Per reports just surfacing, board participant Buddy Shula has just bought WECK and its translator for $655,000. That's half of what Culver Communications bought it for in 2007!
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Buddy Shula buys WECK
- Thread starter davideduardo
- Start date
Looks like pretty good coverage for the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area. I wish him very good luck with his new acquisition.
I'm pretty sure that Entercom won't let him stay there while he owns a station in the market. The scramble for his accounts at Entercom ought to be interesting.
It will also be interesting to see what format he pursues on WECK, and whether he can bring his clients with him. It's a pretty good signal, and an effective FM translator. Dick Greene took a pretty good haircut on this. He paid $1.3-million for WECK, and at least another $200K for the translator. I'd say he lost a million in the transaction overall. I'll leave speculation on whether he made that in profit over the years with WECK.
Good luck, Buddy. Prepare to have lots of new "friends".
It will also be interesting to see what format he pursues on WECK, and whether he can bring his clients with him. It's a pretty good signal, and an effective FM translator. Dick Greene took a pretty good haircut on this. He paid $1.3-million for WECK, and at least another $200K for the translator. I'd say he lost a million in the transaction overall. I'll leave speculation on whether he made that in profit over the years with WECK.
Good luck, Buddy. Prepare to have lots of new "friends".
Congratulations to William Ostrander, soon to be an owner-operator. Let the decisions begin. Hiring a sales staff that will be able to make a living dueling with cluster giants Entercom, Cumulus and Townsquare, will be the priority. Given his experience and background, the new owner should have a realistic grasp of WECK's strengths and weaknesses in the market and be able to lead his sales force by example. Just keep in mind the old sports adage, "great players don't always make great coaches." Conversely, some modest players have gone on to be world class coaches.
The $550 thousand sale price shouldn't be a surprise given that a baseline was established a few years ago when WNED-AM, a 5kw regional on 970 was sold for $875 thousand. That sale included real estate and an agreement with Cumulus, which uses the WNED-AM towers to diplex WHLD-AM 1270. A new baseline has been established for low power AM's in the market. Comparatively speaking, the WNED-AM purchase was a bargain... as much as an AM station purchase these days can be called "a bargain." Consider David Eduardo's comments in another thread regarding KFI Los Angeles.
The WECK format might just stand as is. It could be fine-tuned to straight ahead Oldies, locally produced on the station's server and computers, wherein Radio One Buffalo owns all the inventory without restriction. There are Plenty of "retired" air talent to voice track an Oldies format at a reasonable hourly cost. Tom Donahue, the present morning drive guy, could easily voice track 10 to noon. WHTT's Bill Lacy voicetracks beyond his 10 a.m. sign off. Then again, Ostrander could voice track the entire broadcast day in two hours and spend the rest of his day selling.
A year ago, the station was listed in combo with WLVL and translator 105.3, Lockport for an estimated $2.5M. Culver will retain the Lockport stations after the sale of WECK, which begs the question, if WECK is worth $550 thousand, what's the value of a similar signal and translator in a smaller Western New York market like Lockport? $250k? Springville's WSPQ AM 1330 went for 80k a few years back.
WECK has the potential to serve the highly populated Cheektowaga, Amherst, Williamsville suburbs. The question is, does sufficient revenue potential remain or exist for a small, stand alone broadcaster to survive and thrive? Local high school sports, football and basketball, might be a revenue generator.
This should be a very interesting, bold experiment. Being the detail person that he is, it's likely Ostrander has an exit strategy, too. Good luck.
The $550 thousand sale price shouldn't be a surprise given that a baseline was established a few years ago when WNED-AM, a 5kw regional on 970 was sold for $875 thousand. That sale included real estate and an agreement with Cumulus, which uses the WNED-AM towers to diplex WHLD-AM 1270. A new baseline has been established for low power AM's in the market. Comparatively speaking, the WNED-AM purchase was a bargain... as much as an AM station purchase these days can be called "a bargain." Consider David Eduardo's comments in another thread regarding KFI Los Angeles.
The WECK format might just stand as is. It could be fine-tuned to straight ahead Oldies, locally produced on the station's server and computers, wherein Radio One Buffalo owns all the inventory without restriction. There are Plenty of "retired" air talent to voice track an Oldies format at a reasonable hourly cost. Tom Donahue, the present morning drive guy, could easily voice track 10 to noon. WHTT's Bill Lacy voicetracks beyond his 10 a.m. sign off. Then again, Ostrander could voice track the entire broadcast day in two hours and spend the rest of his day selling.
A year ago, the station was listed in combo with WLVL and translator 105.3, Lockport for an estimated $2.5M. Culver will retain the Lockport stations after the sale of WECK, which begs the question, if WECK is worth $550 thousand, what's the value of a similar signal and translator in a smaller Western New York market like Lockport? $250k? Springville's WSPQ AM 1330 went for 80k a few years back.
WECK has the potential to serve the highly populated Cheektowaga, Amherst, Williamsville suburbs. The question is, does sufficient revenue potential remain or exist for a small, stand alone broadcaster to survive and thrive? Local high school sports, football and basketball, might be a revenue generator.
This should be a very interesting, bold experiment. Being the detail person that he is, it's likely Ostrander has an exit strategy, too. Good luck.
Seems to me the previous owner hired a lot of local talent when he bought the station almost ten years ago, including Donohue and Harv Moore. Then added Brad Riter and tried local talk. How did that do?
In another thread, it was said the station currently bills $800,000 a year. That's more than Buddy paid for it. The previous owner had almost ten years of revenues to cover his initial expense. If he banked 20% of his billings, he made back his initial investment.
WECK's got a lot more audience to draw from than Springville or Lockport - and a lot more competition to go with it. WLVL in Lockport can make money by focusing locally as WDOE does in Dunkirk, or WBTA in Batavia does. If Dick Greene could get WJJL for back taxes, he'd own Niagara County. With or without it, he can make a living in Lockport, Medina, and environs. If he broke even in spite of the haircut he took on WECK, so much the better.
It'll be interesting to see where Buddy takes the station. He's a big fan of country...
It'll be interesting to see where Buddy takes the station. He's a big fan of country...
I thought I explained that.
An AM country station would probably want to focus on classics, not currents. Surprised no one's done it yet, considering the large country population in WNY.
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Buddy Shula
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AS the new owner of WECK AM/FM, I wanted to chime in. If you want to real truth on this, feel free to ask me. If you want to surmise, and talk about things you don't know, than you can continue to live in your own bitter reality. Radio is thriving. It is a vetted media that people trust, and older people like me, 50 years old, like. Especially AM here in Buffalo. I did purchase the stations and we will be closing around April 30th. This will not be my only acquisition in radio in Buffalo. I have worked all my life to achieve this. I also am not stupid. I would never touch anything that I could not make a lot of money at...but even more importantly, make a difference in the community with. I did not buy WECK to run it from a closet. I bought it to make relevant local radio.....by doing that, it will make lots of money. You will not hear a satellite format, little if any voice tracking, and no, I will not be on air. My business plan does not call to cut expenses in everyway. It call for creating jobs and opportunities, and to bring back a station that once a top Buffalo rated station. Even NOW, it has great ratings for 50 plus. Some one commented that I am a cheerleader for Entercom. Your DAMN right I am. IF this opportunity would have not come along, I would have retired at Entercom. The company is amazing, and will always be in my mind. In fact, as local broadcasters, I intend to HELP Entercom with WECK. I am still their cheerleader, but my station will have a great niche as well, and it will super serve the audience and advertisers. Price has been brought up a few times....let me tell you... I got a steal! You do not know half of what is in the price I paid. The people on this board are passionate, and so am I , which is why I am sharing with you. I am excited, and proud. Many great broadcasters have helped me along the way. This will be awesome local radio again. I am blessed that I have the opportunity
Greene bought WECK just as the economy tanked.
CBS laughed as they took his money.
It's unlikely that he has been "banking" anything from WECK.
Running an AM station with or without translators is an
expensive hobby these days. The new "BUDDY" format may
be coming--BUDDY CAN YOU SPARE A DIME...
CBS laughed as they took his money.
It's unlikely that he has been "banking" anything from WECK.
Running an AM station with or without translators is an
expensive hobby these days. The new "BUDDY" format may
be coming--BUDDY CAN YOU SPARE A DIME...
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Buddy Shula
Guest
Dick wants to retire.
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Buddy Shula
Guest
I hear that Buddy is incredibly energetic and his clients LOVE him! When Larry Robb left Entercom behind, the wind was blown out of everyone's sails. It's no wonder that many great salespeople left...Mike Ahearn, Vanessa Miller, Steve Fortunato, to name a few. Buddy needed to exit that culture, from what I know. The local management is micro-managing and are cold as stones. Good for Buddy for breaking away, they will be lost without his account control and billing!
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Buddy Shula
Guest
I was responding to my earlier post a few posts ago. Culver bought it WITHOUT the FM.
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