David, your opinion of Davdison Media?

[Oscar]

Rumors on the Cincinnati board about Davidson Media buying WCVG in Covington, KY (a Cincinnati suburb). I've noticed they bought stations in Louisville and Indianapolis recently. Cincinnati's Hispanic population is booming and this station covers a good part of it, although it's a pretty small signal. What do you know about them?

 

[shadowman]

> Rumors on the Cincinnati board about Davidson Media buying
> WCVG in Covington, KY (a Cincinnati suburb). I've noticed
> they bought stations in Louisville and Indianapolis
> recently. Cincinnati's Hispanic population is booming and
> this station covers a good part of it, although it's a
> pretty small signal. What do you know about them?
>

Let me give you some insight about Davidson Media. In some markets they get it right, however in some markets they are way off (in terms of radio personalities, their target audience, formats, and music). I live in a market where they own two stations, and they format them well (one focus on the younger demo with a playlist heavy on Reggaeton and tropical hits, while the other focus on an older demo with classic hits, and some tropical, and latin pop).

 

[wxctintern]

Some stations are programmed in-house. Other's are brokered out to other broadcasters to run 24/7.

Examples:

Davidson bought POWER 1270 in Springfield, MA about 20 months ago. It was already a popular Spanish language radio startion. They left it alone and it remains programmed in-house.

Davidson bought WXCT 990 in Southington, CT (suburban Hartford) in March 2004. It was an Anglo talk station. In May 2004 they leased the station out to Anda Productions who programmed a Spanish Adult Contemporary Format 6AM-6PM Monday-Saturday. (They subleased the station 4PM-6PM Monday-Friday to Peruvian Broadcasters). Anglo programming remained on the station 6PM-6AM, leased out to local broadcasters who wanted to do a show. (Myself included). In mid-August Anda Products took over the rest of WXCT's broadcast day (excluding 7AM-9PM on Sundays). I don't know the full details, but Davidson terminated Anda Productions lease in July 2005 and they began programming a Spanish format in-house as POWER 990. Three months later in October 2005, they brought back the former GM and flipped back to an Anglo Talk Station.

Davidson owns Latina 100.3 in Middletown (Providence), Rhode Island. I don't know if it's leased or programmed in-house, but they show up in the ratings book. Their sister station in Naragasset, Rhode Island was a leased-time Portugese station called 102.7 Radio Festival. That apparently bombed. (Not surprising as there's not much of a Portugese population down there. There's more in 100.3's listner area. In fact when 100.3 was a rock station owned by Citadel they were targeting New Bedford. That's where there are a lot of Portugese People). From what I've read on Radio-Info 102.7 in Naragasset is now playing a mixture of Jazz and Folk Music. (Not sure if it's regular Jazz or Smooth Jazz)