great info. thanks
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ESPN 98.7 FM to be no more come August 31, 2024
- Thread starter NYAZSporty
- Start date
I love Q104.3, but it would be nice to have another station to choose from. Normally, I switch to 102.3 WBAB but if I am going to far west, BAB's signal only carries as far as Western Nassau. Another rocker like good old WNEW 102.7 with a mix of the old 92.3 K-Rock would be great. They could then potentially add an HD2 for "Back Wall" classic rock songs like the ones you don't hear again and again on Q and BAB.
At a certain point you have to ask yourself if Jeff priced himself out of the market by charging that amount of money at the outset.
I think that price tag in today's market–just for the transmitter and the stick (licenses are **supposed** to hold no monetary value)–is unrealistic. Smulyan will be lucky if he gets half that amount.
WXPN's annual budget is $9 million. It would be a huge stretch for them to buy a $25 million signal. (if they negotiated that with tax incentives)
The KEXP example in San Francisco was for $7 million. And a big chunk of that came from one donor.
Apparently 'formats' are very finite as well. They are divvied up to the nth degree to avoid conflict with same market cluster mates and there hasn't been anything new in formats or presentations in ages, even when the $$$ was good. Everything's Up To Date In Kansas City; They've Gone About As Far As They Can Go! Oh well, and in light of asset impairment what does any of it matter? Cheer me up please.
That's one way of looking at it. But if you're in a format that plays currents, the MUSIC is the variable, and the music is always changing and evolving. And if you want to attract the same basic demo, the audience itself is always changing. So that means adapting to those changes in terms of presentation, dealing with staff retirements and budget contractions. The 25-54 demo now wants something very different from what that same demo wanted 20 years ago. AC is no longer AC, and CHR is realizing that just playing currents 125 times a week isn't enough when the goal of the music is no longer strictly radio airplay.
Bringing this back to WEPN, the situation there likely will have nothing to do with traditional formats and audience demos. So that will shake up the radio marketplace completely, in the way that the sale of WPLJ did, rather than more of the same old, same old. If you work at WEPN, your situation has changed, even if your format hasn't, because you've now lost 98.7 as a platform. The assumptions you've worked under no longer exist because that dependable audience either has to find you on AM or the ESPN app.
Does any of that cheer you up?
To be blunt, if the asking price was $30 million (or even at a bargain of $25 million), Smulyan could have had a legit bidding war going on. Instead, he demanded too much and screwed up big-time, and may be forced to continue operating the signal at a loss when they have no resources to even do a filler format.
Jeff Smulyan had only one job. One job.
I seriously doubt it will cheer up BLA. What most of these posters really mean is that there is no format that appeals to their specific taste at any given moment in time. They also assume (incorrectly) that because they like something at that given moment, then of course almost everyone else must also like it. So, therefore, radio is in decline because the "suits" don't get it.
This is, of course, absurd. But years of reading similar posts seem to follow this thread.
Until we know what the final price is, there is absolutely zero way to come to this conclusion. You're basing your entire theory on a rumored asking price. Sure there is a supply of an FM signal in New York, but there is also little demand.
Emmis has a decades long history of maximizing returns on its asset sales or even the 98.7 lease. Is it possible that Smulyan misread the market for what it is worth now? Perhaps. But we do not even know who the bidders have been and what they offered. Sometimes it only takes one trigger to change the demand for a station.
Also you're under the assumption that Emmis will retake over operations of 98.7 at the end of August. We don't know that for fact yet.
Which is fine and appropriate. Commercial radio formats aren't mainly designed to appeal to listeners. They're designed to deliver demos to advertisers. If you're not in the demo, then you probably need to look elsewhere. Non-commercial radio is very different. They don't really care about demos or advertisers. So if you're outside the target, you'll likely find more of what you want there.
But truthfully, there's no replacement for your own personal music collection. If you really want your burger done your way, you probably have to make it yourself. That doesn't mean the burger joints have to go out of business. Every format has always played some songs that the listeners didn't like. But listeners were more tolerant. Now, they expect radio stations to be like Spotify, except without users giving them personal information. Radio stations don't work that way. If you want a format that plays only what you want, subscribe to a music service and make your own playlists. That's what the music industry wants you to do.
As we've been saying, this whole process with 98.7 will be determined by the new owner. If the new owner wants a dance station, that's what it will be. If the new owner wants a religious station, that's what it will be. It's unlikely that the format will be anything that appeals to any of the regular posters here.
The OP gave two options: Sell the station, or sign a new LMA. A filler format wasn't an option, likely because Emmis has no radio operations staff or studio to carry that out. A filler format means no revenue for Emmis. If anyone is going to run a filler format, it will be the buyer. But given the fact that the station has been publicly on the market for an entire year, there's no reason for there not to be a buyer by now. The only thing we're waiting on is an announcement, and there's no reason it has to happen before mid-August.
Meaning current pop, religious, or tight-playlist, rock-leaning classic hits? Those seem to be the formats that draw the most negative comments, IMO. Dollar-a-holler infomercial programming and leased ethnic also tick a lot of armchair PDs off, but I can't see those last-resort formats being placed on a New York FM.
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He never demanded anything. He confirmed an ASKING price of $50 million. He also said this last September:
Everything is a negotiation. He has his asking price, and a buyer makes an offer. All of it is done in private. When the two sides want to make an announcement, they know the trade press will cover the story. Just as they did a year ago.
Don't forget the Spanish formats, which the mostly monoligual RD audience can't understand.
If anything, New York is underserved when it comes to Spanish stations, compared with Miami and LA, at least.
Most sellers will set the initial asking price high. The days when a lower asking price results in a bidding war are over. These days, most stations sell below asking price. Even in NYC, suitors will be few. Smulyan knew that when he set the price at $50 million. While he might've scared off potential buyers with a price that high, he knew setting the asking price at $35 million was going to result in a haircut.
But he also knows the amount of money he needs to buy out his stockholders. That's what this is about. That price was set in an agreement made last summer. So the money he makes from this station, subtracting commissions and other expenses, is the amount he has to buy out the stockholders.
The programming was also more creative. There are a few radio personalities who have the freedom to do an open format and it draws an audience that is more loyal.
And naturally they’re going to want to see the best ROI.
I’ll tune in the first week if it’s any music format. If it’s a format I really like then I’ll continue to stream them. I rather see any music format than religious or talk. That’s on the new owner(s) to decide.
That's total mythology. After the payola scandal of the 1950s, radio stations took music decisions out of the hands of DJs.
There may have been a few exceptions, but they were not at popular stations. The ones I know about bought the airtime from the stations, so they could pick the music themselves. But the popular stations had music directors who made those decisions.
KEXP has been one of the organizations supported by Paul Allen's foundation. (Paul was co-founder of Microsoft, along with Bill Gates, and has financially assisted KEXP over the years. Paul himself died back in 2018.) Whether the Allen Foundation was the specific donor who helped KEXP acquire KREV/92.7 here in SF last year, that I don't know.
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