AM 860

[dolt]

Not just any talk "Hot Talk." Live, local, in your face, fall out of your chair laughing talk. The kind over which citizen's groups form to be rid of "the scourge of air waves."
Talk like Citadel owned before the little Disney excursion.

ok I'm awake again... still a guy can dream.

[Amanuensis]

I want a beautiful/elevator music format like what AM 700 used to have. It's a nearly extinct format, but just the thing to have playing quietly in the background while working.

[Yodar Critch]

I've never understood the love people still seem to have for the old KCNR. To me, it was the talk radio equivalent of 3.2 beer: strong by Utah standards, perhaps, but almost laughably weak when compared to the real stuff.

[dolt]

You could be right. A station that is in touch with the area of coverage, based on a format that still causes excitement a decade after it ended. Who would want that?
Besides it is well known 3.2 beer is a tough sell here.

[HelmutVonSchmidt]

Just so you know, as far as Coors, bud and miller go there is only 1/112 of an ounce of alcohol difference between Utah beer and "Full streangth" beer. (I work for the Coors Distributer)

[David]

Guest-Amanuensis said:

I want a beautiful/elevator music format like what AM 700 used to have. It's a nearly extinct format, but just the thing to have playing quietly in the background while working.

I'll cast my vote for an adult standards (or nostalgia, whichever you prefer) station like the old KSOS AM 800. KKDS and KLGN carry Westwood One programming which is really more of an adult contemporary format rather than adult standards.
Yeah, I know there's a slim chance of the return a true nostalgia music format on AM, but I can always dream. Those old songs from the '40's and '50's sound really good on a vacuum tube receiver.

[henry]

I stand by my jammin' oldies. ;D

[Michaeljwyo]

Woo Hoo Henry! I would LOVE to see it as Jammin Oldies meself! Although mark my words. I stand by MY prediction....especially with the KUTR calls. I still say it's gonna be LDS format just like the old KUTR 1320 and KUTR 860. I'm hoping for AM Stereo myself, but don't know if that'll happen. I even heard somewhere that Mike Carver.....previous PD for the old KUTR LDS format....has been approached about programming it.

There's my prediction.

Still crossing my fingers for jammin' oldies...that would be nice. Another oldies station would be nice too. It's sad. I like oldies. Yet I HATE ClearChannel....so I won't listen to KODJ, yet they're the ONLY oldies station. Period. When I worked at WKRP back in the early 90s, 1060 KRSP gave us quite the run for our money. They actually BEAT us in the ratings as a matter of fact. More people listened to them (an AM) than us (an FM) for oldies. They were live, they did cruises and lots of audience interaction and promo'd themselves well. That was right before they dropped the oldies and went to the first "kids" format (hence the KKDS calls).
I know I may get some flack for this, but another oldies station would be nice. And I still think there's room in Utah for an oldies station that includes all of the "local hits". Utah had a LOT of local hits that didn't even chart nationally, but made it to #1 locally. Just ask folks like Craig Downs, David B Smith (my boss), Jordan Mitchell, Wooly Waldron, and "Skinny" Johnny Mitchell. I know most of these guys and I've seen tons and tons of charts from that era from the old KCPX and KNAK. I think this is also something that Simmons could try with KXOL. I think if ya want to sound like what Utah REALLY sounded like back in those days, you need to include the local hits too, and take the emphasis off of the same 300 song library of national hits that any other oldies station in the country is playing. But hey, if you're gonna do it, for God's sake give us some DJ's....not just a computer going round and round playing 2 songs then a liner. I know a lot of the old jocks would love to see something like this. Many Many of the old jocks are still around. Wouldn't THAT be fun??? Having many of these guys back on the air again? If ANYONE could do it like it was done back then, THEY could.

Michael (long-winded) n WYO

[x]

Your point is well taken, though you switched frequencies on us. If you want to expand the topic (which I shall now do, thank you <g> ) this same question is repeated 4 times. 860 is the most pending format change, but as you were saying we've also got

820 KUTR
101.5 KPKK
106.1 KOTB

who are in search of a format. And you know what? There really isn't that much that isn't covered in the market at least twice. If a Jammin Oldies type format were to come back to the SLC Metro, my money would be on Millcreek to do it. They did it once before and it flopped, though I think the engineering wasn't quite there with the 107.9 facility. (And don't get me started on THAT. I still can't figure out how the h*** they managed to need a booster right next to the city of license, when the theoretical grade A countour makes it down to Sandy and the grade B hits Evanston. Oops. Too late.)

Ok, back on track.

I think Oldies is a reasonable thing to try. As Michael pointed out, there's only one oldies station, and even that's not an oldies station in the classic sense. For me, there's just too much 70's in it. I'm not a big fan of the 50's, but tossing one in every once in a while is ok. KXOL is ok, but it's suffering from being on AM (sorry, but it's true), being in the expanded band (not everyone can get it, though more and more can) and Simmons is doing squat to promote it. Since they aren't even running spots, I guess there isn't much of a need to but still... If I were running one of these new FMs, I'd just grab the JRN Good Time Oldies format that used to run on K-105 out of the Logan area for starters. It's cheap and could make a significant impact. If that playlist works, I'd consider doing the same basic thing on the local level and customize/tweak it a bit. I'm not sure that would be necessary though. The jocks they've got are pretty darn entertaining, though true they aren't local. Also, I'm not sure what the licensing deal for JRN is and whether the network can be run straight barter or whether there's cash involved. I think Mr. KEVA could shed some light on that.

I also think *maybe* a replacement classic country station might be in the cards. KWLW was pulling a pretty consistant 1.5 in the 12+ ratings, which for an AM music station isn't bad. K102, with a moderate mix (last I spot checked them) of oldies and currents is pulling a 3.2. So where to put it? It's been suggested that Citadel put it on 860, but there's a posible conflict. They also own K-Bull 93. How much would a classic country 860 hurt K-Bull 93, or conversely how much would a lack of a replacement for KWLW help K-Bull? Not as easy a question as it might first appear. It was much simpler in the days when you owned one AM and one FM and you programmed to beat everyone else. Now you have to program to beat everyone else while not killing a sister station.

I think that's the end of the novel for now.

[henry]

If I remember right, Jammin Oldies usually came out around a high 1's near 2 share.

That isn't too bad for niche programming.

Sure, the switch to CHR on 107.9 made a lot of sense, and still does. I think that worked out for the best.

But I think perhaps on 106.1, Jammin' Oldies could work well.

[Michaeljwyo]

Well I won't write another 'novel' about it, but yes I think Jones can be done as a "barter" deal. I know we're bartering here, but we're also not in a big market. I think the boss worked out some kind of deal with them and we're also running some extra ads. I think in the bigger markets they're a little more proned to bartering. That's about all the specifics I know of.

Mr. KEVA