First Broadcasting is no friend

[BrainDeadPrez]

Recent edition of "Radio World" says that First Broadcasting (1160 and 1190 AM) is pressuring the FCC to change rules dating back to 1963 that will allow owners to move stations out of cities and towns that have only one local station. One complainant said that First's petition to the FCC "is but a thinly disguised request for yet more tools to permit companies such as First to strip much-needed local AM and FM channels for deserving communities in smaller, independent advertising markets and moving them dozens or hundreds of miles into the core of major rated advertising markets."

Of course, that's where station broker First Broadcasting makes their money, by buying up rimshots (and not-so-rimshots) for a song, then maxing out their power, moving them closer to rated markets, and selling for a huge profit. Why else would they have gone to all the trouble to move 1150 to 1160, and change the city of license, and do power upgrades, etc?

In the past, keeping at least one station in an otherwise unserved community was a big deal. In the process of moving McKinney's 1600 AM to Cockrell Hill (and perhaps related to KESN's and KHYI's maneuvering as well,) KNTU-Denton was paid to change their city of license to McKinney to satisfy the FCC so McKinney wouldn't be stripped of their last station. First's deal is to blow out that rule and strip those towns of their only stations with no regard for public interest.

Speaking of First, 1160's calls were changed a couple of weeks ago from KBIS to KMGS.

 

[edwardrmurrow]

What is sad, is the fact there is no public knowledge for the non broadcaster. TV,newspapers, and radio certainly won't report it. I am so tired of the pillaging of stations for a quick profit with disregard to a station's history and a disdain for it's community. One day the FCC might actuallydo something good and decent for broadcasting instead of letting the coporations run the agency. That type of attitude would have allowed Bonnie and Clyde to open up a credit union.

 

[BrainDeadPrez]

> What is sad, is the fact there is no public knowledge for
> the non broadcaster. TV,newspapers, and radio certainly
> won't report it. I am so tired of the pillaging of stations
> for a quick profit with disregard to a station's history and
> a disdain for it's community. One day the FCC might
> actuallydo something good and decent for broadcasting
> instead of letting the coporations run the agency. That type
> of attitude would have allowed Bonnie and Clyde to open up a
> credit union.
>

You're absolutely right. Sad thing, though, is that there are plenty of mom-and-pop stations being intimidated by the size of Clear Channel and others that the private owners don't think they can compete, and when First comes knocking at your door, the temptation is there to sell off the whole thing and be rid of it. And I'm sure First has a nifty little sales pitch they use to intimidate someone if they aren't already. I doubt First's people sit around waiting for mom-and-pop to make the first move and call up First to make a bid on the thing. The First people likely do a general engineering analysis to see what stations are ripe for upgrading, then go pursue them. Your private owners are not always the most knowledgeable about modern engineering practices and what potential their station might have, or what upgrades they could do...and consider, too, that, even if they do know, they might not have the capital to do it with. So here comes First to the rescue, waving some cash in front of a station owner, stealing the station for a song, and then aiming its signal into an oversaturated rated market...and then sticking up the For Sale sign with an overinflated price attached.

Hats off to one person in the BIG minority here, the woman who inherited KBEC-1390 from her father, Richard Tuck. At least she is adamant about holding onto the station and keeping it in the community and SERVING the community. I'm sure she could easily give in and dump it off, and has likely been approached many times about it...but she obviously sees that there's MUCH more at stake here. I admire that and have all the respect in the world for that. THAT'S the true spirit of radio we all miss so much.

 

[edwardrmurrow]

Agreed. KBEC and KMOO in Minneola are to be admired for standing up to the buy out offers. KMOO was asked repeatedly by East Texas Broadcasting inc. to be sold to them. The owner Hightower wisely refused.ETB is a mini CC.Ask the people of Paris Texas and Sulphur Springs, all syndicated WAITT radio networks out of Omaha. A lousy network if there ever was one. KSHN in Liberty, Texas is another locally owned station that is live 24-7 with news, weather and a variety of music that serves their community well. Many times they have been appoached to be bought and moved to Houston. They stream at KSHN.com Bill Buchanan is a true broadcaster. So thank God there are still some who actually believe in a station serving it's city of license. One more station KDOK in Tyler, owner Paul Gleiser. News,weather and great oldies can be heard at 92.1

 

[nuzguy]

> What is sad, is the fact there is no public knowledge for
> the non broadcaster. TV,newspapers, and radio certainly
> won't report it. I am so tired of the pillaging of stations
> for a quick profit with disregard to a station's history and
> a disdain for it's community. One day the FCC might
> actuallydo something good and decent for broadcasting
> instead of letting the coporations run the agency. That type
> of attitude would have allowed Bonnie and Clyde to open up a
> credit union.

Not likely the FCC will do anything unless told to do it by the White House. Big business has Capitol Hill in its back pocket and broadcasting corporations are BIG business personified (along with pharmaceuticals et al), therefore station groups and other enterprises will continue to run over and trample anything or anyone getting in the way of the bottom line. The FCC under Michael Powell got so bad it smelled, in the process of following marching orders from he administration. It's not likely the new commission chairman will be any different, since he knows who appointed him and who can
un-appoint him. Powell of course remained in his appointment until he came into a position with more money, but he was still a big DIS-appointment during his tenure.
>

 

[DoogieDown]

> One complainant said that First's petition to the FCC "is
> but a thinly disguised request for yet more tools to permit
> companies such as First to strip much-needed local AM and FM
> channels for deserving communities in smaller, independent
> advertising markets and moving them dozens or hundreds of
> miles into the core of major rated advertising markets."

Sounds to me like First's REAL complaint should be with the number of stations a media company is allowed to own in a major market. If that number were reduced to 3, 4 or 5 stations (is the cap 7 right now?), then a company like First wouldn't have to rummage around for rimshots. There would be a number of poorly performing stations ALREADY IN THE MARKET that First could make offers on. Think about it: nearly every large radio company here in Dallas owns at least one complete dud of a station--some of these companies find themselves with more than 1... heh-heh.

And may I refer you to one of the beauties of Capitalism: Some of these dud stations might become good if they were owned by companies that had more incentive to make them successful.

Plus, large companies own loser stations ONLY because they CAN. The conventional wisdom of the mid-nineties was to buy as many stations as your lenders would finance--and figure out what to DO with them later. Well, that little strategy ain't helping stock prices these days.

At some point, somethin's got to give.

 

[nuzguy]

> > One complainant said that First's petition to the FCC "is
> > but a thinly disguised request for yet more tools to
> permit
> > companies such as First to strip much-needed local AM and
> FM
> > channels for deserving communities in smaller, independent
>
> > advertising markets and moving them dozens or hundreds of
> > miles into the core of major rated advertising markets."
>
> Sounds to me like First's REAL complaint should be with the
> number of stations a media company is allowed to own in a
> major market. If that number were reduced to 3, 4 or 5
> stations (is the cap 7 right now?), then a company like
> First wouldn't have to rummage around for rimshots. There
> would be a number of poorly performing stations ALREADY IN
> THE MARKET that First could make offers on. Think about it:
> nearly every large radio company here in Dallas owns at
> least one complete dud of a station--some of these companies
> find themselves with more than 1... heh-heh.
>
> And may I refer you to one of the beauties of Capitalism:
> Some of these dud stations might become good if they were
> owned by companies that had more incentive to make them
> successful.
>
> Plus, large companies own loser stations ONLY because they
> CAN. The conventional wisdom of the mid-nineties was to buy
> as many stations as your lenders would finance--and figure
> out what to DO with them later. Well, that little strategy
> ain't helping stock prices these days.
>
> At some point, somethin's got to give.
>
Certainly worth hoping for. Such a short time ago it was that owners would program and promote a broadcast station so that advertisers wanted to be part of the station's presence in a market. Now sponsors sign on after much arm twisting and are part of stations that no longer are permitted to serve the public interest--this because owners are too busy manipulating and flipping stations as if they are just a piece of real estate. And anymore the land on which a station sits often is worth more than the broadcast property itself.