Emmis

[AMRocks]

Does anyone else think Emmis is a company that could get out of radio? They have SO few stations, even in NYC.

Here's the list, from their website:
https://www.emmis.com/what-we-do/emmis-radio/

WBLS and Hot 97 do very well, I'm sure they are making money on their lease to ESPN, too. Their only other markets are Indianapolis and Austin. (I thought they were bigger than that.)

But given they have so little in terms of properties anymore, they might be right for some divesting.

Does anyone have more insight into this company and plans? Curious of everyone's thoughts.

 

[TheBigA]

The key thing to know about Emmis, at least with regards to NYC, is they own the urban format. True, Power is also an Urban station, but WBLS and Hot are a very strong sales combo. It would be much harder for them if they were competing in AC or other formats. It's kind of like Service in Dallas.

A few years ago, they were a company like iHeart and Cumulus that were crippled with debt. Founder Jeff Smulyan set out to address that, so he began by selling off stations and other assets. He recently announced that the debt situation is under control. So I would imagine he's done selling assets for a while. It'll be interesting to see what happens now that Entercom owns the Cumulus cluster in Indianapolis. But that is Smulyan's home market, so I expect that will be the last market he'll sell.

 

[madooputtus]

Would Urban One (ex-Radio One) enter the NYC market by buying both HOT 97, WBLS & 1190 WLIB from Emmis? That will be a good deal

 

[PTBoardOp94]

WBLS and Hot 97 do very well, I'm sure they are making money on their lease to ESPN, too. Their only other markets are Indianapolis and Austin. (I thought they were bigger than that.)

Yes. They sold stations in DC, Chicago, St. Louis and LA in the last five years or so. And of course WEMP/WFAN-FM in New York.

I think Emmis chairman/CEO/founder Jeff Smulyan is determined to stay in the business til his dying days. Whether that includes New York is up for debate - it has been a challenging market for the company. It would have made sense for Cumlus and Emmis's NYC clusters to merge, but with Cumulus essentially selling out I wouldn't foresee that happening.

 

[BJSteigner]

Allow me to input this...I believe Emmis didn't have a healthy balance sheet and that's why they started selling and purging their portfolio...Remember now...They still own TV and other media.

 

[davideduardo]

Allow me to input this...I believe Emmis didn't have a healthy balance sheet and that's why they started selling and purging their portfolio...Remember now...They still own TV and other media.

Emmis does not own TV stations any longer, and they sold most of the magazines in their portfolio.

https://www.emmis.com/

They have paid down debt with the sale of assets and are in pretty good shape now.

 

[davideduardo]

Yes. They sold stations in DC, Chicago, St. Louis and LA in the last five years or so. And of course WEMP/WFAN-FM in New York.

WEPN was not sold in New York. It is still owned by Emmis and under an LMA to ESPN.

The station that is now WFAN-FM was sold to Merlin along with two stations in Chicago in what was a "deal you could not refuse" for a huge amount of cash.

I think Emmis chairman/CEO/founder Jeff Smulyan is determined to stay in the business til his dying days. Whether that includes New York is up for debate - it has been a challenging market for the company. It would have made sense for Cumlus and Emmis's NYC clusters to merge, but with Cumulus essentially selling out I wouldn't foresee that happening.

The two NYC FMs are 5th and 7th in total billing, and Emmis with just those two FMs and a gospel AM has about 11% of the revenue in the market. They are doing extremely well with WBLS and Hot, in fact.

 

[mets18]

WEPN was not sold in New York. It is still owned by Emmis and under an LMA to ESPN.
]

No one said WEPN was sold. The station the poster referred to was WEMP which were the calls on the failed 101.9 news station.