Wednesday, July 3, 2013
WE INTERRUPT GORDON KEITH WEEK TO BRING YOU THE NEWS THAT CUMULUS IS SHEDDING 104.1
Thanks to Confessor BBQ for this news:
http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/119986/cumulus-spins-off-dallas-area-fm
Here is a comment from radioInsight (http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/84092/cumulus-sells-dfw-rimshot/):
"The station currently rebroadcasts Sports '1310 The Ticket' KTCK to the northern suburbs of the Dallas/Fort Worth market.
The sale price will come in two parts. At closing of this sale, Cumulus will receive $100. Whitley will then turn around and resell the station at which point Cumulus will receive all proceeds from that sale minus all expenses incurred in the operation of the station and from marketing and reselling the station.
William Whitley, the owner of Whitley Media, is a broker with Media Services Group. KTDK is a Class C3 operating with 6.2kW at 192 meters.
INSTANT INSIGHT: With Cumulus being at the ownership limit in Dallas and the way this sale is being structured it makes us wonder if they needed to quickly divest their worst signal in the market in order to make room for the acquisition of another."
This is either real bad news (incredibly scruddy Ticket aggregate signal gets even scruddier, unless there's some arrangement to keep broadcasting on 104.1 -- at this writing Ticket still on 104.1) or real good news (Cumulus gloms some other, better, signal and puts The Ticket on it).
Your Plainsman spends a fair amount of time on 104.1 so this is of extreme interest to this site. Even though radioInsight calls the station a "rimshot." It's MY rimshot.
Yes, if our radio guru DA has any poop on this, we respectfully request that he dump it here forthwith.
Thanks, and stand by.
PS: After you have digested this news, flip back to the just-prior article and read birdie's Gordon Keith observations and Confessor commentary if you haven't already. Thanks.
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Wow, this is going to really suck if they stop rebroadcasting The Ticket on that station.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I can't get 1310 at my office on the plains or early AM, so that may do me in. Here's hoping we see signal swap, or a new signal for The Ticket.
ReplyDeleteSurely they'll replace the 104.1listeners left out.
I should add that it is not at all clear that The Ticket won't continue on 104.1 pursuant to some kind of agreement, if that's permitted by FCC rules under the circumstances of Cumulus being maxed out in the Cool Metro. So it could be biz as usual.
All iHeart, all the time.
I love my HD Radio... Crystal clear all across the metroplex...
ReplyDeleteMore speculation here.
ReplyDeletehttp://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=236889.0
At one time the primary thrust of these secondary signals was to strengthen the signal in Collin county. 104.1 signal pretty much dies at the Grayson/Fannin county line and was fair at the Collin/Hunt county line depending on the weather. Going south it began to fade around Richardson into Dallas, again depending on the weather. 1310 signal is iffy in some of Big Sky country depending on electrical interference. A swap to 570 would not be much of an improvement.
What are the boundaries of 1310 around Dallas?
Noooooo! I'm on 104 95% of the time (work gives me a lot of windshield time from mckinney/lewisville/plano/carrollton)
ReplyDeleteTime to go all TuneIn all the time, folks.
ReplyDeleteI feel certain that the CTO is not going to abandon the prosperous, populous, sponsor-friendly demographic represented by the portions of the tiny Ticket Listening Area served by 104.1.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happens, we'll have at least have some more time with KTDK Sanger. The 104.1 Ticket signal, if it is extinguished at all, won't be extinguished until the broker finds a buyer. (I think.)
I say "if it is extinguished at all," because I don't know enough about radio regulation to know whether The Ticket can "rent out" the signal from the new buyer, and still acquire another FM signal in the metro.
So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this means that The Ticket will move to a better FM signal, either one already in Cumulus's stable, as I've urged repeatedly in the past, or some newly-acquired signal.
If, contrary to this speculation, we will be left with 1310, Your Plainsman may have to pack it in. I listen almost exclusively to 104.1, mainly because I can get it (usually -- sometimes it is defeated by KKUS "The Ranch" 104.1 in Tyler) in my downtown office where AM cannot penetrate. It's also the signal of choice up north; if you've ever listened to the early hours of The Musers on 1310, you'll know why my first preset is 104.1. iHeart and TuneIn and the website feed are not viable alternatives for me.
So keep your fingers crossed, Confessors.
The 1310 signal starts petering out in W and SW Arlington. I have to listen through IHeartRadio in my home.
ReplyDeleteThe HD signal is iffy at best for me north of Lewisville, so if 104.1 goes away, a big portion of my listening time will go away as well. I can't stomach the AM signal for very long.
ReplyDeleteI know it's an old discussion, and carries the weight of "Barry vs. Emmitt", but it's amazing to me that The Ticket's parent company du jour won't take the signal issue seriously enough to take a firm FM foothold and completely drop AM. At the very least, there are options for improving the AM signal so it's not a punchline.
There really isn't an AM signal they could move it to and gain anything. 570 or 1190 (if they could swing it) would not be much of an improvement. TBPB at Cumulus have done some odd things but I doubt even they would move the Ticket to 820.
ReplyDelete93.3 doesn't reach into all of Collin county and is non existent in Grayson. Doubt they would switch it to 96.3 either with both country stations billing well. How far do the HD stations carry outside the DFW market and would investing in a unit be worth it?
While a flip to FM would be great, provided it actually covers all of DFW, flipping with 570 would be a vast improvement. I checked it repeatedly last night out here west of the Brazos. Clear as a bell. I have checked it when traveling in Texas to see how far it reaches. I have picked it up as far south as Houston, a bit scratchy, but no worse than the Ticket signal after sundown west of Bryant Irvin. And the mighty BAP? Yes, I know it is legendary among radio geeks, I have picked it up in Wyoming late at night coming back from California. Despite the fact that the younger demographic seems to be utterly clueless to the concept that there is an entirely different band of stations on their radio, they do seem to find it when necessary, see ratings for the Ticket. With that crappy signal and no promotion they still get boffo ratings. Imagine what they could get if you could pick it up in the areas they theoretically are supposed to serve.
ReplyDeleteYeah, guys, I don't think we're talking about a naked flip here, or else they would already have done it. If we're to get any improvement at all -- and I don't see how this doesn't end up with some kind of improvement -- it's going to involve an acquired FM signal to fill the hole in Cumulus's local FM limits formerly occupied by 104.1. Either The Ticket will get the acquired signal, or some existing FM will flip to the new one and The Ticket will get the existing FM. More likely the former.
ReplyDeleteIf either happens, I want a commission.
I should have posted this here rather than with Dobie (next article), but I nosed around a little in the local radio scene, and no one knows what's up with Cumulus's plans for 104.1 and the simulcast.
ReplyDelete