radioinsight.com is reporting 980 The Beast for sports is coming and most likely add cbs sports network
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980 KFWB Am flipping?
- Thread starter jasonharper2013
- Start date
Anyone remember those awful "101 Things to do With a Dead Cat" books from long ago? I think we should ask for suggestions and do a "101 Things to do with a Dead AM Station" volume.
If true, I'm guessing it's a pre-emptive move to keep KABC from being able to turn their Kings deal into a full-fledged sports station, or at least make it harder.
.... and the Southern California radio industry holds its collective breath
At least the cat haters were able to come up with 101 reasons. Not sure we'll get a fraction of that for Dead AMs...
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FredLeonard
Guest
Shouldn't the headline read "KFWB is slipping?"
Sad week. First KHJ and now KFWB. Which historic station will be next? Possibly the station previously known as KECA.
Sad week. First KHJ and now KFWB. Which historic station will be next? Possibly the station previously known as KECA.
I'm still not clear on how this is sad. Maybe if you were a listener to KHJ's "La Ranchera" format or to the hodge-podge that KFWB has been, but if you're not, where's the loss?
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FredLeonard
Guest
The loss is not between last month and next month on these stations. It's compared to what these stations once were. OK, it was a long time ago for some but it still represents a long way down. Yes, they were already most of the way down already. This is just a reminder.
It's all about perspective. Going all-sports is probably a step up for KFWB. It keeps the station broadcasting in English (not that broadcasting in another language is a bad thing).
KHJ has had a largely successful 25-year run en Espanol. It only had 15 years as a Top 40 and only about 11 of those were good years.
These are moves that increase the possibility the stations will remain on the air...because eventually, we're going to see some weaker AM signals simply go dark.
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FredLeonard
Guest
Given the track record of AM stations in other markets that operate as turnkey with the CBS Sports Network feed, they might as well go silent. Not that sports talk is much of a factor in the LA market to begin with but what can you expect with no local-live sports talk station.
KFWB's current 0.2 ties it for next to last with last-place Spanish-language KTNQ and Pacifica's KPFK-FM. Only KMZT, a classical AM, gets a worse number.
So, given the realities of the signal in the market (it's not 1958 anymore), what would you do with KFBK that would be better?
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FredLeonard
Guest
There's nothing better to do. It's too late to do anything. AM stations can hold onto an audience (for the time being). Getting an audience is almost impossible. So, CBS gets a clearance in LA for their sports network. They can run the station as a computer in a closet and maybe see some black ink (some advertisers will buy sports talk whether anybody listens or not). Maybe they can get some cash for KFWB from some preacher.
I guess history doesn't interest you much. For me it's a shame to see "how the mighty have fallen." And it's a shame how management botched a good thing in all news radio on the station.
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More than that, getting an audience with an AM with limited coverage is even more impossible. While KFWB is not quite as bad as KABC signal-wise (KABC is directional at night) it still misses much of the market and is subject to the area's high man-made interference levels more than ever.
Add to that the fact that the market is 45% Hispanic, 7% African American and 12% Asian as well as another 12% first generation immigrants who don't fit in any of the other ethnic categories (such as Persians and Russians), and you have a diversity that seriously affects what can be successful on AM other than ethnic programming itself.
CBS has KFWB parked in a blind trust, as it is capped out on station count in LA. They already have 5 FMs and can acquire no more. Two TVs and one AM makes 8.
They did not botch it. There was simply not enough audience for all-news when that format was abandoned. Due in part to the aforementioned ethnic composition as well as the lower performance of all-news everywhere in the sunbelt, CBS was getting less than a 2 share on KFWB and just over a 2 with bigger signaled KNX. Both were very expensive and not particularly profitable... but to their credit, KFWB did a great job right to the end.
Even I, who was the PD of 930 for a number of years, am not sad about its loss...
History interests me greatly, as most people on this board know. But in the case of KFWB and KHJ, the mighty fell decades ago (there are those in their 60s who believe it happened for KFWB in 1968, when they went all-news).
Hard to argue that management botched a good thing. When Group W and CBS merged, CBS had two all-news stations, one with a full city-grade signal (KNX) and one without (KFWB). They wisely made KNX their news station and looked for alternatives for KFWB, which hadn't beaten KNX since 1994 and hadn't seen a 2 share since 1998.
Demographics, the sprawl of Southern California and the increase in electrical interference make it unlikely to impossible for an AM other than KFI or KNX to do well with a mainstream format. They're the only ones with signals strong enough to cover the metro.
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FredLeonard
Guest
Anywhere close to a two is probably looking pretty good about now. Heck, left of the decimal is looking good.
And KNX alone is not getting anywhere close to what the two stations got together. It's getting about what it got before. Looks like CBS just tossed away almost half of the all news audience.
A two share, if all loaded in 25-54 will get sales. But a 2 share that is mostly 55+ in LA will not sell at all. In general, stations below around a 2.5 share 12+ in LA are going to have a harder time. And that means the top 15 to 16 stations, which together have about 55% of the total audience... buyers don't have to go much deeper.
As it stands today, KNX is about 15th on 12+, but lower than 30th in 25-54. A tough sell in LA today.
The news audience was eroding rapidly in LA, and the PPM reduced the total share considerably, too. While there had been 6 to 7 shares in the early to mid-90's, the total was down to under 4 shares by the time KFWB had pulled the plug. Generally, when a station leaves a format, the remaining station or stations only see about half the shares going to them... the rest are dispersed in the market... and KNX added about 0.8 when KFWB disappeared which is true to the norm for such situations.
KLAC comes close, but even the great propagation of 570 can't make the signal totally usable in the farther reaches of the market, like the Antilope Valley, western San Fernando Valley and the southernmost parts of the OC.
After that, nobody has nearly a good enough signal to be fully competitive.
If KFWB flips,that will be the fourth all sports station in LA. How small can you slice the pie? I can't imagine KFWB's .02 share will increase. WIP in Philly is a full time CBS Sports affiliate and they routinely get no higher than a .1 or a .2. Of course they are up against two FM signals. Surprising there is no FM Sports talker in LA. It's one of the few major markets without one.
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