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Cox Radio Stations To Be Acquired By Apollo’s New Cox Media Group, 97X to be divested

My prediction: EMF picks up 97.1 by the end of the year. The signal might not be the greatest, but Tampa Bay is one of the few markets that I don’t see them in (at least not subscribing).
 
MetroMuscle said:
Could see them turning 97X into another sports talk crap or cheap syndicated programming.
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I hope I'm wrong, but WSUN will probably end up sold to EMF, and deliver some kind of satellite-fed religious programming.

CMG will probably hold on to the intellectual property and run an automated, zombie version of 97X on 102.5 HD-2.

Short of a surprise bid by an outside player like Entercom, or iHeart shuffling the translators around (again) and relaunching "Alt", I don't see anyone else in town continuing the format (other than in HD subchannel form).
 
Why do they have to divest? Doesn't the same signal loophole which allowed them to keep 6 FMs 20 years ago still exist today?
 
RMarino said:
Why do they have to divest? Doesn't the same signal loophole which allowed them to keep 6 FMs 20 years ago still exist today?
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Cannot remember exactly what I saw about that, but something about rule changes in the past several years regarding ownership limits for media companies.
Sometimes there is a 2 year limit on holding any divestitures to complete a sale to another media company.
 
Ok, I hadn't heard about the rule changes. In that case, I'd love to see The Bone go away and 97X moved to 102.5, but I won't hold my breath on that one.
 
Elaborating on what the others have said, when contour overlap was used to determine markets and stations, 97.1 and 102.5 don’t overlap and were counted as a single station. Now that Nielsen markets are used, they count as two. Cox has has 6 FM's in Tampa Bay and will have to shed one when new ownership enters.
 
Kent said:
Elaborating on what the others have said, when contour overlap was used to determine markets and stations, 97.1 and 102.5 don’t overlap and were counted as a single station. Now that Nielsen markets are used, they count as two. Cox has has 6 FM's in Tampa Bay and will have to shed one when new ownership enters.
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That makes sense. Thanks. That's probably how it should have been all along.
 
I guess there goes the HD experiment between 97.1 and 102.5.

I rather liked one on the HD 1 and the other on HD2!

It reminded me of what FOX television did in New York after 9/11/01 when they put each 5 & 9 on the other's .2 channel.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
It's also possible 102.5 transitions back to a talk/music hybrid, or does Alt rock on nights and weekends (think WTKS Orlando). I don't see them jettisoning talk entirely, though.

badjef said:
I guess there goes the HD experiment between 97.1 and 102.5.

I rather liked one on the HD 1 and the other on HD2!

It reminded me of what FOX television did in New York after 9/11/01 when they put each 5 & 9 on the other's .2 channel.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
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It did give both stations coverage in areas they would not reach with a terrestrial signal otherwise.
 
You are not going to see any changes to 102.5, it makes lots of $$$$$$.

They will probably put WSUN and WPYO in an ownership trust, because if the FCC loosens the ownership rules, Cox will be able to keep them both.
 
rfrus said:
You are not going to see any changes to 102.5, it makes lots of $$$$$$.

They will probably put WSUN and WPYO in an ownership trust, because if the FCC loosens the ownership rules, Cox will be able to keep them both.
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And they are now officially in a trust....
 
Has anyone heard any updates on the divestures of WSUN and WPYO? It's been over a year and there hasn't been a sale announced yet. I haven't heard that they've gone into a trust yet either, unless I've missed it.
 
No EMF in Orlando

RMarino said:
Thanks. I'm surprised that EMF hasn't grabbed them yet. Maybe they are waiting for bigger signals.
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IMHO EMF would be making a big mistake if they were ever to buy WPYO here in Orlando. 88.3 WPOZ and their various simulcasts, HD subchannels and translators pretty much own Christian radio in this market. They serve the community well, EMF's automated format will not. They haven't bought the book in years, but when they did, the main station (Christian A/C) was almost always in the top 5 & sometimes even #1. And I remember their Rock & Gospel HD subchannel formats (with translators) showed up in the ratings as well.
 
FrankF said:
IMHO EMF would be making a big mistake if they were ever to buy WPYO here in Orlando. 88.3 WPOZ and their various simulcasts, HD subchannels and translators pretty much own Christian radio in this market. They serve the community well, EMF's automated format will not. They haven't bought the book in years, but when they did, the main station (Christian A/C) was almost always in the top 5 & sometimes even #1. And I remember their Rock & Gospel HD subchannel formats (with translators) showed up in the ratings as well.
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EMF's formats are not automated. They are live. They are, though, a network with the same live shows on every station everywhere, from San Juan to Pago Pago.

WPOZ is a kind of ornery operation... for a number of years they would not encode for the PPM, making Orlando seem to have the lowest average PUR of any PPM market. They finally changed their mind, but I don't look at them as good members of the broadcast community.

That said, in the three Spring months, WPOZ averaged at a 4.8 share, and the hip-hop subchannel and translator had a 0.6 (the only subchannel to show).
 
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