RADIO: AM talk station expands to FM band

The ’60s-through-today music format in Las Vegas, part of the "Jack Radio" international brand, will be discontinued by owner CBS Radio, to be replaced on Aug. 16 by a weekday simulcast of news-talk station KXNT-AM, 840, the dual operation to be known as 100.5-FM/840-AM NewsRadio KXNT. On weekends, the FM station will broadcast programming from the Sporting News Radio network, as well as NCAA and NFL games.

With its "Jack" format, KKJJ placed 20th out of 26 local stations among listeners 12 and older, ranked by Arbitron, the radio ratings service. That survey was from the summer of 2009, the most recent quarterly measurement compiled completely from diaries filled out by listeners, before the local market switched over to the new, more portable people-meters. In that same survey, KXNT-AM placed seventh, the highest among AM stations.

"We want to capitalize on the FM market because 93 percent of listening in Las Vegas is on FM, so it’s a no-brainer," says KXNT program director Bob Agnew. "We’ve got a tremendous product on the AM that a lot of FM listeners are not exposed to."

Recently, KXNT made a significant change to its lineup, moving talk-show host Alan Stock to afternoons and creating a morning news block. No additional changes are immediately planned with the expansion to FM, Agnew says, but he doesn’t rule it out in the future.

"Never say never," he says. "We are always looking to improve what we’re doing."