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

Has Emmis actively put the station up for sale? August isn't that far off

Yes, last year:


“We've been talking to a number of different people, and whoever gets the price, they’ll be the buyer,” Smulyan said of the sale of WEPN-FM and is sister WLIB.

I would expect an announcement by June.
 
Has Emmis actively put the station up for sale? August isn't that far off
The potential buyers all know about the station and its situation, and likely know Mr. Smulyan well enough to call him "Jeff".
 
The potential buyers all know about the station and its situation, and likely know Mr. Smulyan well enough to call him "Jeff".
Interested to see who will by and what will become of it. I feel like this sale will be a good indication as to how radio is currently valued amd what formats will work in this changing radioscape
 
The potential buyers all know about the station and its situation, and likely know Mr. Smulyan well enough to call him "Jeff".

If that’s a hint, I certainly picked up on it. If I’m interpreting it correctly, then I’d like to see that purchase happen.
 
What do you guys think will be the replacement format when ESPN officially signs off?
-Alternative Rock
-Country
-Simulcast of 77 WABC
-Return of KISS FM
-Religious station
 
What do you guys think will be the replacement format when ESPN officially signs off?
-Alternative Rock
-Country
-Simulcast of 77 WABC
-Return of KISS FM
-Religious station
From most likely to least likely:
1. Religious station
2. Simulcast of 77 WABC
3. Return of KISS FM (depending on who holds the trademark)
4. (Tie) Alternative Rock and Country (less than 10% chance of happening)
 
75% chance it goes to EMF and Air 1 moves to 98.7 from 96.7. EMF wants New Jersey in grade A coverage area for their worship network.
20% chance it goes to WABC-770.
5% chance it goes to WAWZ to simulcast 99.1 - wouldn't they want to expand their coverage and message into western Long Island, northern NYC suburbs?

I can't see anything else happening to this frequency (and yes, that includes country music). Times have changed. EMF is buying stations more than anyone else, and I know they were stoked to put K-LOVE on 95.5. Paterson, Newark, Wayne, Clifton, and Fair Lawn are all in grade B 'distant' contour for 96.7. That's another few hundred thousand they could reach for Jesus IF they buy out 98.7. Plainfield, Westfield and Morristown are in even weaker coverage.
 
How would WABC have better ratings than what is on now? Just pull the plug entirely in that case.
Mr. Catsimaditis is a wealthy man, successful businessman, reasonably smart, and somewhat full of himself. He also seems to have surrounded himself with yes-men who tell him what he wants to hear about his programming choices and his on-air appeal to listeners. OK, he can run an AM radio station, try to make some money off it, scratch his itch to be on the radio, attempt to be a power player in New York politics, all that stuff. But he's proven he ain't stupid.

I've suspected for awhile that, in his due diligence analysis before buying WABC, a big, unspoken factor was the value of all that land in Lodi where the transmitter & towers sit. I suspect he thought, OK, I can run my own radio station, it's a station with 50 thousand nondirectional watts and a boatload of heritage. I can scratch my itch to be a radio personality, hobnob with people like Rudy and Bruce, all those things. But AM is fading, and at the end of this ride, when the time comes, I can take WABC off the air, return the license, take down the towers, sell the equipment and sell all that land to someone (like maybe Amazon) who would want to build a distribution center there. Great location. That value will only go up with time, and I have time.

So Cats has his fun, and when the ride is done, he gets to take his profit and laugh all the way to the bank. And unlike so many other AM operators in the NYC market, he's not saddled with protected marsh land or an island off the Bronx that can't reasonable be developed for much else.

Acquiring 98.7 blows that whole plan out of the water. Then he'd be forced into being a typical NYC station owner and playing by everyone else's rules.
 
From most likely to least likely:
1. Religious station
2. Simulcast of 77 WABC
3. Return of KISS FM (depending on who holds the trademark)
4. (Tie) Alternative Rock and Country (less than 10% chance of happening)
If KISS FM ever returns to NYC, chances are it'll be iHeart bringing it in & they'd probably want it to be on a CHR station like L.A., but since Z100 is such a HUGE historic brand there, I don't see it.
 
Seems to me you've asked this question before. The answer is it depends on who buys it.
Not only has he asked the question before, but there is no way of knowing right now as we don't have confirmation of who might be the buyer.

Posting the question over and over won't get a different answer until there is an announcement of the sale or a "leak" about it.

What we can say, based on past experience, is that alternative and country will not be put on a major ESB signal. The simple fact is that the metro area is increasingly less non-Hispanic white and both of those formats perform poorly among immigrants, Blacks, Hispanics and most other ethnic groups.

And formats and station names that have been gone for many, many years will not return. There are no Rip Von Winkles in radio formatland. Maybe an Ichabod Crane...
 
What we can say, based on past experience, is that alternative and country will not be put on a major ESB signal. The simple fact is that the metro area is increasingly less non-Hispanic white and both of those formats perform poorly among immigrants, Blacks, Hispanics and most other ethnic groups.

And yet we have whiter-than white Christian conservative K-Love and Family Radio still buying stations in New York because apparently there are lots of white people with excess money to give them. So why do these discussions always turn so quickly to a racial angle?

Maybe KEXP will buy it. Then it would be Alternative. They just bought into San Francisco and it wouldn't be the first time they put their programming on a NYC signal. As some may recall they simulcast the morning show on WNYE for a while.

If KISS FM ever returns to NYC, chances are it'll be iHeart

If "Jeff's" close friend on a first-name basis Alfred Liggins buys it for Urban One then it would likely get some kind of Urban AC format, but it wouldn't be called KISS due to trademark/availability.

The answer is it depends on who buys it.

Yup. It might be a Black or Hispanic format, or it might not be, depending on that.
 
And yet we have whiter-than white Christian conservative K-Love and Family Radio still buying stations in New York because apparently there are lots of white people with excess money to give them. So why do these discussions always turn so quickly to a racial angle?
Because tastes are distinctly different among various racial and ethnic groups (remember, Hispanic is not a race).

The contribution sustained religious stations don't play a ratings game and they also depend on age groups that commercial radio can not serve due to lack of revenue.
Maybe KEXP will buy it. Then it would be Alternative. They just bought into San Francisco and it wouldn't be the first time they put their programming on a NYC signal. As some may recall they simulcast the morning show on WNYE for a while.
Their management must be aware that the West Coast mentality and taste is very different. And they bought a tiny San Francisco station, not an ESB full power one in New York.
If "Jeff's" close friend on a first-name basis Alfred Liggins buys it for Urban One then it would likely get some kind of Urban AC format, but it wouldn't be called KISS due to trademark/availability.
Who cares? KISS is a name, not a format. They could call it Subway 98.7 and the factor would still be how good the music and presentation might be.
 
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