Whither (wither?) KOMO?

My-oh-my: KIRO's reacquisition of the M's has brought up more questions than it's answered.

It's great news for them -- with the Seahawks already in hand, the addition of the Mariners reinstalls the station as dominant in the market.

Speculation, a pastime in radio as avidly pursued as baseball scores, has been that KIRO could become all sports; that the talk could move to KTTH or KBSGFM. Can't know anything like that, yet, but we'd think that something must be done to spruce up these stations who have been more or less mouldering since back in the bad ol' Entercom days.

KBSG does OK as an oldies station, but might do really well with talk. TBTL(m-f, 7-10p) and Ron & Don (m-f, 3-6p) are expensive products who'd be pushed off the air for many afternoons and evenings for months: wouldn't it make sense to put them over on KBSGFM?

Bonneville is known for installing news talk on FM stations. It would be good, especially for TBTL -- their demo hardly knows AM exists.

Interesting to note: the new contract is for only 3 years -- KOMO's was for six. The volatility and the rapid ongoing evolution of radio in the digital age accounts for that. Baseball suits aren't ready to commit for quite so long in this shifting media landscape.

Fisher built this all-news KOMO1000 on having the Mariners for $10 million a year, Now the M's are gone, will it go back to newstalk or blow it up altogether?

For newstalk fans such as ourselves, opening up a new high-power newstalker we'd hope would include more local programming. We won't be holding our breath about that, considering Fisher's apparent lack of resources with which to develop such a station. Likely it will go to being just another cheap satellite magnet. 

And what of sister KVI? If KOMO goes talk, what happens to the pioneer conservative talk station limping along down the dial. Will they improve it by making it more local?

Or sell it to Salem (KKOL) who's itching to get a decent transmitter?

Fisher has made some bad business decisions -- paying $10 million for the Mariners, and developing Fisher Plaza. These screw-ups have come back to kill them. There'll be across-the-board cuts at Fisher. We're hearing sooner than later.

This is sad because -- as always -- in this market, under the best of circumstances: there's nowhere to go when you're out.

Stay tuned.

Comments

[David Tatelman]

Wow, Michael, you never ever make typos. I guess you were in a real hurry to get this post up!

But seriously, I hope that KIRO brings Shannon Drayer over with the team. She is a great interviewer and seems to get many scoops from the players.

[Duffman]

Thanks Bla'M...it's getting interesting indeed. Schramm has been out for a while now; Carlson was out last week...doin some polishin...may be? KVI...that's the one I'll be watching to see what happens.

[billiybob]

YEEEHAAAWWWW!!

now mebbe that ol' kai-ro will git rid o' dem dum basses ronandon. there err time jus get cut in haff.

[1mediaguy]

Dem dum basses? You mean Ron & Don? They're kickin' butt on every other AM station in Afternoon Drive, especially in the money 25-54 demo. Not to mention kickin' butt on known music properties like KWJZ, KPLZ, KJR FM, & KBKS. And versus the 'Taters over on Kay-Vee-Eye? Fuggetaboutit. They've blown them outta' the water. Sounds like some success envy to me...

[baseyballfan]

Bring back NY Vinnie! This is a guy who is passionate about the game and the team, did a very entertaining postgame show when the M's were on KIRO, became a good luck charm for the team and cared about the listeners. Except for some Fox Sports TV and KRKO appearances he doesn't seem to be doing much. Oh, did I mention he helped save baseball in Seattle!

[AprilMayJune]

Yes, bring back Vinnie!

[RobP]

Shannon Drayer - great interviewer? What a joke. She had a voice that's like nails on a chalkboard and most of the Mariners hate talking to her.

The best thing about the move back to KIRO is Drayer will go back to whatever bar or coffee stand she was working at before she tried her hand at radio.

[KS]

Funny that this size of a city may not be big enough for KOMO/KVI and KIRO/KTTH - KVI appears to the weakest link, but they probably won't go anywhere - maybe some heads will roll as is commonplace in the radio biz. None of these stations are that swift, but KIRO has the inside on sports.

By comparison, Portland has KXL, KPAM, KEX, KPOJ (the AA affiliate) and KTRO - all talk stations for a smaller market - KXL, KPAM and KEX all have local talk shows. KXL is the sports equivalent to KIRO.
There is a better variety of talk in Portland than Seattle.

[Mike Barer]

That's interesting since not long ago, it looked like KIRO was moving away from sports programming.

[Canuckophile]

KS, KPOJ has local programming too. A really great morning program... last I knew.

KPAM is "weak" in my opinion outside mornings and KTRO had to lose its FM signal after failing to gain any traction. I think it holds on, like KKOL does up here. Salem's success in Seattle-Tacoma and in Portland seems to be in ethnic programming (Spanish language music sports and talk, Russian talk).