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WABC's Return to Ratings Top Ten

B

Barry

InsideRadio has an interesting interview with Chad Lopez, President of Red Apple Media, which owns WABC 770 AM. He discusses what he feels are the reasons for the talk/music station's much improved ratings. Since they took it over from Cumulus, they have nearly doubled. Lopez also reiterates that they intend to buy more stations.
From InsideRadio
 
Barry said:
InsideRadio has an interesting interview with Chad Lopez, President of Red Apple Media, which owns WABC 770 AM. He discusses what he feels are the reasons for the talk/music station's much improved ratings. Since they took it over from Cumulus, they have nearly doubled. Lopez also reiterates that they intend to buy more stations.
From InsideRadio
Click to expand...
All the increase is in 55+ and there, mostly in 65 and over. In April WABC was 23rd in 25-54, 4th in 55+ and 2nd in 65+.

The May book will be out later today.
 
TheBigA said:
New York needs more local billionaires to buy radio stations. They could have bought WPLJ and saved it from EMF.
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I think the billionaires like talk format stations... look at Bloomberg!
 
TheBigA said:
New York needs more local billionaires to buy radio stations. They could have bought WPLJ and saved it from EMF.
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Billionaires don't buy radio stations in Knoxville, Tennessee. There was a nice cluster of 2 Class Cs and 2 Class As. The billionaire is building a baseball stadium.
 
TheBigA said:
New York needs more local billionaires to buy radio stations. They could have bought WPLJ and saved it from EMF.
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There is no shortage of rock artists and bands from both NYC and New Jersey that could have purchased WPLJ. (Springsteen? Jon Bon Jovi?) I mean, Stevie Wonder has owned KJLH for decades.

The opportunity existed but no one was interested. If no one wanted to play the game, that’s all you need to know.
 
Nathan Obral said:
There is no shortage of rock artists and bands from both NYC and New Jersey that could have purchased WPLJ. (Springsteen? Jon Bon Jovi?) I mean, Stevie Wonder has owned KJLH for decades.

The opportunity existed but no one was interested. If no one wanted to play the game, that’s all you need to know.
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I thought the same thing about Boston when rock station WAAF was sold to EMF two years ago. WAAF could have been bought by a consortium of musicians who have been members of three of Boston's greatest rock bands: Aerosmith, Boston, and the Cars. If such a consortium had bought the station, then the slogan might have become "Boston's Greatest and Today's Rock," with the station playing mainly modern rock, but playing a song from one of the three aforementioned bands every half hour. But as you said, no one was interested.
 
Nathan Obral said:
The opportunity existed but no one was interested. If no one wanted to play the game, that’s all you need to know.
Click to expand...

There was a time when a lot of artists and celebrities owned radio stations. Buck Owens, Pat Zajak, the Oak Ridge Boys. They've all sold. They may have been good investments at one time, but not any more. Plus, you read all the complaints people have about radio playlists. If you're an artist, the negativity hurts your image and legacy.
 
TheBigA said:
There was a time when a lot of artists and celebrities owned radio stations. Buck Owens, Pat Zajak, the Oak Ridge Boys. They've all sold. They may have been good investments at one time, but not any more. Plus, you read all the complaints people have about radio playlists. If you're an artist, the negativity hurts your image and legacy.
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Gene Autry was probably the most famous celebrity/entertainer and he turned the hobby of broadcast station ownership into a point of pride. But even he knew when to call it a day, and his properties were eventually sold off to corporate interests.
 
TheBigA said:
There was a time when a lot of artists and celebrities owned radio stations. Buck Owens, Pat Zajak, the Oak Ridge Boys. They've all sold. They may have been good investments at one time, but not any more. Plus, you read all the complaints people have about radio playlists. If you're an artist, the negativity hurts your image and legacy.
Click to expand...
And it seemed that most artists with stations wanted a "hometown station" or a "trophy station". With consolidation, owning a single station or just one AM/FM combo became economically problematic. I don't think artists who liked radio wanted to make the commitment to expansion.
 
Nathan Obral said:
Gene Autry was probably the most famous celebrity/entertainer and he turned the hobby of broadcast station ownership into a point of pride. But even he knew when to call it a day, and his properties were eventually sold off to corporate interests.
Click to expand...
Many if not most of the Gene Autrey sales were done by his wife when Gene became unable to manage his own affairs. In fact, a number of deals were made in long term LMAs to be closed upon his death; that was a tax consideration.
 
Nathan Obral said:
Gene Autry was probably the most famous celebrity/entertainer and he turned the hobby of broadcast station ownership into a point of pride. But even he knew when to call it a day, and his properties were eventually sold off to corporate interests.
Click to expand...
Gene Autry's stations in the 60's and 70's were the cream of the crop in the personality MOR business. KMPC, KEX and KVI were admired and much written about in the trades.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Many if not most of the Gene Autrey sales were done by his wife when Gene became unable to manage his own affairs. In fact, a number of deals were made in long term LMAs to be closed upon his death; that was a tax consideration.
Click to expand...
Was KSCA one of those deals or was that a straightforward sale to Heftel?
 
Nathan Obral said:
Was KSCA one of those deals or was that a straightforward sale to Heftel?
Click to expand...
It was one of those. They had a Golden West employee at KSCA full time for about 3 years to "protect the license".
 
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