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Audacy divestitures coming?

I wonder if Audacy might turn in the license for WEEI-850 and sell the transmitter land in Needham that the towers sit on.

When the then-owners of the station broadcasting on 850 (the old Boston Herald-Traveler) acquired the site in 1949 for what was then WHDH (so it could go from 5,000 to 50,000 watts day and night with a signal beamed east towards Boston), the area now known as "Metrowest" (the suburbs west of Boston between Route 128/Interstate 95 and Interstate 495) was relatively sparsely populated.

Most of people residing in the Boston radio market at the time lived got a strong signal from 850 day or night.

Today, the Metrowest area has far more people, and many in the 495 belt do not get a strong signal on 850, especially at night. Worcester has a weak signal at best from 850 during the day and probably can't get 850 (what is now WEEI) at all after sunset, since the signal of the station is even more directionalized at night.

Two Audacy-owned AM stations in Las Vegas are about to go off the air and their transmitter sites sold off.

If that's also the eventual fate of the 850 site in Needham, and the end of the station that transmits from there, it would be a very sad ending to a frequency that has had quite a legacy in Boston radio.
 
Here's a little fantasy for 850, if the license and transmitter will be sold. So many of us older folks want to bring back great Boston area radio stations of yesteryear, and we have WMEX back on 1510 playing much of the music that the original played (and some from a bit later).

850 as WHDH in its decades as an adult music station played much of the easy listening pop standards (the format then called MOR, "Middle Of the Road") that are now played on 740 WJIB.

Bob Bittner acquires the 850 transmitter site and shifts the WJIB 740 music programming to it as the revival of WHDH radio (TV Ch. 7 can keep the WHDH-TV calls). This would finally give his pop standards/nostalgia format a commanding AM signal throughout metro Boston within Route 128/95 day and night, playing much of the music originally played on the frequency.

740 goes to a collective of former WCAS and WUMB folk music DJ's who relaunch 740 as the new revival of folk/folk-rock WCAS.

This could all never happen, just an idea.
 
Wimmmex said:
Someone will want the license. Remember, someone purchased 1090AM's license, and 1510AM's license....albeit for pennies.
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Audacy will probably sell the property and sign the station off. Whomever buys the 850 license will need to put in the work of finding a new site to broadcast from, which is honestly more than it may be worth for an AM station in 2023.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
Here's a little fantasy for 850, if the license and transmitter will be sold. So many of us older folks want to bring back great Boston area radio stations of yesteryear, and we have WMEX back on 1510 playing much of the music that the original played (and some from a bit later).

850 as WHDH in its decades as an adult music station played much of the easy listening pop standards (the format then called MOR, "Middle Of the Road") that are now played on 740 WJIB.

Bob Bittner acquires the 850 transmitter site and shifts the WJIB 740 music programming to it as the revival of WHDH radio (TV Ch. 7 can keep the WHDH-TV calls). This would finally give his pop standards/nostalgia format a commanding AM signal throughout metro Boston within Route 128/95 day and night, playing much of the music originally played on the frequency.

740 goes to a collective of former WCAS and WUMB folk music DJ's who relaunch 740 as the new revival of folk/folk-rock WCAS.

This could all never happen, just an idea.
Click to expand...
The plan needs more thought
 
DavidZ said:
They moved radio stations and tower sites around the country into a trust including the land for the WEEI-AM 850 tower.

radioinsight.com

What Is Audacy’s Atlas? And Are Divestitures Coming?

EXCLUSIVE: Over the past few months, Audacy has been transferring some of its assets into a new holding company, Audacy
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
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Whatever it is, I hope it, ain't religious, pay for play, or anything piped in from some closet somewhere.
If you're going to bring up expenses of live radio, don't
 
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AceBiscuits said:
Audacy will probably sell the property and sign the station off. Whomever buys the 850 license will need to put in the work of finding a new site to broadcast from, which is honestly more than it may be worth for an AM station in 2023.
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The move to put the land into a trust facilitates the sale of real estate to a third party. It could be a tower leasing firm that would rent it back to them. That way they get immediate cash to pay down and service debt while still keeping the site.

Or, they could sell the land and negotiate a site sharing deal with another AM as many have done. You can fairly easily put two or three signals into a tower or array if the layout matches all of them. In Cuba, they routinely put 4 or 5 stations in a single tower using Chinese technology that they have employed for decades in Asia.

In either case, they get cash back to solve immediate issues.
 
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Much of the land near Central Avenue surrounding the towers is conservation land. It may not be possible to build anything there.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
Here's a little fantasy for 850, if the license and transmitter will be sold. So many of us older folks want to bring back great Boston area radio stations of yesteryear, and we have WMEX back on 1510 playing much of the music that the original played (and some from a bit later).

850 as WHDH in its decades as an adult music station played much of the easy listening pop standards (the format then called MOR, "Middle Of the Road") that are now played on 740 WJIB.

Bob Bittner acquires the 850 transmitter site and shifts the WJIB 740 music programming to it as the revival of WHDH radio (TV Ch. 7 can keep the WHDH-TV calls). This would finally give his pop standards/nostalgia format a commanding AM signal throughout metro Boston within Route 128/95 day and night, playing much of the music originally played on the frequency.

740 goes to a collective of former WCAS and WUMB folk music DJ's who relaunch 740 as the new revival of folk/folk-rock WCAS.

This could all never happen, just an idea.
Click to expand...
But I LIKE it, Eli!
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Is it trolling to point out basic economic reality? Whether one is sick of reality or not does not change facts.
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That’s not the argument. We have the right to discuss what kinds of radio stations we’d like to hear. The same people troll our posts with the same tired arguments. It’s all very predictable.
 
ScottBurns said:
That’s not the argument. We have the right to discuss what kinds of radio stations we’d like to hear. The same people troll our posts with the same tired arguments. It’s all very predictable.
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It's not trolling to tell participants here who are unfamiliar with how stations are researched and programmed that some of their assumptions or desires are not practical.

The first broad subject is "playlists are too short". Playlists are as big as the number of broadly liked songs allow them to be; listeners as a group determine playlist size.

The second is "they forgot about (insert song and artist here) which is a great song that I love". Here in the real world (sorry, Alan Jackson) we know that the referenced song is unplayable because it either stiffed out or has severe negatives.

You can certainly talk about what you'd like. But those involved in determining what hundreds of thousands of listeners all like is often very different.
 
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