Bummer! Enid Goldstein's radio station goes off the air.

[Armstead]

KNRC, the station that carried Enid Goldstein's talk show went off the air suddenly at the end of July. The company that owns it said there was too much competition in the talk market in Denver, and they could not attract an audience.

That sucks. She was a really good liberal talk show host. She was a "kinder and gentler" version of Randi Rhodes. She stuck it to the GOP and the right wing, but in a very civil way. Her show was refreshing in that way.

I hope she finda anotehr gig soon. Air America ought to pick her up.

Actually, if the owners had any brains, they would have picked up Air America and used Goldstein as a local host.


http://knrcradio.com/press.asp?ID=1

Statement by Tim Brown, CEO
NRC Broadcasting
News/talk radio station KNRC1150-AM to cease operations.

DENVER — (10:30 AM) After a good deal of thought and discussions with our board of directors and senior management, this morning I am announcing that, effective immediately, News/Talk Radio Station KNRC will discontinue operations.

NRC Broadcasting formed in mid-2002 … with it’s single radio station – KNRC-AM News/Radio … signing on the air June 24, 2002. KNRC-AM offered what we believed was a unique form of talk-radio.

Unfortunately we found that the station was unable to attract enough of a listener base over the past two years to continue operating. Not only did we find talk radio a difficult culture to crack - with its predictable hosts and well established loyalties - but Metropolitan Denver is one of the nation’s most competitive and saturated radio markets for news, talk and sports programming

At the same time KNRC-AM was struggling, our broadcasting company was acquiring other assets and has seen them achieve varying degrees of success. These include KCUV – dubbed the Americana Station and KJAC “Jack-FM” …both in Denver. Our nine FM stations serving the Colorado mountain resort communities are healthy and demonstrating growth.

Thus, in order for NRC Broadcasting to be successful in the long-term and for us to provide the resources and management attention necessary to support the other stations in our portfolio that continue to outperform our expectations, we could no longer justify maintaining News/Talk Radio KNRC-AM.

About NRC Broadcasting

NRC Broadcasting incorporated in February 2002 and is locally owned and operated. The company owns twelve radio stations in Colorado that serve the Denver and mountain resort communities of Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Vail, Eagle, Breckenridge, Silverthorne, Steamboat Springs and Craig.

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http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/entertainment_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_84_3070647,00.html

Rocky Mountain News
Saunders: Alternative voice falls silent
July 29, 2004

Denver news-talk radio lost a potential strong voice Tuesday when KNRC-AM (1150) was yanked from the airwaves. Potential is the key word here.

KNRC, on-air for slightly more than two years, never registered a 1 audience share in any Arbitron ratings report. That eliminated any possibility of bottom-line success, since advertisers rarely flock to a low-rated station.


Those low ratings, along with the fact a local news-talk operation is expensive, doomed KNRC, which reportedly spent more than $7 million in an attempt to establish its format. Too bad. Denver radio needed an alternative talk radio voice to compete with goliath Clear Channel.

Tim Brown, CEO of NRC Broadcasting, said he and his staff were aware of the challenges facing KNRC when the station debuted in June 2002.

In retrospect, Brown says: "Coming into the crowded Denver radio with a news-talk operation was an order of great magnitude. While we understood those challenges at the time, we didn't realize how really tough it would be."

EDIT

For a variety of reasons, KNRC missed a golden opportunity to provide diversity. The station is scheduled to return on-air Friday with a variety of music, minus commercials and personalities, until a buyer is found.

Two broadcasting organizations reportedly are interested. The odds of a new owner programming a news-talk format? About the same as Mike Rosen endorsing John Kerry.

[Armstead]

1. OOOps.

I didn't see the other post on this. But maybe you can leave this up as it has additional info.