• 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

CBS to sell entire radio group

davideduardo

davideduardo

Moderator/Administrator
Staff member
CBS exploring radio division sale

Sad day for the radio biz. This was inevitable based on recent, and not so recent comments from Les Moonves.

Now the speculation will commence on which conglomerate will acquire these properties. Entercom would probably be the most obvious choice in the Atlanta market.

I think we can safely count out iHeart and Cumulus. No company poised to aquire all of them are there?
 
Last edited:
This bombshell of a story is exploding into separate threads in forum after forum. Is there any way to consolidate discussion here?
 
As you know, the whole radio group can't be sold to one company, it will likely be a market-by-market sale, and even some stations in a given market would have to be spun off.

So, which groups do you think will take which markets?
 
Last edited:
Hartford only has one other major player, iHeart, and they're maxed out. Small regional chains with stations in the market are Red Wolf and Connoisseur, and of course EMF has WCCC 106.9 running K-Love on birdfeed 24/7. CBS owns WTIC (AM N/T and FM hot AC), WZMX (urban) and WRCH (AC), all of which have been very stable format-wise for years. Would a smaller chain have the money needed to acquire them and if so, would it be tempted to rock the boat and tweak/flip formats?
 
CBS selling its radio stations

CBS Corp. plans to sell or spin off its radio station group in the coming year, CEO Les Moonves said Tuesday during the company’s CBS Investor Day presentation in New York. A sale, swap or spinoff of the 117-station group are among the options being considered, Moonves said.

While the company wants to “unlock value for our shareholders,” Moonves assured the investor crowd, “We will be prudent and judicious as we go, as we are in all such endeavors,” according to a story in Variety.

“CBS Radio is a terrific organization, with a tremendous history and a great future,” CBS Radio said in a statement issued Tuesday after Moonves made the announcement. “It makes sense that CBS Corporation, a company that is now focused primarily on premium video content, would choose to unlock the value of its radio operation. While it is still very early in this process, we are enthusiastic about the possibilities that lie ahead, and look forward to competing in this evolving industry with the strongest portfolio of major-market brands in the radio business. Going forward, we will do everything we can to assist in this transformative action and believe it will be to the benefit of our division, our stations and our people.”

CBS has been downsizing its radio portfolio in recent years, selling or swapping smaller markets to focus on the largest metros. The company took a $484 million write-down on the value of its radio division in the fourth quarter.

Selling radio would allow CBS to focus on its two premium brands, CBS and Showtime, Moonves said. CBS also operates Simon & Schuster publishing.
 
The right way to do this is do a equity sale to a group of GMs and company execs. People who already know what they've got and how to run it. Dan Mason retired last year. Mel Karamazin has been looking for a new project. It's a big bullet to bite, but perhaps there's a way that makes financial sense for everyone. Cox spun off a group of stations to Summit a few years ago. That spinoff worked really well. I'd learn from them.
 
CBS Finally Makes it Official: Radio is for Sell

Moonves is finally free of the Redstone yoke and is about to get his long time wish. Do you think he will find a buyer, or buyers when he wants crazy multiples? Or will he have a fire sale and let them go at 4-6 multiples just to get them out of his portfolio?
Who might be a buyer? Alpha's Larry Wilson has been mentioned but isn't Alpha mainly mid market stations?
Will Lew Dickey come out of the woodwork with new found cash? Randy Michaels? David Eduardo and Big A??!!
 
CTListener said:
Hartford only has one other major player, iHeart, and they're maxed out. Small regional chains with stations in the market are Red Wolf and Connoisseur, and of course EMF has WCCC 106.9 running K-Love on birdfeed 24/7. CBS owns WTIC (AM N/T and FM hot AC), WZMX (urban) and WRCH (AC), all of which have been very stable format-wise for years. Would a smaller chain have the money needed to acquire them and if so, would it be tempted to rock the boat and tweak/flip formats?
Click to expand...

Red Wolf probably doesn't have the money to but the stations, but even if they did they would have to sell WNTY 990/96.1 (Classic Hits). Although the 3 FM CBS has are doing well perhaps Red Wolf could give BOMBA-FM a Full-Market signal. Then they could move the KOOL Radio Classic Hits format to WMRQ 104.1 HD2 and the translators that currently run BOMBA-FM.
 
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cbs-explore-sale-spinoff-radio-875818

Moonves seems serious here, but unless he's really serious about a spinoff, and leaving the Division with some cash, I don't see anyone stepping up to acquire it.

A decently capitalized, independent radio company could be a good thing, but one constrained by debt in order to pass it off to some buyout firm would destroy the best radio operator in the business.

I really don't see a sale as a possibility. He's hinted at this before, but it's not certain it will come to pass.
 
umfan said:
I really don't see a sale as a possibility. He's hinted at this before, but it's not certain it will come to pass.
Click to expand...

My sense is the reason he's more specific is because it's his decision now, and because he's fishing. He's already talked with the obvious folks. He wants to hear from someone else.

Extracting the stations out of the company won't be easy. Both Cumulus and Citadel learned about buying radio groups from TV owners. They do things differently.
 
Bill from White Plains! said:
Scripps is back in the game and they're loaded. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

The announcement on the investor conference call said either sale or spin-off.

If it is a sale, it would be likely that it will be a cluster by cluster sale, and capital gains consequences will weigh heavily.
 
I suspect, if it goes to an established player, it will be a spinoff followed by a Reverse Morris Trust for the exact reason David cited: tax consequences. Some have speculated CBS is anticipating the loosening of foreign ownership rules and that a European company will step in and make a deal.

If the entire group goes to a domestic buyer, Alpha seems highly unlikely. From everything I've read, the Digity deal was highly leveraged. I'd have to think Entercom would be a good candidate for a Reverse Morris Trust deal, but it passed on ABC Radio about 10 years ago.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom