Author: William

Last month, my wife and I accompanied our two year old on his first trip to the Sacramento Zoo. It was fun to take him to see the animals. Most he did not recognize. The lion and tiger were just big cats to him. When he saw the giraffes we had a spirited discussion with him trying to explain that giraffes are not horses. We had as much trouble-explaining giraffes to our son as we have explaining to Liberals the reasons that we are in Iraq. Neither could accept any evidence contrary to their presuppositions. Some day our son will grow-up enough to know the difference. Liberals are much more intractable.

I was surprised how much the zoo had changed. It has probably been thirty years since my last visit. Many of the animals that I thought of as the barebones minimum for a zoo were nowhere to be seen. Among the animals absent from my youthful memories were elephants, hippos, rhinos, alligators, bears, gorillas and assorted reptiles. They don’t even have common animals found in the state of California; Raccoons, deer, bears, cougar, bobcat, and diamondback rattle snakes.

The environmental regulations that face such institutions must be tremendous. However, I think that they could do better. I don’t think that they should become State Fair Lite but given that many children have never seen many of the more common animals, I think they could do better.

You may not have noticed it lately but the Democrats are not the only ones proclaiming the need for an exit strategy. Closer to home, the Maloof brothers are slowly working their plan for an exit strategy from Sacramento.

The local bond measure to build the new arena for the Kings is likely to fail. This half-baked idea by city and county leaders has been on shaky ground from the very beginning. Once these politicians let this bond idea deteriorate into a money grab for local governments the whole idea was mortally wounded.

The city’s insistence on the railyards as the location for the new arena created the real possibility that we could have a new sales tax with no team. The arena might never be built due to the environmental issues related to the railyards. It could take billions of dollars and decades of clean-up to get the railyard ready for development.

Another concern that is not favorable for a new arena is the insistence that the arena be within the geographical boundaries of the City of Sacramento. By limiting the arena to the handful of possible sites in the City, it increases the cost of land for these sites.

Thirdly, the number of government entities that are involved in negotiations creates a distinct advantage for the Maloof brothers.

I think at the end of the day, it will be impossible to get tax money to build an arena in Sacramento. Once this point is reached, it will trigger the Maloof brothers announcing that with great disappointment they need to move the team to a new city, probably Las Vegas.

My other reason for this belief is the way that the team has been managed over the last few years. The team has gone from first to worst. As the win/loss record has been deteriorating, the ticket prices have continued their upward march. The Maloofs have seemingly lifted a page from the Al Davis owners’ manual. Used up veterans past their prime are cheaper to sign and happy to be playing. There is little chance for Post Season action but the roster can be changed every year to create the illusion of new blood on the team. Should home games fail to sell-out; there is more ammo for the move the team scenario.

I think the die is cast. The Maloof exit strategy has been quietly executing for several years and should reach fruition in about three years. The Maloofs only need to firm-up their case with the NBA that another city would be more supportive of their team than Sacramento.

Sacramento will soon face the future without an NBA franchise bearing its name. We have a few more years to get used to the idea.

Salem Communications has issued a Press Release concerning Eric Hogue.

The Short version is that Hogue is moving to another Salem station and will be broadcast in the afternoon on KFIA in Sacramento and a Salem station in San Francisco. It is hoped that this will be similar format with larger audience. Best wishes to Eric.

There is no word on what happens to Hogue’s time slot at KTKZ.

See Craig DeLuz blog for copy of press release.
http://www.craigdeluz.com/2006/08/salem-radio-to-take-eric-hogue.html

There is a story circulating that KTKZ talker Eric Hogue is on the chopping block. His program is slated to be cancelled in September by some bean counters at Salem Communications. Salem would rather substitute some nationally syndicated talker to save some money.

I would like to address this idea from two aspects of the radio business.

First is the FCC license. If Salem cancels Hogue, in my estimation they have violated the Prime Directive of broadcasting which is to serve the public good. Hogue has done much to promote KTKZ and inform their audience. Hogue is the only program in the broadcast area that covers local politics from an informed perspective.

Only Tom Sullivan at KFBK comes close but Tom doesn’t understand Conservatives or the inner workings of the Republican Party. In addition, Tom doesn’t care to learn. Tom has no interest in “getting under the hood” and seeing how the Legislature really operates.

As someone who has worked at the Capitol and in radio, I have come to appreciate Eric’s insight in this area. It took him a few years to get through the learning curve after arriving here from Ohio but he has mastered his subject matter well.

Salem has severely handicapped Hogue by not giving him the bandwidth necessary to compete in this market. KTKZ AM & FM are the weakest signals in the broadcast area. When tuning on the AM side I have to search between Radio Disney and Air America to find the station. It is difficult to get either KTKZ station indoors anywhere in the broadcast area. I cannot get their signal at all at my Elk Grove home. If Salem got Hogue on a station with some broadcast power, KTKZ would be second or third in the market.

Not only have I seen the Arbitron ratings but I was a participant in the Spring sampling period. In the Sacramento market, KSFO from San Francisco has better numbers than KTKZ and their signal is often better.

Secondly, Salem may not be making much money on Hogue’s time slot but they need to look at the Larry King model used by Mutual Broadcasting. King was what retailers call a “loss leader.” King was not profitable by himself but Mutual required that stations carrying King also carry other programming by Mutual. As a package Mutual was able to make money by this arrangement.

Hogue has done something similar for KTKZ with sponsors. Hogue has done well enough for sponsors on his show that they are willing advertisers on other programming at the station. Spots cut by the team at KTKZ are often heard on other stations in the Sacramento market.

The revenue hit that KTKZ will take if they follow through on plans to cut Hogue will be tremendous. Not only will they loose the Hogue show revenue but the Friday night high school sports will disappear also. Sponsors of the Hogue show are also the backbone of advertisers for other programming like Hugh Hewitt.

One can’t help but wonder if killing local programming is a prelude to selling the radio station to someone with a different format in mind. This decision is not a formula for long term viability at KTKZ.