At What Point Will 94.7 WFME Be Sold?

[secondchoice]

* IIRC Disney got cash for the ABC Radio division so they did not have as strong of a "case" or right as the folks that were owed money from Citadel (bond holders etc.)

Therefore, Disney was not a creditor in the proceedings, thus the contract remains in force, and Disney still owns all the call letter rights. That's why they were able to keep those call letters, and Disney can use those same letters for the TVs.

Let's assume that the Disney contract was not voided, since I have no reason to believe it was. Cumulus is still paying Disney for the use of ABC News Radio, and several other aspects of the Citadel deal are still in force. So my question is can Cumulus make any call letter changes without getting permission from Disney?

All I am saying with the Citadel bankruptcy the court could have voided the Call letter deal between Disney and Citadel. Also there was not much Disney could have done to stop it. Of course WABC TV could not have been forced to change...(I think). Bankruptcy Judges have a lot of flexibility in cancelling contracts. Citadel could have gotten out of "severance" packages of folks they canned of course if you do that then the non competes goes away Some one who has access the the Bankruptcy file and and nothing else to do (I am sure this file is huge) could find this out. It is public record but not all public records are on the internet. There most likely is an "insider" lurking on this board that knows.

 

[TheBigA]

They quickly renewed the ABC News Radio and ESPN Radio aspects of the contract, and they involved paying money, so I assume the call letter clause was included with all that.

 

[nd2023]

* IIRC Disney got cash for the ABC Radio division so they did not have as strong of a "case" or right as the folks that were owed money from Citadel (bond holders etc.)

Therefore, Disney was not a creditor in the proceedings, thus the contract remains in force, and Disney still owns all the call letter rights. That's why they were able to keep those call letters, and Disney can use those same letters for the TVs.

Let's assume that the Disney contract was not voided, since I have no reason to believe it was. Cumulus is still paying Disney for the use of ABC News Radio, and several other aspects of the Citadel deal are still in force. So my question is can Cumulus make any call letter changes without getting permission from Disney?

All I am saying with the Citadel bankruptcy the court could have voided the Call letter deal between Disney and Citadel. Also there was not much Disney could have done to stop it. Of course WABC TV could not have been forced to change...(I think). Bankruptcy Judges have a lot of flexibility in cancelling contracts. Citadel could have gotten out of "severance" packages of folks they canned of course if you do that then the non competes goes away Some one who has access the the Bankruptcy file and and nothing else to do (I am sure this file is huge) could find this out. It is public record but not all public records are on the internet. There most likely is an "insider" lurking on this board that knows.

The bankruptcy documents are on PACER which charges a small fee for documents. I used that when Mega Media, owners of Pulse 87, went bankrupt, and found out the real reason why they went bankrupt.

 

[DToTheJ]

What's the likeliness of WINS moving to 880 and WCBS' news format moving to FM? Remember how important the FM coverage is to the Yankees, which just re-upped with WCBS for another year?

 

[secondchoice]

Is 1010's coverage in NYC that inferior of 880? Granted 1010 is a higher frequency and the Canadians "own" the skywave at night but according to the FCC website for WINS:

http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=25451

you have most of the 50KW reinforcing the East leg of the pattern daytime and going toward NYC:

http://transition.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/1381068-111814.pdf

and almost all the power aimed at NYC night:

http://transition.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/1381068-111815.pdf

which should seem like a much higher "wattage" if you are in the pattern. Does it "cover" the Counties or Burroughs that comprise the NYC market? IIRC WWL New Orleans is directional to put more power into New Orleans.

 

[Barry]

Perhaps if as rumored, there is a 3 way deal to move WFAN to a class B FM , WPAT FM 93.1 may be involved instead of WBAI?
It is apparently very difficult for the management of WBAI, and Pacifica to make important decisions without months of infighting.
WPAT has been mired for quite some time in overall ratings well below a 2.0, despite several format adjustments. Though La Mega and X96.3 are doing well, perhaps there is not enough demand in New York to sustain 3 class B stations with Hispanic formats. And WPAT's owner SBS is not doing great financially. So it would not surprise me if they are willing to let it go for a decent price, and focus in New York on running La Mega 97.9.
BTW, Gloria Broussard, WPAT's afternoon drive personality, has just left for a job with a station in Orlando, FL. She had been with 'PAT for about 10 years.

 

[luperm]

The WINS signal is a monster in the 5 boros. When you get out of the core (NJ suburbs -- particularly to the west, Westchester and CT) WINS signal deteriorates pretty quickly. The skywave from Toronto along with the directional nature of WINS do it in. WCBS puts a listenable signal over a much wider area. When WINS rebuilt their array a few years ago, it really did help improve things.

Similar deal with WEPN -- if you are in the main lobe, it's a huge signal...but go a few miles in the wrong direction and it disappears beneath the noise.

 

[davideduardo]

Is 1010's coverage in NYC that inferior of 880? Granted 1010 is a higher frequency and the Canadians "own" the skywave at night but according to the FCC website for WINS:

Daytime 5 mV/m for WCBS: 16 million. For WINS: 12.9 million. WINS misses about 4 million in the metro daytime, and something like 6 million at night.

IRC WWL New Orleans is directional to put more power into New Orleans.

WWL, like WBZ, are directional to keep from wasting signal over the ocean.

 

[XCountry285]

Anyone know what's going to happen with this station? Country maybe?

 

[xmusicmatt]

Anyone know what's going to happen with this station? Country maybe?

No it won't be country -- for the 500th time that has been asked here.

 

[xmradiopro]

How do you know for sure it won't be country ?

Anyone know what's going to happen with this station? Country maybe?

No it won't be country -- for the 500th time that has been asked here.

 

[badjef]

Is 1010's coverage in NYC that inferior of 880? Granted 1010 is a higher frequency and the Canadians "own" the skywave at night but according to the FCC website for WINS:

Daytime 5 mV/m for WCBS: 16 million. For WINS: 12.9 million. WINS misses about 4 million in the metro daytime, and something like 6 million at night.

IRC WWL New Orleans is directional to put more power into New Orleans.

WWL, like WBZ, are directional to keep from wasting signal over the ocean.

The efficiency of WWL's directional array is impressive. With the warm water of the Gulf, one would naturally think the West Coast of Florida would benefit by the proximity of their antenna in Louisiana and the swamps, coupled with a minor lobe, that it would be stronger than what it is here - it is virtually non-existent in Sa-ra-so-ta!

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[Ai4i]

Ideally, very very few AM stations in coastal cities should be omni-directional, especially in the daytime when many are.

 

[ansky212]

How do you know for sure it won't be country ?

Nobody on this board knows for sure about format changes, so it's really not worth arguing over. Case in point - 98.7's change a few months ago. Nobody predicted that one.

 

[xmradiopro]

Then in other words since nobody knows for sure it could be country case in point...

How do you know for sure it won't be country ?

Nobody on this board knows for sure about format changes, so it's really not worth arguing over. Case in point - 98.7's change a few months ago. Nobody predicted that one.

 

[badjef]

Ideally, very very few AM stations in coastal cities should be omni-directional, especially in the daytime when many are.

And nor do they have to be. Besides the fact there is no one out over the water to hear it, wave propagation over the water, especially the warm water over the Gulf, would round it out, anyway.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[TimeIsTight]

How do you know for sure it won't be country ?

Quote from: xmusicmatt on Today at 01:42:39 AM
Quote from: XCountry285 on Yesterday at 11:55:43 PM
Anyone know what's going to happen with this station? Country maybe?

No it won't be country -- for the 500th time that has been asked here.

The real question now is: Is WFME still for sale??????

A couple of months back, I head a rumor, and it was just that, a "rumor," that WFME had been taken off the market.

It is possible that Family Radio refinanced some debt, after the sales of stations in the DC and Philly areas, and no longer needs to sell off its "crown jewel" FM to raise funds to pay off loans from Camping's bizarre rapture advertising.

Camping seems to be totally out of the picture, and it is possible some non-delusional competent people are running the operation,and its finances, and have figured out a way to avoid the sale.

 

[ansky212]

Was WFME ever actually put up for sale? I thought it was just an application to change to commercial?

 

[WNTIRadio]

That's all it was. The other stations had the same application filed and then were sold shortly afterwards, so it's logical to think that WFME would be next. But there has been no word of a sale or potential buyers. Of course, there could be negotiations going on right now with non-disclosure agreements so we would never know.

 

[secondchoice]

Was WFME ever actually put up for sale? I thought it was just an application to change to commercial?

Why would a non com operator "bother" to change to commercial unless:

#1 They plan to run the station like a commercial station with real commercials as opposed to funding announcement type commercials. They could go CCM for example.

#2 To make the property "attractive" for a potential buyer. Of course the new owner could file to go non commercial and wait until the commission approves, but if the FCC has already approved the station to be commercial this would save the new owner time. Ratings come out 13 times a year and in a PPM market time is money.

#3 They could LMA and get guaranteed money.