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Boston's Top Billing Stations

G

Gregg.

As the #10 market, several Boston stations are among the best billing in the U.S. These stats are from last year from BIA Kelsey. Note that #1 and #2 are sports stations.

1. WBZ-FM ... Sports ... Beasley ... $32,775,000. It's the fifth best billing station in the U.S.

2. WEEI-FM ... Sports ... Audacy ... $23,625,000. The home of the Red Sox.

3. WXKS-FM ... Top 40 ... iHeart ... $19,875,000

4. WBZ ... All-News (Talk evenings) ... iHeart ... $15,625,000
 
I wonder how WBZ's billing compares to that of other major market AMs that have no FM simulcasts or translators. And what has the trend been? Is 'BZ's billing holding steady or dropping year after year? What will the tipping point be -- the point where the writing is on the wall for the old medium wave band and iHeart blows up one of its music FMs and simulcasts 'BZ there?
 
There is an account somewhere that will add up the cost of losing the music FMs positive cash flow against the expected gain of the AM. (If any). Younger demos seem to be what most agencies want. It might not ever happen due to older demos (55+). When WSB got 95.5 there was a rumor that an increase of $10 a commercial would make up the revenue lost by dropping the music on 95.5. I believe Cox did more than that. In Bosten you have a geographically smaller market than Atlanta.

This part of the Southeast has horrible ground conductivity so I bet WBZ's static free coverage of the key areas of the market is better than WSB trying to cover Atlanta's expanded market. The only "joker in the deck" is if someone really wants to develop the land at WBZ's transmitter site, and the new site doesn't work as well. IIRC 1510 has had issues with an antenna site for a while.

I believe the Family not the corporation owns most of the AM sites at Beasley.
 
This demonstrates you can BUY revenue by paying the fortunes required for obtaining sports teams broadcasting rights. This is more about purchases than sales.
At least for numbers 1 and 2 and their outsized numbers.

It has littie to do with station popularity. Or even sales prowess. More to do with sports teams popularity and marketability. The lowest rated station in town could rocket higher on this list if it chose to buy these revs. And didn’t care about profits. Or simply chose to operate its sales departments to fund its sports buy.

This is a big sports town.
 
BostonRadioListener said:
This demonstrates you can BUY revenue by paying the fortunes required for obtaining sports teams broadcasting rights. This is more about purchases than sales.
At least for numbers 1 and 2 and their outsized numbers.

It has littie to do with station popularity. Or even sales prowess. More to do with sports teams popularity and marketability. The lowest rated station in town could rocket higher on this list if it chose to buy these revs. And didn’t care about profits. Or simply chose to operate its sales departments to fund its sports buy.

This is a big sports town.
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Don't know about Boston, but in Atlanta the Braves haven't allowed 680 The Fan to pass 92.9 The Game 6+ this summer like in the past.* I don't know about the billings.

* Hope this year was a fluke with all the injuries.
 
secondchoice said:
There is an account somewhere that will add up the cost of losing the music FMs positive cash flow against the expected gain of the AM. (If any). Younger demos seem to be what most agencies want. It might not ever happen due to older demos (55+). When WSB got 95.5 there was a rumor that an increase of $10 a commercial would make up the revenue lost by dropping the music on 95.5. I believe Cox did more than that. In Bosten you have a geographically smaller market than Atlanta.

This part of the Southeast has horrible ground conductivity so I bet WBZ's static free coverage of the key areas of the market is better than WSB trying to cover Atlanta's expanded market. The only "joker in the deck" is if someone really wants to develop the land at WBZ's transmitter site, and the new site doesn't work as well. IIRC 1510 has had issues with an antenna site for a while.

I believe the Family not the corporation owns most of the AM sites at Beasley.
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Land at the sites was "sold" to the Beasley family at very low prices. So, the stock holders take it in the shorts and the Beasley family makes out like bandits. Is that even legal?
 
johnster said:
Umm am I missing something? WBZ is owned by iHeart WBZ-FM Beasley.
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I don't think you missed anything, because no one here has suggested that WBZ-AM be simulcast on any of iHeart's FMs - yet.

If iHeart did decide to simulcast AM 1030 on an FM frequency, would they be willing to pay Beasley big bucks for the WBZ-FM call sign? But do they really need that call sign? In Providence, news-talk WPRO-AM 630 is simulcast on WEAN-FM 99.7, since WPRO-FM 92.3 (co-owned with 'PRO AM) is still carrying music.
 
And now you understand why iHeart wanted Rich Shertenlieb to succeed so badly. If they could even get a fraction of WBZ's success, that would have raked in dollars.
 
bigdonho said:
Land at the sites was "sold" to the Beasley family at very low prices. So, the stock holders take it in the shorts and the Beasley family makes out like bandits. Is that even legal?
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I was told when Beasley went public the land stayed with the Family. Even if that wasn't true, iHeart and Cumulus sold their land and I believe they really sold it cheap too.

Cell companies will rent sites in the correct location for more than some AM stations make. And with the limited range of 5g they will need more. As long as you don't go higher, you can usually replace an AM tower and not have to fight Nimbys as hard if you don't go higher. I know one operator that "repaired" his AM tower with an extra large gauge tower, no hearings, no FCC* or FAA filings (same height no lighting) only a County building permit, then had 2 cell companies rent space from him.

*The crew started Friday morning and finished before lunch on Monday. I believe I would have filed an STA but sometimes people "forget" to file and turn off the FM translator.
 
nowradioguy said:
I don't think you missed anything, because no one here has suggested that WBZ-AM be simulcast on any of iHeart's FMs - yet.

If iHeart did decide to simulcast AM 1030 on an FM frequency, would they be willing to pay Beasley big bucks for the WBZ-FM call sign? But do they really need that call sign? In Providence, news-talk WPRO-AM 630 is simulcast on WEAN-FM 99.7, since WPRO-FM 92.3 (co-owned with 'PRO AM) is still carrying music.
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Unnecessary expense as the FM doesn't use the calls in the branding, TV's more of an issue. You'd probably hear a lot more "NewsRadio 1030 and ____"
 
RadioGuy1864 said:
Sports AM's will be the last AM stations to die.
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And some preaching stations, and many foreign language stations that reach smaller immigrant communities.
 
secondchoice said:
I was told when Beasley went public the land stayed with the Family. Even if that wasn't true, iHeart and Cumulus sold their land and I believe they really sold it cheap too.
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It wasn't. The Beasley Broadcast Group went public in 2000. The tower spinoff to Beasley Family Towers happened over time, starting in 2005.

The Beasley family has since sold almost all of the towers to an unrelated third party -- presumably Vertical Bridge or a similar lessor, but the SEC document didn't specify the buyer.

The one transaction price I could find between Beasley Broadcast Group and Beasley Family Towers was for $1.4 million for one tower in Savannah. That doesn't seem unduly cheap.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
It wasn't. The Beasley Broadcast Group went public in 2000. The tower spinoff to Beasley Family Towers happened over time, starting in 2005.

The Beasley family has since sold almost all of the towers to an unrelated third party -- presumably Vertical Bridge or a similar lessor, but the SEC document didn't specify the buyer.

The one transaction price I could find between Beasley Broadcast Group and Beasley Family Towers was for $1.4 million for one tower in Savannah. That doesn't seem unduly cheap.
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If they bought the land for "book value" nobody will object too much.
 
I never followed the Northeast very much but how did WBZ AM / FM get split up? I know the WSM FM sale was to finance a hotel / resort by a company that radio broadcasting was a "sideline" but iHeartRadio and Beasley both are "serious" radio operators.
 
secondchoice said:
I never followed the Northeast very much but how did WBZ AM / FM get split up? I know the WSM FM sale was to finance a hotel / resort by a company that radio broadcasting was a "sideline" but iHeartRadio and Beasley both are "serious" radio operators.
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CBS, the former owner of both WBZ AM and FM, sold off all of their radio stations nationwide in 2017.
The CBS stations were at first slated to go to Entercom (now Audacy), but taking all of them, along with the stations they already owned, would have put them over ownership limits in Boston and other major cities.
The process of distributing the former CBS stations was more complicated, but it ended up with WBZ AM owned by iHeart and WBZ-FM owned by Beasley.
 


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