WWKB Cutting Back To 10,000 Watts?

[FreddyE1977]

Neglecting transmitter efficiency and assuming 15cents/KWH, the savings should be about $6 per hour or about $4300 per month.  That's significant, maybe even more when factoring in reduced load on the A/C.

Interesting.  I would have guessed they'd be saving a lot more than that.   That's less than it would have cost Rush Limbaugh to grow palm trees in his yard in McKeesport, PA back in the 70's.

(then again I have seen managers who would absolutely KILL to save six bucks an hour....but I digress.....)

So much for summer evenings with a cold brew on the porch listening to Buffalo Bisons baseball.

[John C]

They have put 0 effort into this station.  Instead of investing and building something to pay the bills, they will keep chopping away until it completely stops moving.  Time for the FCC to make them divest it.
 

The ONLY way a new owner could improve on what Entercom is doing would be to steal either BEN's or GR's program contracts.  In market after market, especially the size of Buffalo, the only formats proven to win on AM are conservative talk and sports.  They could put second rate conservative talkers or local talkers, but it won't make a big difference in the numbers.  This is not a function of ownership, and that station could do a whole lot worse.

"The station could do a whole lot worse".  Really?  A whole lot worse than a 1 share?  I'm no expert in radio ownership but I find it hard to believe a new owner would do as badly as the current owner.

[Scott Fybush]

Even if Entercom were willing to sell, I'm having a hard time seeing how it would be a winning proposition for a new owner. Assuming the new ownership is a standalone, or nearly so (and that would have to be the case, inasmuch as the two other cluster owners in town are both essentially bankrupt), you're looking at the cost of a new studio facility and STL just to get the thing off the ground, plus a lease arrangement for the tower site that's bound to be written in a way that benefits Entercom much more than it benefits the new 1520 ownership. It's a tough nut to crack, and much more so in 2010 than it would have been even a decade ago.

As for the signal, if KB really is powered down to 10 kW, it's hard to tell from 75 miles away in Rochester. It's still plenty loud here, albeit with the usual skywave/groundwave cancellation that's always plagued the signal during critical hours and nights here. As long as they maintain that class A status, there's no reason to think that they'll be all that unlistenable in areas to the east that have always had good KB skywave. The key to a signal like KB isn't so much sheer power as it is interference protection - as I can tell every time the 1520 in Sikeston, MO keeps the day rig on at night. It wipes KB here at 50 kW just as surely as it would at 10 kW.

[BRNout]

They have put 0 effort into this station.  Instead of investing and building something to pay the bills, they will keep chopping away until it completely stops moving.  Time for the FCC to make them divest it.
 

The ONLY way a new owner could improve on what Entercom is doing would be to steal either BEN's or GR's program contracts.  In market after market, especially the size of Buffalo, the only formats proven to win on AM are conservative talk and sports.  They could put second rate conservative talkers or local talkers, but it won't make a big difference in the numbers.  This is not a function of ownership, and that station could do a whole lot worse.

OR, they'd have to invest a lot of money and build an all newser from scratch.  Financially, that's probably out of the question - but that is an AM format that is successful.  Is Buffalo big enough to support such a station?  Probably not.  But - theoretically - that's a format that also works on AM. 

Frankly, I liked it best when they spun the oldies. 

[TheBigA]

"The station could do a whole lot worse".  Really?  A whole lot worse than a 1 share?  I'm no expert in radio ownership but I find it hard to believe a new owner would do as badly as the current owner.

I was saying that there are a lot worse owners.  Entercom is doing great with WBEN and WGR.  And they do well withn AMs in other markets.  WWL in New Orleans is a great radio station, and won numerous awards for their coverage during Katrina.  The problem in Buffalo is there is no workable format hole left that will result in anything better than a 1 share.  This isn't unusual.  Buckley is having a tough time with WOR in New York.

I think what a lot of owners would like to do is donate their less profitable AMs to minority owners.  They're just waiting for the FCC to come up with a workable plan.  Once that happens, you'll get some community-owned AMs that will do mostly local programming.  But I still don't expect them to get more than a 1 share.

[TheBigA]

OR, they'd have to invest a lot of money and build an all newser from scratch.  Financially, that's probably out of the question - but that is an AM format that is successful.  Is Buffalo big enough to support such a station?  Probably not.  But - theoretically - that's a format that also works on AM. 

The only way it works in a market the size of Buffalo is combined with top-rated conservative talk shows.  And right now, they're all on WBEN.   

Houston, which is market #7, doesn't have an all-news station.  It's extremely expensive and hard to do.  But in markets where it's profitable, such as DC, NY, Philly, and LA, it's a gold mine.  WTOP in DC is #1 in the market, and just made the national Top 10 list for revenues.  And both WCBS and WINS are in that same Top 10.  I just don't see it happening in Buffalo.

[TheBigA]

Even if Entercom were willing to sell, I'm having a hard time seeing how it would be a winning proposition for a new owner.

Tell you what...just to show how generous I am, I'd give the new owner full use of the current studio, STL and tower for free.  I bet the new owner still goes belly up within five years. 

[Mike Sheridan]

This doesn't make sense unless they make a change to the pattern to cover areas where the current pattern doesn't go.  It makes the value of the station even less than it already is.

I must admit when I first read the subject line it made me a little sick.  It's time to turn it off and put KB out of it's misery.

[oldiesfan6479]

This doesn't make sense unless they make a change to the pattern to cover areas where the current pattern doesn't go.

Where it doesn't go is toward Oklahoma City.  'KB and KOKC (the former KOMA)
protect each other, at least at night.  While KOKC is a DA-N, WWKB is a DA-1,
so it may be possible to go ND daytime, if no other 1520s closer in would be
impacted.  Professors Fybush or Savage, care to chime in again?

[aaronread]

I think Scott will back me up on this idea:  how's 'bout another repeater for WEEI and Red Sox games?