Its official-KMBZ coming to FM Next Week

[travisl5678]

Yet another Market gets FM Talk, starting next week on Wednesday at 2pm CT 98.1 KUDL in Kansas City becomes an FM simulcast of KMBZ, thoughts?

[Signal_Faded]

Big signal...KMBZ just got bigger and stronger.

[KeithE4]

Yet another Market gets FM Talk, starting next week on Wednesday at 2pm CT 98.1 KUDL in Kansas City becomes an FM simulcast of KMBZ, thoughts?

It's inevitable.  Even NYC, LA, and Chicago with their big AM blowtorches will have to eventually move to FM or die.  And that goes for news, talk, and sports. 

Music has a diminishing future on FM.  Not all will go away, but I can see at least half of the current music stations vanishing as the babies of this decade grow into teenagers.  They won't know of music on FM anymore than their parents knew of music on AM.

[radioguy39nj]

The only market on the I-95 corridor without a news, talk or sports outlet on FM is New York.  They'll have to get the memo eventually!  The other memo WOR and WABC haven't gotten is that live and local is coming back.

KMBZ is the second news/talk outlet to add an FM simulcast this month.  Two weeks ago, KXL Portland added an FM simulcast.  NY, LA and Chicago need to take notice!

[t.j.]

My thoughts:

ANOTHER GREAT LEGENDARY FM GONE!! 34 YEARS!! 1977 TO 2010!! THAT SHOULD BE A CRIME. NOW I SEE WHY EVERYBODY'S GOING TO SIRIUS. WHY COULDN'T THEY PUT IT ON 99.7???

T.J.

[KeithE4]

ANOTHER GREAT LEGENDARY FM GONE!! 34 YEARS!! 1977 TO 2010!! THAT SHOULD BE A CRIME. NOW I SEE WHY EVERYBODY'S GOING TO SIRIUS. WHY COULDN'T THEY PUT IT ON 99.7???

Why should that be a crime?  Why does it matter that a station's been around since 1977 (or even 1997 for that matter)?  If it doesn't work, then it's time for a change. 

That's about as logical as someone in 1958 saying "Waaahhhhh!!!!  My legendary station that carried Fibber McGee & Molly, and has been on the air since 1922, is now playing that evil rock & roll!  Waaaahhhhh!!!"  And the geezers of the '50s probably did just that.

I don't know the KC market, but how many folks younger than 40 listened to KUDL?  "Cuddle?"  "Kansas City's At-Work Station?"  Puh-leeze! 

[radioguy39nj]

There are many who believe that FM is the sole province of music formats and that all spoken word formats should be on AM and that should never change.  When we lived in a world without iPods, MP3s, satellite and internet radio, that was the case.

In 2011, we have all of those alternative sources for music that WE the listeners control, not the advertisers.  Times change.  The real competition on FM in the future will be for news, talk and sports formats.

Programmers in NY, LA and Chicago seem to think there is no need for news, talk and sports formats on FM in those markets because they have 50 kW AM blasters that reach the desired money demos in the suburbs.  Those blasters have one thing in common with a 5 kW AM in a small or medium sized market: those money demos are listening to FM!  They aren't touching the "AM" button on their car radios!  I'm not sure that programmers of those 50 kW big market blasters have gotten that message!

[KeithE4]

Programmers in NY, LA and Chicago seem to think there is no need for news, talk and sports formats on FM in those markets because they have 50 kW AM blasters that reach the desired money demos in the suburbs.  Those blasters have one thing in common with a 5 kW AM in a small or medium sized market: those money demos are listening to FM!  They aren't touching the "AM" button on their car radios!  I'm not sure that programmers of those 50 kW big market blasters have gotten that message!

In the case of Chicago (I can't speak about NY and LA because I never lived there), CBS will eventually put WBBM and WSCR on an FM simulcast.  But right now CBS has only one FM station that's not doing well (WCFS).  They need two; we'll see how the new WJMK format goes.  WBBM-FM could be a casualty of tomorrow's teenagers not bothering with radio at all.  We could have NewsRadio 96.3 sometime in the not-too-distant future.

WLS is up in the air - it depends on what the new owners do.  They could swap the oldies and talk, putting talk on FM and having a reborn Big 89.  But they could be in trouble since Don & Roma aren't getting any younger, and Limbaugh will eventually retire (all are over 60 now).

WMVP is owned by Disney, who sold their only FM to Citadel (WLS-FM).  They have nowhere to go.  Neither does WGN, who's still living under that now-obsolete 1970 court order that prohibits Tribune from owning an FM unless they sell AM 720 or Channel 9.  WGN would have been toast years ago were it not for the Cubs and Black Hawks.

And some of us old geezers don't bother with the AM dial much anymore either.  If it wasn't for sports, I'd never listen to AM.  And I'm well into my 50s!  Mine was the last generation that listened to music on AM.  My car radio is used mostly to receive the FM signal from the little transmitter that plugs into my Android.  Probably 80% of my "radio" listening is online now.

[radioguy39nj]

New York definitely has parallels to Chicago.  CBS has three music FMs in NY and all are doing well and none are likely to be flipped any time soon.  CBS has three AMs, sports WFAN and two all-newsers, WCBS-AM and WINS.  NY is the only market that has two all-news stations and they are both successful.  CBS' NY AMs are successful because they are live and local.

WABC, despite being almost all-syndicated except for Joe Crummey, is doing well.  Their sister FM, hot AC WPLJ, doesn't do well in NYC, but bills very well because they have high ratings in the LI and NJ suburbs.  Cumulus isn't likely to mess with either one of them.

WEPN, like WMVP, is owned by Disney and sold it's only FM, WPLJ, to Citadel, now Cumulus.  Speculation has had it for nearly three years that WEPN would migrate to FM at 101.9, currently Emmis' WRXP, a low rated rocker, but Emmis refuses to sell despite being NYs lowest rated full-power FM.  For now, WEPN has nowhere to go.  WEPN is a directional AM and barely makes a dent against 50 kW blaster WFAN.  WEPN has three NY sports teams, the Jets, Knicks and Rangers.  Fans of those teams have a hard time dialing in their games.  The Yankees are rumored to be talking with WEPN about moving their games there in 2012, but IMHO that could only happen if WEPN gets on FM.  The Boston Red Sox actually get more money, $18MM, for their radio broadcasts than do the Yankees, $13MM.  The Yankees are currently on 50 kW blaster, WCBS-AM.

I haven't listened to music on FM since subscribing to Sirius in 2003.  I only listen to WFAN and WCBS-AM.  The only FM I bother with is WKXW (NJ 101.5), NJ's talk and information station.  I get my music from satellite and the internet and I'm a geezer as well!

[Zach]

Programmers in NY, LA and Chicago seem to think there is no need for news, talk and sports formats on FM in those markets because they have 50 kW AM blasters that reach the desired money demos in the suburbs.  Those blasters have one thing in common with a 5 kW AM in a small or medium sized market: those money demos are listening to FM!  They aren't touching the "AM" button on their car radios!  I'm not sure that programmers of those 50 kW big market blasters have gotten that message!

I'm sure programmers in all three markets would love to have a big FM signal to compliment the AM, but there is nowhere for that signal to go.  Smart money only blows up a music station when the talk simulcast is likely to bring in better numbers.  It'll happen sometime, just not right now.

In actuality, however, those money demos must still be listening to AM because in all three markets the news and talk stations seem to be doing pretty darn well for themselves.  Chicago and LA have good enough ground conductivity that the powerhouse stations are available in 100% of the market and even in many buildings and dwellings.  New York probably lags behind in that respect but not by much.  So there's no impetus of overcoming massive noise and interference like there might be in DC or New England where the AMs are just pitiful no matter what dial position and power.

These stations will also continue to flourish because they all have one special advantage: you can pick them up day and night reliably in market.  That's a problem lots of smaller AMs in the middle states have.  During the day, I can get Mobile's WNTM (weakly) from 30 miles out.  But at night?  Nada.  And that's the case with a lot of newer stations with highly directional night signals.  But WCBS, WBBM, KFWB, they're there in town all the time and always pretty strong.