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Sunday, September 7, 2003
Xtreme local news 
| | This is one of those posts that has to mean approximately nothing to 99% or more of you. But one of the graces of blogging is that the author gets to give a shit about the high levels of irrelevancy that would surely kill a story in a more purposeful publication. |
| | I just write about what's in front of me, and at the moment my attention is driving through Big Rick's pointage to news that Bob Newhart is selling his Santa Barbara radio station, KZBN/1290 ("Bob"), to Wendy McCaw, owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press. "I anticipate providing Santa Barbara with strong local news coverage," she said in a statement. |
| | If KZBN goes all-news, that would give us two local news stations — in a town that's having trouble supportintg one — KEYT/1250, the radio side of KEYT-TV, our local ABC TV affiliate on Channel 3. A couple months ago, we learned that KEYT radio would be sold to Mapleton, a relatively small group station owner, with the intention of keeping the call letters and format. (Ominously, the KEYT site no longer features links to the radio station.) |
| | The KEYT sale started to look iffy in early August when news came that Wendy McCaw planned to purchase KZBN, and that the sale price for KEYT was raised from $1.5 million to $1.7 million. (To put those numbers in a perspective, they're about what you'd pay for an above-average house in Santa Barbara.) |
| | One reason I enjoyed moving to Santa Barbara two years ago was that the city had a great little local news radio station. The KEYT staff does a terrific job, considering the staff and the market's relatively small size. Partly that's because of its connections with the TV station, and its independent local owner. And partly its because the station is truly local, with reports of prices at local gas stations and programs covering local wineries. I'll miss it if it goes. |
| | I'd also miss "Bob," though hardly as much. Except for the live morning show by a local personality of long standing, the station is a robot playing nostalgia-era oldies. |
| | I see by the ratings that KZBN does fairly well, especially considering the fact that its signal is the smallest in the city on the AM band: just 500 watts by day and 141 watts by night. By contrast, KEYT is 2500 watts by day and 1000 watts by night. KZBN shares a transmitting tower with two other stations (both with higher wattages) near downtown Santa Barbara, which gives it a good signal in the town itself. KEYT's signal comes from a pair of towers on a field above the ocean in Goleta, and radiates in a pattern that concentrates along the coast. It's a much bigger signal than KZBN's. Except for areas where adjacent signals overpower it, you can get KEYT in the day from Lompoc to San Diego. KZBN isn't in the same league, as you can see from the last four links above. Still, it's good enough if all you want to do is cover Santa Barbara news. |
| | So I suppose we get to keep a local news station either way, and that's a good thing. What I really wish, though, is that we (the citizens of Santa Barbara) would find a way to come up with a local public radio station. I've carped about this before, so I'll let that link spare us repetition. |
| | And now I've got a road to catch. See ya tomorrow. |
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