Could Saga Portland be going up for sale?

[santa_cerveza]

Is Saga looking to end their presence in Portland? Or maybe hang on to the 2-3 moneymaking stations in the cluster and find a buyer for the rest? Consider the following:

1. Saga's in-house production company, Bluewave Creative, abruptly ceased operations last week (with good guy Steve Schneider being pulled in off vacation to receive the news.) They had farmed out all the website development stuff to contractors, but all the audio was done in house, using the existing production facilities. Even if the company wasn't raking in cash, It was still providing additional income with no additional overhead. Why shut down that revenue stream? A sudden decision from corporate?

2. Portland just restructured their sales force's compensation to, apparently, bring it in line with other Saga markets. Less pay and lower percentages. Some salespeople are losing national accounts; sales managers are apparently picking those up. It's putting some sales folks in a tight spot. The pay structure looks like it works for larger markets with more available accounts, and it seems like it would work for smaller markets with a strong product. But how well will it work in a smaller market (considering that most of Saga's Portland stations don't reach the L/A metro area with any strength) and with a weaker product? What proof do the sales folks have to show Joe Business Owner that airing a spot on one of their stations will bring in the customers as effectively as a competitor?

2a. Three sales people have left in the past few months (at least one of his own volition.) A ad just went up day before yesterday looking to replace them. But if the money's not there, how will Saga attract solid talent? Or retain the salespeople they already have?

3. The WYNZ re-branding, Rewind 100.9, has been on the air for months now. Why doesn't the morning show have any features? Why does the station vehicle (a perfectly ordinary-looking Kia) have nothing to identify it as the Rewind truck other than the call letters on its license plate? Why is there no physical manifestation of the station's logo (a tablecloth, tent, magnets, water bottles - something to display at remotes/happy hours?)

4. Saga just reported little to slow growth for the latest quarter: <http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130916-907673.html>.

Portland management appears to be drawing the ire of the higher-ups more now than ever before. Is the point coming where Saga kicks Portland to the curb? Do they do it to cast ballast off the slowing ship?

None of this is being noted with any degree of vindictiveness, just curiosity. Could this be Saga getting their ducks in a row to sell off Portland Radio Group? What do you think?

 

[Andy Taylor]

I don't think it would be a bad thing.Seems like things are pretty lax over there.Some of the management have been there too long. Not a lot of effort.Just yesterday,Wednesday,listening to 'CLZ & 'ZAN they were using the CBS 13 weather from Tuesday.Listened to Loveline last night,what a mess.Someone should be listening to their stations,on a real radio so they can see what goes out over the air.Loveline has been screwed up since they put it on WBAE.No legal ID @ 11pm.They play the legal ID around 11:20 & again around 11:35 almost always on top of something else.Sometimes there 3 different things playing at the same time.They are still using the liner 1400 & 1490 Advice for Life.Also the website is still 1400and1490.com.
Seems like if they were to sell they'd sell it all.They probobly have the best possible programming on their AM stations.If they would just pay attention more.I'd like to see someone paying more attention to WGAN as far as news & weather.A lot of repetition.If WCLZ is a typical AAA station I can see why the format doesn't make it.'MGX seems to play too much music that would fit better on 'CLZ.Mixing CHR music with AAA music is got to be a turn off for a lot of listeners.Except for when Mike Mathews is on Rewind is boring.Pretty much just a name change from Big and a big payroll reduction.WPOR,don't listen.

 

[oldport1]

Andy- the cluster is a complete disaster. There are definitely changes that need to be made starting at the top. They also need to clear out one of their sales managers for WMGX/WCLZ. That's a real bad situation right there. They are completely uncompetitive In the market right now. I don't think any of the stations will be put on the block for sale but nothing will change if they keep most of the same, old management in place. Tough to say, but it's very much the reality of the situation.

 

[santa_cerveza]

More food for thought - the GM of Saga's Columbus, OH cluster spent a few days in South Portland last week while Mr. Pahigian was absent. That seems significant. It appeared to be a mostly an elbow-rubbing exercise, although he could easily have been working along more investigative lines. Maybe getting a general sense of the mood? Or, from more practical point of view, looking to see who and what isn't functioning up to expectations? It's hard to imagine him flying back home and not having an immediate and in-depth phone call with the president to report his findings.

 

[stevensonair]

Format-wise, it's more that MGX picks up on music that CLZ breaks and crosses over to the Hot AC universe. Triple A introduces a lot of that music.

 

[oldport1]

Saga threw a lot of money at this cluster earlier this year and it hasn't worked. Revenues are in a pretty serious decline and the atmosphere in the building is very bad. They brought in Chris Forgy as a new set of eyes to see if he can get a sense of what is going wrong because whatever corporate has tried ain't working

 

[newsbot2]

As we now know, Saga has cast ballast off the slowing ship in the form of Cary Pahigian (or Pahigian heeded the call of his biological clock, as the corporate spin goes.) Bob Adams (WCLZ's GM back when it was independently owned) is taking over. Is the PRG's long nightmare finally over? Meanwhile, I hear Shaw's is hiring in loss prevention...