• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Would 93.9, 95.5 & 104.5 be sold by CBS?

G

gendvild

Since we're talking about the CBS/Entercom merger, I was figuring if Cumulus will likely sell 93.9, 95.5 & 104.5 to CBS/Entercom (because Entercom owns 99.5, 107.9 & 1430) for possibly 3 either 3 stations in either Boston or Sacramento, because they're giving up some of the licenses there. Plus CBS/Entercom will have a much bigger impact in Indianapolis. What's your opinion?:confused:
 
I would rather wait to see if Emmis decides to put their radio stations up for sale, considering recent rumors that may lead to the eventual sale of Emmis' remaining radio stations following the recent sale of KPWR in Los Angeles. Maybe Entercom would be interested in acquiring Emmis' remaining radio stations, but would be over the ownership limits in every market and will have to spin a couple stations.
 
Emmis is definitely not on a good path financially, but I figure Smulyan will try hard to retain his Indy stations until the bitter end.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Emmis is definitely not on a good path financially, but I figure Smulyan will try hard to retain his Indy stations until the bitter end.
Click to expand...

Emmis will probably first divest their St. Louis, Austin, and New York clusters one at a time, if not all at once. Divesting the St. Louis cluster to Entercom would make sense because they could add three more FM stations to their cluster, which consists of two FM stations and one AM station from CBS Radio. One FM would have to be spun to comply with the ownership limits, and it would most likely be given to Hubbard.
 
miketheradioguy said:
Emmis will probably first divest their St. Louis, Austin, and New York clusters one at a time, if not all at once.
Click to expand...

Why? With the sale of KPWR, Emmis has now satisfied its lenders and is operating some profitable clusters.
 
If Emmis divests their New York cluster anytime soon, I would likely see Hot 97, WBLS, and WLIB being sold to Urban/Radio One, while WEPN would be sold to ESPN outright, assuming everybody else in the market is at max capacity, including Entercom who's in the process of acquiring CBS Radio.
 
miketheradioguy said:
If Emmis divests their New York cluster anytime soon, I would likely see Hot 97, WBLS, and WLIB being sold to Urban/Radio One, while WEPN would be sold to ESPN outright, assuming everybody else in the market is at max capacity, including Entercom who's in the process of acquiring CBS Radio.
Click to expand...

Emmis sold LA because it was a stand-alone in a cluster world. While WLIB is likely for sale, selling two very successful NYC FM's (not counting the one they profitably LMA to Disney) is very unlikely.

Emmis has satisfied its lenders with the sale of LA. It no longer needs to spin off anything, particularly core assets.
 
miketheradioguy said:
Isn't Emmis still looking for a buyer for WLIB in New York City? I knew they were planning to sell that station since last year, but Emmis hasn't received an offer yet.
Click to expand...

Who would really want a higher-dial-position AM in New York today? The reason for selling a limited coverage AM is that it is not good for much of anything in a cluster strategy, and the cash could be put to better use. The value of the property is quite limited, anyway.
 
I would think there's a slight possibility that Cumulus could throw Indy into a swap with Entercom for some of its stations, especially if it wants some of Entercom's excess in San Francisco or if the rumored LA/Houston swap happens and Cumulus needs to make the swap more even. By the way, though no deals have been announced, I know of at least a few layoffs at Cumulus Houston, and they're positions that can be contracted out and would likely be cut if Entercom got KRBE. So, that would lend credence to the idea of that swap happening. It may or may not mean anything for Indy.

I don't see Emmis swapping to get any Entercom/CBS spins. From what I understand, Entercom said on its last conference call that it expected to have more cash on hand than it had originally believed. That tells me at least a few swaps it expected didn't end up working.
 
Kent said:
I would think there's a slight possibility that Cumulus could throw Indy into a swap with Entercom for some of its stations, especially if it wants some of Entercom's excess in San Francisco or if the rumored LA/Houston swap happens and Cumulus needs to make the swap more even. By the way, though no deals have been announced, I know of at least a few layoffs at Cumulus Houston, and they're positions that can be contracted out and would likely be cut if Entercom got KRBE. So, that would lend credence to the idea of that swap happening. It may or may not mean anything for Indy.

I don't see Emmis swapping to get any Entercom/CBS spins. From what I understand, Entercom said on its last conference call that it expected to have more cash on hand than it had originally believed. That tells me at least a few swaps it expected didn't end up working.
Click to expand...

I would like to see Entercom and Cumulus swap in San Francisco by trading two FMs in San Francisco to Cumulus for 1 AM and some of their smaller market stations to Entercom, and spin the other 2 FMs to someone else.

Entercom may be able to trade in Sacramento with Emmis for their entire St. Louis cluster and/or a portion of their Austin cluster to Entercom, but would have to spin one station in St. Louis, which would likely go to Hubbard since they own 3 FMs in St. Louis. Ironically, Entercom would receive some of the stations they would've had if Sinclair divested their St. Louis cluster to Entercom when Sinclair was divesting their radio properties in 1999 and 2000.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Emmis sold LA because it was a stand-alone in a cluster world. While WLIB is likely for sale, selling two very successful NYC FM's (not counting the one they profitably LMA to Disney) is very unlikely.

Emmis has satisfied its lenders with the sale of LA. It no longer needs to spin off anything, particularly core assets.
Click to expand...


I was thinking that Emmis may be a player when it comes to Entercom/CBS divestitures, meaning that Emmis would acquire some of Entercom's spinoffs and trade some of their stations including their St. Louis and Austin clusters.
 
miketheradioguy said:
Entercom may be able to trade in Sacramento with Emmis for their entire St. Louis cluster and/or a portion of their Austin cluster to Entercom, but would have to spin one station in St. Louis, which would likely go to Hubbard since they own 3 FMs in St. Louis. Ironically, Entercom would receive some of the stations they would've had if Sinclair divested their St. Louis cluster to Entercom when Sinclair was divesting their radio properties in 1999 and 2000.
Click to expand...

I don't see Emmis doing a St. Louis/Sacto swap. It doesn't really make much sense on paper for either party. The DOJ issues would be a nightmare, and that's before factoring in Entercom needing an extra buyer for its excess. An Austin/Sacto deal makes even less sense, especially considering Emmis only owns about half that cluster. Sinclair Telecable still owns half in a partnership with Emmis. Entercom won't likely want that can of worms.

A swap with Hubbard involving St. Louis would make more sense, but such a deal would likely have some serious DOJ concerns. Not sure how you fit WIL and WARH under the same roof as KMOX, KYKY and KEZK. Seems to me like swapping for the Hubbard cluster in Cincinnati makes more sense, though Entercom already swapped that cluster away once before.
 
Kent said:
I don't see Emmis doing a St. Louis/Sacto swap. It doesn't really make much sense on paper for either party. The DOJ issues would be a nightmare, and that's before factoring in Entercom needing an extra buyer for its excess. An Austin/Sacto deal makes even less sense, especially considering Emmis only owns about half that cluster. Sinclair Telecable still owns half in a partnership with Emmis. Entercom won't likely want that can of worms.

A swap with Hubbard involving St. Louis would make more sense, but such a deal would likely have some serious DOJ concerns. Not sure how you fit WIL and WARH under the same roof as KMOX, KYKY and KEZK. Seems to me like swapping for the Hubbard cluster in Cincinnati makes more sense, though Entercom already swapped that cluster away once before.
Click to expand...

I thought of Emmis as a potential swap partner in St. Louis rather than Hubbard since they have better stations Entercom may be interested in acquiring. The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the CBS Radio-Entercom merger, so now we're waiting for the approval from the Department of Justice to close the merger, and then the musical chairs will begin.
 
I don't expect a lot of changes will be made by Cumulus. WZPL, WFMS, WJJK and WNTR should be a strong combo. Maybe they would consider tweaking WNTR to compete less with WZPL. 93.9 and 1430 are total also-rans in the cluster, but that's OK too.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom