Posted on 06/27/2019 9:06:01 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Continuing to sell off stations to reduce debt, Cumulus Media has inked a deal to hand over talk WABC New York (770) to Red Apple Media for $12.5 million in cash.
Red Apple is headed by chairman John Catsimatidis, who hosts the syndicated “Cats Roundtable Radio Show.” Calling the purchase the “next step in building a new broadcasting business,” Catsimatidis says he plans to “retain the excellent staff and talent working at the station now.”
The sale leaves Cumulus with only one station in the New York market—“Radio 103.9” WNBM, an urban AC licensed to Bronxville, NY. Cumulus earlier sold hot AC WPLJ to Educational Media Foundation and traded country WNSH to Entercom.
“We do expect to sell WNBM and exit the New York City market,” CEO Mary Berner said in a memo to employees about the WABC sale. “New York has been a market that has been tough for us, and through these deals we will be able to realize significant value for the company, over and above what we could have generated from continued operations.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at insideradio.com ...
Fire sale.
That’s all? Wow!
The internet is changing everything.
In NYC the building and equipment would go for more than that.
I wonder if they still think that dumping Rush was a good idea.
Message sent by that price: “current management doesn’t know what to do with this asset.”
Shoot, that would barely buy you a nice house in Hollywood.
This is very bad. I think radio is finally falling off the cliff. I used to be an avid listener of talk radio - for decades. I discovered streaming with my cell phone about two years ago and I don’t bother with talk radio any more. The only time I turn on my radio is in the car, and then ONLY when I lose my cell signal. I often wonder how they are surviving.
I think they see the streaming media writing on the wall. I bet the value of Comcast has decreased significantly also.
The internet is changing everything.
Radio may be just about dead, And it seems to be an upside down hyperbolic curve.
My wife listens to Rush via her cell phone and live streaming.
Clueless Media owns most of the radio stations in our area..............
You knew the radio business was sliding into the toilet when these stations all started dumping talent to save money.
Link doesn’t work.
Bunch of kook liberals in nyc, no wonder, they are miserable people.
For decades, WABC was virtually a symbol of NYC, even though its transmitter was in New Jersey. Its signal was easily heard hundreds of miles away, it dominated the radio spectrum in the richest, most populated region of the United States.
Before it became the flagship station of conservative talk radio in the Northeast, it was the quintessential baby-boom Top 40 station, with the best DJs and the best music. That was before FM took over music (of which WPLJ, mentioned in the article, was a powerhouse).
That sale price is amazing. It's the price of a minor office building in Manhattan or Brooklyn, the kind of building that would have a laundromat and a liquor store on the first floor, and a couple of floors of apartments above.
Once, WABC was virtually a part of the NYC skyline.
The buyer may have assumed a large pile of debt as part of the deal, too.
Will AM radio as we know it still be around in about 10 years? Time will tell. Will all broadcasts eventually be found only online somewhere?
They were saying that 40 years ago.
Interesting... I remember when most stations were locally owned...
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