Failures with great signals

[Prais]

KAAY's ratings don't matter as long as there are people to send the money  to their preachers. The 4 stations I owned had 16-24 hours of religion on Sunday and that paid most of the bills; enough so that the (quite substantial) ad revenue the rest f the week and the Metropolitan Opera and Chicago Cubs/Sox /Bears broadcasts made us a wonderful profit. WHO CARES if nobody listened on Sunday?

Actually, the ministers ALL reported that the listeners paid their freight. We had a few daily religious programs, too. In the 1980's we were in Jimmy Swaggart's top 10 stations, allowing us to TRIPLE his rate the second year of his deal.

[firepoint525]

Firepoint said; "I'd like to see ALL underperforming stations removed from the dial, regardless of which band they are on."....
Then he said; "I didn't say anything about ordering anyone off the air."
Fire, the key word YOU used is REMOVED. HOW are you going to accomplish that "removal" without "ordering them?"

Well, here's a list of stations to start with:

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/status/silentAM.html

I noticed that WPFD is not on that list.  They were broadcasting a Spanish format at 500 watts at 850 MHz from Fairview, Tennessee, but I seriously doubt that there are enough Spanish-speaking listeners near Fairview to make it viable.  They were "classic country" before that, but obviously, that didn't make it, either.  I was told that they were simulcasting WHEW, also with a Spanish format, but that did not appear (to me) to be the case. 

[firepoint525]

With the sad state of AM radio these days, it won't be long before WSM is completely worthless.  Nothing against them specifically, it's just that they are on a band that has been slowly dying for the last 30+ years.

Tell that to 840/WHAS, just up I-65 in Louisville. Essentially an identical property in a nearly-identical market and still #1 (tied with co-owned WAMZ). WHAS played their cards right... WSM made mistake after mistake after mistake.

Hmmm, guess someone forgot to tell that to those who have posted and replied to this particular thread:

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,157862.0.html

[Don]

KRLA was 50k, right? Seems like they got very good at shooting themselves in the foot.(Maybe someone in the southland can correct me.)

50 day, 20 nights. But the issue was not power, but the combination of Bill Drake/Ron Jacobs and the license troubles that ended up in revocation for KRLA were the real causes.

10 Kw nights, at least in 1986, when I was a Marine stationed out there.  Separate on air positioners, day and night: "KRLA, with (insert 50,000 or 10,000) watts of oldies power!" Also listed as 10Kw nights in the "North American Radio-TV Station Guide, 13th edition" by Vane A. Jones (circa 1982 or so).

And power didn't seem to be a problem.  The daytime signal got out great, all the way to Twentynine Palms, and the night signal seemed to cover the core Southland adequately.

[michael hagerty]

KRLA was 50k, right? Seems like they got very good at shooting themselves in the foot.(Maybe someone in the southland can correct me.)

50 day, 20 nights. But the issue was not power, but the combination of Bill Drake/Ron Jacobs and the license troubles that ended up in revocation for KRLA were the real causes.

10 Kw nights, at least in 1986, when I was a Marine stationed out there.  Separate on air positioners, day and night: "KRLA, with (insert 50,000 or 10,000) watts of oldies power!" Also listed as 10Kw nights in the "North American Radio-TV Station Guide, 13th edition" by Vane A. Jones (circa 1982 or so).

And power didn't seem to be a problem.  The daytime signal got out great, all the way to Twentynine Palms, and the night signal seemed to cover the core Southland adequately.

Yeah...KRLA was strong enough to knock KFWB off the top in '62 and give KHJ a challenge all the way to '71...plus one book in '76 where they actually beat KHJ. It was inconsistency that kept them from long-running success.

[w9wi]

10 Kw nights, at least in 1986, when I was a Marine stationed out there.  Separate on air positioners, day and night: "KRLA, with (insert 50,000 or 10,000) watts of oldies power!" Also listed as 10Kw nights in the "North American Radio-TV Station Guide, 13th edition" by Vane A. Jones (circa 1982 or so).

Yep.

For many years, you couldn't get a license for 20kw.  There were specific power levels set in the regulations, you had to pick one. 

If I remember properly:
250, 500, 1000, 2500, 5000, 10000, 25000, and 50000 watts. 

You couldn't get a license for 20000 watts or 7500 or 385 or anything else that wasn't on the list.

I would think it was around 1986 when that regulation was repealed.

[DavidEduardo]

 KAAY's listenership is basically non-existent.  Probably around 0.1 for 12+ (basically 55+) and that's IF you could even see numbers on them.  As far as the public interest goes, that's hardly the best use of a 50 kw signal.  I'll go so far as to say it is a waste of juice and yes you can quote me.  Screaming 'preechers' and live coverage of snake handling hardly meet the definition of "broadcasting" - extreme narrowcasting is more like it.  I'd bet that, on a really good night, these guys only have 200 listeners at a time. 

The station has no ratings, but it is by far the highest billing AM in the market, about 40% ahead of the second billing AM. 

And, stations that nobody listens to are a good target for cleanup.

Who would make the decision that stations with no listeners are not worthwhile? First, that depends on radio ratings, a small sample of listeners. For example, in LA none of the Asian language stations show in the ratings... so should that very valuable service to those communities be silenced? Or the Farsi station there? Or the more niche religious and special interest stations?

The Am band will be thinned by economics. And by the fact that few radios come with AM these days... except car radios.

[radiorob2.0]

 KAAY's listenership is basically non-existent.  Probably around 0.1 for 12+ (basically 55+) and that's IF you could even see numbers on them.  As far as the public interest goes, that's hardly the best use of a 50 kw signal.  I'll go so far as to say it is a waste of juice and yes you can quote me.  Screaming 'preechers' and live coverage of snake handling hardly meet the definition of "broadcasting" - extreme narrowcasting is more like it.  I'd bet that, on a really good night, these guys only have 200 listeners at a time. 

The station has no ratings, but it is by far the highest billing AM in the market, about 40% ahead of the second billing AM. 

These ministries must be making tons of money not to notice skywave listening is no longer like it was.  It appears they just keep renewing the contract.

[gr8oldies]

They do track where their donations come from and is KAAY starts not to produce those shows will be gone

[Prais]

In the 1970's Swaggart could tell me by ZIP CODE, where his mney was comng from and if we were the reason (we were).

I can only imsaginewhat they track nowadays.