“K-LOVE” BLOWS INTO WASHINGTON DC LIKE A HURRICANE

While checking the Nielsen Audio PPM ratin for Washington, DC, we had an OMG moment. 

Educational Media Foundation’s new station, WLVW, debuted in June with over 500,000 estimated weekly listeners. 

WLVW now airs EMF’s K-Love format of satellite-delivered automated Contemporary Christian music. For thirty years the station was Mix 107.3.

Add DC to the list of big U.S. markets where heritage commercial stations have been sold to EMF and replaced by K-Love. EMF paid Cumulus $103.5 million for the former Mix 107.3 and five other stations. 

EMF also recently purchased WPLJ in New York, KWSD The Sound in Los Angeles and The Loop in Chicago.

Also in the June Nielsen PPM ratings for Washington, DC, WAMU and WTOP stayed about the same.

Pacifica’s WPFW appeared in the ratings for first time in several years. 

Now we know the answer to the question How many people in the nation’s capital listen to Pacifica?  Answer: Not many.

The purchases hardly put a dent in EMF’s cash reserves. According to filings with the IRS, EMF has over $630,000,000 in assets. A significant portion of the assets are cash or stations.

In the 2017 tax year, EMF reported revenue of over $213 million. EMF feeds, via satellite, three 24/7 automated music channels to approximately 700 FM stations and translators. All three channels feature variations of Christian Contemporary music.

On the right are the June PPM ratings for the K-Love stations in the top ten markets. According to Nielsen, these stations collectively reach over three million weekly listeners.

That number will rise in New York when the July ratings are released. WPLJ was playing rock music for a substantial portion of survey period before EMF took over on June 1^st.

EMF has become more aggressive about entering markets where there are established CCM stations. In DC WGTS has been the leadiing CCM station for many years. Now ‘GTS has to play defense.

Boston is the one market in the top 10 where EMF currently does not compete. EMF also has only a token presence in the Bay Area, Houston and Atlanta.

HOW EMF DOES IT?

EMF succeeds by keeping things simple and cheap. All K-Love programming originates from EMF’s HQ in Rocklin, California, near Sacramento. K-Love is fed to stations and FM translators via satellite. K-Love is one of three EMF formats.

EMF has taken ample advantage of a FCC policy from the 1980s that allows noncommercial licensees to feed programming to local repeaters and translators without any local presence (other than the automated, top-of-the-hour ID).

The best to learn how EMF makes so much money is to listen to K-Love [link].

We listened to K-Love on Wednesday afternoon for about half an hour.

During that time, we heard 10 songs, two pitches for money, a bunch of automated liners and one very short Bible verse. There was zero live or local content. 

Some observers feel that K-Love is built on shaky ground for these reasons:

1.) K-Love’s music has very narrow appeal.

Almost none of the artists heard on K-Love have any mainstream appeal. K-Love doesn’t play music by artists like U2.

Some Christians strongly object to the music on K-Love because they feel it is not respectful of traditional church decorum. There is also concern that the music and manner of presentation is a “cookie-cutter” formula designed to please yuppies. One blogger described it this way:

“K-Love is to music what Old Navy is to clothing. It is wholesome and American-ish, even when it is made by Australians. [It is] written and performed by attractive young people sporting angular haircuts, tight T-shirts, and tattoos.”

2.) K-Love’s hosts sound canned and they lack engagement.

On-air hosts have few chances to open the mic. When they do they have lots of housekeeping tasks to perform. The hosts aren’t curators of the music, they are “promo card readers.”

3.) There is virtually no local presence on K-Love.

K-Love lacks any sense of place. It sounds like radio from 35,000-feet. Music stations succeed because they become an integral part of a local music scene. K-Love lacks “boots on the ground.”

If you want to have a local event announced on K-Love or on the K-Love website, the network requires six weeks prior notification. 

According to event submission rules found on K-Love’s website [link], “local event requests” are on a first-come, first served basis. 

K-LOVE makes all final decisions regarding the announcement of local events and reserves the right to refuse any event deemed inappropriate or lacking general interest to our listeners.

4.) K-Love is constantly asking for money.

A listener might hear four solicitations an hour for money. No tangible benefit for contributing is provided. The pitches are all about “give us money to keep us going.”

5.) The number of people who self-identify as Christians is at historic low levels.