Posted on 08/05/2011 11:21:58 AM PDT by raccoonradio
The MinnPost.com's David Brauer says the surprising switch "will happen before the opening of the Minnesota Vikings regular season September 11, and conceivably, early in the exhibition schedule." The NFL team is already simulcast on both KFAN-AM and KTLK-FM, and Clear Channel was already planning to simulcast the college football games of the University of Minnesota Gophers. The flip will put the potentially more lucrative all-sports KFAN franchise, with its strong 25-54 male demos, on a Class C1 signal with 100,000 watts at 922 feet.
The KTLK-FM talk format, which replaced jazz KJZI in January 2006, will find a new home on 1130. It runs with 50,000 watts daytime, 25,000 watts at night. Clear Channel didn't have a comment for the MinnPost about the story.
KTLK lineup: Davis and Emmer, Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, Jason Lewis, Neal Boortz, Coast to Coast etc.
Also http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2011/08/05/30572/kfan_to_become_fm_station_ktlk_goes_am
>>Sports station KFAN-1130AM will soon ditch its AM frequency and swap spots with right-wing talker KTLK-100.3FM, according to informed sources.
In some markets, up to 50 percent of adults — especially younger ones — don’t touch the AM band, analyst Sean Ross estimates. Therefore, going FM should help KFAN battle Hubbard Broadcasting’s year-old AM sports competitor, 1500 ESPN.
Clear Channel Communications, which owns KFAN and KTLK, isn’t commenting, but it’s fair to say they wouldn’t mind repeating history.
Five years ago, Clear Channel switched Smooth Jazz KJZI-FM to conservative talk, ultimately vanquishing 1500’s long-dominant predecessor, KSTP-AM.
The KFAN-KTLK swap will happen before the opening of the Minnesota Vikings regular season Sept. 11, and conceivably, early in the exhibition schedule.
Clear Channel already simulcasts the Vikings on KTLK and KFAN, and was slated to do the same with newly acquired Minnesota Gophers football games. One team that will be better off is the Minnesota Wild. They, like the Gophers, switched to KFAN this off-season but were only on AM.
Is this a sign that conservative radio is fading? Nope. The move comes as KTLK’s ratings are near the top of its two-year range, buoyed by the strong performance of the recently debuted “Davis & Emmer” morning show.
In the June Arbitron ratings, KTLK had a marginally higher share of the total Twin Cities listening audience — 3.6 percent to KFAN’s 3.3 — but the sports station had roughly 50 percent more 25-to-54-year-old listeners.
The swap, then, is partly because sports has the bigger upside.
(click link for more)
note also from the blog article:
>>KTLK will still have an FM presence, though it might require some button pushing. Clear Channel is assembling a portfolio of four low-power FMs, and KTLK will appear on some or all of them. KFAN is currently simulcast on one, 103.5 in downtown Minneapolis.
Can Pat and Joe survive ?
This is an unbelievable screw up. This is considered a major market. What must their advertisers be thinking. I’m about 5 miles from downtown MPLS. The FM station is marginal and the AM station is unlistenable because of the static.
Pat and Joe no longer have to compete against Hannity. How do you think that makes them feel?
Enner has turned out to be surprisingly (to me ) good but Davis is so annoying I just can’t listen to it.
Enner = Emmer.
They’ll both be on iHeartRadio one way or another too.
Ten feet tall.
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