Holiday 2015: The Last Present

[CAwasinNJ]

The last present from the 2015 Holiday season has been delivered. The Nielsen Audio ratings are in.

To nobody's great surprise the big winner was FM100.3. They handily beat everyone else. Also not a big surprise, Sunny 103 was up noticeably again and hit a range I'll call "respectable." The next step for Sunny will be to see if they can hold on to any of that respectability after the Christmas music ended. If last year is any indication the answer is no. We'll have to wait and see.

We still don't have any good idea of what's happening with 94.9 The Vibe and Alt 101.9 since Nielsen is still confused about what's going on there. They have KHTB (which is now Alt 101.9) as having the classic hip hop format, and KENZ (which is the real 94.9) is nowhere to be found. Paging Cumulus! You really need to get Nielsen to fix this. You have enough problems without improper ratings screwing things up even more.

And I'm afraid we need to call an end to the anomaly of KSOP(AM)'s meteoric rise that started with the May 2015 book. Their shares dropped well below 1 for the Holiday period and are consistent with their long term norm. Sorry guys. If I were KSOP I'd still be looking at an FM outlet though.

[David]

If 87.9–91.9 MHz wasn't reserved for non-commercial stations, they could move KSOP-AM to the 88.1 slot recently vacated by KWCR. Other than that channel, I don't think there's too many open spaces on the FM band in the Salt Lake/Ogden/Provo market, is there? KSOP-FM pulls pretty decent ratings, so I doubt they'd consider putting the classic country format on their FM station.

[CAwasinNJ]

A few corrections if I may. The 88.1 allocation in Ogden is not vacant. It's still licensed to KWCR-FM. If and when that license is turned into the commission, I'd bet KCPW-FM is going to be tripping over itself to improve their facilities. That brings me to point two. Even if the non-commercial nature of 88.1FM didn't exist (which it does as you pointed out), the transmitter would have to be up north at least as far as Ogden because KCPW-FM is first adjacent on 88.3 in Salt Lake. That closeness is why KWCR-FM even when it was on the air was operating under Special Temporary Authority for the last 4 years or so. That would mean that they couldn't even be heard in Salt Lake, which would be looney.


As far as open spaces, strictly speaking you're right. I think all the available spaces in the Salt Lake area are filled with something. However, I was thinking more along the lines of frequencies that are available, meaning that could be leased or purchased. For those, there are lots of possibilities. Going through in frequency order here's what I see right now:

KMGR 95.9 is for sale and will be moving to Humpy to become a rimshot.
KADQ-FM 98.3 is also moving to Humpy (bumping the VFX translator) and who knows what its future is
KUDE 103.9/99.1 is for sale and puts a good signal into Utah County and a decent signal into Salt Lake and north
KNYN I think is going to be a Humpy rimshot also, and again who knows what might happen
KDWY 105.5 is another Humpy move-in
KUDD 107.9 might be another possibility if KPCW decides to sell it rather than program it themselves

And none of that addresses wild cards like the underperforming Cumulus stations. Cumulus could take the sure money and lease out a station and not have to worry about even looking at its ratings. There are a lot of options floating around.

[amanuensis]

I was not aware of any plans for KMGR. It is a pretty rare format these days -- Full Service. Basically, it sounds like KSL sounded 40 years ago.

[CAwasinNJ]

That's what the SLC Divestiture Trusts are all about. This goes all the way back to summer of 2010 when Millcreek filed bankruptcy and Simmons bought them out. Simmons couldn't keep their existing stations plus the Millcreek stations, so they put some stations in two trusts so they could be sold. They've been for sale ever since, plus there's the issue of relocation to Humpy that's (theoretically) required per the infamous FCC docket 05-243. Given that KMGR can become a Salt Lake station, it's likely that the selling price would reflect that and whatever format goes on there will have to support that price.

[amanuensis]

Isn't KMGR still owned by Mid-Utah Radio?

midutahradio.com/kmgr

[David]

I can't see any reason why KWCR would want to hold on to the license for 88.1 when it's been nearly four months since they decided to make the station online only. By now I'm sure they must have some idea of how successful their move has been. The most logical thing would be for KCPW to convince Weber State to surrender the license for 88.1 and upgrade its facilities, and then lease out or sell KUDD.

[CAwasinNJ]

amanuensis, no. As far as I can tell KMGR has never been owned by Mid Utah. It was owned by Morgan Skinner until 2003 when it was sold to the now defunct 3-Point/Millcreek/Marathon group and was transferred to the Divestiture Trust when Simmons took over the bankrupt 3-Point in 2010. transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=65377 Mid Utah may be leasing the station, but they don't own it. I'd have to think that if they wanted to make that arrangement permanent they would have done so a long time ago.

David, you gave your own answer. Weber State owns the license. That license is valuable. Let's assume for the moment that the decision to go online only is permanent. It would be irresponsible to return the license without at least exploring who would be willing to buy it. If they simply turn the license in they get nothing. If they sell it, they make money. It's that simple. As you said one very interested party would be KCPW-FM. KCPW could then either run a second transmitter as a simulcast or turn in the license contingent on improving their 88.3 signal. Weber doing that for free makes no sense for them. There could be some sort of non-monetary deal that they could strike, but getting nothing is a disservice. The interesting thing is, KCPW is already making a move in the direction of Ensign Peak. They just filed an application last week to move to Ensign from their current downtown transmitter location. That application specifically protects KWCR, but it's not a stretch to amend it if a deal can be reached with Weber State and open up the transmitter pattern toward Ogden.

Also, the KUDD deal is irrelevant to the discussion. KCPW-FM is owned by Wasatch Public Media which was spun off from Community Wireless of Park City back in 2008. It's Community Wireless' KPCW that is in the deal to get KUDD.

[David]

Sorry CA, I always get KPCW and KCPW confused because of the similarities in call signs. Also, I had no idea that a non-commercial educational institution could sell their license to the highest bidder. Dang, I learned something new today!

[CAwasinNJ]

I'm sure the similarity between the KPCW and KCPW callsigns was deliberate and it made sense back when they were co-owned. Now, not so much.

And yes, any license can be sold and it happens all the time. Sometimes it's for big bucks. One notable recent example was when WNTI radio way out in western New Jersey was sold for $1.25 million.