KWLZ West Linn To 3 HORIZONS, LLC,

[Craig_Adams]

This from All Access:

Filings with the FCC, KEITH SHIPMAN’s HORIZON BROADCASTING GROUP, LLC is assigning News-Talk KWLZ-F/WEST LINN, OR to 3 HORIZONS, LLC, a partnership between HORIZON and 3 CITIES, INC. (licensee of AC KXXO (MIXX 96.1)/OLYMPIA, WA) at a value of $800,000 credit towards HORIZON’s capital account with 3 HORIZONS. The deal also includes a Joint Sales Agreement between the parties. KWLZ is moving into the PORTLAND market from WARM SPRINGS (southeast of PORTLAND) and its move is being enabled by KXXO’s move to a new site northwest of its previous location.

[semoochie]

Any clue what this means for us?

[RobP]

For “us” it means another hurdle is cleared in the process of moving KWLZ into Portland.

For “them”, it means the fine folks in Olympia now have another revenue stream.

[warner]

So, anyone know what the format will be when they move? Currently it’s the usual conservative talk folks, which already have presence in PDX.

[bossjock]

Spanish dance? Power polka? Punk country?

[Alfredo_T]

What this means for us:

1. An increased chance of hearing intermodulation interference on your radio, particularly if you are close to the antenna farms.
2. One less place for a translator, LPFM, or pirate to go on the dial
3. (Likely) more redundancy in programming formats [if the new owners duplicate a format already on the dial]
4. (Maybe) more religious programming [Amen?]
5. (Possibly) another reason for listeners to steer clear from the AM band [if the new owners go with a spoken word format–KTRO, version 2.0, anyone?]

[semoochie]

I’m kind of pushing for Soft AC but not really holding my breath. Do you suppose KWLZ decided to relicense to West Linn because it fits the call letters so well? 🙂

[Andy Brown]

All the answers to all your questions (well, most of them, anyway) can be found by just following the money.

Sadly, whatever they do it won’t improve Portland radio one iota. As alluded to, since 95% of all commercial stations compete with one of the top five formats, chances are that’s what is going to happen.

If Portland radio was a big pot of soup, this is just a case of adding more of an ingredient that’s already in the recipe, and rarely if ever does that improve the product.

[fieldstrength]

There is no way that “3 Horizons” is going to run this station as a stand-alone operation in Portland. It’s just not economically viable to do that against the big cluster owners. Chances are very high that the signal will be sold to one of these entities:

– Alpha Broadcasting, since they are one FM short of the market ownership cap, and own one less station than Entercom and iHeart.

– Salem Communications (they are also under the cap) and Salem has been buying stations lately.

-EMF, parent of K-Love & Air1, to rebroadcast Air1.

When the stations signs on, expect a predictable format that never catches on.

[jay_zie]

Maybe Bustos will end up buying it, they need a real PDX FM signal to compete with El Rey

[fieldstrength]

Possible development: http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/netgnomes/93268/a-fourth-country-for-portland/

[Andy Brown]

More evidence that “whatever they do it won’t improve Portland radio one iota.”

Portland needs a fourth country station like it needs a second classical station.

[Alfredo_T]

They will have the third most powerful country signal in Portland!

[W7PAT]

With any luck it will be a Classic Country format.

[Scott Young]

I sure wouldn’t mind a classic country format somewhere on the dial. Since we have an LPFM playing oldies and KISN jingles, what we could use is another LPFM playing classic country and KWJJ jingles! 🙂

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