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Audacy return radio stations

Urban One is actively moving away from “specializing” or focusing on urban formatted stations. Spending money for Hot 97 and WBLS would go against their recent strategy. Plus, just because they’ve bought some stations recently doesn’t mean they have a ton of cash sitting around that they’re willing to spend.

I believe Audacy’s intention for all news in NYC has been quite clear. They’re not going to run two separate all news stations in the market forever. If they don’t plan for 880 to be all news long term, it would be counterproductive to blow up a cheaper, younger leaning format on FM to simulcast it. WFAN on 95.5? Seriously? Sorry, but that’s pure hysteria. IMO, NYC will be a static (pun not intended) market for the foreseeable future. If there are any frequencies that will never change, it’s going to be 92.3, 95.5, and 101.9 (same for 98.7 FWIW). I suspect if Audacy is not pleased with 94.7’s performance, they will adjust and tweak it before trashing it. I don’t see anything selling or changing in the market any time soon.
 
101tm said:
Urban One is actively moving away from “specializing” or focusing on urban formatted stations. Spending money for Hot 97 and WBLS would go against their recent strategy. Plus, just because they’ve bought some stations recently doesn’t mean they have a ton of cash sitting around that they’re willing to spend.
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There is chatter that the sale, if even in the works, would spit the two stations. The Hispanic leaning Churban of Hot 97 would go to SBS, and the Urban station to Urban One. Urban One has bad experiences running an Hispanic targeted station in Houston and may not want to try that again.
 
DavidEduardo said:
There is chatter that the sale, if even in the works, would spit the two stations. The Hispanic leaning Churban of Hot 97 would go to SBS, and the Urban station to Urban One.
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If Urban One buys Hot 97, it would be their only radio station in New York.
Isn’t it difficult to extract adequate revenue from a standalone station, especially in a major market?
 
Barry said:
If Urban One buys Hot 97, it would be their only radio station in New York.
Isn’t it difficult to extract adequate revenue from a standalone station, especially in a major market?
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That's why I said they'd buy both Mediaco stations. They have two other markets where they only own two stations: Dallas and Philadelphia.
 
DavidEduardo said:
There is chatter that the sale, if even in the works, would spit the two stations. The Hispanic leaning Churban of Hot 97 would go to SBS, and the Urban station to Urban One. Urban One has bad experiences running an Hispanic targeted station in Houston and may not want to try that again.
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This would be interesting. Aren’t most (if not all) SBS stations either Spanish only, or maybe bilingual? Hot 97 would be a change for them being an English language station although it does have a large Hispanic audience. I don’t doubt they could pull it off if it happened, though, because they would also know how to sell it.

Were Radio One to buy WBLS, I could maybe see a scenario where they take 94.7 in exchange for another cluster in a smaller market to Audacy. I don’t know if they would want to spend cash on two separate stations. 94.7 isn’t the best signal (compared to 105.1, 107.5) for an urban format if that’s the direction they went in.
 
Off topic, but last night I picked up 94.7 The Block in Lake Charles, Louisiana during an e skip opening. It had a better signal in Louisiana than it does in parts of Manhattan!
 
NickD said:
Off topic, but last night I picked up 94.7 The Block in Lake Charles, Louisiana during an e skip opening. It had a better signal in Louisiana than it does in parts of Manhattan!
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Amazing. Tell me though where it's signal is bad in Manhattan now? It has improved greatly and I find no issues anywhere.
 
101tm said:
This would be interesting. Aren’t most (if not all) SBS stations either Spanish only, or maybe bilingual? Hot 97 would be a change for them being an English language station although it does have a large Hispanic audience. I don’t doubt they could pull it off if it happened, though, because they would also know how to sell it.
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And Hot 97's PD, Pío Ferro, was the assistant PD of SBS nationally in the years when Bill Tanner was national VP of Programming.
 
NickD said:
Near the Empire State Building and east of there.
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And how many listeners to a classic hip hop station are there in that general neighborhood?
 
Barry said:
The improved signal (towards the east) apparently has not done much for The Block's overall ratings.
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Increasing your signal alone is not going to do that. I am still willing to bet that most people that would be interested in such a format have never heard of the station.
 
MVB13 said:
Country wasn't doing much for them either ratings are roughly the same.
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WNSH peaked in the 2s. WXBK hasn't gotten that high in 6+. But the main difference is in the suburbs, where WNSH usually got a 5, while WXBK is averaging a 2. In any case, it cost them a lot to blow up a format if the result ratings-wise is roughly the same.

The problem is the Audacy's sales force is focused on the metro, not the suburbs.
 
TheBigA said:
But the main difference is in the suburbs, where WNSH usually got a 5, while WXBK is averaging a 2.
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That’s interesting. Is this based on inside information?
I’ve been thinking that Country could have succeeded on 94.7 had Audacy marketed it as a NJ station, and sold it to businesses in the Garden State. They also would have been spared the considerable expense of moving to a new tower.
 
Barry said:
They also would have been spared the considerable expense of moving to a new tower.
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The trade with Cumulus came with the ability to move the tower, so that was already factored in.

The failure was trying to sell WNSH strictly as a local station.
 
TheBigA said:
WNSH peaked in the 2s. WXBK hasn't gotten that high in 6+. But the main difference is in the suburbs, where WNSH usually got a 5, while WXBK is averaging a 2. In any case, it cost them a lot to blow up a format if the result ratings-wise is roughly the same.

The problem is the Audacy's sales force is focused on the metro, not the suburbs.
Click to expand...
Two people can cover the city proper.
 
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