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EMF doing another buying round for a new format?

AMRocks

AMRocks

From Tom Taylor's newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/tomtaylornow/tom-taylor-now-124569

From the Rumor Mill - a new round of station buying for EMF’s new K-Love Classics? Too soon to tell, and maybe it’s even too soon for Educational Media Foundation itself to know its strategy with the new 80s/90s/early 2000’s-based contemporary Christian classic hits format. But one sharp NOW Reader saw yesterday’s story - and wonders if it gives EMF a new reason to buy stations in markets where it’s already got its foundational CCM “K-Love” and secondary “Air1” formats covered. True, dealmakers say that Sacramento-based powerhouse EMF won’t spend as much to buy stations to fill out its Air1 map. (Presumably that’s because Air1 listeners are less generous or less likely to become monthly subscribers.) And this new “K-Love Classics” is still a baby. But given EMF’s history as a prodigious buyer over the last two decades, some potential sellers might launch a prayer about dealing their station to EMF. That would probably only happen around the larger markets, but who knows? One of the first K-Love Classics stations is suburban Chicago’s WAIW Wheaton/88.1.

Why wouldn't EMF put this new format on the HD2? Maybe they could actually help the digital radio movement. Plus, it could save them a lot of money.
 
AMRocks said:
From the Rumor Mill - a new round of station buying for EMF’s new K-Love Classics? Too soon to tell, and maybe it’s even too soon for Educational Media Foundation itself to know its strategy with the new 80s/90s/early 2000’s-based contemporary Christian classic hits format. .
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contemporary Christian classic hits? Isn't that an oxymoron?

Call me when they have a format with George Beverly Shea.
 
vchimpanzee said:
contemporary Christian classic hits? Isn't that an oxymoron?

Call me when they have a format with George Beverly Shea.
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Technically all Classic Hits/Oldies formats could be called Contemporary Classics. That said, I imagine a more catchy format name will be used at some point.
 
There is such a thing as classic adult contemporary, so I guess that works. And for a long time, AC was classic-leaning on most stations anyway.
 
I'm not sure if it’s still doing it, and I never got a chance to hear it, but Ft. Smith, AR had a “Christian Oldies” station. I believe it was an LPFM, and I seem to remember it was receiving consulting services from another station (I'm thinking KZKZ, though I'm not certain).
 
What this means is EMF is flush with cash. Would not surprise me if EMF has enough cash on hand to fully cover at least two years' worth of operating expenses. Rule of thumb is for non-profits not to exceed three years' operating expenses in terms of the level of cash in reserve.

Look for EMF to buy more & more full power stations in big cities to air K-Love. In affected markets where K-Love is already found on translators, those translators will flip to Air-1 or K-Love Classics. I do know some of K-Love's full power FM stations run HD (nots sure of the percentage that utilize IBOC digital transmission technology). K-Love Classics will likely show up as an HD-2 or HD-3 option on many of them.
 
It is interesting the success EMF enjoys. The next iHeart? Maybe,but more correctly whatever they can be based on the funding they receive from their listeners and supporters. I know a few who complain about them but I'm reminded of words of wisdom told to me: there are those that do and those who complain about those that do. It appears EMF is one that of those that 'do'. It seems they have a formula that works. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
 
b-turner said:
It is interesting the success EMF enjoys. The next iHeart? Maybe,but more correctly whatever they can be based on the funding they receive from their listeners and supporters. I know a few who complain about them but I'm reminded of words of wisdom told to me: there are those that do and those who complain about those that do. It appears EMF is one that of those that 'do'. It seems they have a formula that works. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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Regardless of what you think of their formats, the broadcast model used by EMF might be the future for most broadcast stations in the U.S.: having a national feed of well produced programming aired on stations across the country, while only a small number of operations remain "local." It is more or less the model used in much of the rest of the world.

Being in Houston, I've been wondering when EMF might add a signal or two here. Currently they only have Air1, but I can think of a couple of FMs that might be potential targets.
 
You are correct. The national feed model is what seems to be working. It makes sense. With so many stations to choose from, the revenue is split so many ways it becomes quite a struggle to go local. So, by having some top notch programming where a local insert or two could be had creates a viable game plan. With the main studio rule from the FCC being history it makes this easier even though many groups like EMF have successfully obtained waivers in the past by offering easy national access for listeners.

It would be interesting to know the game plan for Houston. One only has to look at the Dallas/Fort Worth market to see the many choices available for music based Christian formats. There seems to be enough support for all of them to survive in the Metroplex.
 
EMF is well produced. Yes it is a national format, but it has a very local sound (at least that is the perception when I speak to listeners in my market). Listeners are loyal, and they are good operators. Like the format or not. Their business model is working.

Because of well produced programming, and in some cases the only high quality CCM station in the market. They take that share of listeners and make an impact. With low operating expenses in most markets ( I would assume) donations more than cover the ROI in the medium and smaller markets. If the signal is on a translator, the cost of operation as almost none.
 
Checked out the stream and the last 2 songs were by Sandi Patti and Point of Grace. I'm not a K-Love listener but I tuned across them a month ago and heard Charlie Van Dyke promoting the new K-Love Classics. I guess that means the CCM format has been around long enough to have "oldies" that listeners are nostalgic for. Might depend when one converted to K-Love's brand of Christianity.

Houston-seems at one time K-Love wouldn't directly compete with established full-signal CCMs like KSBJ. That may be changing. K-Love's listeners do like them and I've never heard one say "I wish the jocks were local". They enjoy the same thing being available when they travel. I wouldn't expect EMF to go on a buying spree to install K-Love Classics.

You may recall that ABC was going to launch "Superradio", an adult contemporary satellite format with an all-star cast. Dan Ingram and Ron Lundy were going to anchor middays, each station would program morning and afternoon drive, and weekends would include appearances by Dick Purtan and Larry Lujack. After it was determined the project would lose money hand over fist for years, it was scrapped.

Satellite went the route of "national pretending to be local". There's no reason iHeart coudn't do a true national Kiss or "Bull' format, however.
 
gr8oldies said:
I guess that means the CCM format has been around long enough to have "oldies" that listeners are nostalgic for.
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When you consider the number of CCM artists who were big in the 80s, such as Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, and others, their songs were a driving force in the popularization of the format, but those songs are now equal in seniority to pop songs of the same era that are played in Classic Hits and Classic Rock. Those artists themselves are now in their 50s, and I'd say there are probably a lot of people in about that same age group looking for songs of faith they remember.
 
I personally would like to see EMF go to having Air 1 and K LOVE classics on HD subchannels and feeding them to some of their translators. I know WZKV in Dyersburg, TN has a 100.000 watt signal and their translators in Jackson (2) and Brownsville (1) aren't needed as bad now. Those translators could be used to carry Air 1 and K LOVE Classics. I actually keep hoping EMF will find a way to get Air 1 into Jackson if there ever gets to be a station available.

In my area of West TN CCM radio was non-existant in the 80's and 90's except for in Memphis and Nashville and a few weekend shows. So a lot of people even of the age who should have known about CCM hadn't heard of it until K LOVE came into the area because no local Christian station had the backbone to give it a chance. So I don't know how many people would be familiar with it, but I'd like to be able to get it on the radio, not just online. Although I'd rather hear more classic Christian rock mixed in like Phil Keaggy, Petra and DeGarmo and Key, and not so much the easy listening stuff like Sandi Patti and Steve Green that they tried to push as CCM at that time.
 
Christian radio is a tricky format. Back in the earlier days of Contemporary Christian,some felt the music was irreverent. The older generation held the purse strings and it was a tough sell that this was the music style of the new generation of Christians. Not much has changed. Christian radio knows you either make money by preaching to the choir or take on losses to reach the younger population that tends not to support the effort to the extent the 'choir' would. Thus, Contemporary Christian stations knew there was little support and lots of backlash they were taking on. As the generation grew up, Contemporary Christian became the norm and is now the sweet spot in support, especially if music intensive. As a result, I see the classics format needing to be very targeted to areas where Contemporary Christian has had a solid past to build a core audience.To me,it would mean looking to major markets versus small cities to develop a meaningful core audience. And I suspect the level of support ratio would be substantial.Literally,in my book, on a case by case basis.
 
If you go back to the 70s and the Larry Norman era, there wasn't even all that much distribution of the music (known more as "Jesus Rock"). I can remember listening to a half hour a night on HCJB shortwave. In the 80s, some megachuches at least exposed some of the CCM music. I don't know how much geography is a factor with people moving around so much, but I agree some markets had early exposure to CCM and others, not so much. Factor in the relatively small number of adult converts to evangelical Christianity (some were raised in it, left and came back when they married and had families) If anything is going to slow down the growth of CCM it's going to be the rise of the "nones".
 
b-turner said:
Christian radio is a tricky format. Back in the earlier days of Contemporary Christian,some felt the music was irreverent. The older generation held the purse strings and it was a tough sell that this was the music style of the new generation of Christians. Not much has changed. Christian radio knows you either make money by preaching to the choir or take on losses to reach the younger population that tends not to support the effort to the extent the 'choir' would. Thus, Contemporary Christian stations knew there was little support and lots of backlash they were taking on. As the generation grew up, Contemporary Christian became the norm and is now the sweet spot in support, especially if music intensive. As a result, I see the classics format needing to be very targeted to areas where Contemporary Christian has had a solid past to build a core audience.To me,it would mean looking to major markets versus small cities to develop a meaningful core audience. And I suspect the level of support ratio would be substantial.Literally,in my book, on a case by case basis.
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You're probably right. I can see the classics format being done in Nashville and possibly Memphis, but not in areas like Jackson, TN where CCM radio only became available in the early 2000's and more current CCM is all some people know.
 
WDJC Birmingham and WLBF Montgomery does the classic tunes too. CCM has been a staple in those areas, since the late 70s (WDJC) and mid 80s (WLBF). Yours truly does play many of the classics. (Some examples include but not limited to: 4Him, Amy Grant, Rich Mullins, Twila Paris, Keith Green, Don Francisco, Bryan Duncan and fixing to add some classics from Mr. Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael Card) I've only been around for 2 years and they're testing well for me.

Dan <><

P.S. As a side note: Moody Radio does 2 hours of the classics, on For the Record, Sunday nights. This program plays the well known and tested tunes from the early years of CCM. I've tuned in and liked what I heard.
 
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