At What Point Will 99.5 WBAI Be Sold?

[DToTheJ]

This year alone, there have been four station sales in New York, the most recent of which being non-commercial-converting-to-commercial-license WFME. There's one more non-comm in the middle of the dial that should be sold at some point - and perhaps might be.

[secondchoice]

Maybe but what kind of increase in billings will all of the remaining music stations get as the successful AM transition to FM taking out competing music FMs? The spoken word AM stations are already billing big numbers, but as seen by the ESPN move to FM not much increase ratings wise just going to FM alone.  Sure there were success in markets that the AM news talk station was signal challenged (Washington and Atlanta for example) but is there a News Talk with a clean market covering AM signal that went to FM and significantly their increased ratings a year later.*

With the spoken word stations going to FM and the death of AM listener-ship, radio might end up like it was during the 1960's.  Two or three broad formatted stations per age group.  The days of a full Class B in a small narrow format may be over (AA or AAA).  It might end up in a lot of markets where there are only a couple of music stations targeting females, one or two Urban, one or two targeting sub 25, etc.  These formats will be "broad appeal" similar to TOP 40 in the late 60's to mid 1970's (where a station might play, CCR, Dobbie Brothers, (Beatles group or one them), Al Green, Al Steward, Motown or Philly artist, The Who,  The Carpenters, and a one hit wonder in the same hour.

I have not archived the released Arbitron ratings so I really do not know, but this should be a great time for political talk shows!

[WNTIRadio]

Good luck getting the old hippies and radicals and their board to all agree on something.  It could take them years just to agree on a price.  The only way WBAI would sell is in a swap... perhaps that is what Cumulus has up its sleeve, trying to entice them with some cash and 94.7 to sell 99.5

[radioguy39nj]

The only way WBAI would sell is in a swap... perhaps that is what Cumulus has up its sleeve, trying to entice them with some cash and 94.7 to sell 99.5

That might very well be Cumulus' plan.  The biggest obstacle in moving 94.7 to Empire is WWSK 94.3 on Long Island.  That could be a very costly proposition.  It might be less expensive to offer Pacifica cash and 94.7 in exchange for 99.5.

[DToTheJ]

Purchasing 94.7 only to pawn it off to WBAI for the stronger (and more desireable, frequency-wise) 99.5 would certainly be much easier than reconfiguring the 94.7 transmitter and whatnot...

[stationless listener]

A year ago, I would have said that it's more likely to see one of Harold Camping's prophecies come true than 'BAI being sold to a commercial interest. Now, I'm not so sure. Then again, hasn't this been part of the story with them, having always to beg and plead for money and barely making it to the next quarter cycle? I'm trying to see how things could be so different this time that wasn't true then.

These people are survivors, after all. It would take some massive outside intervention (probably through a court order) to pry that station out their hands.

Now, if they were to be offered the 91.5 signal, then it might be a different story. That would take some cooperation from the city and there are interests there that would fight just as fiercely to keep that signal as the radicals would fight to keep their 99.5 signal.

[FightingIrish]

Swapping signals with Cumulus for extra cash makes so much sense that even all the bickering functions at WBAI would see the logic in going along with it.

The problem with WBAI and Pacifica in general is that nobody there can agree with each other on anything. Every time the company gets new management, they're soon out the door shaking their heads. Now, this doesn't have much to do with political ideology. I can think of plenty of dysfunctional stations run by eccentric right-wingers that make lousy business decisions too. Only thing is, instead of one kooky owner, at Pacifica and WBAI, there are many.

But the truth is, they are hemorrhaging money. Running WBAI, with the Manhattan studios and the stick on the Empire State Building is very, very expensive. At least with WFME, they do solve the problem of the high ESB rent. They may lose a bit of signal coverage, but, as with Family Radio, their dedicated listeners will seek them out elsewhere on the dial. However, unlike FR, they don't do AM. If they move, it's gotta be to a decent FM signal. And even then, they still have to agree on it, which will probably be the hard part.

I think it will happen eventually, though. If I ran Pacifica, and Cumulus offered $30 million, the 94.7 FM frequency and engineering assistance to modernize it, I'd take that deal without hesitation. That's stupid-proof!

[danikayser84]

Could Univision look at 99.5 in order to maybe move La Que Buena to a larger signal (and sell off 92.7 or change it to WADO-FM)? I doubt ESPN would buy it to put Deportes on FM (although I believe it's on 98.7 HD2 or 3?), and CBS and Clear Channel are capped... what about Cumulus? With 94.7, 95.5, 99.5 and 770 that's a reasonable sized cluster

[DToTheJ]

...if they were to be offered the 91.5 signal... That would take some cooperation from the city...

Remember, the city owned Channel 31 for years and parted ways with that when they sold it to Dow Jones in 1997 (S+, anyone?).

[Nick]

The management of WBAI should jump on an opportunity to swap 99.5 for 94.7+cash+engineering. They will still hit the extreme liberals in NYC and Newark and other urbanized areas. They still have a national audience online. They'll lose eastern Long Island, northern Westchester, Connecticut. Those areas they lose tend to vote Republican. Cumulus gets 99.5 which is a great signal with no nearby first adjacents. WJBR only affects them south of 195 in NJ.