Yes. I think more stations should follow suit instead of canning the alternative format altogether.
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Alt 92.3 to Become WINS Simulcast
- Thread starter atthestars
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It would take some time but I could see 1010 being sold off to a Spanish language broadcaster.
If it was not for 94.7 adding a morning show I would have thought they would be next and switch to new Alternative. Alt 92.3 did best-well in the rating in the burbs - the Middlesex-Somerset-Union book.
If it was not for 94.7 adding a morning show I would have thought they would be next and switch to new Alternative. Alt 92.3 did best-well in the rating in the burbs - the Middlesex-Somerset-Union book.
It looks like it will be up to John Allers as to what happens there.
That assumes, of course, that every holder of every share of stock would be willing to sell at $0.34 a share. Obviously, that ain't gonna happen. Also, purchasing 100 percent of outstanding shares on the open market would do nothing to alleviate the company of its massive debt load.
The reasons the stock price have plummeted include disappointing cash flow performance, shrinking liquidity, and shrinking financial maintenance covenant (i.e. net leverage ratio) headroom following the company pumping tens upon tens of millions of dollars into capex (mostly for digital media) over the past couple of years. The number actually falls somewhere between $100 million and $200 million, if I remember correctly. I'm too lazy to pull up 10K and 10Q filings right now. The company has been burning through a big pile of cash.
Raising additional capital via debt issuance isn't going to be so easy now given the rising rate environment that now exists, and of course, at some point the company needs to be able demonstrate to investors that it is capable of generating meaningful free cash flow on a fairly consistent basis. Last autumn, the company issued something like $45 million or $50 million of new notes at a 6.875% rate. That door perhaps has now shut, and even if issuance of new tranches of debt remains an option under the credit agreement / master note indenture(s) in place today, that paper would likely have to offer yields a heck of a lot higher than 6.875% to gin up investor interest.
I think most investors have reached the conclusion that a reorganization, likely via Chapter 11, is inevitable. *If* the company can get its capex spending under control while stabilizing ebitda, I think it could conceivably dodge bankruptcy for a few years. They might need lenders to consent to a net leverage ratio covenant modification in the meantime.
What the Company has done in Las Vegas and Miami recently are attempts to buttress the liquidity and recurring operational cash flow challenges, and I suspect the Company is not done making surgical-type maneuvers. I would be surprised if some real estate doesn't go on the market by 2023, and similar to what recently occurred in Las Vegas, I could see some trades or divestitures involving individual stations or clusters that aren't good cash flow performers.
We'll almost definitely be hearing about some headcount reductions soon with regard to the newly combined news operation in New York, too.
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KGO died from multiple self-inflicted wounds, the worst being ABC brass and Mickey Luckoff being totally unable to realize the impact of the PPM.
Correct, especially because David Field & his father still own a big chunk of stock. Of course, one way for them to save their company is to bring in someone with deep pockets from outside of radio who could absorb some of that debt.
I don't think that's true, because investors don't gain from that. Certainly, the Fields don't gain from that. The thing that changed Cumulus was when Lew Dickey cashed out a lot of his stock in 2010 to the investment company that ultimately fired him. He lost equity in his own company and became another employee. The turning point with Citadel was when Teddy Forstmann felt he'd made enough from the deal, and was ready to let the ship sink. I don't think the Field family is at that point yet here. They may be if they sell out to someone else.
I think a lot of that has already happened this year with retirements and buyouts. I just don't think they'll be replaced. The way the union works (and I was a member of two unions) is it always protects its members. They will be grandfathered. It's the new employees who'll be starting from scratch.
He is Audacy’s hero of the day due to what he accomplished with KVIL. Understandably he’s probably being considered the best person for the job of managing the remaining Alt stations. We’ll see if under his steerage things will get better. He’s managed to at least stop the bleeding at the other Alts he oversees, with a couple turning it around and having some decent ratings besides KVIL. It’s a shame he won’t get the chance to turn WNYL around too.
It’s been posted before that 92.3 bills decently. What’s the point of taking millions off the table to cater to a format already billing well on am dial - and a format that’s not guaranteed to grow on fm?
NYRadioFan22
Banned
I really hope alternative rock returns in some form permanently!!!! I really thought ALT 92.3 would be the one!!!
It’s wild that we’ve all posted how expensive it is to change formats, yet we’ve seen companies pull trigger and change formats without even giving them a try to fix. Its been said before that radio isn’t in the music distribution business, but all of a sudden they’re in the news distribution business? I currently work in tv news. What percentage gets their news from radio, in which they don’t already get it from tv or social media? This is exactly why younger audiences are ditching radio. Radio, like local tv news is stuck in the past. In tv, we’re adding 12 more hours a day (exaggeration) of news, on very limited staffs. Why oversaturate markets with news as a quick fix and breed creativity and invest in the current product? Let’s keep shoving news down people‘s throats when many are looking to get away from depressing topics! Do I dare share links of how many abandoned news during and after COVID? Everyone has said for months, “news needs to go on 92.3”. But no one has said why other than “well they’re struggling in 6+ so they must flip!”
If im the owner of two pizza joints that sit right next to each other in nyc, that serves the exact same menu, no one would think in a few years that it might be an issue?
If the two pizza joints each made $30 million last year, for a total of $60 million together, what would you do?
You seem to be creating a problem here. These stations are equally successful after 25 years side by side.
It's not "all of a sudden." Both of these radio stations have been doing news since the mid 1960s. So it's over 50 years. These stations have their own reporters who cover and deliver these stories. Radio stations don't own record labels. They don't have employees who perform original music. They play recordings that are owned by other companies. However they own the news content they deliver. Same with talk shows. The radio companies own those shows. Not the music.
There is nothing radio can provide that can't be found someplace else. Same with music. Why should radio play music if people can get the songs they want from Spotify? Seems to me the reason younger people are ditching radio is because they want specific songs rather than hear playlists made by someone else. Does Spotify provide news? No. However radio news stations also provide their news to social media where people can get it as well. They can do that because they own the news content. They don't own music.
The station is struggling in all demographics. Even young people don't like the station. Check these boards and you'll see everyone disliked the music, the personalities, and the commercials. The music was either too pop or too old. There was nothing they did right. On the other hand, WINS is a popular radio station. People listen to it even though it's on AM. So now they can hear it on FM, and they won't complain about the music anymore.
New Arrivals seemed to be a place for Alt to put the new music they didn't intend to play as a way to placate the labels. Or perhaps more generously, it was intended to allow listeners flip between the old music on the main channel and new music on HD2 while staying within the Alt brand. Whatever the case, I'd be surprised if in continues on an HD subchannel after the flip.
I would normally concur but Audacy actually seems to be putting some effort in its New York Country subchannel on 94.7-HD2. It's hosted and i believe there are some sponsors, so I guess we'll see what they do with Alt.
One thing I will say is that K-Rock never sounded better musically than during the time it was on HD2 during the 92.3 NOW-FM days. You never know, Alt might actually improve when they move to HD and there's less pressure to micromanage the playlist. Probably way fewer spot breaks too. Maybe there will be a bright side to this for HD Radio owners.
The New York Metro Survey Area extends out to the East End of Suffolk. AM sort of reaches there, but the ESB FMs do not. So for the immediate future... meaning five years or more... the AM should remain.
In the case of SF, the AM covers more of the market than the FM. In Atlanta, the AM is limited by the terrible ground conductivity.
The real issue is "What else can they do with a big old AM?"
The two news stations are each tailored geographically. WINS, which is directional and does not cover much of the New Jersey segment of the NYC market, aims at Manhattan and the Boroughs. WCBS aims for Jersey and Long Island and the upstate counties in the metro.
The "alt" brand should just die out on audacy stations and return them to being local. Entercom at one time used to know how to program alternative stations (like krbz a while back or knrk.) Now they're the worst sounding, even behind iheart and cumulus. Alternative as a whole has some of the most passionate listeners of any genre and if you find the right sub-set, I think you'd hit a gold mine of listeners. There's plenty of different Alternative artists releasing music right now.
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Great points! But, is a radio message board a fair barometer of what 92.3 should do. From reading each message board, you’d think rock music should be illegal and that apparently only white people listen to alternative.
as far as wins providing content for their social media. The amount of followers wins has on twitter alone doesn’t even come close to pix 11 or news 12 which has the fewest amount of followers of any nyc tv stations. Combine those numbers with wins? Still not close. In fact on Facebook, the numbers are far worse.
With certain rock stations doing better in demos lately, I feel we’re starting to see that the alt- pop genre is not what audiences are looking for, but harder rock. I mean 92.3 is cuming at or over 938,000. Its not like people aren’t listening. I need help understanding recently hiring a guy to fix music issues, and he was, and then you pull the carpet underneath everyone? Then eliminating close to $10 million of your billing?
how popular are Hank Williams, sr., George strait and lefty frizzell in New York city?
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