why we have an upwards of eight country music signals serving the Puget Sound area.

Maybe I should just move to Portland and try to get a job at Alpha Broadcasting/KINK

8? I can only count 7, and of those only 4 could be considered viable as Seattle stations, and only 2 are actually targeting Seattle. We've got KMPS and KKWF which serve the metro, but that's about it. KANY, though able to serve as a Seattle rimshot, is still targeting the coast, and KAPS serves the north end with a decent signal into Seattle's northern subburbs, but that's not where the audience is. Of the others, KGY-FM's signal doesn't make it viable to target Seattle, and KXXK and KMNT are only DX signals in most of the Seattle market.

fordranger797 said:

As I have stated in this board before, Country music is HUGE among teenagers and young adults today. Perhaps that explains why we have an upwards of eight country music signals serving the Puget Sound area.

Maybe I should just move to Portland and try to get a job at Alpha Broadcasting/KINK

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Well I typed up a larger response then thought differently. It could be dumb luck or just dumb programming that has this area with that many country (and western) stations.

Radio is in trouble,duh! Talk radio is going to shrink even further, Rush helped that along with sponsors now pulling out of most controversial talk programming. All or most of progressive talk moved to online feeds--conservative talk may have a hard time transitioning to this as most of their base just isn't tech savvy. If you think Seattle is an oddball with radio programming, I don't think Portland is any better. Sure it has Alpha, they are pretty aggressive and hire the right people but they too have lots of red programming in a blue city. Lars Larson and several country stations in a city that out votes the rest of Oregon , but they too have corporate clusters that do the same G'D thing elsewhere, which makes for crappy radio. Now that Fisher is gone, what will happen to KOMO FM which is leased as I understand it. Maybe the half owner will use his programing from the coast for a Seattle/Tacoma footprint.

Since KOMO's new owners seem to be masters at the LMA, I don't see anything happening with 97.7. I would be interested to see what happens with 93.7. According to the article on Radio Insight earlier this week, Bill W registered bigfoot1073.com for what is currently 107.9 KLSY. He also registered 1039thequake.com for the Classic Rock format, but I'm not sure how that would work out since 103.9 is a translator. I wonder who will get 93.7? Could it maybe be used to simulcast 710? Maybe one of the other am stations in the market?

bobdavcav said:

Since KOMO's new owners seem to be masters at the LMA, I don't see anything happening with 97.7. I would be interested to see what happens with 93.7. According to the article on Radio Insight earlier this week, Bill W registered bigfoot1073.com for what is currently 107.9 KLSY. He also registered 1039thequake.com for the Classic Rock format, but I'm not sure how that would work out since 103.9 is a translator. I wonder who will get 93.7? Could it maybe be used to simulcast 710? Maybe one of the other am stations in the market?

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Ugh.. why do we need a simulcast for KIRO-AM?