> > I NEVER thought I'd see the day when an owner group would
> > let 50k watts go to waste.
> > Thank YOU deregulation!
>
> Blaming deregulation is the politically correct thing to do,
> but it's probably the smallest problem facing 1520 if it's
> even been a problem at all. The two biggest problems with
> KOMA on AM were Docket 80-90 and simply the change in the
> times.
>
> As an example of Docket 80-90, my family lived in
> Albuquerque, NM in 1976. They listened to KOMA and KVOO
> after sunset for two reasons. One was that my mother was
> from Oklahoma, and my father had lived there for a
> substantial portion of his life. The other was that they
> were better than the offerings in Albuquerque. At that
> time, the FM dial in Albuquerque stopped at 100.3, and Santa
> Fe had about four FM's that did not cover Albuquerque well
> at all. In the early 80's, the Santa Fe stations became
> upgradable, and the Albuquerque/Santa Fe FM dial filled up
> rapidly with station being added at 95.1, 101.3, 101.7,
> 102.5, 103.3, 104.1, 105.1, 105.5, 105.9, 106.3, 107.1 and
> 107.9 in the next 20 years in addition to the Santa Fe
> stations that upgraded. This has been the norm in most
> markets. Oklahoma City has seen less of this, though there
> are still plenty of good examples. 93.3, 95.1, 96.9, 103.5,
> 105.7, 106.7 and, soon-to-be 97.3 have all gotten into OKC
> based on the same or similar principles. 97.7 upgrading to
> 97.9 is a lesser example of this. Also, I seem to remember
> 107.7 as being less than 30 years old and originally owned
> by a black broadcaster. So, it may be a docket 80-90
> station as well.
>
> All of these stations have made 50,000 watt AM signals less
> relevant than they used to be. Also, the times have
> changed. There was less of a demand for FM stations in the
> 70's, and that's part of why there wasn't an explosion of
> demand for FM stations until the end of the decade. Once FM
> listening became mainstream and standard, 1520 became less
> relevant as well. Using OKC as an example, many of the FM's
> used to air the eclectic rock formats, classical, jazz, easy
> listening, and other formats that were less widespread on
> AM. In fact, companies like Entercom became big by buying
> FM stations at bargain basement prices in the late
> 60's/early 70's and snapping up the popular formats as soon
> as FM became popular. Just about every original Entercom
> station aired classical, jazz, Spanish programming, eclectic
> rock and/or easy listening at one time in its history, and,
> of course, very few of them are airing those formats today.
>
>
> It's these factors more than deregulation that have
> relegated 1520 to obscurity. KOMA 1520 had poor ratings for
> years. I don't remember 1520 having even a 2.0 share in its
> entire life as an oldies station, and it certainly didn't
> have that high of ratings after Lite Rock 102 flipped to
> oldies in either 1989 or 1990. Granted, it did better as an
> oldies station than it's doing now, and Renda could do
> stupider things than bringing that format back. However,
> don't expect such a format to get stellar ratings.
>
KOMA 1520 did VERY well when they first went oldies with it back in 89. ( I think it was 89..) The newness wore off, and their ratings slumped some, then when KLTE went oldies they did quite poorly for several years. KOMA got the FM in 1992 and did even WORSE until mid-1993 when they fired their consultant Pete Salant and hired E. Alvin Davis. The ratings went up significantly, and in just a couple of years they had double digits.
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--- THE Insultant ---</P>
However, I did see a handful of good songs on K-EARTH's list too.