Welcome to
Sacramento, California, an emerging noncommercial radio market with a proven
leader and a fascinating upstart LPFM.
Capital Public
Radio (CPR) [link] leads the market in noncom revenue and listening via NPR
News station KXJZ and Classical KXPR. CPR is a very successful noncom shop with
annual revenue exceeding $11 million in FY 2016 according to audit data on the
organization’s website. During the same year, CPR claimed over $4.5 million in
listener support and $2.6 million in underwriting. This is big league
noncommercial performance!
On the right are
the October 2016 Nielsen Audio PPM ratings for the market.
CPR’s KXJZ is the
noncom leader and KXPR out-performs Classical stations in similar size markets.
Sacramento is the
home of the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), the nation’s largest Christian
Contemporary Music (CCM) broadcaster. EMF’s satellite-delivered formats, K-LOVE and Air1, are local stations here.
The biggest “X
factor” is KQEI, a full time repeater of KQED, San Francisco. While KQED reaches
hundreds of thousands of listeners, KQEI languishes with almost no one
listening. How can this be? KQEI has an excellent signal but it gets no
traction. KQED should either sell it or get serious with something other than a
news format. Right now KXJZ is eating KQED’s lunch.
AWARD WINNING
DOCUMENTARY SERIES FOCUSES ON UNDOCUMEMTED IMMIGRANTS
Capital Public
Radio’s documentary series, The View From
Here, will air the culmination of its year-long examination of undocumented
immigration in California. The last episode in the series California Dream,
Undocumented aired last weekend on KXJZ. You can hear it and early shows in the
series online at [link].
The documentary
features the struggles and challenges of undocumented immigrants in California.
It originally aired as a three-part series in late 2015 and the spring of 2016.
It is a homegrown effort. In 2015 CPR brought together a diverse group of
educators, students, community leaders, policy analysts, legal advocates,
workers and labor leaders to discuss undocumented immigration.
Joe Barr, CPR’s Chief
Content Officer, said the series put a human face on an issue that’s dividing
the country:
“We're proud of our effort to create
journalism that delves deep into an issue that has garnered so much attention
during this election. It is rare that radio stations are able to devote the
resources necessary to deliver this kind of long-form reporting.”
MEET MY NEW FAVORITE LPFM STATION: K-ZAP
Sacramento also has
other notable noncom stations but none is better than 93.3 KZHP-LP, known as
K-ZAP]. I got a contact high just looking at the site [link].
Back in the
progressive rock era, KZAP was one of the most recognized and loved stations in
the country. I was a “cousin” of KSAN, KMET, KDKB, XTRA and KINK – all highly
(punned intended) regarded west coast stations.
The original KZAP,
which went off the air on January 20th, 1992, when it was eaten up by corporate
consolidation.
Then, a group of
rock radio veterans, led by Tom Cale, Dennis Newhall, and Diane Michaels, later
joined by John Saltnes got an LPFM license. On July 4th, 2015 at 9:33am the new
K-ZAP signed on. Bingo!
 |
| The old KZAP air studio |
KZHP has an
excellent transmission point near central Sacramento and covers most of the
market. The music mix leans toward current Triple A and there are plenty of
nuggets from old days.
Other noncoms of
interest include 90.3 FM KDVS, from nearby Davis [link] that mixes alternative
rock with political talk shows. KDVS says it is more than a noncommercial
station, it is Anti-Commercial Radio.
Also, notable are 96.5
FM KUBU-LP, a public access station; 97.5 FM KDEE-LP airing urban contemporary
music and the markets most under-developed noncom, full-power 91.5 FM KYDS, a
high school station where the motto is
"Tomorrows DJ's, Today's Hits."
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