KSL's downplaying of 1160AM

[David]

I really think the omission of the AM frequency on the Nightside post was just an oversight. The KSL Newsradio site has both frequencies prominently displayed in their logo, and both 1160 and 102.7 are mentioned on air during station breaks. In contrast, KNRS only mentions their AM frequency during the legal ID at the top of the hour. Unfortunately, ignoring a radio station's AM frequency is becoming the standard with many stations that have an FM translator or full power FM, but that's a topic for another thread.

[kenglish]

I noticed that KSL-1160 was omitted from all the announcements about "how to receive General Conference", even showing a logo that only mentioned FM.
I commented on it several times, but it never posted on the website.
I see both versions of their logo in various places. I wonder if, after 98 years, they are phasing out the mention of "Antiquated Modulation", to appease the younger audience.

[CAwasinNJ]

This was the topic I was going to bring up later but you guys beat me to it.

There's no way the omission was an accident. Checking back at archived versions of the website, it looks like as new material is added the new logo with only 102.7FM is being used. The older logo just hasn't been updated yet in older places. This makes me wonder if Bonneville is considering doing something else with the 1160 frequency and this is part of a gradual effort to get listeners to only think of the FM side. As I recall back 20 years ago Bonneville stated that they would never sell 1160. Of course the world of radio has changed a lot since then. Even if they don't outright sell it, they could be looking at other formats or maybe going digital only. Personally I think splitting the simulcast or going all digital would be a bad idea at this point. KSL is the centerpiece is the Salt Lake cluster and the huge additional reach that 1160 has beyond the Wasatch Front is just too good to pass up in my opinion. So is broadcasting in analog. The comparison to KNRS is apples to oranges. In the first place there's a substantial difference between a 5kw directional signal vs. a 50kw non-directional one. Secondly, the vast majority of KNRS' programming is syndicated and heard on a hundred other stations, so any coverage outside the Salt Lake area is probably redundant anyway. KSL's isn't. I don't know what all this means, but I'm concerned something's up.

Ken, did you mean that you posted about the lack of mentioning 1160 on KSL's website or this one?

[David]

Like it or not, the majority of radio listeners are listening to FM stations. AM listening only accounts for about 15-20% of the audience, so it makes sense that most stations are going to promote their FM frequencies the most. I almost always listen to KNRS on 570 and KSL on 1160, but that's because I live in an area where most FM and TV signals are difficult to receive. The reality is that most AM stations with FM translators would probably shut down their AM stations if the FCC didn't require that the AM remain on the air to "feed" the FM translator.

[kenglish]

I was talking about the ksl.com website.
I figure there are lots of people outside the range of the SLC FM stations who depend on KSL-AM for Conference, as well as major news.
BTW...I notice that most of the streaming service ads are using the new, "fm-only" logo.

[amanuensis]

In the early '80s, I was a teenager in rural north-eastern California listening to KSL at night for BYU and Jazz broadcasts, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and music. So I definitely have a lot of nostalgia for the station. But 50,000 watts is a huge power bill. I can see the day not too far off when streaming becomes so common that Bonneville decides that everyone listening from areas outside of the 102.7 footprint can be served adequately by streaming KSL to a smart phone or speaker or laptop. Had the Internet existed back when I was a teenager, I would never have gone to the trouble of trying to listen to 1160 over the air. On my cheap radios, the frequency was always fighting with 1170 KLOK in San Jose. I would have streamed KSL.

[kenglish]

I don't think I could afford streaming on my phone.

[christopherjohn]

How are you enjoying retirement?

[David]

Something to keep in mind regarding KSL-AM is that it's the designated Primary Entry Point (PEP) station for the Emergency Alert System in Utah. If Bonneville ever decides to shut down 1160, the PEP station for Utah would have to be reassigned. I have no idea how difficult of a process that would be, but I don't think there's another AM station in Utah that has the coverage of KSL 1160 for emergencies.

[kenglish]

Apr 16, 2020 23:01:53 GMT -6 christopherjohn said:

How are you enjoying retirement?

Bored to death. Sleep all day. Sleep all night. No radio, TV or satellite. Can't afford to subscribe to newspapers.
The roads seem kinda empty, though. Anybody know why?😉

[CAwasinNJ]

It's true that most radio listening is done on FM although it's unclear how much of that is because of the band itself and how much is because of a lack of programming on AM that listeners actually want to listen to. With KSL the programming is the same and they shouldn't care which signal listeners turn to. The size of the logo is pretty much the same so they don't gain any economy there. In looking at it again though there's something else. The other change besides the dropping of 1160 is that the remaining FM frequency is now larger than the word Newsradio. That might be the reason for the change. Maybe management wanted to emphasize the frequency more than the name? Trying to put both 102.7FM and 1160AM on the same line at that vertical spacing would look terrible. I do think dropping the FM and AM parts and squeezing the horizontal spacing a little would work, but apparently they didn't go that way. The place where there's a clear savings is on air. Eliminating the 2 seconds it takes to say "and 1160 AM" umpteen times a day adds up and would probably make the pace of the station feel quicker, but they haven't done that.

While it's not exactly cheap to run a 50kw transmitter, to an outfit like Bonneville (with Church backing) I can't believe it's a major concern. But even if they gave up on putting KSL on 1160 they could either find a different format for it or sell it. Simply taking the station dark and turning in the license is absolutely positively not happening anytime is the foreseeable future. A 50kw full time non-directional signal is just too valuable to give up for nothing. Even if for some incomprehensible reason the license were turned in there's no question that the Commission would auction it off at the next opportunity. The PEP isn't a long term concern and isn't Bonneville's responsibility anyway.

[oldiesfunhouse]

I'm thinking that cost isn't much of an issue.  If it were, wouldn't they have turned off the HD signal on AM?  I wonder how much more cost is involved with running HD.  I always thought it would be cool if they made the AM all news, simulcasting Tim and Amanda in the morning and Jeff in the afternoon on both frequencies and during Dave and Debbie, Lee Lonsberry, etc., those guys could be on FM while the AM continued with full news coverage maybe anchored by people like Mary Richards, Sean Michael Lyle, Kelly Pierce etc. And during BYU games they could have the news over on the FM and when the FM cuts away from the president's news conferences and stuff like that they could say "tune over to the AM if you want to hear the rest of this." That would be cool.

[CAwasinNJ]

Unfortunately being cool only works as a business model if you're somebody like Elon Musk.

I like the idea of all-news but I'm not sure how cost effective it would be to do it live outside of drive times. To me continuous news in this market (where things don't change a lot hour to hour) seems like more of a niche format, which was why I suggested something along the same lines last year using a digital subchannel. talkingutahradio.proboards.com/thread/1866/july-ratings-uh-oh post #10 I should have suggested an internet stream too, Do you think there could be a way to generate enough additional ad revenue to justify going all-news on one of the main signals?

[oldiesfunhouse]

KSL has an internet stream.  They call it the X stream.  I don't have the link on me but they carried the Trump impeachment hearing on it.  The other day they were carrying the special session of the Utah legislature on it.  They carry some programs from ABC television on it like Good Morning America, Jimmy Kimmel, and Nightline. A lot of the time they just stream whatever the internet equivalent of a dead carrier would be.  I have it as a preset on a radio app I use on my phone and it's interesting to tune into it sometimes just to see what's playing.  There was a BYU game one night during a pretty major election night here and Jeff Caplan and the team went on the X Stream to give election results during the game. Okay, I went and found the link since I've talked about it so much. bit.ly/KSLXstream    

[CAwasinNJ]

Ah, I'd forgotten about that. Thanks.