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KOA - One of the Best Billing AM Stations in the U.S.

G

Gregg.

KOA's ratings may not be great. But according to BIA Advisory Services, KOA is the #4 billing AM-only station in the U.S., only behind stations in NYC and Los Angeles. The article in Inside Radio says KOA billed $22,650,000. Not bad for Denver's #14 station.

After KOA came stations in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Detroit and Cincinnati. The top billing AM-only stations are WINS NYC, WCBS NYC and KFI Los Angeles. WINS now has a full-power FM simulcast but didn't when this 2022 list was compiled. KOA has two FM translators but translators did not disqualify KOA or WLW Cincinnati from making this list.

So it seems an All-News morning show, Talk in the middle of the day and Sports at night is a winning combination. I'm sure some of that billing is thanks to KOA's flagship station status for the Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies and University of Colorado Buffalos. Will iHeart have to give KOA a full-power FM simulcast some day to keep that $22,650,000 annual billing coming in?

www.insideradio.com

AM Radio Leaders In Revenue, Audience, And Format.

The groundswell of support for keeping AM radio in vehicles includes the bi-partisan backing of politicians in Washington, DC, current and former FEMA directors, the NAB, numerous state broadcaster associations,
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com
 
The data in the article feel a bit cherry-picked to me, given that, "The chart excludes AM radio stations that have a full-market FM simulcast partner." It does answer my question in another thread about why KOA bothers with two peripheral FM translators - i.e., it's good enough...for now. With six FMs in the market, I would expect one of them to be converted to a KOA simulcast at some point, but that doesn't appear imminent. Watch to see which of those six FMs start stumbling, and that might also answer the question.

Gregg also writes, "So it seems an All-News morning show, Talk in the middle of the day and Sports at night is a winning combination." That's a very traditional kind of combination - reminds me of what KMBZ in Kansas City rode to success for so many years. And that is mostly on FM now.
 
Gregg. said:
KOA's ratings may not be great. But according to BIA Advisory Services, KOA is the #4 billing AM-only station in the U.S., only behind stations in NYC and Los Angeles. The article in Inside Radio says KOA billed $22,650,000. Not bad for Denver's #14 station.

After KOA came stations in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Detroit and Cincinnati. The top billing AM-only stations are WINS NYC, WCBS NYC and KFI Los Angeles. WINS now has a full-power FM simulcast but didn't when this 2022 list was compiled. KOA has two FM translators but translators did not disqualify KOA or WLW Cincinnati from making this list.

So it seems an All-News morning show, Talk in the middle of the day and Sports at night is a winning combination. I'm sure some of that billing is thanks to KOA's flagship station status for the Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies and University of Colorado Buffalos. Will iHeart have to give KOA a full-power FM simulcast some day to keep that $22,650,000 annual billing coming in?

www.insideradio.com

AM Radio Leaders In Revenue, Audience, And Format.

The groundswell of support for keeping AM radio in vehicles includes the bi-partisan backing of politicians in Washington, DC, current and former FEMA directors, the NAB, numerous state broadcaster associations,
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com
Click to expand...
Why spend money on an fm when I heart has perfect infrastructure for streaming stations through their apps?
 
Loverofradio said:
Why spend money on an fm when I heart has perfect infrastructure for streaming stations through their apps?
Click to expand...
Because in persons over 25, more than 85% use OTA radio every week for at least some amount of time.
 
I doubt KOA will go to a full power FM anytime soon. Why lose income from an FM to get the income you already have on the AM over to an FM frequency?
 
I'm just a bit skeptical of the accuracy of that $22,650,000 figure. I know full well that's the figure that was reported; it just seems too high to be believable.
 
MarkW said:
I'm just a bit skeptical of the accuracy of that $22,650,000 figure. I know full well that's the figure that was reported; it just seems too high to be believable.
Click to expand...
It's totally within reason when you factor in the sports play-by-play. BIA does not take reports directly from stations. They use sources like Miller Kaplan and then do their own adjustments for cluster allocation and other factors.
 
So this figure includes syndication of broadcast rights and the associated revenue from that?

I'm just a bit surprised KOA could outbill, say, 710 KIRO in Seattle by such a massive margin (KIRO did not make the top 10).
 
MarkW said:
So this figure includes syndication of broadcast rights and the associated revenue from that?
Click to expand...
No, just broadcast revenue. Non-broadcast income is not included.
MarkW said:
I'm just a bit surprised KOA could outbill, say, 710 KIRO in Seattle by such a massive margin (KIRO did not make the top 10).
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Different market. Denver has higher radio revenue than Seattle, even if Seattle has a tad more population. And KIRO is pure sports, while KOA is news, talk and sports. Different format and different market.
 
Mark Roberts said:
w. With six FMs in the market, I would expect one of them to be converted to a KOA simulcast at some point, but that doesn't appear imminent. W
Click to expand...

Weve been over this.

If they have an FM billing $7 mil... and converting it to a KOA simulcast would bill $3 mil additional.

youve lost $4 mil.

Just because ratings my faulter, doesnt mean the money is.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
Weve been over this.

If they have an FM billing $7 mil... and converting it to a KOA simulcast would bill $3 mil additional.

youve lost $4 mil.

Just because ratings my faulter, doesnt mean the money is.
Click to expand...
We all know where the trends in listening are going, and where the audience goes, the money will follow.
 
DavidEduardo said:
No, just broadcast revenue. Non-broadcast income is not included.

Different market. Denver has higher radio revenue than Seattle, even if Seattle has a tad more population. And KIRO is pure sports, while KOA is news, talk and sports. Different format and different market.
Click to expand...
Does KOA get great M 25 to 54 numbers?
 
Here are the top billing stations in 2022 and WINS is on top among the AM stations. Yes in other places we mentioned WTOP-FM and KIIS-FM as the top Billing stations overall. In this case it's only the AM Stations. In WTOP-FM's case it's because it's the nations capital.BIA-Rev-2022R.jpg
 
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
Here are the top billing stations in 2022 and WINS is on top among the AM stations. Yes in other places we mentioned WTOP-FM and KIIS-FM as the top Billing stations overall. In this case it's only the AM Stations. In WTOP-FM's case it's because it's the nations capital.View attachment 5456
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Remember, these are just the top AM stations. The list does not include FMs at all.
 
When folks do the math, they often say "If an AM station bills X and a co-owned FM station bills Y, destroying the FM to simulcast the AM will result in a loss. It won't be X+Y."

Yes that's true. For now. But every year, a percentage of the folks who are willing to listen to an AM-only station goes to that great radio studio in the sky. And young people who would NEVER listen to an AM station replace them.

Destroying an FM station to give a high-billing AM station a simulcast will cause a temporary loss in revenue. But high-billing stations take decades to build. If it stays on AM, you will see its billing drop, drop, drop every year. When you get around to simulcasting it years from now, it may be too late. You gotta start moving the AM station's listeners to FM now or risk losing that high billing in the next few years.

When you look at the list of the ten highest billing stations in the U.S., they are ALL either FM or AM-FM simulcasts. WCBS 880 NYC had been on that list but is now #11. All the rest are FM (WTOP, KIIS, WLTW, WBZ-FM) or AM-FM combos (WBBM, WINS, WFAN, WSB).

I wish we could say well-programmed AM-only stations will continue to draw an audience, willing to flip the AM-FM switch on their radios for outstanding programming. But every year, the number of folks who will do that drops, no matter how good the programming.
 
Gregg. said:
I wish we could say well-programmed AM-only stations will continue to draw an audience, willing to flip the AM-FM switch on their radios for outstanding programming. But every year, the number of folks who will do that drops, no matter how good the programming.
Click to expand...

KOA seems to succeed for now with AM plus two FM translators - on the same channel but with spotty coverage. But I have to wonder how much longer that can be the case. Not that I'm enamored of KOA. When I move to Denver soon, it's certainly not going to be a replacement for what I'm used to from KCBS. KOA news comes across too biased (right-wing) to me and reinforces that with a "Fox News" radio affiliation. So that's another thing that they will need to address; it's really out of step with what Denver has become. Appealing to an AM demographic is tantamount to hurtling down a dead-end at high speed. I'm not sure iHeart is really capable of comprehending that.
 
I'm not sure I agree with Mark Roberts' assessment of 850 KOA. I haven't listened to a lot of it. But the morning news block seemed to be as straightforward as KCBS or WCBS. KOA is primarily an ABC affiliate. Co-owned 760 KDFD is the Fox affiliate in Denver and also runs the standard Hannity-Beck-Clay Travis line up. And 630 KHOW is an NBC affiliate, mixing local and national conservative talk. Three iHeart talk stations in Denver but I think KOA is better than most.

In the morning, KOA has traffic and weather every ten minutes, a female-male anchor team and they sometimes get live reports from ABC correspondents who are out covering a major story. I heard a midday talk show later in the day. It was about something non-political.

Unless you heard something I didn't. Maybe I heard the station on a good day?
 
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Gregg. said:
I'm not sure I agree with Mark Roberts' assessment of 850 KOA. I haven't listened to a lot of it. But the morning news block seemed to be as straightforward as KCBS or WCBS. KOA is primarily an ABC affiliate. Co-owned 760 KDFD is the Fox affiliate in Denver and also runs the standard Hannity-Beck-Clay Travis line up. And 630 KHOW is an NBC affiliate, mixing local and national conservative talk. Three iHeart talk stations in Denver but I think KOA is better than most.

In the morning, KOA has traffic and weather every ten minutes, a female-male anchor team and they sometimes get live reports from ABC correspondents who are out covering a major story. I heard a midday talk show later in the day. It was about something non-political.

Unless you heard something I didn't. Maybe I heard the station on a good day?
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I can always try again and give it another listen. Once the dust settles on relocation I can give stations a more careful evaluation.
 
Gregg. said:
So it seems an All-News morning show, Talk in the middle of the day and Sports at night is a winning combination. I'm sure some of that billing is thanks to KOA's flagship station status for the Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies and University of Colorado Buffalos. Will iHeart have to give KOA a full-power FM simulcast some day to keep that $22,650,000 annual billing coming in?
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Yeah but WHERE though??

They can't do it on 97.3 as KBCO is an institution ITSELF

They can CONCEIVABLY do it on 103.5 but that means luring Classic Rock fans to 97.3 to make room AND giving up a place where they might launch a new AC outlet to compete directly with KIMN, KOSI & KALC & indirectly with KXKL

They seem hell bent on keeping Country on 106.7 & KBPI on 107.9 & with the signals those two stations have, I don;t see anything else working there

That leaves 93.3 as THE ONLY viable option as LTCL is pretty expendable compared to the other FM sticks iHeart has
 
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