Joe Holleman’s Wednesday article on STL Today was very interesting reading. (CLICK HERE TO READ). KSHE topped the latest Nielsen radio ratings. Not bad for a station that’s had the same format for DECADES!. But the number two station? KLJY. Most people won’t recognize those calls unless you’re a top of the hour ID nerd. You’ve probably heard of Joy 99. Yes, the contemporary Christian station. Number 2! And the third station was The Arch. Keep in mind these are 12+ numbers 6 AM to 12 Midnight Monday through Sunday. Not what most people would use to buy radio, but still a good yardstick of the overall popularity of the STL radio scene. NERD NOTE: Joe refers to these as “12+ numbers which was the case in the Arbitron days but Nielsen now uses 6+ as the broad base demo classification.
What makes this interesting is that Joy 99 operates as a NON COMMERCIAL radio station owned by Gateway Creative Broadcasting.. Translation? They don’t run ads. Most people, even in the radio biz, think Joy 99 is a small budget operation. WRONGO! Check out this link! It’s a link to ECFA which is like the BBB of Churches and Ministries. The ECFA website publishes financial information for not for profit religious organizations. The first time I saw this I was blown away. Joy 99 is one money making machine! In 2018 they had almost $11 Million in Revenue! Things were not so great in 2020 as revenue was just over $8 million. Yes, over $8 million in revenue! In the pandemic year! But not from the sale of ads like most radio stations. But from donations! Keep in mind they operate as a Not For Profit which means they don’t pay taxes. Nor FCC fees. Nor practically any other fee or taxes that all the other commercial stations have to shell out. Remember, they’re not for profit. Which is kinda deceiving as they do have something called “excess”. On a for profit station this would be bottom line revenue or profit which would be taxed . How much “excess” did GCB have in 2020? Top line revenue was $8.1 million, expenses were $6.5 Million which means there was close to $1.7 million that went to the bottom line as “excess”. Not Bad! Actually, AMAZING. They made so much money they were able to buy 95.5 from Urban One for $8 million. That made it one of the top ten station purchase prices in all of 2020. Not just in St. Louis. But in the ENTIRE COUNTRY. While Emmis, Cumulus and other radio big boys are selling stations to pay off debt GCB is flush with cash and is expanding. Good for them. Maybe we should all learn a lesson from GCB. Number 2 in the ratings and probably one of the most “profitable” stations in the STL. And why are they now six conservatalkers fighting it out for a sliver of the radio ratings and revenue pie? Beats me!
Here’s the rest of the top 10:
4. WFUN (Now 96.3, formerly 95.5 when owned by Urban One)
5. KPNT The Point
6. KLOU
7.. KEZK
8. KMOX (remember when KMOX was ALWAYS numero uno?)
9. WXOS ESPN 101.1
10. KSLQ Z 107.7
Interesting note: Remember when country was hot? WIL was 12th most listened to and KSD The Bull was 13th. They both need John Travolta to put his black Stetson back on and star in “Urban Cowboy 2”. The conservatalkers? All six of them? Way down in the ratings or not showing up at all. The Grand Poopah is thinking that going non comm and playing the Lord’s music is looking better and better with each passing day.
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