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iHeart's Birsmarck 50 kW AM gets defanged

J

joebtsflk1

Star Participant
Northpine.com reports that KXMR 710, the Fox sports outlet in Bismarck is applying to rid itself of a separate day-only 50 kW (13 kW critical hours) transmit site and will operate full time from its 4 kW night time site.

Seems like a good business decision. If you can't sell the coverage, and if you don't have to cut through the chaff of a major metro, why burn through a bunch of kilowatt-hours?
 
Needless to say the ground conductivity is amazing in North Dakota. At 4kw, I bet they can cover most of the state.
 
I heard them a couple times when their 50KW was left on at night. Walloped KIRO to shreds. I still have a clip somewhere of the TOH ID.
 
I agree on the money part, the 50 kw signal mainly blasted up into Canada, and I'm guessing they don't make any money off of Canadian listeners.

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=KXMR-AM&h=N

This link shows the night coverage area, they will now base daytime off this same directional signal. I assume it will reach the whole state during the day. Since I'm originally from southwest North Dakota I'll have to check it out when I go back home.
 
I don't know how much the outer area and Canada might play in billing. I can tell you Canada is major to stations near the border. Some even have offices on both sides of the border. From some of my listening in those 'not too far' from the border stations, it seems half the spots were from Canada.

Back when KFYR in Bismarck was playing music (before Clear Channel), their ample commercial load seemed to be about 1/3rd from outside Bismarck/Mandan. KFYR covered the state and then some. Almost any town festival anywhere in the state bought ads on KFYR to promote the event. Lots of advertisers looking for more than just local customers bought advertising too. Everyone throughout the state knew of KFYR and many listened. It was amazing.

I suppose it had to do with the lack of population. I suppose if Bismarck was 10 times the population, they might not need those outlying dollars. The same would go for those small towns near the Canadian border. And I must consider a town of 2,000 or more is few and far between in that region. That means few advertising options as well for those in more rural communities.
 
b-turner said:
I don't know how much the outer area and Canada might play in billing. I can tell you Canada is major to stations near the border. Some even have offices on both sides of the border. From some of my listening in those 'not too far' from the border stations, it seems half the spots were from Canada.

Back when KFYR in Bismarck was playing music (before Clear Channel), their ample commercial load seemed to be about 1/3rd from outside Bismarck/Mandan. KFYR covered the state and then some. Almost any town festival anywhere in the state bought ads on KFYR to promote the event. Lots of advertisers looking for more than just local customers bought advertising too. Everyone throughout the state knew of KFYR and many listened. It was amazing.

I suppose it had to do with the lack of population. I suppose if Bismarck was 10 times the population, they might not need those outlying dollars. The same would go for those small towns near the Canadian border. And I must consider a town of 2,000 or more is few and far between in that region. That means few advertising options as well for those in more rural communities.
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I believe that tax laws in Canada do not permit the deduction as a business expense of advertising placed on US stations.

In any event, as more and more stations have appeared in the Dakotas over the years, the effect of great coverage by stations like KFYR and WNAX. More and more of their revenue is local, with the exception of farm and agriculture programming. And with the Internet, farmers are less in need of radio to get crop pricing, long range weather and other vital data.

And KXMR, as an all sports station, would not be benefiting from any agribusiness. And any Canadians would have little interest in the ESPN sports content.

It's very likely that the revenue generated by the higher power station did not compensate for the expenses, particularly since this one had two transmitter sites. And, as KFYR proves, 5 kw on a low dial position is quite satisfactory to reach the potential ad market.
 
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DavidEduardo said:


I believe that tax laws in Canada do not permit the deduction as a business expense of advertising placed on US stations.
Click to expand...

I remember that tax law change affecting KCND-TV in Pembina in my youthful days living in Grand Forks ND. KCND became CKND.
 
DavidEduardo said:


I believe that tax laws in Canada do not permit the deduction as a business expense of advertising placed on US stations.

In any event, as more and more stations have appeared in the Dakotas over the years, the effect of great coverage by stations like KFYR and WNAX. More and more of their revenue is local, with the exception of farm and agriculture programming. And with the Internet, farmers are less in need of radio to get crop pricing, long range weather and other vital data.

And KXMR, as an all sports station, would not be benefiting from any agribusiness. And any Canadians would have little interest in the ESPN sports content.

It's very likely that the revenue generated by the higher power station did not compensate for the expenses, particularly since this one had two transmitter sites. And, as KFYR proves, 5 kw on a low dial position is quite satisfactory to reach the potential ad market.
Click to expand...

It hasn't been ESPN in a few years, it is currently Fox Sports Radio with a few shows from KFAN in Minneapolis during the day. But the argument would be the same, unless there are fans of Minnesota sports in that listening area, they wouldn't have much reason to listen.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Canadians would have little interest in the ESPN sports content.

t.
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Actually, my experience primarily from a couple of decades of doing business in Canada is somewhat contrary. The level of interest in American major professional and college sports is quite high. For example, it's usually as easy to find talk NCAA or NFL football with a knowledgeable Canadian fan there as it is here. And as for radio programming, there are large market sports talk stations in Canada that run ESPN or other U.S. sports network shows overnight. CFGO in Ottawa and CFAC in Calgary being two stations that come to mind.

This is not to say, however, that there's any significant interest on the part of listeners or advertisers in having distant US signals from sports talk stations available across the border. 100% American content 24/7 absolutely wouldn't fly in Canada. And if we're talking about the KXMR drop in daytime power and critical hours power from 50/13kw down to 4kw, is more than enough to cover their market. And for that matter most, if not all, of the state. 100% agree that it makes perfect sense from a business standpoint.
 
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cyberdad said:
Actually, my experience primarily from a couple of decades of doing business in Canada is somewhat contrary. The level of interest in American major professional and college sports is quite high. For example, it's usually as easy to find talk NCAA or NFL football with a knowledgeable Canadian fan there as it is here. And as for radio programming, there are large market sports talk stations in Canada that run ESPN or other U.S. sports network shows overnight. CFGO in Ottawa and CFAC in Calgary being two stations that come to mind..
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Good observation. My point was that, given the very low ratings ESPN or, worse, Fox Sports gets in most US markets, I'd assume even fewer listeners in Manitoba would be interested.
 
DavidEduardo said:


My point was that, given the very low ratings ESPN or, worse, Fox Sports gets in most US markets, I'd assume even fewer listeners in Manitoba would be interested.
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Oh, you're absolutely right. And as I'm sure you're aware, the cost-cutting at the major Canadian group broadcasters is particularly endemic on what's left of the AM band up there, not unlike here. Thus, I'd categorize tapping into American overnight sports talk as basically "cheap filler". Canadians' interest in most American sporting events notwithstanding.
 
DavidEduardo said:


I believe that tax laws in Canada do not permit the deduction as a business expense of advertising placed on US stations.

\.
Click to expand...


I though NAFTA pretty much did away with a lot of "border" taxes. My former neighbor use to buy his prescriptions thru the mail from Canada. Canada and the US still have the AM channel assignments but that was done thru a treaty IIRC.
 
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