When Bonneville International purchased a group of radio stations in the Phoenix market, I was excited; I could once again listen to General Conference on the radio.
Sadly, this October, neither of the two Bonneville owned stations will broadcast General Conference.
Last April, when Bonneville had three stations in the Phoenix area, they broadcast Conference on the weaker of the two AM stations–KMVP–which, at the time, merely played a loop of promos, telling people to switch their radios to the stronger AM signal.
I worked all day Saturday during the April Conference and, when I wasn’t working a traffic accident or any other call that took me away from my patrol vehicle, I was able to listen to General Conference.
This year, once again, I am working during General Conference, but this time, I will not be able to listen to Conference…unless, of course, I have help.
Radio stations are in the business to make money and General Conference interferes with a stations ability to make money (e.g. – no brokered programming for colon blow, home repair shows and other exciting products and programs). So, what can you and I do to encourage Bonneville to broadcast conference in Phoenix and other markets serviced by Bonneville?
I’m so glad you asked. Let me tell you how!
First of all, if you live in Chicago, Washington D.C., Seattle, Phoenix, St. Louis, Cincinnati or Salt Lake City, you are fortunate enough to have Bonneville stations on the air.
Now, just go to (http://www.bonneville.info/gc_lookup.htm) to find out which media outlets (cable/TV/satellite/radio) are airing Conference in your area.
If you live in a market serviced by Bonneville, but do not see one of their stations listed as broadcasting General Conference, feel free to contact Bonneville using this link- (http://bonneville.info/contactinfo.htm)and request that the station in your area (make sure you identify the station by it’s call letters) carry General Conference on one of their stations. It is as simple as that.
Perhaps if enough people in the Phoenix area and other markets serviced by Bonneville will raise their voices via email and let Bonneville know you want to listen to Conference on the radio, they might just listen to you and change their current schedule.
For those of us who have to work on Saturday or Sunday, this is our only way to enjoy General Conference and the ensuing spiritual uplift.
Who knows? Someone might stumble across General Conference on the radio and want to know more about the Church. Of course, Aunt Edna in Sun City might miss her weekly informercial for colon blow. (Oh, the humanity!)
For my money, of course, Conference beats informercials for colon blow any day of the week!
Here is the reply I received from Russ Hill, program director of KTAR:
Living in DC, I would love to have it on the radio. When I’ve had to work on Saturday during conference, I was at least on a computer so I could listen to streaming audio.
As much as I would like it on radio, I doubt Bonneville would use their radio stations outside of Utah for Conference. I imagine it is careful to not brand its stations as “Mormon.” Like SLC, Bonneville has the #1 station in DC and you occassionally hear a Church PSA in the middle of the night, but that’s it. And Music and the Spoken Word is a rerun at 7am on one of its smaller stations.
David, Radio insiders in Phoenix jokingly refer to Bonneville as “The Men in Secret Underwear.” So, the secret is already out.
Also, in SLC, everyone knows that KSL is owned by Bonnevile (LDS church).
Anyhow, given the formats on the Phoenix stations–news, sports and adult hits–I’m not sure what would make them a “Mormon” station.
The Church also owns the Deseret News, which isn’t so friendly to the Church these days. You’d think our own media arms could give us a break. Nah. KSL broadcasts conference, but it does nothing else for the Church.
You’d think our own media arms could give us a break.
You are kidding, right?
Brian –
It’s not a secret that the Church owns Bonneville. I just think Bonneville is foremost a business and as lame as most weekend radio programming is, running GC in DC is not probably not what they have in mind. Especially since the Church rents local cable stations for GC and has the internet as an option too. It would be nice to have local radio too. Arizona is a different market and maybe that’s more of a possibility.
The church used to broadcast a sub-frequency on one of their DC music stations which carried all LDS and BYU programming. But that ended a few years ago, probably due to their internet.
I wrote on the D.C. Bonneville stations a while back (“Bonneville Stations, but No Bonneville Productions”)
Church ownership of Bonneville isn’t a secret; it gets a one-line mention whenever the Washington Post runs a story about its stations. However, as I wrote last year:
In the October 1985 General Conference, Gordon Hinckley explained why the Church owns radio stations:
If owning all this broadcasting firepower has some connection with communicating “our message and our point of view” then I don’t get why Bonneville is so gutless and embarrassed about broadcasting conference. All the obscure jammering all over the AM band, but it would be too much to broadcast 16 hours a year of talks by apostles and other LDS leaders?
I also weary of being told that its available on cable and internet. I don’t have cable and don’t want it. I use internet to listen, but it’s not ideal; especially, it’s not portable. I’m glad cable and internet are there for those who like those media best; I don’t see why putting it there means we can’t also use radio broadcasting.
John, the 1985 statement by President Hinckley is a bit old and outdated based on how Bonneville currently operates. Bonneville might run occasional Church public service announcements on their stations, but that is just a small slice of the daily programming schedule. I wonder just how true that statement is today. I mean, does Glenn Beck (via KTAR) or Sean Hannity (via KSL) represent the point of view of the bretheren? If that is true, what about political neutrality?
KTAR’s PD states that he would like to have conference on his station, but is unable to do so. Obviously, they have contractual obligations for brokered programming (paid advertising) and probably have obligations with ESPN Radio to carry college games on Saturday. While I understand the nature of contractual obligations, KTAR recently added Glenn Beck to their line-up with the understanding that they could cut away for breaking news. Yes, KTAR doesn’t want to be tied to syndicated programming in the event of a breaking news story. Good move by the PD. Of course, why not also renegotiate the contracts that prevent KTAR from airing conference? Tell the home repair guru and computer guru that they will get two Saturday’s off each year.
I have worked in radio (started when I was 15) and understand that Bonneville is in the business to make money. That is the first rule of radio–make money for the owner. I get it. Of course, Bonneville is owned by the Church and, as you mention, John, it’s only 16 hours out of the year.
Bonneville is there to make money. Period. Why would they offer conference for zero profit instead of a colon blow commercial, even if it only profits them $5?
The days of the church using their business assets to further the cause are long gone I’m afraid.
You know, the church can gain other benefits from the stations that don’t include actually broadcasting conference — they can even get non-monetary gains. These things are rarely as straightforward as it looks from the outside, and none of us have any direct insight into why many of these decisions were made.
Just saying.
Any idea how much it would cost to sponsor a couple hours of weekend conference broadcasting on an obscure AM station in a major city?
John, that’s a real good question. I do know it wouldn’t be cheap.
Just so their is no misunderstanding, I have a great deal of respect for Bonneville International and Russ Hill, program director for KTAR in Phoenix. I worked in radio in the 80s and understand that radio is a business driven by profit. That said, I am still hopeful that Bonneville and KTAR will reconsider and find a way to set aside 16 hours each year to broadcast conference on the radio.
Perhaps an ad-hoc fund-raising committee could be set up among LDS who want to see conference on radio, and they could solicit donations. 1,000 people donating $10 each, just a wild guess, might be doable.
Also, with a computerized delay, news and commercials could be inserted between speakers, so that a two-hour session could be stretched out to 2.5 or 3 hours. Such a commercial arrangement with some donations thrown in, could make it economically feasible.
Certainly, the technology for the delay and commericial/news insertion exists.
There’s no hard-and-fast rule that conference broadcast on commercial radio has to be the “real-time” kind of live.
But I think Bonneville was referring to other kinds of contractual things such that they couldn’t just “dump” those contracted broadcasts twice a year without losing the contract entirely.
The commercials for LDS junk that play between the morning and afternoon sessions are annoying enough. I doubt I’d be able to stand commercials for “Passage to Zarahemla” playing during each speaker. Better to wait for the Ensign.
Commercials from any type of business. Either those that normally air or those from members who own businesses and want to sponsor the radio broadcast. It’s a great idea.
And at the top of each hour they can do the national news with ABC.