Another big red flag in April’s radio ratings, the fall of KMBZ 98.1 FM…
The news talk station that broke out on its own earlier this year fell to the equivalent of 17th place in April’s ratings, behind 16 other local radio station.
Ouch!
Say what you will about the 6 plus ratings, when you fall nearly a point and a half with a cume not much bigger than local NPR affiliate KCUR FM (which incidentally beat KMBZ in the ratings), something’s not right.
“I don’t care what anybody says about 25-54, when you go from a 4.2 share to a 3.5 share to a 2.9 share that’s a downward trend,” says a local radio insider. “And when you have a station that’s gone from having a 4.8 share in December as one station to being two stations with a combined 5.0 share, they’ve lost in ranking as well, which typically has a lot to do with what media ad buyers buy on.”
It’s hard to say for certain, because news talk stations can rise and fall with the news, but KC’s never really been much of a news radio town.
“There’s only one commercial News/talk FM radio station in the Top 10 in the top 35 radio markets and that station is KIRO FM in Seattle,” says the insider. “Which is maybe why Entercom decided to try the news talk format on FM solo, as at one time it owned KIRO but sold it a few years back. However, the big difference between Kansas City and Seattle is that KC has never had a big news talk station. Not even in the heyday of that format.
“St Louis had a big news talk station with KMOX. Cincinnati still has a monster with WLW. Pittsburg with KDKA and Denver with KOA.
“Today, in markets where news talk is successful, those stations are either AM/ FM simulcasts or AM only.”
Raising the question once again of whether Entercom was wise to double up with two KMBZs instead of one.
That said, Entercom has pointed out that doubling the sales inventory – especially the quote/unquote block programming (infomercials) on weekends and late nights has been highly profitable.
“Yeah, but there’s no way a successful FM station isn’t going to double the revenue of an unsuccessful FM station selling block programing,” the source says. “Let’s say Entercom could find another successful music format like The Buzz, The Point or The Rock, there’d be a lot more money in KMBZ’s FM signal than in block programming.”
How much of that drop do you think is a result of chasing off their right wing /conservative listeners. First they get rid of Mike Shanin and team that infantile Scott Parks with cackling whack job Dana Wright. Then they movie Limbaugh to an A M signal that is so weak it wont reach Liberty. I know all you Left leaning mental giants like to flex your enormous intellects by cracking on Limbaugh and his audience, which is still the largest in the nation on am or fm. I dont know how the ratings system works, but Ill wager those 3 hours of Rush kept people tuned in to that station after his show was over. What say you Hearne? Either way, the midday line up is weak sauce and I actually switch over to NPR, just to keep an ear to what you commies are up to.
Agreed.
I can either listen to static on 980 am or listen to some dip wads on 98.1 then wish I would just hear the static.
Rush is still a mental midget who hates black people, so you haven’t missed anything.
FlyinBrian, have you been living under a rock for the past ten years? There are many reasons not to like Black people in2015.
I’m guessing Limbaugh is much more intelligent than you. The people who hate black people are the ones who keep them poor and in poverty and also expect them to be voter slaves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mg0QtF48RQ
You can’t listen to Rush Limbaugh anymore on KMBZ-am — time for him to move. They’ve cut the signal so low.
I don’t enjoy listening to the afternoon JoCo slut in the afternoon on KMBZ-fm. I think KCMO has a good person in the morning and evening now. The evening show should be expanded to go after the KMBZ stations.
I don’t listen to the ladies aid gossip sports programs.
I do find it hard to believe that KCUR is rank so high — something seems fishy.
KMBZ-fm tied to attract a younger listener with their new format — huge failure. Even frequent use of curse words hasn’t seemed to help them.
here’s what we’re up to mark.
1. the right wing is dying. Rush and Hannity and o really have shown us
what the right wing is all about…NOTHING….no solutions…no ideas…no
forward thinking…no answers…just NO TO EVERYTHING OBAMA AND THE
LEFT HAS WANTED TO HELP PEOPLE.
2. people ike yo smith don’t buy anything. You have no money and o
disposable income except for what you mke hourly. You attack me without
any facts/figures/data only because you’re not smart enough to present your
side of the story with real world intelligence. Hence you are stuck in a go nowherejob…your salary never increases…and you will be athe bottom of the
barrel soon.
3. Rush is dead. Chicago cut him off. The left took care of him and we
annihilated him for his rude and out of line comments. Sure he can pull
in Tuscaloosa and mayb in the south…but rush is ona downward path and if
you’ve heard him say it….his time is past (see his own words on google)….there
just aren’t enough peple who like and listen to this guy anymore…and they
are not in the acquisition stage of life…in other words it’s a dying audience.
4. news talk should be flourishing. Seriously…but now with fox news feeding
them enough lies to fill their simple minds…tey don’t need Hannity/Levin or the
rest of the haters for info…..fox has done a good job…and with fox you get
all those hot blondes to look at and for guys like chuckles you get something to
jagg off to beside those adult pay per view movies.
5. The right is losing ground. these clowns lost their heads when they
only directed hate to Obama. Eventually America would see that Obama and
his family were normal humans with kids…no different than those who
fight to stay above water every day. And now…America is starting to see
what Obama talked about when he had the middle class in mind.
See for many americans Obama took over during some of the worst
times in American history. The worst recession since the depression.
600,000 job losses a month…million forclosures and eventually after seeing
the other side do nothing to help them…the people felt a bond with m. Obama..
having made it thru some of the toughest times they’ve faced. So Obama now
looks better than ever before ….and as Harley predicted Obama will leave
office with a 55-60% approval rating (most of the disapproval ratings were
from those who hated a black man running the nation). ACA has added 17 million
new insureds to the rolls…and cut costs in medical costs. Florida and Michigan will
have no other way out of the hole thei repub governors put them in than to take
partb in ACA….its worked and just speakwith those wh have the stats it will
continue to work. We’re out of the war started by bush/cheney/rice/powell and
the casualties and almost nil. Bush left us with isis…but Obama has done
a good job taking them down without the commitment of ground troops
and many more casulaties.
The housing market is booming. I wil sell my house soon and will no doubt
get at least 5 offers and sell it over the asig price…inventory is so limited
and the economy could boom like never before if the repubs would stand aside
and let us take the reins and send the gdp thru the roof like never before.
You mr. smith and Wilson and Chuckles the sad clown….add in jr. and whiney…
add in hearne…and rww….then bring along the rest of the old men on kcc
who prayed and hoped for Obama to fail…..from his first day in office….
YOU ARE NOT PATRIOTS. To have prayed for Obama to fail in his policies
was an act of treason. It’s like going into battle and hoping your commander
gets killed and his directions fail…possibly costing others in your unit their lives.
Obama has not been perfect. There have been more despicable cartoons/comment
and vile racial comments against him than any other president in history.
Thanks to chuckles and whinery and Wilson…all who wanted America to fail…
who wanted America to come to it’s knees …….thank god they were wrong and
they have been guilty of hping America fails.
So here we come to the fourth quarter of Obama’s leadership.
If you had money in the stock market on his inauguration day….you’ve done
well since.
If you owned a home since his inauguration day ….yu’ve done well.
But there is work to do. And if by some chance the repubs understand their
job is to make America great again…then maybe we have achance to regain
our mantle as the greatest nation on earth.
Sorry boys…Harley has been right. The world is changing…you chose
to fight that change…and fight America’s plan to rebuild itself after bush and
the wall street gangstrs brought us to the brink of economic collapse.
And with that came the realization of listeners that this right wing religious
bull sh*t was nothing but false promises.
Today…immigrants will be granted citizenship.
Gaycouples will be married.
ACA worked and even if the supremes vote that case down..it will continue…
OUrcasualty rates in Iraq and fghanistan are down….we continue to fight
a tough enemy…but we took down bin laden and we destroyed al queada.
YOU BOYS WERE WRONG. IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON. THE NEW
ERA OF AMERICA IS COMING. AND DESPITE YOUR UNPATRIOTIC
AND HATE OF AMERICA AND YOUR WISH FOR AMERICA TO FAIL…
TODAY WE ARE MOVING FORWARD…WE HAVE COME BACK…AND
WITH GOD’S GRACE AND BLESSING WE ARE AND WILL CONTINUE
TO BE THE GREATEST NATION EVER CONCEIVED AND BUILT!
to those naysayers….YOU WERE WRONG…
God bless the United States of America!
God bless the veterans who’s courage we all admire (even to chuck for his
service !)
God Bless us and may god bless you and your families.
Your friend:
Harley
I’ve got a life, so reading past the first third or fourth of this comment escaped me…
However, I have to say I agree with much of what Harley had to say early on.
Please give me a pass for the last three quarters of his sermon.
the article is filled with real facts and figures. Tookabout
8 minutes to write. You can’t argue with me hearne becaue
you know nothing about the issues brought up.
I am right…so stop chasing hotel porn….the phony jewelry
theif or som dude who does some waitress on a bar floor
and read some real world facts.
The entire article isfilled with info you should know because
when you’re at the carriage club mingling wth your peers
they dn’t talk about prostitutes in smallbars…or the rising
inflationary cost of watching gay porn at motel 6…they
talk about the real world.
get ittogee….you’re not in college anymore….you’re a
businessman now with a trust fund.
Show it. Dazzle your friends with Harley’s facts.
You will get a better reputation with those facts.
But thanks for the ink….and again (as you agree) Harley
is right on target again!
I know…you dodged the draft…student deferment or
dad got you out of serving. No big deal…but to thosewho
did/have….god bless them.
Jesus Harley, you are a long winded bag O crazy. I apologize for saying you lived in Dogpatch……I meant to say, Your Lake House…. The north shore of Lake Annette. Now if you’ll excuse me Ive gotta go dig ditches or whatever it is you think I do. In the meantime you can email me for my monthly newsletter at http://www.harleyIsOnFoodstampsAndCrack.com See ya in the funny papers Sport.
for smith…a day of shopping is trolling thru craigslist.
Or sampling the free fooodat Costco for 8 hours.
Good luck smith…you’ll need it.
Hmmm…really?
Stop drinking.
KMBZ’s biggest mistake was forcing Mike Shanin out in favor of that low information reporter Dana Wright.
Believe it or not I’ve been listening more and more 710 in the morning and afternoon. Mark Smith talked about KMBZ driving the conservative listeners away. My guess is they moved a little to 710.
Carson in the morning IMO is good. Greg Knapp, Meh, still better then Dana and Parks. Something tells me if Chris Stigall were against Dana and Parks, he would destroy them.
IMO
I personally yanked 98.1 off any preset I had quite a while back when it became clear that they were dumping political talk in a concerted effort to attract every immature, buck-toothed hillbilly copping a feel from a relative.
I initially turned to the local KCMO NPR station but it was pretty much loony left all the time and so I wound up listening to the Lawrence station which focuses on a more musical format. Comments that many listeners have moved to 710 are also accurate.
Let’s face it, they gambled that shock radio with foul-mouthed hosts glorifying sexual harrasment and assault would draw an audience and for once someone did overestimate the public’s taste for wallowing in the gutter.
That said, I disagree that Dana is a lost cause. I would love to see a show that paired her with Darla Jaye where she was allowed to do something besides play the air-headed, giddy teenager to childish Parks verbal flatulence.
The question not answered here is whether or not management has so alienated the conservative listener that they abandon what little quality programming remains on the AM 980 side.
agreed about Dana. when parks is away, she becomes the “senior” partner… basically leads the show. if whomever she’s paired with doesn’t take it down a tawdry path, you can catch her more serious side. not sure about being paired with Darla regularly, but it would be an interesting listen to see how they work together.
Let’s not forget Zac “Pajama Boy” Burns and his giddy sidekick during the noon hour. This guy is the typical beta male. He actually talked the other day about the thing that burns him the most. It was men who “catcall” women on the streets. Where the hell does this guy live? I’m in downtown KC all the time and have never once heard this. He’s such a warrior for women in the faux war on women.
“a concerted effort to attract every immature, buck-toothed hillbilly copping a feel from a relative”
Good one, John.
I will say this, from what I understand the new news director wants to take advantage of the FM band to draw more women listeners – not just far right wing haters – and has directed Parks and Wright in a sillier direction.
The esteemed Paul Wilson is one of my sources on this.
I’ll let you guys in on a little secret; Parks is a lightweight who slipped into the afternoon drive gig when Entercom was going thru a management drought on the heels of having like three different GMs in less than a year.
He’d never have gotten that gig otherwise.
Allow me to share this quote from one of Parks former higher ups:
“I will tell you that when I heard Entercom made Scott Parks anything other than a rip and read guy, I was shocked.”
Dana batts to all fields. She can play the serious journalism card and she can be the life of the party. Sounds like KMBZ wants her to an more toward the latter at this point.
having been a BZ listener for years (don’t hold it against me, just the news in the a.m. and some in early p.m. drive), Parks, of course, was news director, and rip & read or not, did okay as far as I was concerned. how or why they paired him with Mike Shanin, I don’t know. but that show was pretty decent until, imo, they went right-wing political, then I got tired of it. but Parks pretty much held his own. none of the crap then that you hear now. guess Mike pulled him up.
i think he’d do better if he dialed back the junior high, potty mouth, beavis and butthead schtick.
COME ON HEARNE….those gossip rumors from the
big guy have made you look like a fool.
Wilson said that parkey and dana were being made sillier.
What is this. Open mic night at glazes yuk shack.
Sillier? Wislon said this.
That’s like when Wilson predicted the titanic sinking
…the second time”
the day anyone depends on Wilson for information is the
day we go back to the morse code and telegraphs for
news.
oh jeesus hearne….thinking of you talking with Wilson about
this just cracks me up:
WILSON: HEARNE…can you hear me. can you hear me?
Let me crank up the phone, get my hearing aid, and ask the
cobblers here in Lawrence to keep their slapping my 1930
loafers with a cloth down a bit.
HEARNE: I CAN hear you now Wilson. What did you say?
WISLON: Uh…the just hired jj “dynomite” WALKER from glazes place to be the new writer for parkey and dunce-a.
HEARNE: oh great…I thought maybe they’d get the
guy from FULL HOUSE for that job. He seems so down
home funny…he might have been a better choice.
WILSON: nOPE….they’re gonna let glaze back in the
building so he can direct the show.
HEARNE: WOW…that’s definitely good for a story on
the site
WILSON: NOT ONLY THAT HEARNE…but they’re gonna
dress up the on air team to look like lucy and desi.
HEARNE: Oh great..more illegal aliens in the country.
WILSON: NO hearne….desi is Cuban…he’s a refuge ..not
an immigrant!
Hearne: Great. And what about the big jewelry heist story?
Wilson: sorry boss…accidentally got stuck in the trunk
looking for the key and had to be jaws of lifed out of there.
HEARNE: Okay Wilson…we’ll go with this story. You’re
0 for 10 on kcc stories…maybe this will break your streak.
WILSON: thanks boss…i’ll have another sprint story ready
hearne: Oh no you won’t
WISLON: hOW ABOUT me getting your pf flyers cleaned up
here at the cobblers in Lawrence.
Hearne: no thanks Wilson. I can afford a new pair from
Wal mart for $15!
guys like you altey are the people nooone cares about.
you changed your presets? who cares.
you and the rest of your fellow conservative listeners can goover
to RADIO DUDES HOUSE AND TALK ABOUT THE DAYS
WHEN YOU DUDES ACTUALLY HAD JOBS.