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What Should 800 and 98.9 Flip To?
- Thread starter hipman2
- Start date
hipman2 said:
Serve Tijuana.
Does that imply a Spanish-language station? Because God knows we have plenty of those already and who's to say Hip Hop or something else doesn't "serve" Tijuana.
98.9 had a 2 share before it flipped to ESPN (if I'm not mistaken) and that was without jocks so it was a cheap and profitable format. Not sure who decided to fix something that wasn't broken.
98.9 had a 2 share before it flipped to ESPN (if I'm not mistaken) and that was without jocks so it was a cheap and profitable format. Not sure who decided to fix something that wasn't broken.
Radio3787 said:
There are plenty of English-language stations already, too.
Although it has been said before, Spanish is a language, not a format. There are many options in Spanish, format-wise.
A 2-share with a very young leaning format that is not the leader in that format is not going to be particularly successful. As we know, they let go the airstaff because they were losing money and had to cut expenses.
In other words, it was broken.
A 2 share without any staff (I was implying after the cuts) is profitable. The music was free, the sales staff worked for commission. Besides a few executive positions, there is very little overhead. Almost anything sold is profit. Right now, 98.9 is subscribing to ESPN, thus has that expense.
There is no direct expense for being an ESPN affiliate....it is usually on a barter basis in that the Network keeps a certainly amount of inventory within the network programming and the station fills the local avails.
To simply keep a station on the air there is a significant expense basis. The technical plant is not cheap to run. Even with the transmitter being in Mexico it is costly. The business operation takes some people and even a skeleton crew providing traffic, billing, production etc costs some money. Its also tough to find Good people to work on a straight commission basis. Then when they sell something it takes somebody to produce the spot as well. You can control costs but don't think it isn't expensive to run a radio station.
To simply keep a station on the air there is a significant expense basis. The technical plant is not cheap to run. Even with the transmitter being in Mexico it is costly. The business operation takes some people and even a skeleton crew providing traffic, billing, production etc costs some money. Its also tough to find Good people to work on a straight commission basis. Then when they sell something it takes somebody to produce the spot as well. You can control costs but don't think it isn't expensive to run a radio station.
Radio3787 said:
As MJ stated, staff is, unless you have a legendary and high paid morning person, not your biggest expense.
Sales is not just sellers on commision. They generally get a draw or guarantee when hired, and receive benefits such as health insurance and, of course, if in the US, Social Security employer contribution, Workers Comp, etc. Sales needs office space, printers, computers and copiers, a sales manager and sales assitants as well as a traffic person and traffic software. Then, if you have a 2 share and want to sell on ratings, you subscribe to Arbitron... a huge expense.
Engineering is not just a guy with a screwdriver. It is repairs and spares for very expensive equipment, site rentals, legal fees for FCC or SCT filings, and, of course, utilities for transmitters and studios as well as things like T1s for STL, etc .
All departments need liability and causualty insurance.
If you do any promotions, add vehicles and staff and related costs.
Managers are not cheap... a good on in SD is going to be a a coupla' hundred a year plus bonuses of some kind. Add in accounting, billing, collections, dues, subscriptions, travel, entertainment, business licenses and indirect taxes and fees, and on down to postage and FedEx charges. Beyond sales commissions, there are national rep commissions. Add in printing and forms, legal and collection costs, computers, furniture, even rest room plumbing and repairs. Then there are telephones, station provided cell phones, alert pagers or cell phones for the engineer and their backup. Lible and slander insurance, and other general business insurance. Advertising, even if it a Yellow Pages listing...
A radio station is not just some guy in front of a microphone and a cheap club mixer.
Radio3787 said:
In addition to the expenses that David mentioned, music isn't free. Sure, the record companies give you CDs to play, but stations pay dearly for the rights to play that music to ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.
I almost bought a small market station about 10 years ago. While doing due dilligence I saw so many ways I could lose my shirt that I walked from it. Probably the best financial decision I've ever made. If you want a small fortune in radio, start with a large one. It takes far more capital than you think, and you need good reserves to get through the lean times.
Just a thought, I don't think many advertisers would want to place their ad on a station that's getting a 0.4 in the ratings overall, which is also getting beat out by a classic hits station that comes in weak from LA. I wouldn't think the Male 25-44 demo isn't doing very well on the station either, especially compared to what XX Radio make.
It reminds me of the discussion about what might be the best thing to do with KFWB. Ideas are considered, ideas are dismissed. A new format might be best. Yet who in his right mind would post something that might make as much money as, say, Boss Radio did? At some point owners are just going to have to take a chance on something and somebody new because all the old stuff is obviously already being done.
Lopaka said:
The KFWB case is a good example, too. Some solutions are based on deciding if the facility can compete in the general market for "regular" spot ad dollars.
KFWB is AM, and it has a signal that has been outgrown by the Metro Survey Area. It can't compete with anything innovative because it is AM, a shrinking band. It can't compete because it is not a totally perfect signal. And it can't compete because there is nothing one can do on AM that would appeal to the spot ad market because any listening to that band would be predominantly over-55.
There are many stations that have already recognized that "resistence is futile" and have moved out of the spot advertising, compete for listeners model and adopted formats that are predominantly targeted at ethnic, linguistic or religious special niche groups.
Radio3787 said:
Just because the language spoken on a station is Spanish doesn't mean that it will serve Tijuana. Many Spanish language stations in the area, especially Univision's two could give a rats behind about Tijuana and only care about reaching San Diego.
Michael Rivers Kramer said:
While US based Spanish language stations, whether in San Diego, El Paso, McAllen or Laredo, are aware of the huge number of border commutes each day. Perhaps sales rates do not justify selling local business in the Mexican "sister markets" but the listenership is very important as preferences may determine the workplace listening of many in the Arbitron rated areas.
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