KBSG 97.3 to become KIRO-FM

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KBSG 97.3 to become KIRO-FM

Postby skyvalleyradio » Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:41 pm

KBSG 97.3 Is about to drop oldies after 20 years & flip to KIRO-FM as a simulcast of AM 710. According to their website, the flip takes place August 12. That leaves classic hits KJR-FM and classic rock KZOK as the 2 rock oldies stations in the Seattle-Tacoma market

http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=106
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Postby Russ_Byth » Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:48 pm

So does this mean that KIRO 710 will become all-sports? Could probably be done with them having both the Mariners and Seahawks.
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Postby skyvalleyradio » Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:26 pm

Russ - after prowling around some of the Seattle boards, it seems the Mariners will be broadcast on KIRO-AM while the FM stays with news-talk. However, the usual armchair speculators on these boards are all guessing the AM may flip to all-sports as apparently KJR-AM is going to lose its ESPN affiliation sometime next year and KOMO already lost the Mariners to KIRO. It will be interesting to see how news on KIRO-FM does against KUOW which has NPR news & talk 24/7 and places pretty decently in Seattle listener ratings
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Postby cart_machine » Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:25 pm

skyvalleyradio wrote: However, the usual armchair speculators on these boards are all guessing the AM may flip to all-sports as apparently KJR-AM is going to lose its ESPN affiliation sometime next year and KOMO already lost the Mariners to KIRO.


So what's KJR going to do?

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Postby radiofan » Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:11 pm

More in Bill Virgin's Radio Beat column

http://radiowest.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3887
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Postby skyvalleyradio » Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:02 am

"So what's KJR going to do? "

good question! My guess is that depends upon how much sports ends up on KIRO and whether KOMO does some tweaking of their news/talk format or does a complete flip to all-sports. KJR-AM may retool their sports format to more local based programming once ESPN is gone. With KBSG gone, KJR-FM will likely gain ground and maybe they will simulcast on AM 950 - at least until the dust settles and they decide on a format.
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Postby tuned » Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:45 am

KBSG was one of the worst radio stations playing "oldies". For years they were near the top of the ratings playing the same old few hundred songs. Competitors started playing a wider variety of music and slowly chipped away at their audience. I met with a Seattle programmer about five years ago and he used KBSG's success as a reason to not have a large playlist. Good riddance to one of the worst radio stations ever.
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Postby jon » Thu Jul 31, 2008 12:29 pm

This could end up being quite a creative solution by KIRO management. The call letters are changing to KIRO-FM, presumably allowing them to get their ratings as a combined total of AM and FM, and sell them that way to advertisers.

But, the main item of interest is that KIRO management says they already have a LOT more programming than they can air on KIRO-AM, so I don't see them being 100% simulcast even Day One. Over time, it could expand to the point where they are not simulcast at all, but cross-promoting each other, perhaps announcing that live coverage of some Newsworthy event will be heard on AM, while play-by-play begins on FM.

If it does work, I could certainly see CKNW management watching carefully, to see if they could adapt the approach to CKNW and 730 KHz. But, for now, I suspect they are casting their eyes to Edmonton, to see how the CHED and All News CHQT ends up. By the way, as someone was asking me recently, CHED and CHQT do not simulcast at all. Even the recorded News stories appear to be read separately for each station, with pros like Ed Mason reading more than one version of reports on major stories just for CHQT, just so they don't sound the same when played several times an hour.
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Postby Howaboutthat » Thu Jul 31, 2008 12:54 pm

jon wrote:If it does work, I could certainly see CKNW management watching carefully, to see if they could adapt the approach to CKNW and 730 KHz. But, for now, I suspect they are casting their eyes to Edmonton, to see how the CHED and All News CHQT ends up.


Ummmm... Corus already tried the all-news thing in Vancouver, failing miserably. :cry:
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Postby YesterDaze » Thu Jul 31, 2008 1:15 pm

Why was that?

I hope someone can be objective in explaining to me how a station with NW's super resources & manpower at that time, failed to get a substantial toehold going head-to-head with News 1130.

I don't need to hear again the party line from the Rogers fraternity, someone who was on the Corus side might be more objective.

Did the plug get pulled too soon? Couldn't CJNW be allowed to spill any more red ink?
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Postby jon » Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:12 pm

Howaboutthat wrote:Corus already tried the all-news thing in Vancouver, failing miserably

Yes. I was suggesting that KIRO may be the one to watch because it does not sound like either station (KIRO AM or FM) will end up being All News.

But, I also suspect that Corus will watch Edmonton carefully, especially if Rogers gets an All News station on the air here, to see how iNews880 (CHQT) does before and after competition in the All News arena. Corus will want to see what they can learn for Vancouver, and I can certainly see them trying All News again there.

What I don't know is all the details on CJNW, to be able to compare with CHQT. But I'm sure it was very different, based on the people involved. Doug Rutherford would, no doubt, have learned some lessons from CJNW. And Bob Layton, as CHED/CHQT News Director, is certainly his own man, in terms of both Planning and Day-to-Day Management.

As I say, a lot depends on how well KIRO AM & FM and CHED/CHQT do over the next year or so.

But, in the final analysis, it is good to remember what Paul Ski said at the Edmonton CRTC hearings. It takes 5-10 years before Rogers' All News stations have made money. Good thing Rogers has their cell phone cash cow....

What Paul Ski didn't say is also quite interesting. He said that CKWX took several years longer than "normal" to make money. What he didn't say was Why? Answer: CJNW.
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Postby Howaboutthat » Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:54 pm

jon wrote:What Paul Ski didn't say is also quite interesting. He said that CKWX took several years longer than "normal" to make money. What he didn't say was Why? Answer: CJNW.


Actually Jon, I think it was CKNW. It was the established news leader in Vancouver for decades and it took WX longer to chip away at it. NW2 was never an issue to making money as its numbers were never anything that would have lured an advertiser away from News1130. From what I recall, most of the spots consisted of programming promos for the mother station anyway. And lets face it, at that time, Ski wasn't paying any attention to Rogers.
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Postby jon » Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:03 pm

Good point.

I assumed it was CJNW because Rogers didn't seem to face the same problem in Toronto, where I assumed that CFRB was in the same position as CKNW, as well established News voice.

I'm also not sure Paul Ski's presence at Rogers is relevant, because it was unclear how much Paul was speaking for himself versus speaking from "Roger's Corporate Experience" supplied to him by others. At that level in an organization, you quickly make Corporate History your own.
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Postby cart_machine » Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:59 pm

YesterDaze wrote:
I don't need to hear again the party line from the Rogers fraternity,


What party line is that?

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Postby Glen Livingstone » Fri Aug 01, 2008 12:21 am

jon wrote: I could certainly see CKNW management watching carefully, to see if they could adapt the approach to CKNW and 730 KHz.


CKNW has no management locally. What they have is a couple of babysitters who take their marching orders from Toronto head office.

jon wrote:
But, for now, I suspect they are casting their eyes to Edmonton, to see how the CHED and All News CHQT ends up.


They don't need to cast their eyes to Edmonton, they can just think back to 2001 when they took CKNW's idiot bastard child CJNW and drove it into the ground after fourteen months of some of the worst radio in Vancouver history.
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