There are, what, 75 or so radio stations, AM and FM, in the STL Market, from Wentzville MO to around Carlyle Lake IL and from just South of Springfield IL to just North of Cape Girardeau MO? I mean radio stations that can be heard significantly in any portion of the market and are licensed to a community in the STL
You can knock out most of the AM little guys as full-market broadcasters. There has been way too much AM interference added over the past few decades to let their signals be heard the way they were in the '50's and '60's. There might be four or five AM's with a significant market reach left; the rest are just scraps and best used for niche and neighborhood formats. That can work, presuming the presence of an advertising base.
No FM transmitting with less than 50kw has a shot at covering the market, no matter where their tower is, so you can knock out at least two-thirds of them, as well. Small market FM's can do well when they play to their home field.
That takes us to the power core...the twenty or so radio stations, AM and FM, that actually have a chance at (a) covering the market with their signal and (b) have ownership and management that might actually be enlightened enough to research out and develop a format that could knock the socks off potential listeners and draw in advertising money like bees to honey.
You know the St. Louis market, you know who lives where and you know what signals I'm talking about and where they reach.
Spin the format wheel, gamble the freq's and let us know what comes up.
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