The Barton/Ramar format shuffle will take place at 10:00am today with five stations moving to new frequencies.
With Barton closing on the swap of 106.5 KEJS Lubbock for 104.3 KTTU-FM Brownfield the most straightforward portion of the swap as KEJS’s Tejano format moves to 104.3 as “Power 104.3“.
Ramar is getting a little more complex with its side.
Ramar has been running multiple ad campaigns on their radio and television stations to promote the moves but did not reveal the frequencies until this morning.
Original Report 12/11: Barton Broadcasting and Ramar Commmunications will pull off a frequency swap on Friday, December 18.
The two companies agreed to exchange the licenses of Sports “Double T 104.3” KTTU-FM Brownfield and Tejano “Power 106.5” KEJS Lubbock in August. Surprisingly neither station is promoting where they are moving. Banner ads on all of Ramar’s station websites simply state “Your Favorite Radio Station Is Moving Friday December 18” with a sponsorship. KEJS’s Facebook page shows a countdown.
As Barton will only own 104.3, KEJS’ Tejano format with definitely be moving to that frequency. What Ramar will be doing with their stations is a bigger mystery. Will the Sports “Double T 104.3” KTTU-FM format just make the reciprocal move to the Class C2 106.5 or will they move it to the stronger Class C1 93.7 signal that is home to Tejano “Magic 93.7” KXTQ-FM? That way they can place their Tejano format on the signal that is currently home to Barton’s Tejano.
INSTANT INSIGHT: Ramar has twice seen a competitor squat on domains for KTTU. Robert Snyder, OM of Townsquare Media Sports “1340 The Fan” KKAM registered DoubleT1065.com and DoubleT1065FM.com in August to redirect to his station. Someone calling himself TV14 Lubbock registered DoubleT937.com and DoubleT93.com pointing to a YouTube video where he basically tells Ramar the domain is for sale.
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Ryan Williams
Lance, as you have previously pointed out. It’s not really surprising how short sighted many operators are, in regards to getting the word out on their moves. Especially, in this day and age of social media.
The Moving Day ad is played on all stations owned by Ramar. It makes you think that all of the stations are moving.So is it just one station moving?
I think I might have figured out what is going on after doing some more domain searches. Judging by what I’ve found. Keep in mind, these are just guesses but I think this is right judging by the domain registrations. It looks like Magic 93.7 will move to 106.5. Double T 104.3 will move to 97.3. 97.3 Yes FM will move to 107.7. Finally, 107.7 The Eagle will move to the 100,000 watt stick on 93.7. Ever since the Eagle signed on, they have had quite a close battle with 98.1. By moving the Eagle to 93.7, they will have more coverage than 98.1 Kool FM. I can see why they are doing this.
RDS has also started scrolling on their stations telling us Moving Day is Friday at 10 AM.
What remains more of a mystery falls on 93.7. I think Ramar has plans to bring HD Radio to 93.7 and put a new format on 93.1. I heard them running tests on frequency 93.1 a couple weeks ago. They were simply simulcasting Magic 93.7. So stay tuned, Ramar is definitely up to a lot lately. I hope they will bring alternative or something else unique back to Lubbock since the Edge is now gone.
Something else to note is that Ernest Barton is retiring and will be putting KEJS 104.3 up for sale. The main reason he did this deal was because 106.5 leases its tower from Ramar while 104.3 has its own tower and land. He wanted to be able to sell more than just the license for KEJS, and, now, he has a tower and land to sell as well.
So, the next question is who the new buyer of KEJS will turn out to be. Will Entravision think expanding in Lubbock is worth a few million? Would the owners of KJDL be willing to put forth the money to add to their cluster? EMF seems an unlikely buyer since they already have K-Love and Air 1 in the market.
A few million dollars in over-crowded Lubbock? LOL
I tend to think 104.3 would sell for around $2 million. Although I haven’t heard an actual asking price, if it were sold on head count alone, that would be around the market value.