According to RadioInsight, Audacy has sold some stations in Buffalo and Memphis to EMF. Will market #5 be next?
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The Audacy sale starts...
- Thread starter neosolbrudda
- Start date
Those were legacy Entercom stations. They have owned WTSS for about 25 years, WLFP for about 24. When Sinclair (The TV company) started getting rid of radio, Entercom was the one buying. They over 41 stations from Sinclair.
They will likely get rid of more. Whatever can get them the most money, without causing too much damage. If it's a successful station like WTSS, they have low rated sister stations in the cluster like WLKK that they could shift the format to if they wanted.
They will likely get rid of more. Whatever can get them the most money, without causing too much damage. If it's a successful station like WTSS, they have low rated sister stations in the cluster like WLKK that they could shift the format to if they wanted.
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Lots of rumors, and at this point that's all they are, that Audacy and EMF will do something that gets their K-Love into Dallas.
A lot has changed on the EMF side in the past few months. This was originally going to be a much larger deal that likely involved Dallas. That's not happening now.
Awww shucks... EMF is not going to buy any more properties, (for now), in the DFW....
Both WLFP and WTSS were Sinclair properties when Entercom/Audacy acquired them. They were acquired at the same time. Keymarket got into Memphis in the mid-to-late 80’s when it swapped its Detroit station to Viacom for WRVR 680/104.5. It acquired what's now WLFP in the early 90’s. I believe WTSS, then WMJQ, was a Keymarket property, and it got WWKB/WKSE in the early 90’s after Price bowed out of radio. River City acquired Keymarket and sold to Sinclair a year or two later. Sinclair expanded in a big way after the Telecommunications Act when it bought Heritage Media, though it likely wanted its TV stations rather than the radio. Dallas-based Heritage merged with Fox in a Morris Trust, and Fox subsequently got rid of Heritage's broadcast properties.
Heritage Media owned radio the cluster up here. Sinclair already owned one of the TV stations and had an LMA for the other. Sinclair bought Heritage Media in '98. They flipped one to CHR and another to Brokered Christian, Ethnic. Entercom bought them 1999.
The FCC was not too thrilled with Sinclair, particularly for running a duopoly before that was allowed. Owning 3 radio stations in addition likely made them even more annoyed, although they got rid of the duopoly restriction that same year.
The FCC was not too thrilled with Sinclair, particularly for running a duopoly before that was allowed. Owning 3 radio stations in addition likely made them even more annoyed, although they got rid of the duopoly restriction that same year.
Like I said I don’t see Audacy selling Any stations that are in top 50 markets NYC through Hartford. Markets outside of that could be at risk
That was exactly the rumor, and the supposed DFW deal actually made a lot of sense for both sides. Looks like EMF backed out.
Lance Venta has promised a more detailed explanation of the Buffalo deal on RadioInsight in the next few days.
If Audacy is going to sell any Texas properties I would keep an eye on KKMJ, KAMX, and KJCE in Austin. They might dump daytimer KIKK 650 in Houston just to get it out of their hair.
An interesting intellectual property thought experiment: While it would never happen, if Audacy, or some future owner of KLUV was to launch a CCM format on 98.7 while retaining the K-Love branding, is there anything EMF could legally do about it?
That sounds about right. I moved to KC in 1997 a month or two after the Fox/Heritage deal was announced. I was a regular listener to 101 The Fox and 106.5 The City, and both were airing announcements about the deal as required by the FCC (at least at the time). If I remember correctly, Heritage owned a direct marketing business Fox wanted. It immediately put the Heritage TV and radio stations into a trust. I was told Cox also bid on the Sinclair radio stations, but its bid was short of the roughly $820 million Entercom offered.
Sinclair had been accused of skirting the TV ownership rules before the duopoly restrictions were relaxed. I seem to remember it backed down at least once. Now, that seems almost like child's play since almost everyone is doing it. Even in markets where two big four aren’t supposed to merge, sidecar companies make it happen.
If they sold the 98.7 IP, Audacy could easily find some different calls and rename it “Big 98.7” if they kept the physical station - or they could sell the whole deal and merge KLUV and Jack’s formats to a more updated classic hits format.
Austin is a cluster they owned as Entercom long before the whole CBS/Audacy thing. Most of the clusters they’re probably going to unload, if any are entirely, will likely be former Entercom clusters that no longer make sense or benefit the current company. Their divestures in Memphis and Buffalo add to that, both divested stations are long term pre-CBS Entercom stations also.
Donations are probably down a bit given the state of the economy. They probably didn't want to overpay for the IP plus the station
Is KLUV and JACK looking for a Program Director?
Bombshell dropped in Houston this afternoon. Looks like Radio One is in a buying mood. Could they go after the Service Broadcasting stations in DFW?
Radio One has made it very clear they want to get out of operating primarily urban stations, and their recent acquisitions in Charlotte, Indianapolis, and Houston reflect that. I don’t see them spending $$ on stations that don’t further that agenda and get their feet wet in other formats.
Supposedly, Urban One came close to buying Service a few years ago. If that were to happen, I'd guess we'd see at least one format change.
I don’t think Radio One will buy Service while Hyman Childs is still alive, but who knows at this point.
Just for laughs and giggles, if that did happen, what would they do with 104.5 and 105.7?
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