jasonharper2013
Leading Participant
Radioinsight is reporting it coming to los Angeles and first time in 2 decades that kost fm will have another station going head to head my guess it is 94.7
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Lite FM Coming?
- Thread starter jasonharper2013
- Start date
only1moore
Star Participant
It looks like it won’t be 94.7. Indications are pointing to 105.1 based on the ratings and revenue.
jasonharper2013
Leading Participant
Thanks can pick up it up in hd most likely flip around Memorial Day weekend
SuperRadioFan
Star Participant
Well I'd say the makers of Ambien should be worried
LKellerIII
Walk of Fame Participant
Not sure this analogizes well to KOST, since I haven't heard the station in years. But in the Bay Area, our "Light Rock/Less Talk" station of three plus decades, KOIT (Bonneville, then more recently Entercom) had morphed into pretty much a straight-on AOR station...in the 70s, it probably would be called "chicken rock" - top 40 with the few harder edged rock tunes deleted. So iHeart responded by flipping their "Old School" station into a traditional 80s style "Lite Rock" station 98.1 The Breeze. Personally, I think it's awful, but it seems to be doing well in the ratings (6 and up, in any case), and is currently rated higher than KOIT.
So at least here in the Bay Area, there seems to be a market for this genre.
KTWV is top 10 in 25-54.
The lower performing non-iHeart stations are KXOS, KAMP, KROQ, KKGO.
Format changes are very costly; you lose most of not all the billing and it takes nearly a year to get back to where you were before if the format works.
KXOS has been rumored to be in play. Long shot.
KKGO has solid revenue, low costs and a big profit. Saul is not known for going into formats where there is a competitive fight. He likes profitable niche formats.
KROQ is billing well, but losing to KYSR and losing revenue.
KAMP is lowest on the totem pole at Entercom in ratings and revenue. If they can't hit iHeart on the young end, take the upper end. But that leaves Entercom with a cluster almost entirely made up of the older end of 25-54.
When was KOIT an album rocker? I thought it was always some form of AC following the Beautiful Music era?
There is a difference between the ad market and the listener market, particularly when age is factored in
It's 6th or 7th in 25-54 which is very salable, but the fact that it is 3rd in 35-64 will make many advertisers look at it as a very senior demo station. It will likely not perform commensurate with its 12+ numbers; last year it billed less than its last full year in the rhythmic Kiss format... and that is after a nearly 9 month lead in during 2016 to "warm up" the format and the advertisers.
praiselightmedia
New Participating Member
I sincerely hope KXOS gets the flip. There are so many redundancies on LA radio, though. Maybe an owner is picking off one of the duplicate genres in favour of another duplicate genre.
Can anyone say Lite105-9 or 93.1-The Lite of Los Angeles? Probably not. But I hope that whatever station flips, they also bring a rich offering of HD subchannels! KTWV is so similar to KOST already that it wouldn't mean much of a switch - maybe that's what Lance means when he station KOST's first direct competitor over two decades.
Time will tell..
Can anyone say Lite105-9 or 93.1-The Lite of Los Angeles? Probably not. But I hope that whatever station flips, they also bring a rich offering of HD subchannels! KTWV is so similar to KOST already that it wouldn't mean much of a switch - maybe that's what Lance means when he station KOST's first direct competitor over two decades.
Time will tell..
praiselightmedia
New Participating Member
Of note, KKGO 105.1 was testing a 4th HD signal the other day with HD 1 programming. They have also been tweaking their signal somewhat the past few days and flipping the sub-channel content about as often as I change my socks! Right now it's K-SURF on HD 2, KKGO Classics on HD 3 and HD 4 keeps going on and off (noon today it was back off and 'un-tunable').
praiselightmedia
New Participating Member
I would tend to agree with the KOST re-brand theory except - Lance V. at Radio Insight seems to have 'insight' into this new 'Lite' being a competitor. And KAMP seems like a viable flip - except they just redid their branding (not name, but scheme, logo, etc). If they will do a flip, the decision to do so must have come in the past few weeks.
Hmm...
Are we going to see Grupo Radio Centro program an AC format for a U.S. audience on KXOS? I'm thinking they might choose to LMA or sell the station to another competitor. Boneville? Cox? Who knows..
Does anyone know if KROQ still bills well with Kevin & Bean at the helm?
KAMP just revamped their morning show, although they do have a hole in middays...
Are we going to see Grupo Radio Centro program an AC format for a U.S. audience on KXOS? I'm thinking they might choose to LMA or sell the station to another competitor. Boneville? Cox? Who knows..
Does anyone know if KROQ still bills well with Kevin & Bean at the helm?
KAMP just revamped their morning show, although they do have a hole in middays...
KROQ is still a huge biller, but slipping.
GRC has had some financial problems in CDMX, and it's 2017 shareholder report shows profits off very much. It owes a huge amount due to the failure to follow though on their TV grants several years ago and they are under investigation for monopolistic practices. They closed 3 AM stations and turned in the licenses, too.
But most important, the annual report shows the LA station to be losing about $1 million a quarter. If I had to guess, Meruelo is the logical buyer but they likely won't keep the format. On the other hand, GRC has great AC experience in Mexico, with the leading station in the genre... one which is the highest biller in the market.
OTOH, the domain registration for the light AC format seems to come from KKGO.
LKellerIII
Walk of Fame Participant
I mis-spoke a bit. KOIT was never an album-rocker, and I guess 'Lite Rock' is considered AOR - but it's very much LESS light that in was in the 80s and 90s. It used to be what KISQ ("The Breeze") is now. In the 00s, a lot of regular (non-"lite") AOR started creeping in - I remember hearing Born in the USA on KOIT about 10 years ago, which was kind of a shock. It was heavy on Classic Hits, particularly rhythmic oldies. Since Entercom, they have fully dropped the "Light Rock, Less Talk" branding, and seem to be concentrating almost entirely off current mainstream hits - not very different to my ears than Star 101.3 (KIOI).
But since I don't listen consistently, I may be missing a lot of the nuances between the 2 stations.
praiselightmedia
New Participating Member
Judging from Radio Insight's 'pay-to-see' click lead story, I believe it is based off of a domain registration that leads him to think a LA based Lite registration (possibly for radio) will signify a new station (or a rebrand). Although I don't think Lite 103.5 has the same rings a KOST 103.5 (especially since the branding is so strong for that station). My guess is a restructuring of one of the under-performing stations not owned by iHeart. I hope KLYY flips. I have an old recording of when 97.5 Riverside was KDUO and played Beautiful music. . . a genre which should never have died...
Saul Levine seems to like the more "classy" formats. Classical on KKGO for a long time, as well on some of his FMs in other markets. Adult Standards on AM 1260 for a long time. Maybe this is something he'd prefer to Country?
With KOST currently at #1 in LA, look at what's the top music station in San Francisco... Soft AC KISQ. KISQ is also #3 in the 25-54 female demo and, what's more amazing, #5 in the 18-34 female demo. Perhaps that won't last... but it's still shows Soft AC done right isn't just for seniors. Yet the investment is minimal. No high priced morning show, no big contests. It can probably be voice-tracked late nights and weekends without the audience knowing (not that I advocate that).
Interestingly, having a Soft AC in a given market doesn't mean that much trouble for the conventional AC station. Even with Soft AC WFEZ at #2 in Miami, Mainstream AC WLYF is #3. While KISQ is #3 in SF, Mainstream AC KOIT is #6.
Which leads me to ask, why is KOST at #1 in LA? Most of the time, it's around 4, 5 or 6, behind fellow iHeart stations KBIG and KIIS. I wonder why it's taken the lead?
With KOST currently at #1 in LA, look at what's the top music station in San Francisco... Soft AC KISQ. KISQ is also #3 in the 25-54 female demo and, what's more amazing, #5 in the 18-34 female demo. Perhaps that won't last... but it's still shows Soft AC done right isn't just for seniors. Yet the investment is minimal. No high priced morning show, no big contests. It can probably be voice-tracked late nights and weekends without the audience knowing (not that I advocate that).
Interestingly, having a Soft AC in a given market doesn't mean that much trouble for the conventional AC station. Even with Soft AC WFEZ at #2 in Miami, Mainstream AC WLYF is #3. While KISQ is #3 in SF, Mainstream AC KOIT is #6.
Which leads me to ask, why is KOST at #1 in LA? Most of the time, it's around 4, 5 or 6, behind fellow iHeart stations KBIG and KIIS. I wonder why it's taken the lead?
ChannelFlipper
Star Participant
Be careful about those "source of the registered domain" rumors. At one time several years ago I took a few spare dollars and registered some domain names in anticipation of a possible station move that was mildly rumored in the ClearChannel cluster at the time, with the idea that by getting the logical domain names first I might be able to turn a few invested dollars into a few thousand if the rumor mill was actually true (which I knew was a very small chance), otherwise I would just write it off as a business expense (business of part-time local media speculator! Write that down on your Schedule C!). I really did it for the fun of it more than anything. Sorta like buying a lottery ticket - you never know.
What surprised me was the real fun that ensued when some of the Inspector Clouseau's on this board found out that these domains had just recently been registered, so there must really be something to the rumors(!). And, according to our super sleuths, it must really be CC who registered them since the domain names were registered to an address in Glendale, right next door to their offices in Burbank! The laughs that ensued were well worth the money!
KLYY is not competitive as an LA signal. At present, they need the two 103.1 signals to fill in some of the uncovered areas, and still miss the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita, the High Desert and lower Orange County.
SuperRadioFan
Star Participant
Wow THAT is really funny, ChannelFlipper..... I'm sure us long timers here saw those speculative posts -- Kudos!
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