I knew a fellow that died a few years ago. He had several stations, mostly on AM, and all served a market bubbling under the top 100 markets in the USA.
He acquired an AM and FM in a small market. Both stations had a good signal in the market mentioned. He told me he wanted to do a station the youth could call their own and on the AM he went old country, not the 1980s plus Classic Country. Since the stations were intended to be stations serving the bigger market instead of the small town, he dropped the professional baseball play by play and local sports the station had always done in the past.
Immediately billing dropped like a rock. His Dad have given him his business upon his death and this fellow promptly sold it, making a bit over 8 million. He had cash to burn and was ready to retire from working to playing. The $350,000 he paid for the pair of stations that became his 'pets' hired live talent, pulled out all the stops, promoted and pushed forward. He bought billboards, promoted concerts and such. At one of the old time country concerts promoted on the AM he managed to get about 100 to attend. On the FM a concert for a group they played regularly played netted 22 people buying tickets. Supposedly this was the only station in the market playing the group.. The band played anyway as did the front bands. Sales were pretty much zero on both stations so he did a tack on with clients that bought his Christian, Oldies, Sports Talk and Conservative Talk Stations. He added $1 for both stations. So, the stations had pretty full spot loads.
He never registered in the ratings with either station and soon the live jocks were gone. He decided income was so bad he'd carry professional baseball again and did. Billing increased but was only about $90-$95,000 a year for both stations combined and about $40,000 of that came from sponsorships sold for the professional baseball play by play. Except for a handful of clients, revenue was the tack on rate for clients buying his other stations.
When you deduct baseball, the two stations combined billed a little south of $5,000 a month. Amid all this he had to redo the AM ground system and major repairs to the station office (new roof, new septic system and new furnace I know of).
I lost touch and in a few years the poor guy dropped dead from a heart attack. I was interested in this AM/FM combo in the past and I approached the son after a couple of months. He wanted to sell badly admitting he had no interest in radio and had just listed it with a broker. The broker wanted between $800 and $900 thousand for the pair, far more than I thought the stations were worth.
A few monthly later, the stations sold for just $200,000. This was $150,000 less than he paid and didn't account for the costly improvements. The property alone was appraised at 45% off the price.
To be honest, this stuck with me because a nice town lost their local stations that had been nicely supported by the area. It was sort of sad. After all, their local school sports lost their live coverage and now nobody does any local news of the area. They lost their stations not due to lack of support but through no fault of their own.
In the end, outside of professional baseball, the pair billed less than 20% of what they did before the format flip.
Here's a real example of a pair of stations that opted for formats other than the usual. They were not classic rock but rather eclectic rock on the FM and 50s, 60s and through mid-70s country. It would have never been tried if the guy hadn't gained a bit over 8 million by selling his Dad's business and didn't have four other stations that while none were big moneymakers, easily held their own. By the way, except for the FM mentioned, all others were AM stations and two were daytime only.
Yes, I omit the market, call letters and owner's name because the information was shared with me in confidence. Although he his no longer with us, I have chosen not to reveal his identity in a public discussion.
Another station, a Low Power FM runs an eclectic Americana/Roots format. They think they have about 250 listeners out of about 18,000 in his 50 dbu. They average billing about $225 a month (5 clients get an underwriter spot a day Mon. - Fri.). The operator has his operating expenses at around $2,400 a year but when their transmitter was hit by lightning about 18 months ago, they were off the air 5 months trying to gather the cash to pay for repairs. If he didn't love the music, I doubt he'd program it. So, he gets about 1.4% of the audience and his advertisers are those who love the music and run small storefront businesses.
I had been staying away from this topic because it was going nowhere. And, I cannot say each of these formats was executed flawlessly but the results do mirror what has been posted. I really liked the LPFM's format but he can't stream...no money to do so.
He acquired an AM and FM in a small market. Both stations had a good signal in the market mentioned. He told me he wanted to do a station the youth could call their own and on the AM he went old country, not the 1980s plus Classic Country. Since the stations were intended to be stations serving the bigger market instead of the small town, he dropped the professional baseball play by play and local sports the station had always done in the past.
Immediately billing dropped like a rock. His Dad have given him his business upon his death and this fellow promptly sold it, making a bit over 8 million. He had cash to burn and was ready to retire from working to playing. The $350,000 he paid for the pair of stations that became his 'pets' hired live talent, pulled out all the stops, promoted and pushed forward. He bought billboards, promoted concerts and such. At one of the old time country concerts promoted on the AM he managed to get about 100 to attend. On the FM a concert for a group they played regularly played netted 22 people buying tickets. Supposedly this was the only station in the market playing the group.. The band played anyway as did the front bands. Sales were pretty much zero on both stations so he did a tack on with clients that bought his Christian, Oldies, Sports Talk and Conservative Talk Stations. He added $1 for both stations. So, the stations had pretty full spot loads.
He never registered in the ratings with either station and soon the live jocks were gone. He decided income was so bad he'd carry professional baseball again and did. Billing increased but was only about $90-$95,000 a year for both stations combined and about $40,000 of that came from sponsorships sold for the professional baseball play by play. Except for a handful of clients, revenue was the tack on rate for clients buying his other stations.
When you deduct baseball, the two stations combined billed a little south of $5,000 a month. Amid all this he had to redo the AM ground system and major repairs to the station office (new roof, new septic system and new furnace I know of).
I lost touch and in a few years the poor guy dropped dead from a heart attack. I was interested in this AM/FM combo in the past and I approached the son after a couple of months. He wanted to sell badly admitting he had no interest in radio and had just listed it with a broker. The broker wanted between $800 and $900 thousand for the pair, far more than I thought the stations were worth.
A few monthly later, the stations sold for just $200,000. This was $150,000 less than he paid and didn't account for the costly improvements. The property alone was appraised at 45% off the price.
To be honest, this stuck with me because a nice town lost their local stations that had been nicely supported by the area. It was sort of sad. After all, their local school sports lost their live coverage and now nobody does any local news of the area. They lost their stations not due to lack of support but through no fault of their own.
In the end, outside of professional baseball, the pair billed less than 20% of what they did before the format flip.
Here's a real example of a pair of stations that opted for formats other than the usual. They were not classic rock but rather eclectic rock on the FM and 50s, 60s and through mid-70s country. It would have never been tried if the guy hadn't gained a bit over 8 million by selling his Dad's business and didn't have four other stations that while none were big moneymakers, easily held their own. By the way, except for the FM mentioned, all others were AM stations and two were daytime only.
Yes, I omit the market, call letters and owner's name because the information was shared with me in confidence. Although he his no longer with us, I have chosen not to reveal his identity in a public discussion.
Another station, a Low Power FM runs an eclectic Americana/Roots format. They think they have about 250 listeners out of about 18,000 in his 50 dbu. They average billing about $225 a month (5 clients get an underwriter spot a day Mon. - Fri.). The operator has his operating expenses at around $2,400 a year but when their transmitter was hit by lightning about 18 months ago, they were off the air 5 months trying to gather the cash to pay for repairs. If he didn't love the music, I doubt he'd program it. So, he gets about 1.4% of the audience and his advertisers are those who love the music and run small storefront businesses.
I had been staying away from this topic because it was going nowhere. And, I cannot say each of these formats was executed flawlessly but the results do mirror what has been posted. I really liked the LPFM's format but he can't stream...no money to do so.
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...but thanks for answering my question. I think you're about the fourth person so far! I was thinking that this was somewhat of a gray area that might require an evolutionary step. I just don't know what that step might be. I'm not fretting about this. I just thought it was interesting and was curious.