Del Colliano: Cox to Sell 30 Stations in 5 Markets

[RoddyFreeman]

According to Jerry Del Colliano's Inside Media Media, Cox Media Group will announce the sale of 30 stations in 5 markets today at noon. He says the markets are Birmingham, Richmond, Greenville (SC), Honolulu and Connecticut.

Del Colliano said he does not know who the buyer is, but my theory is that Brent is buying them so he will have stations that he likes to listen to.

 

[carolinaradio]

Being in an affected market (Greenville), I'm actually surprised they're exiting. They've been doing well here and are actually planning to launch a new station via translator next month.

Cumulus can expand in all of those markets except for Birmingham, I believe.

 

[ky15]

According to Jerry Del Colliano's Inside Media Media, Cox Media Group will announce the sale of 30 stations in 5 markets today at noon. He says the markets are Birmingham, Richmond, Greenville (SC), Honolulu and Connecticut.

Del Colliano said he does not know who the buyer is, but my theory is that Brent is buying them so he will have stations that he likes to listen to.

Kind of surprised they are not unloading the Athens stations.

 

[jdb820]

According to Jerry Del Colliano's Inside Media Media, Cox Media Group will announce the sale of 30 stations in 5 markets today at noon. He says the markets are Birmingham, Richmond, Greenville (SC), Honolulu and Connecticut.

Del Colliano said he does not know who the buyer is, but my theory is that Brent is buying them so he will have stations that he likes to listen to.

Kind of surprised they are not unloading the Athens stations.

Or Long Island. They had a nice little cluster going with them and the Southern CT stations.

 

[secondchoice]

I can understand the desire to do only "large markets", I wonder what large markets they plan to get into with either TV or Radio? CBS is doing the same. I wonder if any of the other "C" operators are ditching smaller markets too.

 

[Bengalsfan]

I wonder if any of the other "C" operators are ditching smaller markets too.

One can only hope.

 

[amos]

does cox have anywhere they can park legendary WFOX and KFOX calls?

even if they don't want to use them later, i would imagine they would bring a nice sum for a pair of Fox o/o stations. i heard fox in nyc wanted WFOX back when shamrock owned them.

 

[carolinaradio]

I wonder if any of the other "C" operators are ditching smaller markets too.

One can only hope.

I could see CC ditching the smaller markets/non-core stations before Cumulus. They've already exited some. My understanding is that the smaller markets have always done quite well for Cumulus (they had those long before the larger ones), so they may be less interested in letting them go.

 

[jabba17]

I wonder if any of the other "C" operators are ditching smaller markets too.

One can only hope.

I could see CC ditching the smaller markets/non-core stations before Cumulus. They've already exited some. My understanding is that the smaller markets have always done quite well for Cumulus (they had those long before the larger ones), so they may be less interested in letting them go.

Cumulus has always followed the Walmart/Hardee's/Carmike method of making themselves a "monopoly" or at least a VERY big player in small towns.

 

[jabba17]

According to Jerry Del Colliano's Inside Media Media, Cox Media Group will announce the sale of 30 stations in 5 markets today at noon. He says the markets are Birmingham, Richmond, Greenville (SC), Honolulu and Connecticut.

Del Colliano said he does not know who the buyer is, but my theory is that Brent is buying them so he will have stations that he likes to listen to.

Kind of surprised they are not unloading the Athens stations.

I wonder if Cox thinks they may be able to move them in one day...maybe in a post-analog IBOC world?

 

[jabba17]

does cox have anywhere they can park legendary WFOX and KFOX calls?

even if they don't want to use them later, i would imagine they would bring a nice sum for a pair of Fox o/o stations. i heard fox in nyc wanted WFOX back when shamrock owned them.

Put WFOX back on 97.1 just for jollies. Too bad Cox Atlanta has no interest in classic hits.

 

[RadioStarOne]

It would be nice to see Cumulus sell their stations to Cox in the San Francisco market! "I know like that could or ever would happen in this lifetime!" I believe stranger things have happened though! One can dream too!

 

[taylorengineer]

I wonder why Cox has announced the sale this way. Why would you not just call the brokers,tell them to find buyers, cut a deal, and then announce? It seems to me this puts many people needlessly "walking on eggshells."
What do they gain by doing it this way?
Who will be the buyer(s)? Is Lew counting his pocket change? It seems many of the major groups are shying away from medium markets and financing may be difficult for smaller operators. Cumulus is the only large group to show interest in smaller markets as of late. I would guess the stations will probably go piece-meal and not as a group.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

I wonder why Cox has announced the sale this way. Why would you not just call the brokers,tell them to find buyers, cut a deal, and then announce? It seems to me this puts many people needlessly "walking on eggshells."
What do they gain by doing it this way?
Who will be the buyer(s)? Is Lew counting his pocket change? It seems many of the major groups are shying away from medium markets and financing may be difficult for smaller operators. Cumulus is the only large group to show interest in smaller markets as of late. I would guess the stations will probably go piece-meal and not as a group.

I can't figure that out either unless Cox has a buyer(s). Why announce selling when station prices are still depressed? What if they can't get the amounts they want? Employees will start looking elsewhere.

 

[BIGSTICK]

Funny how all the radio giants begin with a "C", I could say something but I would get banned............

 

[johndavis]

I wonder why Cox has announced the sale this way. Why would you not just call the brokers,tell them to find buyers, cut a deal, and then announce? It seems to me this puts many people needlessly "walking on eggshells."
What do they gain by doing it this way?

Upper management at Cox has a thing for transparency with the employees. I mean, Doug Franklin's office put out an e-mail to all employees last night apologizing for not announcing the purchase of the Jacksonville and Tulsa TV stations to employees first. Today's developments went out to everyone (even in the unaffected markets) a couple of hours before anything hit the press.

One of the big things that employees told management in the annual survey was they don't like being in the dark and management promised that they would be open and honest from the top on down. If they were to just call the brokers and blindside the staff as you suggest, it would erase the credibility that they have with the staff not only in the markets they sell but in the markets they keep.

Yeah, it's a risk, but it's in keeping with the company's culture. They trust us to be professionals. We trust them to make good decisions.

 

[trusty]

I understand the sale in saturated markets, but not in growing markets.

 

[secondchoice]

I would guess the stations will probably go piece-meal and not as a group.

By publicly announcing, there is a chance that a "new" buyer of radio stations emerges. If you look at a lot of publicly held corporations's balance sheets, a lot of them have a lot of cash. Looking at the other "C"s who else who would want to buy that has cash? The depress media properties prices are not a factor as long as you buy other properties at depressed prices.

 

[MarcB]

In Connecticut they have only 3 stations left. - Heritage Classic Rocker WPLR 99.1 in New Haven, HOT ACish/Top 40 Star 99.9 WEZN Bridgeport, and Classic Rocker 95.9 the FOX WFOX Norwalk/Stamford. They sold their Local/Syndicated news-talker WSTC/WNLK (AM 1400/1350) in Norwalk/Stamford last year to WSHU Public Radio. And they sold 96.7 in Stamford to K-LOVE and made it a NYC move-in.

 

[carolinaradio]

I just mentioned this on the thread about the sale on the SC board, but I wonder if Saga could be interested in some of the markets? Especially Greenville (they have stations up in Asheville) and Richmond (they are in a couple of VA markets).