Radio pundit Tom Taylor says it's "FM envy: a highly contagious disease among news/talk programmers."
In the downsizing of recent years, Fisher had sold off its radio properties outside of Seattle. So when faced by the alleged competition of KIRO blowing up their AM news talk for sports and moving the blah-blah to FM... Fisher felt it had nowhere to go to catch up.
So they announce Monday they've leased South Sound Broadcasting’s KFMY at 97.7 whose oldies format will end Friday to start simulcasting news/talk KOMO.
(The "Eagle" has landed)
97.7 you say? That's right, just two clicks up the dial from KIRO FM's 97.3. The signal will come from south and west of Seattle, can be heard really well in Tacoma, but not so well in Everett or Bellevue.
John Carlson (KOMO m-f, 10a-2p) says,"This is not a process of navigating the AM station to the FM signal. It's an ongoing simulcast and we're all really psyched about it."
Program Director Dennis Kelly assures BlatherWatch there are no rumors about major programming changes flying around so we'll just go back to sleep.
I've heard from several reputable sources that KPTK will soon be simulcasted over a telephone call between two senile residents of Morton.
Posted by: Tony | May 12, 2009 at 03:57 PM
What is Morton?
Posted by: Pony | May 12, 2009 at 04:17 PM
A Mortan is a town in this here very state.
Posted by: AuthenticAndrew | May 12, 2009 at 04:38 PM
Morton, the town where your family tree look like a telephone pole. Morton, the town that would not be caught dead listening to anything but Rush and The Bible Channel.
Morton, the source of all those "You Might Be A Redneck If...."
Nearby Mossyrock is even worse. The town doctor gives the sex education instruction to the high school kids by passing around a rose and asking the girls to pull off a petal if they have already had sex. When the stem comes back sans ANY petals, the doctor scornfully asks " Boys, would you want a woman like this as your bride?" and all the guys say " YEAHHHHHHHH."
Two of the weirder places where I have done ed. consulting....
Posted by: sparky | May 12, 2009 at 05:15 PM
"PADDLE FASTER! I HEAR BANJOS!!!
Posted by: billy | May 12, 2009 at 05:44 PM
Well, Hell...I LIKE 97.7 the way it is. This is not a good thing for the south sound and beyond. Nobody down here cares about what is going on in Seattle/Bellevue, especially your insane traffic. Gack..another radio choice gone.
Posted by: sparky | May 12, 2009 at 05:46 PM
Morton is Packwood's bitch.
Posted by: Nick | May 13, 2009 at 01:11 AM
Yes! lolol
Some very nice people up there, but if you are a liberal, best to keep driving through town.
Posted by: sparky | May 13, 2009 at 05:41 AM
'...best to keep driving through town.'
Especially if sporting a 'Yes We Can' bumper sticker.
Posted by: HoChiMinh | May 13, 2009 at 06:51 AM
Loved your sex ed story, sparky; I sent it to all my friends. If you want to see a red neck tank top, take a look at this:
http://13gb.com/pictures/3176/popular/
Posted by: Doris | May 13, 2009 at 08:31 AM
According to the picture, it looks like we finally got nevets to recycle.
Posted by: Drew | May 13, 2009 at 08:53 AM
I wonder what (if anything) this will mean for KVI? Suppose they may move Kirby over there when his contract is up? Seems like there's got to be more to this than simply simulcasting. When will the other shoe drop.
Posted by: HoChiMinh | May 13, 2009 at 08:57 AM
When Kirby's contract is up next year, the door won't be hitting im in his ponderous ass. He is despised upstairs at Fisher, his rating are poor, and his iron clad contract is costing them way more than they are will to pay in the future. He'll be replaced with a syndicated show.
Posted by: Mark C. | May 13, 2009 at 11:45 AM
MarkC you seem knowledgable on this. I've wondered about this for some time now and what KVI would do when K's contract was up. How 'bout Carleen?
Posted by: HoChiMinh | May 13, 2009 at 11:54 AM
Carleen? Duffman, are you still trying to fuck her?
Posted by: KVIFan no! | May 13, 2009 at 01:16 PM
Dori was lamenting today on his show that he couldn't understand why the name "Dori" didn't make the list of the top 100 baby names (either girls or boys). LMAO
Posted by: sPrinkles | May 13, 2009 at 02:18 PM
Bloody hell, I really like 97.7!
Posted by: The Luke | May 13, 2009 at 04:46 PM
GREAT! And we like your TBTL Show too, Luke.
Posted by: sPrinkles | May 13, 2009 at 04:54 PM
So KOMO is "leasing" 97.7? Interesting. Why didn't they just simulcast on KPLZ? Their ratings are not that great.
But, think of this people...many South Sound listeners were upset (aka pissed) that KIRO Talk/News went to the FM side cause they can't pickup the 97.3 signal that great.
Instead, KOMO is helping fill that in going on the FM side. However, the 97.7 signal is not good in Seattle so to hear KOMO say "you are in an office building, now you can hear KOMO on FM?" I don't think so.....
97.7 transmitter is in Oakville (where the hell is Oakville?) West of Olympia somewhere?
Guess this means that KFMY 97.7 was losing money if they are willing to lease their station to KOMO...
What's next? KOMO buying 97.7 and then try to relocate the transmitter to Cougar Mt?
I can get 97.7 pretty good in Tacoma and also in my car but once you get North of Fed Way it starts to get a little choppy.
So Centralia residents! NOW YOU HAVE News on FM!
Posted by: Tacoma Listener | May 14, 2009 at 02:18 AM
Actually, the signal has been recently upgraded and covers an area from Marysville to Centralia and from the Cascades to almost the ocean. The tower is southwest of Bremerton.
Posted by: Pete | May 14, 2009 at 01:02 PM
Just to clarify...
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KFMY&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
Posted by: pete | May 14, 2009 at 03:39 PM
Hot damn!!! Nice to see all these AM talk channels shifting to the FM dial.
Now I can drop the am/fm radio and just listen on my cell phone. Now all I need is 950AM to jump to FM and I could say goodbye to the AM dial forever.
Posted by: asdfasd | May 14, 2009 at 04:24 PM
Also, what happens to KLSY, the South Bend repeater station for KFMY?
Now South Bend gets KOMO news radio too or did they shut KLSY down?
Interesting when Ken Schram came on and said 12 people lost their jobs at KFMY.
Is this the beginning of a trend where the stations in Oly to Centralia etc go broke?
Posted by: Tacoma Listener | May 16, 2009 at 03:23 AM