selling stations one by one

[bobdavcav]

Hi all,
I remember seeing something from one of the pros here saying that it made more economic sense to sell an entire cluster rather than a single station. So, why is it seemingly becoming a trend for operators to get rid of one station?

 

[davideduardo]

Hi all,
I remember seeing something from one of the pros here saying that it made more economic sense to sell an entire cluster rather than a single station. So, why is it seemingly becoming a trend for operators to get rid of one station?

Those single station sales are either for AMs or limited coverage FMs… or, mostly, stations over the ownership limit that have been in some kind of trusteeship.

 

[TheBigA]

The example I think of when I see this is Entercom selling WAAF to EMF last year. That was a situation where the cluster seemed to be struggling, WEEI was greatly underperforming, and WAAF was the weakest of the stations. It might have been a case where the market manager looked at the cluster and said it would be better off with one less station, rather than operate the cluster in a low cost way. That happened before the company decided it would do some low cost formats, including alternative.

But yes iHeart is almost done selling off (or donating) the stations in its Aloha Trust, and same with Cumulus.

 

[Kelly A]

So, why is it seemingly becoming a trend for operators to get rid of one station?

Only the strong survive. Trim the weak stations that bring nothing to the balance sheet. As David mentioned, many of those include struggling AM's.

 

[bobdavcav]

I'd completely understand if the stations I'm thinking of were struggling AMs. Recently though there have been a couple FMs that haven't made sense to me though. Just this week, DLC sold one of its Taire Haute IN stations to EMF. Also Brewer sold one of its Chatinuga stations to a religious operator a few months ago resulting in a format shuffle. I want to say there was one other such example in the last year, but I can't think of what that was.

 

[davideduardo]

I'd completely understand if the stations I'm thinking of were struggling AMs. Recently though there have been a couple FMs that haven't made sense to me though. Just this week, DLC sold one of its Taire Haute IN stations to EMF. Also Brewer sold one of its Chatinuga stations to a religious operator a few months ago resulting in a format shuffle. I want to say there was one other such example in the last year, but I can't think of what that was.

Likely there were just too many commercial stations in the market... those are pretty small, over radioed and underbilling ones of course... so selling one to be non-competitive for revenue can be a smart idea.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I'd completely understand if the stations I'm thinking of were struggling AMs. Recently though there have been a couple FMs that haven't made sense to me though. Just this week, DLC sold one of its Taire Haute IN stations to EMF. Also Brewer sold one of its Chatinuga stations to a religious operator a few months ago resulting in a format shuffle. I want to say there was one other such example in the last year, but I can't think of what that was.

Maybe after things get finalized and close, I'll get permission to share more about WVIG. I do work for LRN which is on WVIG Terre Haute.. but can't say anything now. There's a bit more to this picture, but I will have to ask for permission from Dave Crooks to say more after all is said and done

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I'd completely understand if the stations I'm thinking of were struggling AMs. Recently though there have been a couple FMs that haven't made sense to me though. Just this week, DLC sold one of its Taire Haute IN stations to EMF. Also Brewer sold one of its Chatinuga stations to a religious operator a few months ago resulting in a format shuffle. I want to say there was one other such example in the last year, but I can't think of what that was.

Musical chairs coming to Indiana's Wabash Valley

95.9 The Legend WVIG Seelyville, IN moves to 105.5 WZJK Terre Haute, with Bob n Tom and IU sports moving to rock 92.7 WFNB and WAMB 1130/99.5/106.9s format getting a tweak from adult standards to soft AC.

I knew the 105.5 move was happening, I wasn't aware of the rest of this.

Musical Chairs Coming Soon To Local Radio Stations

TERRE HAUTE, Ind – Locally owned media company DLC Media, Inc. www.dlcmediainc.com has filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to sell Radio Station WVIG 95.9 licensed to Seelyville, Indiana to Educational Media Foundation. Educational Media

www.959thelegend.com