Bigger NYC Signal For K-Love On The Horizon?

This week, EMF will be moving their K-Love format to 97.9 FM from rimshot 94.3 FM. EMF purchased 97.9 FM from Merlin Media after bankruptcy-protection Cumulus canceled their plans to buy the signal.

Anyone think EMF will seek a more reliable city-grade signal for its K-Love format than 96.7 in Port Chester? After moving K-Love to the new signal, they could easily plug in their other network Air1 which is what they are doing at 94.3 in Chicago when the dust settles.

Probably! With stock piles of cash, EMF has the power to buy any signal they desire at the right price.

99.5

Not for sale!

Isn't 97.9 FM is La Mega NY?

TVCOOL said:

Isn't 97.9 FM is La Mega NY?

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The original poster is referring to Chicago.

EMF seems to have made somewhat of a strategy shift as evidenced by their big ticket purchases of full powered signals recently in Los Angeles and now Chicago. I would not be surprised to see them make a move in NYC to upgrade their coverage.

As it is, DM, WKLV is tied with huge-signalled WABC in the latest ratings. Plus they have twice the numbers as the huge WAWZ 99.1

Of course, those are beauty-pageant numbers. But considering their current iffy signal, one does have to wonder what K-Love would do on, say, a 102.7 or a 93.1.

I'm no big fan of the format, and I certainly don't consider myself 'religious' (seven years of nuns who teach you everything well BUT religion tend to cause that apathy :- ) But I do know some non-radio people up this way who tend to have on one or two of the area's Contemporary Christian stations for the bulk of their listening, at home or in the car. One of them enjoys the music in a default way; the other enjoys the music and the message.

How a Class B signal for WKLV would go over in the Five Boroughs proper is anyone's guess, though. Those five small but densely populated places have truly diverse tastes and backgrounds.

Steve, remember for EMF since they are non commercial, it’s never about the ratings. It’s about donations, and having a larger audience through a bigger signal gives them the ability to grow a larger base of supporters. Their ratings are better than Star because WAWZ has a suburban NJ signal that doesn’t cover as much of the NY Metro area. I would imagine Star does significantly better in the New Jersey suburbs than K-Love. If K-Love were to acquire a full market signal, they could always move their Air 1 programming to the Westchester signal.

Wild card #1. I saw something on Billboard.com that Univision might be selling. Maybe EMF will buy Univision's NYC stations and K-LOVE goes to 96.3, their existing 96.7 flips to Air-1, 92.7 becomes a simulcast of 96.7, and then they would sell or donate 1280.

Wild card #2. I'm not saying it will happen, but maybe Cumulus will decide to sell all their stations. If they sell their NYC stations individually rather than as a cluster might EMF buy 94.7 or 95.5 for K-Love, using their existing 96.7 for Air-1?

Wild card #3. What if EMF buys the NYC Cumulus cluster? 95.5 can be used for K-Love, 94.7 for Air-1, and then they would sell their existing 96.7 FM and sell 770.

Points taken, David and DMarg. I * am * a bit curious, though, as to why K-Love's management subscribes to 'the book' in the first place if they didn't consider ratings to be a factor. A bigger signal would = bigger numbers, more publicized appeal, more donations in the collection basket, and so forth.

And that present 96.7 signal is no peanut whistle, either! I idly got them on an average AM-FM radio in my little Topaz while driving through Port Jervis once, a few years back. I'd been looking for Jervis's WTSX on that frequency. WTSX had moved their facilities and was off for a few days. A fluttering K-Love and one other unID station came in, instead.

Seems to me that these K-Love management folks would quite enjoy a bigger public 'visibility' on a bigger NYC frequency vis-a-vis the ratings.

DavidEduardo said:

They buy ratings in selected markets, and I am assuming (that is, a guess) that the rate for non-commercial stations is low enough for them to buy in order to use the data to supplement in-house proprietary research on programming.

While listener supported, EMF strives very hard to produce a good on-air product.

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EMF only recently started buying the ratings in Portland. I would say that it's been within the last year. We've had a full Class C1 for a few years after about 20 years of translators and an AM before that.

Whatever happens now, EMF is likely to add a decent NYC signal at some point in the somewhat near future. Their purchase in Chicago shows they are serious about offering their product on credible signals in the largest markets.

MarcB said:

Wild card #1. I saw something on Billboard.com that Univision might be selling. Maybe EMF will buy Univision's NYC stations and K-LOVE goes to 96.3, their existing 96.7 flips to Air-1, 92.7 becomes a simulcast of 96.7, and then they would sell or donate 1280.

Wild card #2. I'm not saying it will happen, but maybe Cumulus will decide to sell all their stations. If they sell their NYC stations individually rather than as a cluster might EMF buy 94.7 or 95.5 for K-Love, using their existing 96.7 for Air-1?

Wild card #3. What if EMF buys the NYC Cumulus cluster? 95.5 can be used for K-Love, 94.7 for Air-1, and then they would sell their existing 96.7 FM and sell 770.

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I don't think Cumulus will sell additional stations, because it's not a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Cumulus' New York cluster also includes 103.9, albeit a rimshot signal. WBAI, given Pacifica's financial problems with ESRT could be another likely acquisition target if EMF is looking to move K-Love to a stronger signal. I know Fybush mentioned that Entercom, Cumulus, Emmis, and Univision could be other potential bidders for WBAI. Out of those bidders, Entercom would be the most likely other bidder if WBAI ends up in a bankruptcy auction.