…oh heck, and I mentioned Stevie and KJLH a bit earlier in the thread. 😅
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WABC's Return to Ratings Top Ten
- Thread starter Barry
- Start date
I can't believe nobody mentioned Stephen King yet. Probably not quite a billionaire but still a longtime local celebrity radio station owner in Bangor.
Curt Gowdy, the longtime NBC sportscaster, owned Boston rimshot WCGY (93.7) and at least one station in his home state of Wyoming.
50 years ago, when I went to college in Binghamton, NY, Merv owned the AM-FM combo in neighboring Endicott, NY. The AM station was WENE, and the FM station was WMRV!
Also not a billionaire,former Tonight Show host Jack Paar, owned WMTW-TV8 & WMTW-FM 94.9 in 1963.
IIRC, musician Bruce Hornsby had some sort of stake in 92.3, The Tide in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia. I don't know the extent of his involvement with WTYD or if he's even still affiliated with it. The Tide is a pretty good AAA station and is about the only place locally that will play new music from classic artists like Bruce Springsteen, Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton. I haven't listened in a while, but they used to feature some Americana as well.
I was doing afternoon drive at The Big E, WENE from 1974-1977. It was a great steppingstone station. Many major market jocks worked there on the way up.
In Atlantic City, he had WMID on AM, and on FM WGRF.
Anastos Sells Albany-Area Cluster
FOX O&O WNYW-TV (FOX 5)/NEW YORK anchor ERNIE ANASTOS' ANASTOS MEDIA GROUP, INC. is selling Adult Standards WABY-A (MOON RADIO 1160 AM)/MECHANICSVILLE-ALBANY, NY, AC WQAR (STAR 101.3)/STILLWATER-SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY, News WUAM-A/(CAPITAL NEWS 900)WATERVLIET-ALBANY, NY, and Oldies WVKZ-A (TRUE...
Here is another one Former New York City TV anchor now Gray TV host Ernie Anastos at one point had ownership in radio stations in the Albany, NY area.
True and the median age as in past examples of WABC Radio is 55-60 or up.
As in past studies to lower the median demo it would have to be between 25-54 range.
KFAS in Casa Grande, AZ was owned by none other than Francis Albert Sinatra. Why? You tell me.
Median age is somewhere just under 70.
look at the list of celebrities that are named above, and remember the time frame when they owned.
Want to end up with a million dollars by owning a radio station, invest 10 million.
IMHO in the last 20 years if anyone famous bought a stand alone or a couple of small market stations it was a vanity project.
If you have money to invest, and you want to make the highest and best return on that investment, I wouldn't think radio or TV would be the place to put money, unless you needed a loss to offset capital gains.
When the ownership caps were gutted, and radio stations were being sold for stupid money, much of the celebrity ownership sold.
Curt Gowdy bought WCGY/WCCM in 1963 ..... how much do you think they cost him? He sold some 30 years later ..... can you say massive profit
Want to end up with a million dollars by owning a radio station, invest 10 million.
IMHO in the last 20 years if anyone famous bought a stand alone or a couple of small market stations it was a vanity project.
If you have money to invest, and you want to make the highest and best return on that investment, I wouldn't think radio or TV would be the place to put money, unless you needed a loss to offset capital gains.
When the ownership caps were gutted, and radio stations were being sold for stupid money, much of the celebrity ownership sold.
Curt Gowdy bought WCGY/WCCM in 1963 ..... how much do you think they cost him? He sold some 30 years later ..... can you say massive profit
Such as John Cats. But as you said at the top of your post, consider the time frame.
So now, the companies that seem to be best positioned to buy radio are non-profits. Most of them are religious, although a lot of them are community groups. But what's to stop a non-profit such as the R&R Hall of Fame or some similar music based group from getting into the institutional broadcasting business?
After owning WJBE for a while, Brown bought WEBB in Baltimore and kind of destroyed it. At one point, it sounded like it was coming through a telephone line.
Here is another one there are two broadcasting entities that are tied to the Disney family. Note these two companies are not directly tied to Disney Inc but they are spinoff companies that owned broadcasting outlets. Shamrock Broadcasting is tied to a Roy Disney used to own radio stations once the radio stations were sold to different companies then Shamrock became known as a private equity group. Retlaw Enterprises tied to Walt Disney's heirs owned TV Stations up until the 1990's.
KJEO (Now KGPE Fresno), KMST(Now KION Monterey) were owned by Retlaw at one point.
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Didn't Van Halen at one time own at least part of a station in the NW? I think it may have been in Portland. Maybe the old Q-105?
I worked in Portland radio some years back. I don't recall a Q-105. There was the old WIGY at 105.9 a long time ago...
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