Sacramento Station To Dump Air America Radio For ESPN !!!

[WillyT]

It's official: KCTC to switch to ESPN Radio
By Joe Davidson - Bee Staff Writer
Published 1:28 pm PST Thursday, February 15, 2007

<snip>

Starting Feb. 26, there will be a sports alternative on the Sacramento radio airwaves. KCTC (1320 AM) will change its format from liberal politics to all-sports program as an affiliate of ESPN Radio, according to a station offiicial.

...

John Geary, general manager of the Entercom-owned station, said the intent is not to directly compete with 1140, but to provide "a sports alternative to people who want that." KCTC only will carry ESPN programming, Geary said, but he will explore local sports programming.

KCTC had been the home of "Air America" programs. Geary added the liberal audience wasn't big enough or strong enough to maintain that programming. He added the early response to anticipated format change has been overwhelmingly positive.

<snip>

Link: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/124135.html

Here we go again!

:banghead::nuke::banghead:

[fooj]

1. What a bunch of bullshit.

"liberal audience wasn't big enough or strong enough"...

Assholes. These people can't handle the truth, can they?

[Botany]

2. It is happening Nationwide

Columbus, Boston, Arizona, Duluth, Cincinnati, Buffalo, and ....

The word has gone out ... shut it down!

[Bluzmann57]

3. And the trend continues

Market after market is dumping AAR and other progressives in favor of something else. Hey all you people who bitch endlessly about AAR, is this really what you all wanted? Baby steps, but not backward steps. I say let's support AAR, even if we may not agree with all their programming. Otherwise our last best hope will be completely gone from free radio.
Donning Kevlar suit now for the sure to come flames.

[MADem]

4. Why, such pragmatism and triangulation must surely be met with a stoning!! NT

[Bluzmann57]

5. Thank you, but I quit

Oh wait, you mean another type of stoning. Never mind.

[MADem]

10. Heh, heh!!! NT

[KharmaTrain]

6. AAR's Status Is Still A Mess

Having assets sold to pay debts is not the sign of a healthy network. Even with the new investor/buyer, there's no sure thing the company gets out of bankruptcy or survives. As a station owner/manager, or any business owner, how would you react if your main supplier were about to go under? Many stations see AAR eventually folding and are hedging their bets.

Yes, the station had dirt poor ratings. There are various reasons for that...the biggest being a lack of promotions and local programming. People don't know it's there. Many AAR affiliates are that way...rarely do they market or promote themselves.

Jones Radio has been gobbling up some of the AAR slots, but right now radio's economic situation makes it real difficult for any fomat/network/station to do well. Fortunately in Sacramento...540AM is still airing Progressive Talk. Progressive Talk is far from dead, but it is time to examine what went wrong (just like how we've lost elections) and find the right people and build a stronger Progressive network than exists.

[warrior1]

7. fuck

well at least I got Stephanie

[Garbo 2004]

15. I wonder what KCTC's Music of Your Life ratings were before they went to AAR.

Not all that very long ago I think it was Geary who was quoted as saying how well they were doing with AAR, they were in the black, etc. Of course this was before the AAR bankruptcy and uncertain future.

KCTC did have local programming during the week: their morning drive show and Enid Goldstein in the afternoon after Randi. Enid was competing with Christine Craft at KSAC 1240. Pretty sure Christine won that battle. I think KCTC also had some local paid programming on the weekend. But I don't recall them doing much if any promotion.

Entercom has its own problems in Sacto right now and I guess from a business perspective ESPN is a sure thing while AAR is not. But apparently they're also planning to move a transmitter to West Sac and drop KCTC's night time signal from 5,000 to 500 watts.

[KharmaTrain]

16. That Signal Is Terrible

Many of these old AM stations were set up 40 and 50 years ago...population had shifted, but the signals didn't...and, unfortuanately, AAR has landed in many of those. The signal directed away from where the largest audiences are and it makes it hard to make these stations do well...unless you spend a lot of money re-engineering the signal.

Entercom is a good company, but is a mess in Sacramento right now. That promotion where the lady died is just one of many problems the company faces.

The real problem is decentralization of radio...companies like Entercom, Clear Channel, CBS, Citadel and others expanded too big. For every winner in a market, they also stuck with two or three dogs that they're trying to keep going as to keep competition out and keep the property value of their stations high.

While I haven't looked at KCTC, but I'll bet if I look back that that past 15 years of the station's history, I can trace at least half a dozen format changes as corporate try to plug in one cookie cutter after another and hope to fall into some money with it.

Cheers...

[madrchsod]

8. radio stations sell soap by market share

what was the market share 1320 when they had aar? what is the market share for espn/local sports in a similar market size? in chicago the aar station is`t in the top 30

[snowbear]

9. And yet here in Anchorage, Alaska... the station is KICKING ASS !!!

I'm in Anchorage, and our station here KUDO (1080AM) is thriving.. It's a combination of AAR programming -- along with Jones Network (Big Ed, Steph, Thom) and three.. count'em THREE local progressive talk shows!!!

We started out with one "Crossfire type" of show on Kudo 1080 with a liberal and a conservative host debating each other and taking calls. The show was called "Frost and Fire" and although it was extremely popular, it fizzled out when the Frost part of the show (the republican) decided to run for Mayor.

He wound up losing to a fantastic Democratic mayor...

He (Frost) was welcomed back to the show with welcome arms by the station and by listeners.. but for some reason I think losing the race made him feel like baggin' the show?

Later that show became "The Aaron Selbig Show" (who was "Fire") from the other show. (Aaron > http://www.insurgent49.com/ ) Eventually it branched out to two shows adding "Blue State of Mind" and within the past month or so has added a third liberal talk show, "the Cutting Edge"..

But I'm telling you --- between AAR, Jones, and locally produced programming ---- the station is ROCKIN' and ROLLIN' here!!

Maybe the key to our success was making the station diverse by airing what listeners liked from AAR.. what the liked from Jones Radio Ntwk... and what they kept asking for -- plenty of local perspective???

Some may think of Alaska as a red state with only batshit crazy wingnuts on the radio...

........But AAR/Jones/Local Liberal Talk is doing INCREDIBLY well here!! (And in case you're wondering, AAR is not new to Anchorage -- we were the 11th city to sign up for it when it initially began).. So nope, we're not in any sort of honeymoon period.

It just works.

[snowbear]

11. Oh p.s... we also have ESPN radio on another station.. Something 4 Everyone...

Hopefully, another owner will step in and pick up that station in Sacramento..

Some progressive programming (take Phoenix for example) that switched over to a Christian radio format..

... is soon coming back to Pheonix because of the intense demand.

If someone comes out with a petetion to keep the station there, let me know, I'll sign it!

-----------
me and my damned TYPOS..

[clbuck]

12. It won't be a COMPLETE loss:

There's still KSAC 1240, which airs non-Air America progressive shows, like Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, Mike Malloy, plus a local host (Christine Craft).

However, they have Dave Ramsey, a financial talk show, in the afternoon for some reason.

[WillyT]

13. Well... Entercom's CFO, Stephen F. Fisher, Is Doin OK...

Link: http://swz.salary.com/execcomp/layouthtmls/excl_execreport_118568.html

And after giving the AAR affiliatos the boot, there are a number of job openings here: http://www.entercom.com/careers.php?marketid=17

Apparently they own buttload of Sacramento stations... I had no idea.

:shrug:

Oh damn, here's the rest of the boys: http://swz.salary.com/execcomp/layouthtmls/excl_companyreport_C1006097_summary.html

"Hey guys... it's a two-fer! We make wads more money, while performing a lobotomy on society at the same time!!!"

:puke:

[LTR]

17. They're probably restaffing the morning show on one of their FM stations

Remember that "Hold you wee for a Wii" contest? The one that resulted in the death of a 28-year old mother of three?

Yep, that's their sister station. In the same building as KCTC.

http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2007/02/whats-going-on-with-sacramentos-left.html

[proud patriot]

14. dude , that sucks

:(