wtrw said:
Keep dreaming!
These NovaM Radio folks are the same ones that announced they'd pick up
50 stations in the following 12 months. They RENTED one... North Little Rock.
They also said they'd pick up 100 stations over the next three years. So far, the only thing that has happened, is another liberal group has committed (hasn't given) to financing them up to $3 million dollars for their operations...not acquisitions!
They had at least two different brokers calling all over East Wisconsin, and had a couple of stations dropped in their laps, including allegedly a million dollar deal at Milwaukee-Racine, and even a cheap deal to purchase a station around the Sheboygan-Fondy area and they passed on them both.
They just lost their flagship station in NYC, and moving to a smaller signal at 1600 in NYC. They have no nighttime service over Chicago...not a watt. They could have worked out a deal for Clear Channel's 1690 on the southwest side of Chicago and had 10kw days and 1kw nights, but they passed on that, too!
They cut airstaff in NYC, and seem to be on life support...
And, want to hear the 'drab' programming, tune into 92.1 in Sun Prairie, where they are on most of the time, unless they cut out for Ed Schultz in the afternoon! Schultz is with another network...so even Air America can't program a full day of programming. The weekends are loaded with 'best of' shows, too. Pete and repeat...
Shelly and Anita Drobny are not going to come to the Wausau area, unless they get the station for free... and somebody else pays them to keep it going.
Finally, pull up Madison ratings. Everyone in Wisconsin says, Madison is so liberal, it's their own planet. Look at those Air America ratings.... they stink!
Hmm... where to start.
Well, how about New York. Let's face it, outside of WABC, WOR, WCBS, WINS, etc., there aren't a whole lot of big FM stations available. I'd say AAR didn't do too bad for themselves, as they wound up with a station that has a relatively decent signal. I swear, the way you hear conservatives squawking, it sounds like they're going to some 500 watt daytimer in the 'burbs. However, a 25,000 watt day/5,000 watt night signal, even at 1600AM, is not bad for New York. And, from what I hear, they're not leasing time with WWRL either (not confirmed).
Meanwhile, in Chicago, Clear Channel, for some reason, wanted to keep WRLL going for awhile. They were rumored to flip to libtalk, but decided to stay the course and try to build their 'real oldies' into a brand. CC finally threw in the towel last week, but libtalk was already taken. The other AM stations in Chicago are either the big dogs (WGN, WBBM, WLS, etc.) or tiny brokered outlets/ATM machines that make money with ethnic programming). So that leaves a bunch of little rimshot stations and whatever Starboard hasn't bought for their own radio network. The programming was available, so Newsweb grabbed it. And seeing that WCPT is doing better in the ratings than it really should, perhaps they'll move it to FM (NINE-FM is falling hard). From what I've heard, they're taking a 'wait and see' approach (though, if I were Newsweb, I'd take 92.7 in Arlington Heights and 92.7 down south and simulcast them with WCPT, leaving NINE on 99.9 and 92.5, super-serving the suburbs).
WMCS in Milwaukee turned them down for a lease deal, but they already have a brokerage deal with WAUK for sports programming at night.
Another owner offered to sell to Nova M in Milwaukee. Asking price? Closer to $5M.
Ratings for WXXM in Madison are actually pretty good. 92.1 has been getting better ratings with its current format than it's previous ones. The weak signal hinders them quite a bit. I'm sorry that you consider them a failure because they're not the top station in the market, but I think some so-called 'radio experts' have pretty ridiculous expectations to define success. I thought it was a good move for Clear Channel. And Clear Channel picked them up as a network affiliate, adding Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz, as is the most common approach. Nova M is just trying to buy into a few markets where no owner has budged yet.
