KIRO Stops Simulcast

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Postby cart_machine » Thu Nov 13, 2008 6:11 pm

KIRO Radio to split into news, sport stations
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE -- The parent company of KIRO radio has announced that it will split the station into two different FM and AM stations next year, one dedicated to sports and the other for news.

Bonneville International, the media conglomerate that owns KIRO, says that starting next year 710 ESPN Seattle will broadcast sports only. Their news operation will broadcast on 97.3 FM, which has already been broadcasting KIRO radio.

Bonneville has secured the rights to air Seattle Mariner and Seahawks games, the two biggest professional sports franchises in the state. The Mariners and Bonneville signed a three-season agreement earlier this year.

The sports station's schedule will be supplemented by programs from the ESPN Radio Network.
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Postby jon » Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:57 am

Dumb, dumb, dumb! The only way I ever thought their decision to simulcast made sense, losing the separate AM & FM advertising revenue streams, was if they used the AM & FM to split from simulcasting whenever necessary to carry high profit programming that overlapped. Typically, one Sports event that didn't end before another began.

In short, to do some very sophisticated decision-making on programming on a case by case basis.

This decision, splitting into All News and All Sports makes zero sense to me. It suddenly puts them head-to-head with the existing All News and All Sports stations, rather than giving them a unique mix that had been a big winner as KIRO-AM. I predict a huge nose dive in ratings for both stations, especially given the fact that those listeners with radios that have rusted so bad they are stuck on 710, will not like what they hear (ESPN All Sports).
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