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ESPN 98.7 FM to be no more come August 31, 2024

WCBS-FM or of WHTZ should move to 98.7 and avoid the co-channel interference from Philadelphia
The interference is not significant inside the MSA. That's all that matters.
 
Before that, WHN had been the longtime home of the NY Mets. In fact when Emmis bought the station in 1986, they inherited the Mets deal. They kept country in the daytime, with sports talk at night. They dropped country in July 1987 and built the entire station around the Mets and sports talk.
Four and a half years isn't very long; however, I am aware that WHN first broadcast the Mets in 1964, with several changes in the flagship station since then.

New York Mets Radio Broadcasters by Year (Wikipedia)
 
You know, it would be very ironic if Cats did buy 98.7 and turn it into a simulcast of his WABC/770, considering the competitive history of those two stations back in the day.

Cats has stated that he wants to acquire an FM to be a music station. The expectation is that it would be an oldies/standards format.
 
Two mentions of MediaCo. That one makes sense. They bought the other Emmis stations, so in a sense, he would keep it in house. The question is does MediaCo Holding also want to cash out?
Given how Standard General was denied their buyout of Tegna Inc. after the FCC left that deal twisting in the wind, I’d have to think their MediaCo unit is a seller, not a buyer.
 
Is it possible that no one can come up with any format that would come close to defraying the cost of acquiring WEPN, and the advertising recession just gets deeper, thus there is no sale, the license is turned in, and the frequency goes dark?
 
Is it possible that no one can come up with any format that would come close to defraying the cost of acquiring WEPN, and the advertising recession just gets deeper, thus there is no sale, the license is turned in, and the frequency goes dark?

Emmis would sell it for $1 before that happened.

Seems to me Emmis would be unlikely to get $50 million just for the stick, but the ultimate market value, which will ultimately dictate the sale price, is going to be eight figures.
 
Is it possible that no one can come up with any format that would come close to defraying the cost of acquiring WEPN, and the advertising recession just gets deeper, thus there is no sale, the license is turned in, and the frequency goes dark?

I think that's why folks shouldn't put the cart before the horse, and attempt to pick a format before figuring out a long-term strategy of how to pay for it. I think that was the mistake Randy Michaels made when he started Merlin and bought a bunch of stations. He was primarily a programming guy. He seemed to believe if you built it they will come, and they didn't. You need to have enough money in the bank to pay for the station and all of the expenses in case the advertising revenue dries up. Or else you become Audacy, Cumulus, and iHeart.
 
Is it possible that no one can come up with any format that would come close to defraying the cost of acquiring WEPN, and the advertising recession just gets deeper, thus there is no sale, the license is turned in, and the frequency goes dark?
EMF (Air 1, K-LOVE) doesn't need advertising. They need support and they get plenty from those radiothons, promoting free gas for a year or a $3,000 Amazon gift card to the lucky caller who pledged $100 a month. How else can they put on a glitzy CCM awards show on TBN? If EMF has $50 million and the commercial guys (SBS, WABC, Radio One) say 'We can't afford it,' EMF wins the auction.

98.7 won't go dark, not in America's biggest city/metro area. Its history goes back to the early 1940s when FM operations were BELOW the 6-meter ham band!
 
Talk aimed at younger listeners. Oh, yes, it's called streaming, TikTokers and social media.
Virtually everything on Radio can be had by streaming. The trick is coming up with something that will keep people turning their radio on. More and more for younger people, streaming is going to be the way they get music. In my opinion, spoken word is going to be the future for radio. Music will always be a part of the package, but not the main event.

In the case of WTKS, they have eclipsed the heritage talker WDBO. I am sure the young people in Florida know what streaming is, yet a lot of them are choosing the radio broadcast, to the advantage of advertisers

Cox has a similar station in Tampa, WHPT, doing equally well. Since so much of radio can be done remote, and so much advertising buying is done by agencies, why are stand alone stations in a particular market avoided by radio companies? In other words, why would Cox not want to consider trying to replicate what they have done in Tampa in NYC?
 
Since so much of radio can be done remote, and so much advertising buying is done by agencies, why are stand alone stations in a particular market avoided by radio companies? In other words, why would Cox not want to consider trying to replicate what they have done in Tampa in NYC?

First of all, the Cox company that ran those stations was sold to an investment company that doesn't seem as committed to radio as it is to TV. So I don't think Cox is in "buy" mode. But as for stand-alone stations, it's just very inefficient. It's more efficient to spread the expense of an office in Manhattan with highly paid staffers over several stations. The cost difference between Tampa and New York, especially for things like taxes and insurance, is huge.
 
The cost difference between Tampa and New York, especially for things like taxes and insurance, is huge.
There's also a difference in what the stations there would have to serve compared to here. In Tampa, you don't see any stations directed towards Asians (they make up maybe around 4.6% of Tampa's population) compared to New York, which has a few AMs brokered with mostly Asian and Hispanic programming. In Tampa, the main Latin demo is Cuban since they make up 7.96% of the population. Maybe New Yorkers wouldn't want what WHPT airs? No way we can know for sure without seeing if it's a failure or not without seeing it play out.
 
There's also a difference in what the stations there would have to serve compared to here. In Tampa, you don't see any stations directed towards Asians (they make up maybe around 4.6% of Tampa's population) compared to New York, which has a few AMs brokered with mostly Asian and Hispanic programming.
The MSA is 4.1% Asian, but there is no dominant country of origin or common language. Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog and a number of other languages, including several from India, divide that population group.

There are about 2.6 million Asians in NYC, but only 125,000 in the Tampa/St.Petersburg/Clearwater MSA. Not enough of any group to be marketable.
In Tampa, the main Latin demo is Cuban since they make up 7.96% of the population. Maybe New Yorkers wouldn't want what WHPT airs? No way we can know for sure without seeing if it's a failure or not without seeing it play out.
Tampa is 20.1% Hispanic in the MSA per Nielsen. And the data shows that among Spanish dominant Hispanics, the vast majority are Puerto Rican. The Orlando / Tampa area has been the primary destination of the new Puerto Rican diaspora where about 20% of all Boricuas have emigrated from the Island since the early 90's.

The Cuban population was begun in the late 1800's due to the political strife in Cuba.

"In 1885, Vicente Martinez Ybor moved his cigar operations from Key West to the town of Tampa, Florida to escape labor strife. Ybor City was designed as a modified company town, and it quickly attracted thousands of Cuban workers from Key West and Cuba"

Cuban national hero José Martí self-exiled to Tampa in the 1890s. Few of those with Cuban heritage in the 18-54 demographic speak Spanish or would listen to Spanish language radio.
 
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