Posted on 06/27/2019 9:06:01 AM PDT by Olog-hai
“Fire sale”. You are not kidding. I could almost put that on my credit card. So sad.....”77 W A B CCCCC” from the late 60’s and 70’s was the main station we listened to as teens.
I read in the AJC today that Cox sold WSB radio to Apollo Global Management.
Damn, that’s cheap. Should have been in the billions, not just millions, IMO.
He hasn’t been at WABC since 1974, IINM.
He was on WCBS from 1982 to 2005. From there, he went to satellite. (I don’t know of anyone who listens to satellite radio, even though it’s been around for close to two decades now.)
Once upon a time, not so long ago.
Oh? OK. What about Wolfman Jack?
If everyone is listening online then why would you want the expense of maintaining transmitters and broadcast towers? Especially on the AM side where big directional arrays are extremely expensive to maintain.
The 50 thousand watt blowtorch has become fading embers.
Have never seen stats showing how many still listen to broadcast radio and how many listen online.
I’m in a fringe reception area so I listen almost exclusively online. But people who live in areas with good reception from many stations might still choose to use radios.
All the same things can be said of broadcast TV stations.
How can a station like WABC lose money? That must take some real boneheads running the show.
It's business plan seems to be to buy small inexpensive local stations and replace the existing talent with syndication.
Not sure how industry insiders like that ...
AM radio, even a distinguished station like WABC, selling for less money than before.
We who follow radio call AM
Ancient Modulation.
Great post.
In Boston the Entercom purchase of
CBS Radio meant some stations had to be spun off to stay under ownership and financial caps by the FCC and DOJ.
Entercom news talker WRKO and CBS news talk WBZ went to iHeart—via a swap with Entercom (they got the Richmond iHR cluster) who already owned talk WXKS (AM).Not too many changes. WXKS runs Rush, Sean etc—gets lousy ratings but the ads get “cleared in Boston”.
iHeart also owns Premiere, the syndicators of Rush and Sean.Rush was so hot—500 to 600 stations—that in 2008 his 8 year contract was $50M per year.In ‘16 he re-upped but figures not disclosed...it was said to be fewer years, less money.
In NY WOR got the Premiere talkers that had been on WABC.
The iHeart model for talk radio is maybe a local morning show then Beck, Rush, Sean etc. Deep in debt, went bankrupt.Still can make some money...and certainly light years ahead of the now defunct Air America.
iHeart (then Clear Channel) tried that in Boston and Providence but eventually the stations went conservative.
That has been a pain to some stations
like Boston’s WMEX 1510 whose owners took the station “dark” because of the huge tower rent situation.Someone did buy it but it’s taking awhile to get back on air.Ditto KQV Pittsburgh whose tower site is being re-developed (new owners will broadcast from a different site in McKeesport I believe).
Some stations shut off and sell off the land where the tower is, to real estate developers.
Yes many do listen online but some do tune in to the terrestrial signals.Many young people have no knowledge or interest in AM radio (and for music there are online options).
That is stunning....
Catsimatidis will hopefully, make it more conservative..
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