Bad Plainsman

Hey, Confessors, so sorry I've been a poor Ticket Journalist lately.  Out of town, house guests, limited Ticket listening.  And for some reason, I'm not getting email notifications about messages so I'm behind on monitoring them as well.  Hope you're all getting along.

I do have a topic or two up my sleeve, but gotta run again.  And I'll be away starting next week for a week, so this may be it for a little while.  I'll check those email notifications and in any event call up the site to check on them.

Three -- no, four -- safe-for-work gingers for your patience.

Topics, topics -- hey, for the first time I'm getting an "HD1" badge under 96.7 on my car display.  And lots of interference on that band from other stations during my morning drive.  Had to switch to 1310.  Made me a little nostalgic.

Stay Tickety, all.

Sum Ting Wong

What's the problem with The Ticket's FM signal?  I forget exactly when I noticed this, sometime within the last week or so, but 96.7 FM -- or "ninety-six seven FM," as Ticketarians are instructed to say -- has lost its FM sparkle.

The top and bottom end of the EQ, or something, is missing, and the overall sound has an almost AM quality to it (but it hasn't gone all the way to the primitive AM midranginess fuzz of 1310).

It doesn't make the station any more difficult to listen to, but that signal now has a slight but very noticeable muted, muffled quality to it.  The clarity and resonance and overall sizzle it usually has are missing.

No big deal, but thought I'd mention it, see if anyone else noticed.

ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

@Plainsman1310

96.7 -- The Dawn of a New Sunset

This is the most important day in Ticket history next to the day it first signed on.  More important than any of the acquisitions.  More important than any of their physical moves.

The Ticket finally has a long-pants signal, 96.7 FM.

This instantly renders 1310 AM irrelevant, except perhaps in certain pockets south of the metro.  And from their discussion of the inauguration of 96.7 FM during Muse in the News this morning, you can tell that the Musers, at least, know it.

Alas, Your Favorite Website did not receive the acknowledgment it was due for sparking demand for this precise change starting in 2011.   They all laughed  .  .  .  .

The signal was clear as a bell all the way downtown -- and, as Junior said, in the parking garage and in my high-rise office.

I do wonder if Cumulus will take a run at the Mavericks when their 103.3 contract is up, since The Ticket may now be heard at night throughout Cool Metro.  I suppose the the Local Management Agreement (LMA) Cumulus has with ESPN for 103.3 plays into that decisionmaking somehow.  Can't see them going for the Rangers -- too many day games.

Would Jerry consider a return to The Ticket for the Cowboys now that it has a long-pants signal?  Mm, guessing no, but Jerry is a practical man, if not a farsighted football man.  We'll take a look at the technical considerations some other time.

Smokin' FM

Who is the happiest guy in Cool Metro today?

Gotta be one T.C. Fleming.

ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

@Plainsman1310

Let Us Revisit the Always Innarestin Subject of Signals

As long-time readers of this site know, I've been banging the drum for signal swap, or signal change, for a long time.  One of the earliest annoying obsessions of My Ticket Confession.

I haven't excited much enthusiasm for this crusade.  And in the course of, um, criticism of my position, we've learned some interesting things from people who seem to know things about radio economics.  (Anon E's Lesson on Radio Economics)

I remained skeptical that giving The Ticket a better signal was unfeasible.  I was willing to sacrifice i93.

But in the course of mulling this over and thinking about things like the 2011 Citadel deal, we see that there may be a better candidate out there, first identified on this site in June 2011 (More Questions about Signal Swap):  That would be the 96.7 FM simulcast of 820 WBAP.  It's not an ideal signal for the metro as a whole, concentrated on northerly areas (like 104.1), but hugely more powerful:  90,000 watts compared with 104.1's 6200.

WBAP is a huge biller in this market; more, I believe, than The Ticket.  The question is:  Who needs that signal more?  Or rather, which simulcast assignment maximizes Cumulus's profit?  820 AM, a 50,000-watt clear-channel scorcher that can be heard all over the Southwest after hours and clearly throughout the metro and beyond when the sun shines, or Class B KTCK 1310 AM with half that power during the day (and sounds worse even after factoring in the lower power) and almost nothing (5 KW) at night?

I am doubtful that WBAP gets any revenue advantage from simulcasting on 96.7.  Here is its coverage area:

And here is 820 AM's:

Compare the overall map coverage (the 96.7 map covers a smaller area), and you will see that 820 entirely swallows up 96.7 -- even the red strong-signal boundary.  Are advertisers paying more for the duplicate signal for a talk station not requiring FM fidelity that doesn't reach a single additional listener?  

No?

Then Cumulus loses nothing -- nothing -- by reassigning 96.7.

I concede that comparing the KTCK 1310 map to the 96.7 map may not impress one with a gigantic increase in Tickety coverage in the extended metro:

However, coverage maps aside, the evidence of our ears tells us that 1310 isn't nearly as good in those ranges as the map suggests, and 96.7 is quite clear in the indicated boundaries, and it does someewhat extend The Ticket's range in the desirable North Texas/North Suburban market.   And, of course, this is the daytime coverage.  Here's the nighttime coverage for 1310:  

Pretty clear, I think, that simulcasting 96.7 with 1310 -- unlike an 820 simulcast -- at least has the potential to increase station listenership, and would beyond question improve the listening experience. With the potential to (although, again I concede, not the certainty of) also boosting ratings and revenue.  Might even make nighttime sales look a lot rosier.  (Another concession -- post-sundown sales likely aren't robust under any circumstances.)

Anyway, my very patient Confessors, I know that streaming and smartphone listening is on the rise and may be the wave of the future.  But I believe that most radio guys would tell you that good old-fashioned broadcast terrestrial ratings continue to drive sales.

So I haven't given up on signal swap nor entirely abandoned my faith in the common sense of the CTO.  Don't be stunned if someday soon Craig "Junior" "the Joonz" Miller interrupts his courageous report on "The Five Best and Five Worst Brands of Derailleur Sprockets" with some real news, just texted in from the Pan-American Catman -- a long-pants signal for The Ticket.

What's next?  Billboards?

You saw it here first.

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ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

@Plainsman1310

Kinda Worried

Maybe a little more than kinda.

I never thought the ESPN deal would result in anyone moving from The Ticket to 103.3.  Didn't make sense for Cumulus to pirate a single one of its top-rated to counter-program 1310.

No, my worry is about what seems to be the related sale of 104.1.

I don't know if we have any definitive ruling on whether the ESPN deal, whereby Cumulus will program, but not own, 103.3, required the divestiture of 104.1.  Doesn't really matter for what's worrying me.

When accounts of the 104.1 sale appeared, the word was that it would continue to simulcast 1310 until the intermediary -- apparently, the sale was made to a nominee, a media property broker who was going to flip to another operator when one could be found.   (The broker is Whitley Media, a broker with Media Services Group.)  I haven't found any further information on any deal closing, so as of now, 104.1 is effectively unflipped, and it's still chirping out Sportsradio 1310, The Ticket.

And what will happen when someone is found to take over the Sanger Blowtorch?

Your Plainsman rises early; chores, you know.  I travel to the skyscrapers of Dallas, Texas, where I park and scurry to my assigned seat and turn on the radio.  Most days -- not all, but most -- 104.1 may be heard on the radio set.  1310, no.  Even after the sun rises and 1310 makes recognizably human sounds, it still goes in and out, and but 104.1 generally remains stalwart to downtown and in the towers.

I get the impression that most Confessors listen to 1310.  But I listen almost exclusively to 104.1.  Could I listen to 1310 if 104.1 disappeared?  Yes, but not for as long, and not as comfortably.  iHeart and the new Ticket app and the website stream are not ideal substitutes for me for a number of reasons.

So do we know what Cumulus has in mind?  I suppose it should be plain after all these years that no one knows what Cumulus has in mind.  But I was troubled by this passage from this Barry Horn article:

"Although prominent sports talk radio stations in New York, Philadelphia and Boston have secured FM outlets, Cumulus’ [COO John] Dickey said that is not the current plan for the The Ticket.

"Cumulus has aired Ticket programming on weak-signaled KTDK-FM (104.1), but the sale of the station is pending. Might The Ticket find another more powerful home on the FM dial?

'We believe you don’t fix something that’s not broken,' Dickey said.

But he added, 'You never say never about anything.'"

This isn't exactly the same as saying "we're not going to replace the 104.1 signal, and will just go with the Bic-Lighter 1310 signal, and good fracking luck to you all," but it's pretty close.  Of course, it does confirm that Cumulus does not believe that the Ticket signal is deficient in any way that matters, which ought not come as a shock to Confessors.  And it also confirms that John Dickey really has pretty much no idea of what's going to happen -- or at least nothing he's willing to share, which is not necessarily a bad posture to take with a reporter.

So I'll enjoy the crystal clarity of the Sanger Blowtorch for now, and hope that Whitley Media's potential customers find 104.1 as worthless as Cumulus does.

KTDK Coverage Map

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ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

@Plainsman1310

Notes from Camp

Ladies and gentlemen, my apologies for being away for so long. My work and household duties have escalated recently and my posts are, unfortunately, going to be few and far between for a while.  The commitments cut into both listening and writing time. I do keep an eye on comments and have appreciated most everyone's observation of the site's unwritten rules.

I have made a few notes from the last couple of weeks, some ticket-related, some not. Nothing too profound here, but maybe this will get some the threads kick-started:

          1.     Junior Miller:  "There are too many idiots in the world, and half of them are commenting on websites."  (Referring to comments to news items in the DMN.)

          2.     Both the Hardline and Musers have remarked on the fact that there seem to be lots of people hanging around Southern California who "aren't doing so well."  No kidding.  I have a lot of good feelings for California, having lived there with great pleasure for five years in the '90's (hence my fondness for Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton), but it's a holy mess.  Decades of mismanagement (Democrat and Republican), have left the state broke.  Its legislature is a corrupt candy machine (Democrats are the problem here), devastating state taxes that are going higher, enormous public payroll, vast welfare benefits for illegal immigrants, it goes on and on.  The leading candidate for a catastrophic Detroit-style bankruptcy.  It's America's Greece.   Meanwhile, Texas still can't get free agents to come here.

          3.    Can we get a report on how Norm and BaD handled the camp?  I heard zero minutes of either show while they were in Oxnard.

           I actually like the travelogue aspects of The Ticket's travel to faraway places, yes, even Corby's stories.  I do wonder whether there is a whole lot of sportsy value to having all those shows out there, and at Super Bowls, and at playoffs.  Some take it more seriously than others.  I would think that Norm and BaD, broadcasting during daylight hours, would snag a relevant interview or two along the line. How was their time out there?

          4.     This site's deepest condolences to Mike Rhyner and his loved ones on his mother's passing.  She seemed like a sweet lady in her few interactions with the station, and Mike's voice took on a different tone when she came up.  One had the idea that one would mess with that woman at one's considerable personal peril.  RIP.

          5.     Several commenters have taken the opportunity of Mike's occasional absences to note how good Corby can be when he has responsibility for running a presentation. He's also on good behavior with other hosts.  This site has mentioned this on several occasions.   More than one person has observed that perhaps Corby's excesses are encouraged by the kind of chemistry he has with Mike. I got an e-mail from Confessor N:  

"Perhaps it's just me, but me and some of my real good P1 friends all find Corby with anyone other than Rhyner actually very good, crisp, funny and more likable.  It started last week with Corby manning the ship when Rhynes suddenly left Oxnard for his mom's illness.  I thought his chemistry with Craig, Gordon, Dan, Donny, the Commander et al was great.  Then Friday it clicked for me when Rhynes was out for the funeral  - I like Corby leading with Danny in the co-pilot seat and Jake as the on mic producer.  The chemistry is much more free-flowing.   I respect Rhynes but it is clear to me now that he gives this thing the 'cruise control'/'I don't give a damn' vibe."

I think that's right.  He knows he's untouchable, nearing the end of his reign, and feels little obligation to incentivize Corby or Danny.  Although I will say, once in a while the last few weeks, it has seemed to me that Mike, while clearly tired from his schedule and the emotional drain of his mother's passing, has generated some pretty strong segments.

          6.     Greg Williams's blog:  Seems like there's not much to it any more -- song lyrics, definitions, and recently a TMI post from Jenn on "what Greggo's really like" that didn't exactly flatter the guy.  Apparently they are moving, which, she reports, will make it hard to keep the blog up to date (although it seemed like they weren't actually moving, just planning for a move).

           7.     Gordon is 100% correct about the Geico Old MacDonald's spelling ad.  The joke about spelling "cow" is completely wrong and unfunny because it misses the real joke that the Geico ad writer apparently misremembered.  Bet I can find it  .  .  .  yup, took me about 12 seconds:

A Hoosier, a Kentuckian and a West Virginian were on a Hollywood TV quiz show. The host asked them to complete the sentence: "Old MacDonald had a ..." The Indianan said, "Old MacDonald had a carburetor." "Sorry," said the MC. "That's incorrect." "Old MacDonald had a flat tire," said the Kentuckian. "Wrong," said the host. "Old MacDonald had a farm," said the West Virginian. "That's correct!" shouted the MC. "Now for $200,000, spell farm." The West Virginian thought hard and then spelled carefully: "E-I-E-I-O."

The Geico ad should either have had Old MacDonald spell "farm," which he then spells "E-I-E-I-O," or spell "cow" and spell that the same way but not preceded by C-O-W.  Anyway, it's a bad ad.  In fact, all of the Geico ads that use the "well, did you know .  .  . " format are weak.

          8.     However, Gordon and George are entirely wrong on "The Girl from Ipanema," a wonderful bossa nova pop song.  The English lyrics were originally meant to be sung by a man, not a woman (Astrud Gilberto having made it famous), which accounts for the gigantic grammatical blunder "she looks straight ahead, not at he" when sung by a woman -- should be:  "she looks straight ahead, not at me," sung by a man.

          9.     Love George, we all love George, but he has apparently graduated to dropping 100% of his g's on present participles and gerunds (-ing words).  I swear, one morning a few days ago it sounded like he was deliberately workin' at droppin' all those g's.  I wish he wouldn't.  It makes him sound hickish, which he's not.  Maybe it's his increased C&W profile, he's got to use some kind of backcountry patois to keep it real.

          10.    Matt Garza has a tiny brain.

          11.     While we're on the subject of Ticket word usage:  Is The Ticket the last bastion of the overuse of the word "awesome"?  It was bad enough when this perfectly lovely, evocative word was devalued back in the Bill-and-Ted's-Excellent-Adventure days, but it seems to me that the language has finally moved on with the exception of George Dunham and BaD radio.  Sorry, man, every time I hear someone on the station use that word (and it's not just those guys), I think -- you know, this station really needs to get out more.

          12.     It has been pointed out that the signals (1310/104.1) have been sucking more than usual lately, probably because of the hot weather. That's not an excuse. The best station in the country shouldn't be hostage to North Texas summers.  Just more evidence of how really bad these signals are.

          13.     Johnny Manziel is a sociopath.

          14.    Caught a little bit of Ben and Skin one day, only about ten minutes.  This is not a general Ben and Skin opinion, only observation about the tiny slice that I heard.  I want to give those gents a fair shot, and that just can't be done by flipping over for the odd segment.   They had some Ranger talk about "overpaying" players (Elvis Andrus was on the griddle at that particular moment) that did not make any sense to me in the context of a free market for players and widespread information on their current skills.  (I think that was Skin but cannot be certain.)  

We are very fond of Kevin Turner around here, but during my short time of listening I caught a very unfortunate remote segment that only lasted about 35 seconds that ended with Kevin asking some group of people how many were ovulating.   Could not figure out what the bit was supposed to be about at the outset, and, whatever it was, it cratered almost instantaneously and B&S seemed somewhat startled to have the show tossed back to them.  Sorry, KT.  I promise I'll get around to giving B&S the benefit of a sustained listen one of these days.

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Hope to see you all soon.

LATER:   Just saw this post.  Blogger has once again defeated my efforts to make the thing look nice.  Sorry for all the inconsistent margins, fonts, spacing.  

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Wednesday, August 7, 2013 BONUS:  Today's Ticket Traffic Twist Julie Mac, who looks like she sounds:

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.

Cheap Friday Fill-In + an Alexis Retrospective

(1)  From the day The Ticket went live at Victory, this site has noted on several occasions that the station doesn't sound good.  Almost every host overdrives his mic with some regularity; there are stretches that are really unpleasant to listen to.  (One host whose mic almost never sounds bad except when he's yelling, which will overdrive any mic -- Corby.)

I have asked -- doesn't anyone at The Ticket actually listen to the station?  How can it continue to sound worse than the old facility well over a year after the switch?

Finally, someone has noticed.  Of course, it was Junior.  He said he was listening to Norm in the car yesterday, and it sounded like he was on a remote.  All the Muser mics, he said, were extra "hot," that overdriven-like sound that makes the voices sound like they'te sitting on a hissing griddle.

Right.  Now Junior needs to use his immense moral authority at Cumulus to get the station sounding better.

And, of course, the signals are still absolutely dreadful.  There was a time when we'd heard that Cumlus had applied for some kind of power increase or something.  Can someone please get into the FCC site and let us know if there's anything going on there?

(2)  Heard a Corby promo for the Chicago trip where he's saying something like:  "Cat thinks it's going to be just like this show, except in Chicago, and we're drunk!  Well, he can suck it!"  OWTTE.

That Pan-American Catman just might possibly have heard those Hardline broadcasts from New York during the playoffs. 

In any event, always a good career move to tell the boss to suck it.

(3)  By the way:  There are many Confessors who believe that any inter-show or intra-station tension is a bit.   Probably some instances are put-up jobs.  But I think a lot aren't.  And I think this Chicago thing is a genuine sore point.  Yeah, maybe it was The Lads' idea, but it was because the station had not bestirred itself to gift The Hardline with any field trips or fun stuff to take the place of the Campout.  Now they're making their on-air pouting into promos, which is a good idea, but does not persuade me that The Hardline doesn't really think that they're being treated like second-class citizens.

Which it really seems like they are. 

(4) Since I seem to get increases in readership only when a traffic chick  is in the news, I will sign off with a nice little Alexis gallery, and wish her the very best in Seattle.  It's just the same stuff you've all drooled over on the Internets, but I offer it all in one spot as a convenience to the Confessor.  I'm sure she herself is a major Confessor, and probably a serial Anonymous contributor, so I invite her to continue to check in to see what's up with her former drive-time colleagues. 

Hey, Alexis, let this site hear from you -- we're all big fans!  What better sign-off than to drive the Confessor absolutely crazy with some acknowledgment on this site of his miserable little blog-visitor existence!   Ah, come on!

Have a great weekend, everyone.

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 Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

OPEN THREAD: Local Industry Scuttlebutt

+++++

Apologies to the Confessor Nation for not much in the way of new postings.  Scrambling at work and home, hope to re-emerge in the next few weeks. 

In the meantime, Confessors are reporting on rumors of regime change at The FAN and even within the Cumulus family of stations:  T4 in Rockwall sums up the recent whispers:

"A rumor I read on the board.radio-info.com said the Fan was flipping formats on June the 4th, Arnie Spanier's (spelling?) last day is June 1 and that possibly I93.3 was moving to 96.3. The last seems extremely unlikely because KSCS has been here for years and successful. Taking the place of the Fan is supposedly Amp radio, which is a syndication."

As T4 also points out, this would open the way for The Ticket to move its FM signal, at least, to 93.3 and, in all likelihood, for hell to freeze over. 

Fascinating stuff.  It would mildly surprise me if CBS pulled the plug on The FAN after the investment it's made, but it's still mired in third and not making dent one in The Ticket's ratings. 

This site has been beating the drums for signal swap almost since it started:

http://myticketconfession.blogspot.com/2009/12/tickets-lousy-signal-and-what-to-do.html

http://myticketconfession.blogspot.com/2010/03/that-lousy-ticket-signal-and-what-to-do.html

http://myticketconfession.blogspot.com/2010/03/no-sooner-said-take-wbap-for-example.html

http://myticketconfession.blogspot.com/2011/06/wherein-nation-is-instructed-by-someone_21.html

http://myticketconfession.blogspot.com/2011/06/indulge-me-one-more-article-on-signals.html

So the renewed speculation that The Ticket might be in line for a better signal is intriguing.  Although this thread from late 2010 suggests that 93.3 would not help The Ticket up north:

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=181375.10;wap2

Maybe hang on to 104.1 in addition to 93.3?  Possibly enable the region's most popular station to be heard everywhere?  Nah.  They should give The Ticket 96.7.    Won't happen, but fun to consider.  By the way, a couple of the foregoing links have comments from some folks who seem fairly well-informed who are skeptical about signal swap, so if you go back and check out those articles, don't overlook the critics.

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Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Email Your Plainsman:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

 

On This, Our 400th Post, We Republish a Possible CTO Encounter

Hard to believe.  I looked up and this is my 400th post.  Thanks to all Confessors and fly-bys for continued growth and ever-improving content -- because the best stuff is usually in the comments these days. 

A couple of Anonymi and I have been kicking around what we view as promotional inattention to The Little One.  This has gotten under someone's skin, and I think I know whose skin it is, and I think that skin is not paired with Ben, but instead resides at The Ticket's plush new digs, but it doesn't matter.  He provides some excellent information in the following somewhat dyspeptic comment to the last post:

===========

The "CTO's" aren't going to spend thousands of dollars advertising as long as the Ticket is still #1 M25-54. and guess what? They're still #1 M25-54, by a long shot. the Fan has hurt KESN's ratings more than they've hurt the Ticket's ratings.

Lack of capital investment? Stop by the 4th floor of 3090 Olive and you'll see capital investment.

And as for the signal, let's remember something. 1310 sold in 1994 from Bonneville to Cardinal Communication for 3 million dollars. Cardinal sold out to SFX a year later for 8 million
(http://www.thefreelibrary.com/SFX+BROADCASTING+TO+ACQUIRE+KTCK(AM)+IN+DALLAS.-a016601127)   And then it sold to Susquehanna for about 14mil in May of 1996.
(http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures-ownership/7226952-1.html)    98.3, a crappy FM siganl sold a few years back for 16mil+.
(http://www.radiobroker.com/)

To get a 'good' FM signal, or a significant upgrade to an AM signal would require in the 10's of millions of dollars. Check that broker's site for an understanding of pricing of stations. And realize that any station that has a decent signal will probably have decent billing. And with common BCF multiples of 5-8, the CTO's aren't going to pay 50-80 million let's say, for a better signal when KTCK is billing just fine with the crap signal they've got. Not to mention that to buy a better signal, you've got to have someone willing to sell a signal. Why would Clear channel, CBS or anybody else sell them a better signal? And as for other signals in house, flipping 570 and 1310 would kill 570 and whatever billing it has. And 96.7 is a halfway decent signal north of town, and it sucks south of town. It's 104.1 slightly closer to town.

=============

A few reactions:

(1)  Thanks very much.  Great info, I've always wanted a compact history of The Little One's transactions, and there it is.   And I'm a freak for all that radio inside stuff, too, although not in any media business myself.  I think I mentioned that awhile back I shopped around for a radio station to buy (not in a major metro) and got a little educated on this stuff and found that there was this amazing fanatical radio techno-financial subculture out there.  Very cool and fun.  Our Anonymous benefactor here is, I'm pretty sure, a Ticket guy, as no mere Confessor would have any interest in defending the CTO's lassitude with such conviction.   And, I think, a pretty solid and credible Ticket guy, wouldn't you say so, AP?

(2)  No one -- not me, not any commenter -- has said that the CTO aren't spending money on The Ticket.  We all know about the move announced a year-and-a-half-ago and the shiny new studios.  Although to hear the hosts talk about it, those studios are somewhat less desirable for The Ticket than for other Cumulus properties who will be billeted there.  Yeah, it's a "capital investment," albeit not allocable entirely to The Ticket, but it is 100% irrelevant to the point I and some commenters were making, which related to investment in reaching more ear buds and how people find out about it.   Don't get me wrong, it's great that there's going to be a technical upgrade -- although it sounds like a lot of the old equipment that didn't work so hot on Maple has been hauled over there.  But that equipment could be manufacured by Tag Heuer and it won't bring in one additional listener or retain one straying P1.

(3)  Also 100% irrelevant:  Amounts paid for The Ticket broadcast property.  Our point has to do with a new playing field for sports radio in DFW in the future, a field that is being prepared for planting by The Fan, and not The Ticket.  No one doubts that The Ticket is valuable.  No one doubts that its ratings are presently strong (also 100% irrelevant to our point).  The question is not what was paid for The Ticket in 1995 or 1996 -- over fifteen years ago when The Ticket had no competition. 

And by the way -- it is misleading to suggest that those purchasers were paying solely for the 1310 signal, as though the Ticket talent and format pounded together by Mike Rhyner and other founders  had nothing to do with it.   The Ticket went on the air on January 24, 1994 (an early Happy Birfday to all), and by the time of the SFX transaction in 1995 it was already the number one station among males 25-54.  

And the question is not whether The Ticket's talent overcomes the rotten signals to achieve dominant ratings in the here and now.  The question is what happens five years from now when the present talent has been on the air for (in some cases) over two decades, and some of it may have moved on.  And the listener demo is trending in the other direction.  What then?  Will you have done anything for your brand other than beg long-time talent to stay on?   Will people think to tune you in because you're The Ticket and not because they like Junior, or Mike, or Bob?

(4)  100% irrelevant:  The purchase price of a new FM signal.  No one here has suggested that Cumulus buy a new stick for The Ticket, and this site has never done so.



(5)  Not 100% irrelevant is the information about signal swaps.  But pretty close to 100% unpersuasive.  Either 93.3 or 96.7 would be an immediate material improvement in the Ticket signal.  Stations swap signals with some frequency in metro areas.  The Score in Chicago has done it several times, improving its coverage area and signal strength every time, even taking over the long-time news-talk signal for NBC in that market.  You know what they pay their talent there, talent that doesn't come close to The Ticket's?  Huge.  Mike North (no longer, but in his heyday):  Well over a million dollars a year.  (I sure as hell hope Mike R's deal is somewhere well north of altruism.)  The point:  Swapping signals has been real darned good for The Score and its talent.

But let's look closer to home -- much closer to home.   In March 2010, 96.7 was KPMZ, Ron Chapman's "Platinum" 60's-70's station.  One day, listeners were startled to learn that Citadel Broadcasting began simulcasting WBAP News/Talk 820 on 96.7.      So the first point to make is:  signal swaps are easy.

The second point to make is:  Why is Cumulus committed to continue to simulcast WBAP on 96.7?  820 AM is 50,000 watts and clear-channel omnidirectional at night -- a blowtorch.  And it's talk.  It doesn't need an FM signal.  (Neither does The Ticket -- it just needs a growed-up signal, irrespective of the variety of modulation.)  

As for 96.7's signal coverage, it's plainly better than 104.1 for DFW-area listeners.  Citadel thought highly enough of it to plop WBAP in there.  Don't rely on me or Anonymous -- see for yourself:  Compare 104.1 signal coverage (http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KTDK&service=FM&status=L&hours=U) with 96.7 signal coverage (http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBAP&service=FM&status=L&hours=U)).   Improvement is obvious.  And, let's face it -- where are The Ticket's listeners? 

But if you long-suffering Confessors really want to dream, take a look at 93.3 KLIF-FM "i93":  http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KLIF&service=FM&status=L&hours=U).  How is i93 doing, by the way?  (I'm serious -- I really don't know if it's a worthwhile format in this market, or just more of the same you can find on a half-dozen other stations.  Someone tell me.)  If i93 is still a ratings-suck, then it's still a strong swap candidate, too.  Replace those billings with excellent and creative programming on 104.1 and/or 1310.

The basic point is as it was the last time I addressed this:  If you had a bucket of broadcast properties that included a monster numero uno Ticket format and talent, and were coming anew to DFW, you would never, ever, stick The Ticket on 104.1 and 1310.  Where would you stick it if you had the Cumulus stable of signal sticks?  Well,  that's where you should stick it now.

(6)  So the CTO isn't going to spend "thousands" (?????) of dollars on advertising while The Ticket is Number 1.  I suppose that's why you see so little advertising for Coke, Microsoft, Apple, Toyota, AT&T, and other market leaders these days.  Good lord, as Danny would say.  I love your station, and I love you, but tell your CTO buddies that brands require a little nourishment, a little love, to flourish and grow.

*     *     *

So:  Great info, and I really do sincerely thank the crypto-CTO for checking in.  I'm serious.  It didn't touch our point but it was great stuff and I cordially invite you to continue to instruct Your Plainsman when I wander into error or plainly have no idea what I'm talking about.  But it seems to me that even with all this tasty info, my and commenters' suggestions that The Fan is doing some things that are elevating its profile in this market, and that its strategies can only assist it in competing with The Ticket in the long run (especially if those strategies are ignored and unmet by Cumulus), are entirely sound.

And finally:  Were you really inviting me to drop by the new studios for a visit? 

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Email Your Plainsman:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

Indulge Me: One More Article on Signals and Swapping

Y’all may be tired of Signal Talk, but Your Plainsman has a soft spot for the business,  technology, and economics of radio from way back, so I want to stay on this topic for at least one more post.

Commenter Anon E was kind enough to provide some thoughts on why a signal swap of 1310 with 93.3 was not a viable solution to the bad Ticket signal.    His/Her point on the necessity – and difficulty – of replacing revenue is sensible.  I’d like to explore it further and perhaps s/he will weigh in with further details:

(1)  How much revenue really needs to be replaced?   Let’s say The Ticket gets 93.3.  Big signal.  But the revenue from the station that used to come from 93.3’s previous tenant doesn’t disappear, does it? If we’re willing to say goodbye to 1310, we have freed up two more frequencies, not just one:   The Ticket’s current frequencies 1310 and 104.1.  (No point in broadcasting on both 93.3 and 104.1).  Now maybe those two frequencies combined don’t make up the whole $5 million that 93.3 used to bring in, but they will sell more than zero dollars.  So our $5 million target (from the now-deceased 93.3 format) is reduced to some degree.  How much?  Hard to know  (see below re thoughts on those freed-up signals), but not nothing.  Meaning that The Ticket on 93.3 doesn’t have to make up the whole loss of the $5 million it used to get from 93.3, unless the two new stations combined (or a single simulcast station, as The Ticket is now) just bill a piddling amount. 

It has to make up some lesser number.  Let’s say it has to make up $2 million.  Maybe that’s optimistic, maybe not, but let’s just say.  That’s asking the much-improved Ticket with a big-boy signal to do an additional 10% (of the assumed $20 million billings).  Anon E has said that better signal doesn’t necessarily equal bigger billings, especially when you’re already number 1 and pushing the envelope on rates, but wouldn’t some improvement be expected with much better coverage?  Which suggests the next question:

(2)  Would a better signal mean better ratings?  The foregoing (admittedly uninformed) speculation in some bump in revenue prompts a question on how ratings are measured.    Ratings presumably affect billing rates, at least up to a point (there will come a point at which advertisers will balk even with titanic ratings), so I’m wondering how ratings get measured.    Do ratings depend on how many people total listen to the station?   Suggesting that ratings should improve if more people can hear it, or hear it regularly.    Or are ratings only measured in core metro areas where some combination of The Ticket’s lousy signals get to most of DFW most of the time, so that pulling in additional listeners from most distant areas would not be expected to affect ratings?  If it’s the latter, then I can see why a better signal might not translate to better rates and Anon E’s point is bolstered.

(3)  What would be the effect of an improvement in ratings on The Ticket’s rates?   With The Ticket at the top of the heap in the most important demo, Anon E points out that The Ticket’s rates are already reflect that winner’s premium.  Have they bumped up against an invisible cap that would prevent them from asking even more even if it could demonstrate materially improved signal coverage (and more people listening to the station)?  Again, a “yes” answer would tend to support Anon E’s point.

(4)  What about the freed-up old Ticket signals?    Anon E sensibly asks what a proponent of signal switch would do to replace the revenue lost from 93.3.   How about imaginative, innovative programming on the two newly-free channels?  Something that people might actually want to listen to?   Of course, the signals are weak, so maybe one wouldn’t want to invest too much.  But those two frequencies now equal The Ticket, the Bigfoot of DFW radio.  It can be done.  And you have two stations to play with, you wouldn’t have to simulcast.

(5)   Attention, Gordon:  a hypothetical:   So I think:  If I started with two formats -- a proven Ticket formula and a vanilla rock station -- and I were offered 93.3, 104.1, and 1310, how would I allocate my properties among those frequencies?   Wouldn’t I give the gold-plated property the frequency that would exploit the talent?  Or would I take my award-winning station and give it two cobbled-together frequencies, neither of which is much good, so I could coddle my weak performer with a much better signal?

(6)  Does the Citadel deal open up more possibilities?    Anon E’s comment to the last post states:  “Who do you think needs that 96.7 signal more: #1 A 50 thousand watt flamethrower of a station that uses it as an auxiliary signal to the top biller in the market, a station BTW which faces no real ratings competition in the market, or #2 an underpowered, signal-map challenged station that has 2 other stations in it's format already on the fm band?”   If I am reading A.E. correctly, s/he is saying:  “Who needs 96.7 more:  WBAP-AM 820, or The Ticket?” 

Well, let’s think about that:  Citadel’s 96.7 FM, after service as “The Texas Twister” and “Platinum Oldies” format over the past few years, switched to simulcasting WBAP-AM 820 in March 2010.  So not a lot of goodwill built up with the FM signal for WBAP.  It's licensed to Flower Mound and the transmitter is located near where Montague, Cook, and Wise Counties intersect – a bit of a hike from DFW.  The “service contour” from the FCC website just barely reaches Plano and does not reach downtown.    

Even so:  The numbers do suggest that a 104.1 / 96.7 swap, keeping The Ticket at 1310 AM, would be a significant improvement over 104.1 as a simulcast partner.    96.7 is 90,000 watts – more than respectable compared with 104.1’s 6200 watts (source:  RadioLocator).

Or:

(7)  Does The Ticket like being a coverage underdog?   Does it want to be “The Little Ticket.” 

===========================

So:  Innarestin’ things for the Cumulo-Ticket Overlords to mull over as they continue their tireless efforts to serve the loyal P1 and leverage the unique talents of The Ticket. 

Right?

Look, I know my yammering on about signal swaps is naïve and I will welcome further instruction.  Stations swap signals frequently in the U.S., but I understand Anon E’s point that when you’re on top of the market, fiddling with signals may not be in the collective best interest of the company.   I guess I’m just sick of signal roulette as I travel around DFW, and losing the Ticket way before lesser stations start to fade, on a station that’s supposed to be the tops.

Again, my thanks to Anon E for solid information and some radio chops.

========================

Attention: 

Check in in a few days for an incisive guest post

taking a fresh look at BaD radio. 

Somebody alert Christy!

========================

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Wherein the Nation Is Instructed (by Someone Who Seems to Know) -- Yes, It's Another Post About the Ticket's Signal!

I'm not the only one who gripes about The Ticket's signal.  Those gripes long predated this site, and hosts express their dismay at the fluttering coverage.  Some time ago I proposed that Cumulus swap the 104.1 and the 93.3 signals.  I wont' go into my reasoning or the statistics I had at the time, but you can see the original article here:

The Ticket's Lousy Signal -- and What to Do About It

And I mention the topic from time to time.  One of those times commenter Anon E wrote an email as to why that wasn't a viable plan.  In a recent post I mentioned his response and said that I needed to go look it up to refresh my recollection.  Turned out to be unnecessary, because he was kind enough to repeat his point from earlier.  It makes sense and best of all, it has some very good information about the radio marketplace.  I am reproducing it in its entirety below, with my thanks to Anon E for repeating his commentary.  (Corrected a typo or two, otherwise unedited.) 

I had some questions after I read it, but I'm going to save them for the next post, which I'll put up in a few days.    For now, I just want to showcase Anon E's information and analysis.  And thanks again, Anon E, I do appreciate you taking the time and trouble to bring us some of the inside baseball.

===================

I can explain why it's not viable, and I'll try not to be grumpy while I do it.
The Ticket's average billing for the past few years has been in the 15-20million dollar range. i93 is probably billing this year around 5 million dollars. For the swap to make sense, they need a combination of billing on 93.3 and 1310 that combine to that 25mil total. The Ticket is one of the 2 or 3 highest billers in the market (beat by WBAP and/or KISS), they are already the #1 station with Men 25-54, etc, so JUST switching to FM doesn't necessarily equate to higher ratings, which SOMETIMES equals more revenue.

As is, the reason we have 2 other sports stations in town is because the other stations undercut their spot prices- both ESPN and the Fan offer to advertisers what can be perceived too be a better value in advertising. yes, the Ticket has higher ratings, but those spots come with a higher price tag. So to repeat, a switch to FM may mean slightly better ratings, but that doesn't necessarily translate to higher revenue.

And see above, you need to replace a format on 1310 with something that will replace the majority of i93's billing. If you guys think you know of a format that will bill 4 million dollars a year, let's hear what it is.

===================

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @plainsman1310

Maybe It's the Heat

No, not the Miami Heat -- I mean the North Texas summer heat.

I don't know what it is, but the 104.1 FM signal upon which I rely for my commute and downtown listening, if possible, is getting worse.  I used to be able to pull the station in from my workplace during the day, but at least in the morning I end up with that East Texas C&W station.  And it's noticeably worse on the AM and PM commute as well.

AP, were you the confessor who looked up the status of the 1310 AM signal upgrade on the FCC site?  I myself checked into it and must not have guessed the right links.   Any chance you (or anyone else) could update us on that?

I still see zero downside to a signal swap with 93.3 and considerable upside.  Maybe I'll nag you all about that again sometime soon.  The last time I raised this one of our grumpy commenters actually wrote a strong substantive comment  as to why a signal swap wasn't viable.  I didn't buy it, but it was thoughtful and had some good information.  I need to go back and check that. 

Enjoy the parade, everyone.

=================

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Your Plainsman Congratulates Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket on Its New Victory Park Studios -- and, As Usual, Has a Few Questions

I expected this, reading between the lines of some of the banter in the programs. No, I didn’t know it was Victory Park, but I figured the lease was up there hard by Turtle Creek.

My Ticket Confession congratulates The Ticket on this move. Although apparently they’re dragging the other raggedy-ass Cumulus properties along with them. One would like to think that this was an acknowledgement of The Ticket’s contribution to Cumulus’s bottom line and an enhancement of the broadcast quality. But no, sounds more like their lease was up and they got a deal.

So although it’s great news – we want our favorite hosts to operate in attractive surroundings – I’m not entirely sure why it should be cause for celebration among the P1 Nation. I guess we’re all expecting that the technical issues that plague The Ticket – signal aside – will abate. Is there any reason to believe this? Has anyone heard that the move will involve improved hardware or software? Isn’t it a lot more likely that they’re just going to move their stuff from the old place to the new place? I didn’t hear the announcment on the station, I’m just reading the publicly released stuff, so maybe something was said about getting some new stuff. But I think it’s more likely that we’ll hear even more technical screwups than we hear every day as they work out the bugs in the new studios. I hope not.

(And by the way – why isn’t there a link to this announcement on http://www.theticket.com/? )

And I’m wondering whether the lessor’s agent maybe needs to get clued in to the new tenants’ actual business. From the release:

“Brokaw said about 85 people will work in the new Cumulus office. ‘It will bring more people to the district,’ he said. ‘It provides Cumulus with a great venue for people to come see their programs.’”

Brokaw needs some gentle instruction on the nature of freakin’ RADIO. And broadcasting from the Old No. 7 Club or the AA Center is going to be just as much a remote as it is now.

At least the hosts can now park in the P1 Garage they’re always flogging.

In any event, I’m a lot more interested in the pending AM power increase, the details of which have been unearthed by the Incomparable AP and reported in a comment to Your Plainsman’s article here (see Comment 10). This power increase is of particular interest given Greg “Greggo” “Hammer” Williams’s move to drive time on 100,000-watt The Fan 105.3 and a fairly direct challenge to The Hardline. I’ll have more to say about that in future articles.

In any event, I hope the move goes well and that I’m wrong about just rearranging the ENCO on the Titanic.

Mike R is Kinda Interested in Syndication

By the purest coincidence, The Hardline briefly turned to the subject of syndication a shortly after Your Plainsman's trailblazing article on the subject a couple of weeks ago.  Mike had been browsing the latest number of Talkers Magazine that was devoted to syndication.

Michael Rhyner, Canny Market Observer

It wasn't a long conversation.  When Mike brought it up, Corby was instantly dismissive.  His position seemed to be that syndication was all right for some kinds of shows, but not for The Hardline.

Corby Davidson, Conservative Media Strategist

Mike was not so sure.  He didn't challenge Corby outright, but -- and I might well have been imagining things -- you could tell by the sound of his voice as he discussed the contents of the article that he was thinking ahead to the future of The Hardline and, possibly, KTCK Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket.

I do not need to remind faithful Confessors that Michael Rhyner was something of a visionary in this market when he cobbled The Ticket together a decade-and-a-half ago.  His musings on where the market is headed ought not be taken lightly.

Michael Rhyner, Ecstatic Radio Prophet

Now, as it happens, when I wrote the article a couple of weeks ago, I did not think The Hardline was a particularly good candidate for syndication in its present form -- and by "form," I didn't mean Mike-Corby-Danny-Grubes-Ty, which is a perfectly splendid form of very talented men.  I meant the overall flavor of the showgram, which is probably the least sportsy and most blue of the shows.  Perfectly marvelous for the long-time listeners who love the insidedness of it all (me too), but possibly a little too spicy for quick success in a new major market.

Upon reflection, though, I think The Hardline might be a very fine candidate for syndication into North Texas small-to-medium markets.  Sort of like what Wolfe was planning to try with Greggo the Hammer.  (Not only more potentially Hardline-friendly markets, but no -- or less -- danger of competition with other Cumulus properties.)   If that were successful, perhaps they could dip their toe into Texas metro generally.

And I don't need to tell you that any expansion into nearby markets -- depending on how nearby -- might help solve some of The Little One's abysmal signal problems.  Maybe not for local Confessors, but for those in outlying areas who now rely on iPhone apps and Internet streams.

Inexplicably, neither Ticket nor Cumulus management has turned to Your Plainsman for far-seeing radio advice on any of the topics upon which I have presumed to offer guidance.   

No offense taken.  

The Ticket Is More or Less Off the Air This Morning

I noticed it driving through Plano early this morning.  104.1 FM was gradually dying, succumbing to the superior power and/or atmospherics of that East Texas talker.  It is now completely off the air.  The 1310 AM signal is all but unintelligible in parts of downtown. 

The top-rated station for the most desirable demographic and it's unhearable in the heart of its listening area.  This has been going on so long that technology can no longer be blamed.  It is sheer upper-level management incompetence.

What would happen if, next time contract renewal comes around, Mike Rhyner or Junior Miller or George Dunham said:  I'll sign up for another few years, but I want a clause in there that if that signal doesn't improve to such-and-such a level -- and these things can be quantified --  by such-and-such a date, I can leave the station with $XXX,000 in severance and no noncompete.

Have You Thought About It? WBAP Just Did

Alert Confessor James reports in a comment to the prior article that on this very day, WBAP News/Talk 820 AM has begun simulcasting on 96.7 FM, the signal formerly occupied by KPMZ, the Ron Chapman-programmed "Platinum" 60s-70s station licensed to Flower Mound.  Citadel Broadcasting just up and freakin' gave it to 'em.

I don't know the ins and outs of why Citadel Broadcasting gave WBAP the FM signal. Doubt that it was signal-related.  (820AM is 50,000 watts, clear-channel omnidirectional at night.  96.7 FM is 90,000 watts, not too shabby.)  Whatever the reason, it unquestionably made WBAP, which has a strong local news and Limbaugh/Hannity/Ingraham lineup, stronger still. 

But when The Ticket arises from its Cumulus-induced slumber and fills the ether with a fresh new 93.3 FM signal, the airwaves will sizzle with the exodus of ideology-exhausted WBAP listeners to The Little One.

Or some other overblown, mixed, and inappropriate metaphor.

That Lousy Ticket Signal -- and What to Do About It, Part 2

A few months back I suggested that The Ticket switch signals with The Bone (93.3 FM), which is now something called "i93hits," I think. My thought was that Cumulus should simply give The Ticket the much better signal of a much worse-performing station in its station lineup.  They could give The Ticket 93.3 and do something else with 104.1.

I don't know if "i93hits" is doing better than "The Bone" at that address.  Probably too early to tell in the way radio-station-gestation periods are measured.  But how good can it be doing if it's playing the same thing everyone else is playing? I dunno, I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' radio stations.

But I do know that radio conglomerates do move solid stations to better signals that they own, or add simulcasts.  (I couldn't find when The Ticket was given 104.1, but I think it was during Susquehanna's stewardship, and Cumulus also simulcasts The Ticket on 1700AM.)  Case in point: WSCR-AM "The Score" is the pioneering sports-talk station in Chicago.  Its owner gradually improved its AM signal since its founding in 1992, and it now broadcasts at 670AM, a 50,000 clear-channel signal formerly held by NBC affiliate WMAQ.  But The Score apparently isn't stopping there.  I found this in a recent online edition of "Talkers" magazine, the talk-radio-industry bible.

“The Chicago Sun-Times’ Lewis Lazare writes that although a source with CBS Radio tells him there is nothing on the drawing board to put an FM simulcast on its WSCR, Chicago, he believes the company will do it soon – perhaps before the White Sox take the field in April. Lazare notes the languishing ratings of AC WCFS-FM and speculates that WSCR – which finished 10th in the market adults 25-54 in the January PPM – could really capitalize on an FM signal. Previously, there had been chatter in Chicago that Bonneville might take an underperforming FM and flip it sports but there has been no movement there.”

So I republish my previous suggestion that Cumulus give The Ticket 93.3 FM, a 50,000-watt FM signal licensed to Haltom City; I don't know where the transmitter is.  (104.1 FM is 6200 watt licensed to Sanger.)  A strong signal that reaches the entire DFW metro area.  Don't know anything about radio station economics, but I have to believe that a move like that would instantly enhance ad rates and increase demand for ad time on The Little One.

Because more people could hear it, and because the people who hear it now could do so secure in the knowledge that they would not lose the signal while crossing the street, or have it magically transformed in mid-bit into a Christian talk-radio station from Tyler.

Now, I do have it on good authority that Cumulus is taking some regulatory and engineering steps to solve some of its lousy-signal issues.  I am skeptical that they will do much good at the current power authorizations for 1310 AM and 104.1 FM.  But perhaps things will get better without an entirely new signal for The Ticket.

If Cumulus decides not to heed Your Plainsman’s generous counsel, perhaps it could spend a couple hundo and chip in some new cables, plugs, and iPod playback hardware for the studio.