Cox sells Birmingham and five other markets

[Kent]

Cox has announced David DuBose and former Heftel exec Carl Parmer are buying all of its spinoffs outside of southern Connecticut. As previously reported, the company will be called Summit Media.

If anyone's curious, the Connecticut properties go to Connoisseur.

 

[rtc]

Link:

http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/02/cox_media_group_sells_its_birm.html#incart_river

 

[tomservo]

I understand DuBose has been there since at least the time when Kiss and Jamz launched, and they've been top performers ever since. Let's hope the magic continues and spreads to the other markets.

 

[whit979]

I've only interacted with Mr. DuBose a couple of times, but he seemed to be more passionate about the intricacies of radio and innovation than most other managers I've ever been around. Hopefully that will mean continued success for this cluster.

 

[Poledo]

I've never understood why Cox wanted to divest Birmingham. With the size of the Birmingham market and it's proximity to Cox's home market of Atlanta... it seems like Birmingham would be a cheaper market to run than most. I think Cox would want to expand it's Alabama holdings, possibly even adding stations in smaller, unrated, markets... but apparently I don't know enough about radio to figure this out.

Now if someone was at the table and willing to pay Cox more than they valued the Birmingham stations at, that would be a different story... but Cox has spent a year or more looking for an acceptable offer on the BHM cluster.

 

[Kent]

Cox doesn't do unrated markets. Spot radio has never been bought regionally, and going into unrated markets wouldn't add significant value to their portfolio. I was actually surprised they launched a 95.7 Jamz clone in Tuscaloosa. However, Cox selling Birmingham (and, for that matter, Greenville/Spartanburg) doesn't make much sense to me either. I can understand Richmond and Connecticut as well as Louisville, to a lesser degree. Honolulu's a tough market, but I was still surprised they let it go because some trips to Hawaii could be written off for business! Maybe they were just trying to raise money to help with their recent TV acquisitions?

I've heard good things about David DuBose. I'd certainly be less worried about getting bought by Summit than those in Connecticut being acquired by Connoisseur. I've heard mostly good things about Warshaw, too, but I suspect there will be more of a culture change in Connecticut than the other markets.

 

[Poledo]

Doesn't Cox now own clusters in Athens and Gainesville, Georgia? Technically unrated radio markets but since they are under the shadow of Cox's WSB-TV coverage they don't make a very good example of how all rules are made to be broken.
Based on that expansion out of the Atlanta market it would seem that other nearby unrated markets, like Auburn, AL, would be attractive to Cox. Birmingham, Macon, Montgomery.... seems like all these markets would appeal to Cox... but they're just going to let Cumulus have them? Strange business practices in my mind.

 

[tomservo]

I have a feeling the reason Cox remains in Athens and Gainesville is because those stations rimshot Atlanta or are potential move-ins.

 

[Kent]

Doesn't Cox now own clusters in Athens and Gainesville, Georgia?

Touche!

Technically unrated radio markets but since they are under the shadow of Cox's WSB-TV coverage they don't make a very good example of how all rules are made to be broken.

Athens and Gainesville are also part of the Atlanta TV market, which means they probably consider those stations to be part of their TV/radio combo in Atlanta. Kind of like how Clear Channel considers Waco, TX and Killeen/Temple to be a combined radio market, though Arbitron separates them out.

Based on that expansion out of the Atlanta market it would seem that other nearby unrated markets, like Auburn, AL, would be attractive to Cox. Birmingham, Macon, Montgomery.... seems like all these markets would appeal to Cox... but they're just going to let Cumulus have them? Strange business practices in my mind.

Cox has been trying to become a top-50 market company, but they're keeping smaller market stations where they have other media. A good example of that is Tulsa. The Cox Radio cluster in Tulsa used to have some of the highest profit margins in the entire company, but they probably would've sold it if they hadn't been able to buy Fox 23 (KOKI) and My 41 (KMYT) from Newport. They also bought the Newport stations in Jacksonville, which rates right at #50 for radio.

I believe they're also selling TV standalones outside of the top-50 markets. They're keeping WPXI in Pittsburgh, but I remember seeing KFOX-TV and a TV in Reno on their list of spinoffs.