• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Blueberry Broadcasting...Comments?

N

Nelz

Some of us are too busy minding our own stores to be able to research the Blueberry Broadcasting Company and its recent announcement of picking up 17 Clear Channel stations here in Maine. A quick Google search produces little. Any comments from anyone? Maybe a few personal predictions concerning what the future of the stations look like.

It would be great if a Blueberry Broadcasting representative posted some company info.

I think it's great that Maine stations will be loosened from the grip of the likes of Clear Channel.
 
The employees will wish that Clear Channel had sold to Islamic Terrorists instead of these guys. The shock and awe will start on day one when salaries, people, and benefits are cut. In this case, local does not mean better.
 
Butters925 said:
You would think they would be happy there are not under the grip of cheap channel? but thats just me......
Click to expand...


i think at this point, the only thing I would be complaining about with clear channel if I were a PD is upper management (from San Antonio, etc.) saying yes and no versus the ops managers in Augusta and Bangor saying yes and no to programming. Once Clear Channel's out, you can have more free reign on the programming and sales without the pressures of the empty suits.

I still can't believe 17 stations went for 11 million bucks. How much did Cumulus sell the Augusta stations to CC for?
 
The shock and awe will start on day one when salaries, people, and benefits are cut.
Click to expand...

And the employees who remain will be driven insane by micromanagement. I suspect Arbitron will go away, too.

I still can't believe 17 stations went for 11 million bucks.
Click to expand...

According to Al Diamon Clear Channel took a $24 million bath on the Augusta and Bangor stations.
 
newsbot said:
The shock and awe will start on day one when salaries, people, and benefits are cut.
Click to expand...

And the employees who remain will be driven insane by micromanagement. I suspect Arbitron will go away, too.

I still can't believe 17 stations went for 11 million bucks.
Click to expand...

According to Al Diamon Clear Channel took a $24 million bath on the Augusta and Bangor stations.
Click to expand...
While I can offer no information on Blueberry Broadcasting..I would like to comment on the so-called loss that CC took on the sale. Think back to those heady days right after Telecom '96 was signed. CC, Cumulus, Citadel and Entercom were out on a major buying spree, buying up stations and paying far, far more than many of the stations were worth. Cumulus was known to buy properties sight unseen, books unlooked at all in a sort of drunken rush for each of these groups to become the biggest, the fastest. Now those 10 year notes are all coming due and the boys are beginning to wake up to the morning after with a giant financial hangover and decisions to make. All these bigger groups thought it would be fun to eat the entire cake instead of just having a piece of it. So, you will see many more of these fire sales as these companies need to raise cash. Look at Citadel's stock price, yesterday $1.54! That's a long way from when Crazy Larry sold Citadel to the Forstmann brothers. Stock then was about $16 a share. And that price is a long, long, long way away from it's 1999 price of $68 a share. You will probably see much more activity just like this as the days go on. But as it has been mentioned above, just because some smaller regional company is buying the stations doesn't automtically mean that "Ding-Dong the Witch is Dead"!!
 
According to FCC website, under Broadcast Applications: Blueberry Broadcasting has also applied for the construction permit for 101.1 in Machias. This was formerly WBEO, which was never built, and it's CP expired a few years ago.
It will be interesting to see if this actually gets on the air under Blueberry's Ownership. ((Not holding my breath))
 
Well, okay...the hopes of getting a Blueberry representative to post a comment may have been dashed to the rocks. Obviously, there are a couple of people that have had some personal dealings with Blueberry. Care to expound?

I will add that most of us old dogs in the biz still hold on to the utopian ideal that someone with a similar business views and business savvy will come in and convert the badly mismanaged stations into stations of yesteryear: live staff with a local focus and decent pay.

Today's business model in most all industries--not just radio--is one that operates as close to the bone as possible.
 
Today's business model in most all industries--not just radio--is one that operates as close to the bone as possible

I agree yet hold onto the hope that if the biz is to succeed in the future, the "big companies" will be just and era (1996-2009) to learn from and we can get back to a more content based business model.

"some" of the above mentioned big companies have brought buisiness skills to the table and that's good. Hopefully, the new era can apply the good things they brought while putting focus on what they missed the mark on. You take the good....you take the bad...you take em' both and there you..........eh' nevermind!
 
The folks in CC Bangor and CC Augusta their ordeal is coming to an end. Those of us who have worked for Bruce have varying opinions and those who have worked for Lou have varying opinions either way the people in Bangor and Augusta are better off today know the what is going to happen wait is over.
 
Who knows? Maybe Lou and Bruce have learned a few lessons and will play better than they have in the past. If they haven't learned any lessons...it'll be a rough ride for the existing staff.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom