Gutless cowards.
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WPFM Panama City sold to EMF
- Thread starter passtheword
- Start date
Gutless cowards.
Hardly.
Panama City was known as a bad, over-radioed market where only a couple of stations made any money.
Powell had made some decisions before the storm that included selling one station to EMF. In retrospect, it looks like they were scaling back in what was a bad market in time when radio has no revenue growth.
After the storm, there will be tens of thousands of people who will move elsewhere because there is no housing. There will be no tourist season this year, as the infrastructure is gone or severely damaged; many tourism jobs will be lost and these people will move away, too.
Then you take a group of stations that was probably only minimally profitable if at all, and you calculate the cost of rebuilding facilities and operating with a much-reduced revenue base. What you have is a big cash outlay, and no prospects for future profit at all.
I'd imagine that these radio stations are just a small sample of the businesses that will never re-open in the area.
G
Groove1670
Guest
In 2004 we had a chain of 5 retail stores in Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Alabama. After Hurricane Ivan, we were forced to scale back by closing stores. We didn't recover till 2007. Then, the oil spill was the final nail in the coffin for us. We cut our losses (except for one store). The damage was done.
Sometimes in business you have to make some tough decisions. Speaking from experience, it is not going to get better for awhile. Gutless cowards... no. A tough decision yes.
No one said business was easy.
I am trying to be respectful of what really matters. I know all of you feel the same way.
Lives have been sadly lost, or forever changed or certainly stressed to the max by Michael. The residents along the coast and a few miles north will see their world radically altered for probably a decade. Many of those most affected are the real backbone of the communities.
They are those loyal, hard working wonderful people that are the true essence and fabric of one hell of a connected community. Most are indeed just true salt-of-the Earth folks.
Much of the area west of the Hathaway Bridge experienced minimal damage. But, those are the areas that are more transient and touristy. Those businesses in that area (Back Beach corridor) will pick up some of the losses in and around downtown Panama City, Callaway, Springfield and Lynn Haven. But, so many non-construction jobs will be in a state of uncertainty. Even areas to the west will loss some population as the people's places of work were in the areas hit by Michael. I would fear a loss of 15-20 percent of the population because of lack of jobs. That may be close to David's prediction. Everything is just a guess at this point.
As for radio, David notes on another post that the radio ad revenue in the market is $6M. I can't deny that is accurate. But, I have always thought the revenue to be about $4.5-$4.8M, depending on the economy and weather. My guess is it will be down to about $2.1-$2.8M. Maybe $3M? As it was, the 18-ish signals (more like 16 local and 8 other regional stations from Enterprise, Destin (WKMX, WWAV, WSBZ, WKSM, etc.) share in the market pie. To my knowledge and best guess, iHeart probably pulls in about 55-60% of the market (heavier agencies) and the other stations share the remaining more-local $2Mish. See how quickly the potential for success is rapidly reduced and revenues are strained?
Now, I cannot imagine the success rate being good at Magic (Island, etc.) unless the post-Powell stations remain off the air for a while. You also have stand alone stations Beach 95.1 and ESPN Radio 104.3 that I can only imagine will also really be hurting. (Hale's 93.5, IIRC, was already still silent? And 104.3 had been silent as well long, but signed back on "roughly" last year?)
I don't think we should feel anger toward the folks at Powell. In some way, this may well be a God-send, for them and the radio market, to have a reason to stop the severe bleeding. It does not make it feel right or good to see it happen. Sadly, Powell was just a business and not a real steward of the community. I am saddened that they did not reach out to the community to serve in some helpful, humanitarian way for at least a few more weeks. But, if Home Depot or Publix pulled out (slim chance) would we be as personally upset as a radio company? That really says something strong about the special effect of the radio. Everyone would better understand and appreciate that they just did not run like hell, even if they eventually said they just could not afford to put the stations back on the air. WPFM alone has had what, a dozen owners over the years? Not many would be surprised if Powell eventually just left the market. The painful gut-wrenching part is how the caliously announced it literally as the first peaks of sun came back out.
Sorry for a long rant. The world's most beautiful white sand beaches (here we go again, David
) are not just about the breathtaking sunsets, Gulf water colors or the fine sugar sand. Those are often eclipsed by the wonderfully real people you meet and get to know and love in the area. It just is a different place. And that's why these posts are ways those of us in mourning can in some small way help ourselves and others in much more need --- recover. ❤️
Lives have been sadly lost, or forever changed or certainly stressed to the max by Michael. The residents along the coast and a few miles north will see their world radically altered for probably a decade. Many of those most affected are the real backbone of the communities.
They are those loyal, hard working wonderful people that are the true essence and fabric of one hell of a connected community. Most are indeed just true salt-of-the Earth folks.
Much of the area west of the Hathaway Bridge experienced minimal damage. But, those are the areas that are more transient and touristy. Those businesses in that area (Back Beach corridor) will pick up some of the losses in and around downtown Panama City, Callaway, Springfield and Lynn Haven. But, so many non-construction jobs will be in a state of uncertainty. Even areas to the west will loss some population as the people's places of work were in the areas hit by Michael. I would fear a loss of 15-20 percent of the population because of lack of jobs. That may be close to David's prediction. Everything is just a guess at this point.
As for radio, David notes on another post that the radio ad revenue in the market is $6M. I can't deny that is accurate. But, I have always thought the revenue to be about $4.5-$4.8M, depending on the economy and weather. My guess is it will be down to about $2.1-$2.8M. Maybe $3M? As it was, the 18-ish signals (more like 16 local and 8 other regional stations from Enterprise, Destin (WKMX, WWAV, WSBZ, WKSM, etc.) share in the market pie. To my knowledge and best guess, iHeart probably pulls in about 55-60% of the market (heavier agencies) and the other stations share the remaining more-local $2Mish. See how quickly the potential for success is rapidly reduced and revenues are strained?
Now, I cannot imagine the success rate being good at Magic (Island, etc.) unless the post-Powell stations remain off the air for a while. You also have stand alone stations Beach 95.1 and ESPN Radio 104.3 that I can only imagine will also really be hurting. (Hale's 93.5, IIRC, was already still silent? And 104.3 had been silent as well long, but signed back on "roughly" last year?)
I don't think we should feel anger toward the folks at Powell. In some way, this may well be a God-send, for them and the radio market, to have a reason to stop the severe bleeding. It does not make it feel right or good to see it happen. Sadly, Powell was just a business and not a real steward of the community. I am saddened that they did not reach out to the community to serve in some helpful, humanitarian way for at least a few more weeks. But, if Home Depot or Publix pulled out (slim chance) would we be as personally upset as a radio company? That really says something strong about the special effect of the radio. Everyone would better understand and appreciate that they just did not run like hell, even if they eventually said they just could not afford to put the stations back on the air. WPFM alone has had what, a dozen owners over the years? Not many would be surprised if Powell eventually just left the market. The painful gut-wrenching part is how the caliously announced it literally as the first peaks of sun came back out.
Sorry for a long rant. The world's most beautiful white sand beaches (here we go again, David
) are not just about the breathtaking sunsets, Gulf water colors or the fine sugar sand. Those are often eclipsed by the wonderfully real people you meet and get to know and love in the area. It just is a different place. And that's why these posts are ways those of us in mourning can in some small way help ourselves and others in much more need --- recover. ❤️
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A very good post, even if we disagree on what a real world class beach is.
If we look at Puerto Rico, we have a similar, albeit much greater, impact on lives.
20% of the population of the Island, nearly a half-million people, have left. This is not a matter of hopping in the car and looking for a place and a job in Tallahassee or Dothan or Mobile. It's leaving an Island where the nearest part of the US is 900 miles away. Half of my friends and family are no longer on the Island.
Some radio stations are still not back on the air. Some are at lower power. Radio revenues are less than half of what they were before Maria. Many industrial jobs have left the island, due to the hurricane and the belief that the infrastructure, fragile before, will be worse in the future.
In Panama City we can expect a lower population, fewer businesses and fewer jobs. The infusion of federal money and insurance settlements will give a temporary boom to the economy, but the long range does not look like a full recovery is going to happen quickly. Hopefully, there will be improved building codes and better construction (and perhaps more restricted signage to prevent more "neon missiles" in the future).
The funny thing about radio licenses is that there is nearly always someone who thinks that they have a better idea of what to do with them. So the stations will be back. And, being what it is, there will always be what I call "Virgin islands Syndrome" where a vacationing radio person thinks how cool it would be to live on the beach and run a radio station in a tourist destination... only to find that from St. Thomas to Key West to Traverse City those are the worst radio markets in the nation.
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I agree with your "Syndrome" comment, David. In 1978 a business partner of mine was enthralled with acquiring ZBVI 780 in the British Virgins. In addition to being able to operate a station without having to comply with FCC Regs, he thought it would be easy to get fellow radio people to invest in it... the idea of being able to go to the Caribbean occasionally and write off the trip as a business expense. So there would be some benefit, even if the facility was not profitable. Nothing ever came of it, but about that time I got out of radio and started building cable TV systems. When I got the franchise for Gulf Shores, AL, several guys who frequented this beach resort were willing to take an equity position, if for nothing else than the opportunity to expense the time spent there.
Back to the ZBVI situation: because of salt water conductivity, the station covered the American territory well. The one time I heard it, there were frequent ads for hard liquor and cigarettes, not allowed on the American VI stations. Wonder how much this contributed to the bottom line. But I digress.....
Back to the ZBVI situation: because of salt water conductivity, the station covered the American territory well. The one time I heard it, there were frequent ads for hard liquor and cigarettes, not allowed on the American VI stations. Wonder how much this contributed to the bottom line. But I digress.....
What stores were those, if you don't mind me asking. Ivan pre-dates me living down here.
I can answer that ... Coastal Video Rental ... principal owner was/is a business partner of mine. These stores, like Blockbuster and MovieGallery, were destined for extinction a few years later.
/Goto "offthread"
This reminds me of Alvin Korngold, who owned Spanish language daytimers in ABQ and Tucson long ago. He actually built a project of multiple superpower FMs on the BVI aimed, with directional antennas, at St. Thomas. A great deal of money must have gone into that, only to serve a horrible market that already had too many FM stations.
But the beaches are pretty.
/Return
I had not heard that until you mentioned it, Poledo. That actually is really surprising. So the sheriff put the mandatory rule in place for most or all of Bay County? I guess they have a law on the books that allows for the ban in a state of emergency. I would not want to clerk in an open business that sells alcohol and other products and try to explain that to every other customer. I could not have even remotely imagined a ban when Nashville had the big flood in 2010. Just when you needed it most...
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