The old logo for Las Vegas's KDWN, 720 AM, a 50 Kilowatt station that put night-time talk host Art Bell on the American radio map. KDWN's owners have turned in the license, after pulling the plug on the station. Another one bites the dust.
Yet another AM radio station in the Western US has gone off the air permanently -- i.e., the signal is switched off, the plug is pulled, the land is sold, and FCC license has been turned in. This station is one of the biggest US AM'ers in recent history to be yanked off the air.
KDWN, 720 kHz, owned by US radio corporation Audacy (one of the bigger radio companies in the country), was a 50 Kilowatt radio station in Las Vegas, Nevada -- a growing metropolis in the high desert, a city of more than 2 million people, known for excitement, entertainment, and gambling. It also was one of the fastest growing cities in the US for many years.
KDWN was best known for being the radio station where famous night-time talk host Art Bell (who retired from radio before passing away a few years ago), got his career started. Although Art officially started his night-time talk show on another station, it was his KDWN stint that made him famous, as KDWN could be heard all over the Western US wherever there wasn't another station on 720 -- in other words, all of the West outside of parts of Western Oregon and Washington where other stations' signals clobbered the 720 kHz channel.
Here is a link to an article I wrote about Art Bell and his famous, night-time show, which was extremely popular during the 1990's.:
In recent years, with the increasing use of the Internet for entertainment and information among all demos, and the aging out of the prominent demographics that listen to AM radio (GenX and older), Radio has lost listeners, with AM stations taking the bigger economic hit. Some AM'ers still do well in major metros. Others are struggling, propped up by being part of a larger station "cluster". In my city, KIXI 880, which plays standards and light oldies, gets low ratings but is part of a greater cluster that includes several decently and highly rated FM's (pop station KQMV 92.5 being one of them). The other stations keep KIXI on the air, and sometimes a station like KIXI can be included as a demographic-rich 'package' for advertisers.
A radio expert on one of the radio forums I go to (RadioDiscussions) who has owned and operated stations all over the US, informed me that even a low rated station like local, Tacoma station KHHO 850, an affiliate of the Black Information Network (BIN), could help the rest of the cluster in demographic breadth and reach. This concept of "demographic breadth" is a part of the reason that in many cities underperforming stations ratings-wise can still be part of the revenue generation machine for a radio company or 'cluster'. Some stations, like Sports talkers, do not depend on ratings. The advertisers know that such stations -- regardless of their overall listenership -- are the best place to reach sports fans.
The economics of radio obviously is more complex than "Ratings high = You're a millionaire / Ratings low = You're sunk". As mentioned, Sports talk stations, and Sports Betting stations, are typical of stations that can survive without good ratings. But eventually, your stations need to be pulling their weight somehow, and in KDWN's case, the land where the transmitter was located was worth much, much more than the revenues the station was pulling in.
So, it's bye, bye KDWN.
Oh -- I almost forgot to mention. KDWN had an FM translator.
The FM translator station DID NOT SAVE IT.
And, whaddaya know? KDWN had/has a stream!
The stream, obviously, did not save the Over-The-Air radio station.
Here is a link to KDWN's stream, which still is operating, as of time of writing. It includes commercials, including at least 3-4 commercials that are LOCAL to my own listening region (geolocation being used, obviously -- pretty smart move!):
SO WHAT WAS AUDACY'S TAKE ON ALL THIS?
The "KDWN" stream is part of Audacy's greater streaming platform. I'm not sure how locally oriented the online KDWN is -- so far it appears to be a satellite network affiliate -- but it's all that remains of the station that put Art Bell on the Radio map.
The puzzler to me, in the case of KDWN, is why the owners -- radio company Audacy -- didn't try harder to make a go of it with a 50KW AM signal, and what does it say about their view of OTA Radio as a viable medium? A 50KW signal could blast much of the metro with a Sports Betting format, even better than the one Sports Betting station Las Vegas already has (one Sports talker in Las Vegas, KRLV 920, has some sports-bet talk included with regular sports talk). Sports Betting networks pay bills. They could have dropped the power a bit and still covered the metro OK. KGO's owners (Cumulus) have kept San Francisco's once failing KGO on the air by switching to Sports Betting talk and Sports talk. KDWN could have been diplexed with another AM station Audacy already owns -- KXNT 840, and other formats could have been pursued.
Instead, Audacy -- which just went through bankruptcy, because of debt they allowed to be piled up during one of their shakeups a few years ago -- decided to cut their losses, and pull the plug. They've left the KDWN stream on -- I guess that is something. The bankruptcy may have been an issue, although they have stations that make a lot of money. It's more highly probable that KDWN just would be too expensive to operate for Audacy justify dumping more money into it. The AM audience is dwindling, and AM diplexing (the sharing of two stations using the same towers) is expensive.
Photo courtesy the family of Edward N Edstrom
Audacy, like other radio companies before them (IHeart, Radio Disney) are concentrating on their streaming platform. The radio companies see streaming as the future. They might be correct, as younger demographics don't listen to radio, they listen to streaming on their phone. However, the economics of streaming actual radio stations is a lot different from that of an already well-established Spotify, Pandora, or Apple Music. So we won't really see the results of this move of Radio from OTA radio to online streaming for another 15-20 years.
On their KDWN stream, Audacy promote an afternoon talk show, that appears to be Las Vegas only -- Steve Sanchez -- and it's also broadcast on the Audacy streaming platform and app. Does Sanchez get enough clicks or streaming ratings without a 50KW OTA signal to push the visibility of his podcast? It's hard to tell.
But this all begs the question: If one of America's largest radio companies doesn't believe in the potential of a metro-covering, 50KW OTA radio station, what does that say for the health of OTA radio in America?
Online, on social media and radio forums, the reactions to the demise of KDWN are somewhat mixed, with what seem to be the usual opinions one sees when these AM stations go under. The fact is, Over-The-Air broadcasting -- AM or FM -- seems to have a lifetime, and the end of OTA radio is probably another decade-and-a-half away before the AM band is static and hiss, and the FM band is increasingly brokered, ethnic, and religious stations, with maybe some sports betting stations thrown in.
Either way, it's sad to see a once well-known radio station in a US major metro go under. I suppose that those of us in the radio listening and DXing hobby should prepare for more of these plug-pulling instances happening. AM radio is not a cheap medium to operate, and its loyal audiences are aging out of the advertising demographics because of the economics of advertising, demographic research, and what appears to be the ageism prevalent in the advertising industry. At the same time, AM audience shares are indeed dropping. Younger demos do not listen to AM radio.
It's the new reality.
Luckily, when I tune my Realistic DX-375 or Sangean PR-D4W across the AM band it's still full of signals, so all is not lost. Still, it's not a great feeling.
Here are the two Radio publications that posted news articles on KDWN.:
From RadioInk.:
From Radio Insight.:
TFFT -- TATTS FOREVER, FOREVER TATTS
There is not much more to talk about. The weather is picking up a bit. My cat Squeakers is doing better. She is eating more. During the cold spell last month she wasn't eating as much. But she's improving. I always have to keep an eye on her, and I always make sure I watch her eat. :-)
I'll end this with a bit of upbeat music from Australia's Rose Tattoo, probably my favorite band to come out of that awesome country.
The first two vids are off of a Tatts album I played to death, Assault & Battery. It was a soundtrack of my college years. This next track is called Suicide City, and it's said to be about Canberra, the Australian national capital.
Guns N Roses, who were fans of the Tatts early on, are said to have been influenced by this song when they wrote Paradise City, a song off their first album, Appetite For Destruction.
Suicide City is one of the best tracks on Assault & Battery, with a riff written by Mick Cocks, probably the best rhythm guitarist out of Oz, right next to AC/DC's Malcolm Young.
Oz rockers know.
Here is another track off Assault & Battery -- the title track. The lyrics are like a page out of singer Angry Anderson's life, and maybe turned up a notch. I played this track a lot. The gritty nature of many of the words to Tatts' songs -- combined with a literate, almost Shakespearean twist of poetic imagery included -- I found fascinating. Angry Anderson looks like a biker, but he's actually a well read man.
Now here is a live show from Amsterdam, 1981, during one of the Tatts' first forays into Europe, right after they toured the UK and played a couple songs for the BBC. In this performance you can generally hear Tatts' rhythm guitarist Mick Cocks a bit better than usual. In some live Tatts' shows they buried his guitar too much, but on this one -- and the BBC recordings, which can be found on YT, but the Blogger searcher can't seem to find -- you hear his Super Distortion, souped up Les Paul Black Custom a lot better.
Here 'tis -- Enjoy. The Tatts at the Paradisio, Amsterdam, April, 1981.
And with that, my friends,
Peace.
C.C. March 22nd, 2024.
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