WKLT-fm, Kalkaska and WKLZ-fm, Petoskey

[NMCSpeaks]

Are these stations presently proposed to be spun off by Gokey’s Northern Broadcasting to Biederman’s Midwestern Broadcasting?

Time will tell.

[TC Talks]

I don't see how they fit culturally

[TC Talks]

Carrie and I worked together on Saturdays at WCSX back then, she's great, but classy. KLT is the very used car market / vape shop crowd. I can't see MidWestern wanting it.

[Deleted User 12047]

Looking at this from a business/ratings viewpoint, this is an excellent purchase for the Midwestern folks. Right now the only local group that can provide a broad set of demographics both males and females is Black Diamond. Country has become very female focused. To really dominate the transactional business, Midwestern needs a broad demo. as for the cultural conflict leave the long-haired hippie freaks over on Hastings.

[TC Talks]

Have you ever run a group? That's complete nonsense.

[organman95]

WTCM-FM's midday personality worked at WCSX in Detroit for years.

However, I see your point. The Biederman stations exude family friendliness. KLT's stationality, on the other hand, has some testosterone-driven attitude.

On paper, country and classic rock should fit well together. Doesn't always work out that way, though.

And I believe they do. Look at how Del Reynolds ran the Cheboygan stations. Back in the 90s/2000s, there was Classic Rock, Country, and "Music of Your Life" format (1240 AM), Then there was the floating Coast/Jazz - Modern Rock switch. Cheboygan and Petoskey used to be the two powerhouses of Northern MI. Now most operations of nearly every station has been moved to TC.

[BigFreq]

Again, the greed that bore the 11 county metro: Broadcasters thinking it would garner the attention of national marketing dollars (epic fail) and Nielsen looking to charge them for the survey to pretend to be more a more important than what it really is (a win for Nielsen). Any market where you have to use two (or more) signals to reach the metro is a problem unto itself, but the large clusters are committed to the simulcast way of life for fear of losing ratings, so they are stuck with defending it until they are tired of Nielsen bleeding them and eventually decide the juice isn't worth the squeeze (as MacDonald-Garber wisely did). To be honest -- if they ditched Nielsen, TCM-FM would still be a part of most out of market buys as the dominant country format, as would KHQ as a CHR. Then it would be a toss up with GFM (Rock 105) and KLT for the male rock buys. Ratings really don't mean much unless you're top three. It's about who -- and what -- you're putting out onto the streets. Local direct sales is the only way to increase topline revenue. You have to have a team of street savvy sellers, selling ideas and concepts to local merchants. The days of sitting back and raking in the cash from national/regional buys is over. McDonald's, BK, Taco Bell, Subway, Meijers, are all a fraction of what they used to be. And, in many cases, to get what's left of those pies, clusters have been leveraging multiple stations. Buy one... get two free... because they have the stations, of which most have plenty of inventory to spare; so the logis is to protect their piece of the pie by giving something they don't necessarily value -- excess inventory. Until Nielsen is no longer being paid by these companies for ratings (it takes three to tango), the current metro will exist. I do see an opportunity for Eastlan Ratings to come in and create two survey areas -- TC/Cadillac (Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Kalkaska, Wexford counties) and Petoskey/Cheboygan (Emmett, Charlevoix, Cheboygan counties). You don't need the excess counties: Benzie, Manistee, Antrim and Otsego to get an accurate snapshot for the very different Traverse City and Petoskey business communities. That's my 2.5 cents worth.

[ftballfan]

Again, the greed that bore the 11 county metro: Broadcasters thinking it would garner the attention of national marketing dollars (epic fail) and Nielsen looking to charge them for the survey to pretend to be more a more important than what it really is (a win for Nielsen). Any market where you have to use two (or more) signals to reach the metro is a problem unto itself, but the large clusters are committed to the simulcast way of life for fear of losing ratings, so they are stuck with defending it until they are tired of Nielsen bleeding them and eventually decide the juice isn't worth the squeeze (as MacDonald-Garber wisely did). To be honest -- if they ditched Nielsen, TCM-FM would still be a part of most out of market buys as the dominant country format, as would KHQ as a CHR. Then it would be a toss up with GFM (Rock 105) and KLT for the male rock buys. Ratings really don't mean much unless you're top three. It's about who -- and what -- you're putting out onto the streets. Local direct sales is the only way to increase topline revenue. You have to have a team of street savvy sellers, selling ideas and concepts to local merchants. The days of sitting back and raking in the cash from national/regional buys is over. McDonald's, BK, Taco Bell, Subway, Meijers, are all a fraction of what they used to be. And, in many cases, to get what's left of those pies, clusters have been leveraging multiple stations. Buy one... get two free... because they have the stations, of which most have plenty of inventory to spare; so the logis is to protect their piece of the pie by giving something they don't necessarily value -- excess inventory. Until Nielsen is no longer being paid by these companies for ratings (it takes three to tango), the current metro will exist. I do see an opportunity for Eastlan Ratings to come in and create two survey areas -- TC/Cadillac (Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Kalkaska, Wexford counties) and Petoskey/Cheboygan (Emmett, Charlevoix, Cheboygan counties). You don't need the excess counties: Benzie, Manistee, Antrim and Otsego to get an accurate snapshot for the very different Traverse City and Petoskey business communities. That's my 2.5 cents worth.

Manistee County belongs more with Mason/Lake/Oceana (and WTCM-FM is probably #1 in that group of counties as well). Antrim and Benzie do fit in with Traverse City. Otsego fits in with Petoskey and Cheboygan (Gaylord is surprisingly large).

Also, I think Midwestern would have to spin one station off or pull some other shenanigans (such as changing the COL of WTCM-FM or WJZQ to an out-of-market community) to get both WKLT and WKLZ

[NMCSpeaks]

Biederman’s Midwestern Broadcasting apparently required the purging of Gokey’s Northern Broadcasting staff BEFORE the WKLT sale moves forward (here at Christmas time).

[BigFreq]

[/quote]

Manistee County belongs more with Mason/Lake/Oceana (and WTCM-FM is probably #1 in that group of counties as well). Antrim and Benzie do fit in with Traverse City. Otsego fits in with Petoskey and Cheboygan (Gaylord is surprisingly large).

Also, I think Midwestern would have to spin one station off or pull some other shenanigans (such as changing the COL of WTCM-FM or WJZQ to an out-of-market community) to get both WKLT and WKLZ
[/quote]


Manistee certainly belongs more in unision with Mason; you're right. But you don't have to necessarily fit all of the pegs into something because it once was. Gaylord essentially stands out on its own. It is a self-sustaining community and doesn't rely on any adjacent community for much of anything; outside of a trendy restaurant or a flight south.

As for Midwestern, they had room to add one FM, so it's KLT. KLZ will likely find a new home and format; along with the rest of those signals. But the diamond in the cluster was certainly KLT, which would have also had the greatest value to both the sellers and buyer. Now we will see how the rest of the dominos fall.

[ADD in TC]

What if Midwestern divested 93.5?Could they aquire either 94.3,105.5 or 106.7?

Also would 92.5,which is licenced to Atlanta,be considered in this market?If not would Midwestern be able to aquire that signal while also having two FM's on the east side of the state?

As a side note,WCCW-FM is not Streaming(as far as l know)on Midwestern's new radio app.,any reason for this?

[In the biz]

KLZ is not part of the purchase. It’s being sold to a Christian Broadcaster supposedly. Same with some of the others I’ve heard. Time will tell.

[TC Talks]

Because what really is missing is Jesus on the Traverse City airwave...

Is this a commercial station reduction a la 103.9 going to CMU.