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WBZ Now iHeart

T

Tilden

Guest
Heard the newsbreak on WBZ while listening to Morgan White,Jr. last night a voice over during a break, "WBZ an iHeart station".
 
Takes awhile for all the pieces to fit into place.When iHeart announced it was getting WRKO, WBZ etc it said the stations would be on the iHeart app.As of yesterday they were not.They could have added them in advance. The RKO and BZ iHeart pages are up but info is sparse though being added (show host info but no schedule or listen live link).

As far as the swaps go the stations do belong to iHeart but FCC approval not due till Jan. LMAs in effect..FCC has to be notified but no "approval" needed for an LMA while ownership change does require approval.Read somewhere that 98.5's license technically belongs to Entercom FOR NOW (part of CBS deal) but the station is being "managed" by Beasley.That changes when FCC approves deal. iHeart supposedly over the limit by still owning KOX but that is to be sold quickly.
 
True..but still must be sold (or swapped) at some point.Right, having them in trust means they aren't over the limit.At some point it goes elsewhere, not sure when
 
raccoonradio said:
True..but still must be sold (or swapped) at some point.Right, having them in trust means they aren't over the limit.At some point it goes elsewhere, not sure when
Click to expand...

There have been stations in their Aloha Trust that go back over ten years. Obviously the FCC has no strict time limit.
 
Tilden said:
Heard the newsbreak on WBZ while listening to Morgan White,Jr. last night a voice over during a break, "WBZ an iHeart station".
Click to expand...

Was that the guy who was on Saturday Night too? The guy on Saturday Night after 10:30PM was taking phone calls from listeners about what they want for Christmas. - An infomercial for colon cleanse would be more interesting to listen to.
 
Fybush's NorthEastRadioWatch column at Fybush dot com does confirm iHeart can't take over WRKO until WKOX put into trust/sold, so Ent. runs 680 till early next year.

The RKO iHeart site is bare bones and in one place has the words "station logo" but not the actual logo. Placeholder for now.
 
Kemosabe said:
Kinda brings a tear to my nose.

Incidentally, WBZ's new website is https://wbznewsradio.iheart.com.
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Here's just about the best statement of that gets to the core of how some of us feel re what's unfolding before our eyes/ears. Credit Scott Fybush in today's NERW:

-In Pittsburgh, the transition went largely without fanfare, which is a little sad for one important reason: for all the public mourning about the end of a 90 year legacy for “CBS Radio,” Friday was the first day in 97 years and two weeks in which KDKA (1020) was under anything other than its original ownership. Yes, the “CBS Corporation” that sold its radio portfolio to Entercom was really Westinghouse in disguise – back in 1995, it was Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse that acquired CBS, though it took the CBS corporate name…which means it was really Group W’s radio era that came to an end Friday. Will any commercial broadcaster in the United States get to 100 years under the same ownership?


Something very, very similar to this could also have been written about WBZ-AM.
 
nowradioguy said:
Something very, very similar to this could also have been written about WBZ-AM.
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That's not how Face The Nation presented it yesterday. They said the company that merged with Entercom was Paley's company that started in 1928.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQvB-l0iSgQ

If we're looking at this as the end of an era, did anyone mourn the end of the Paley CBS era in 1993?

Let's face it: Group W ended when the name went away.
 
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TheBigA said:
That's not how Face The Nation presented it yesterday. They said the company that merged with Entercom was Paley's company that started in 1928.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQvB-l0iSgQ

If we're looking at this as the end of an era, did anyone mourn the end of the Paley CBS era in 1993?

Let's face it: Group W ended when the name went away.
Click to expand...

I don't know what to tell ya, BigA.

I, too, recall, it was Westinghouse who acquired CBS - Radio, TV, News, etc. - in 1995. It was not Group W itself who bought CBS, it was Westinghouse Electric Corp. However, Westinghouse management saw a glittering future in broadcasting, both on the content side and on the distribution side, and wanted in on this. CBS had just gotten its butt kicked by Murdoch and Co. who outbid CBS for the NFL rights, and was licking its wounds. Westinghouse saw an opportunity to grow its own well-oiled broadcast machine, and did so, even though it meant they would shed their industrial and military units. The latter two became "discontinued operations" to Westinghouse, which had its, uh, eye on the CBS eye and name. The rest, as they say, is history.

At first, I felt bad when, even before the CBS acquisition, WBZ-TV was ending its affiliation with NBC-TV. Then I remembered that Westinghouse and NBC had some bad blood between them, especially over the Philadelphia-Cleveland station swap that occurred in 1956 or thereabouts. This got reversed in 1965 after a long legal battle. Ironically, when Westinghouse moved CBS to KYW-TV (like WBZ-TV, an NBC affiliate) in 1995, they sold their Philadelphia prize TV property, WCAU-TV, back to NBC. (Oh, I just love this stuff!)

Yep, if I had anything to say about it - hah! - if CBS had to spin off CBS Radio, I was hoping for an IPO; the spun off Radio entity could then have become Group W. :rolleyes:

Comments are strictly my own, but if anyone else cares to validate or correct the historical portion, please do so. No hard feelings.
 
nowradioguy said:
I don't know what to tell ya, BigA.

I, too, recall, it was Westinghouse who acquired CBS - Radio, TV, News, etc. - in 1995. It was not Group W itself who bought CBS, it was Westinghouse Electric Corp.
Click to expand...

Here's what you're leaving out of the timeline:

1999 – CBS acquired by Viacom, marking the end of the original Westinghouse Corporation

Viacom was originally spun off the original CBS. So the child became a its own parent.
 
That news came from Fybush.People like Anthony Silva mentioned on the FB thread what a great guy he is and the successful quarter century during his years at WBZ.Did Twitter search and it said kudos to him when in '09 he helped to bring back Steve Leveille, spurred by listener backlash.
 
"There is no doubt that under his leadership this brand has excelled and established its leadership in the market. We deeply respect Peter and the contributions he has made to WBZ-AM over the years, and the impact he has left on WBZ and Boston radio will be felt for years to come."

iHeart's tribute is truly touching.

#travesty
 
iHeart Proves it Doesn't Have One

The Barbarians are at the gate at WBZ.
iHeart fires longtime WBZ News Director, Peter Casey on the day before Thanksgiving.
The Budweiser and Bufferin Time Salesmen who have moved into management at "NO" Heart Radio have taken over.
iHeart wins the Broadcasting Turkey Award for 2017.
 
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