• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

FLOOD GATES ARE OPENING- GREAT TIME TO BUY A RADIO STATION!

J

joshzz

More radio stations are now available for sale than I can ever remember.

Many owners are choosing to sell directly as opposed to using a broker. It's understandable considering the climate. Still, expectations of significant profits exist when in reality some will find that a zero gain or even a loss may be in order.

We're quickly approaching a new age for radio. I believe there will be a quick exodus of the huge players and a return to real good ole' localism. josh
 
Yet another thread-wash/rinse/repeat.

Banks-no thanks
Investors-you kidding
Rich Uncle-yeah right kid

Take a look at the few locals who have jumped in. More cuts, more national feeds.
Local is not the magic bullet, content is king.
 
Ah, but there are some locals who are doing a great job with their local news coverage and local content.
The problem is that over the many years we have been programmed to accept what the "big radio companies" have spewed as "content," and anything that doesn't measure up is declared "small time" and worthless.
 
12 In a Row said:
Yet another thread-wash/rinse/repeat.

Banks-no thanks
Investors-you kidding
Rich Uncle-yeah right kid

Take a look at the few locals who have jumped in. More cuts, more national feeds.
Local is not the magic bullet, content is king.
Click to expand...

Wrong. It IS possible to get credit now. It is ALWAYS tough to get credit. When things are bad (like now) banks get cautious (understandably). When things are going great values are sky high and it's tough to get credit because of that.

Now is a great time to buy if you have the money or can team up with someone who has money.

It is NOT impossible. (Tough, oh heck yeah, very, but doable).
 
radioray said:
12 In a Row said:
Yet another thread-wash/rinse/repeat.

Banks-no thanks
Investors-you kidding
Rich Uncle-yeah right kid

Take a look at the few locals who have jumped in. More cuts, more national feeds.
Local is not the magic bullet, content is king.
Click to expand...

Wrong. It IS possible to get credit now. It is ALWAYS tough to get credit. When things are bad (like now) banks get cautious (understandably). When things are going great values are sky high and it's tough to get credit because of that.

Now is a great time to buy if you have the money or can team up with someone who has money.

It is NOT impossible. (Tough, oh heck yeah, very, but doable).
Click to expand...

Correction, good ole fashioned banks (much lower interest) will at least talk to you if and only if there's valuable real estate. Teaming up with folks who have money are looking for a return on their investment. That's why they have money and don't want to lose it. Radio is not the cash cow it once was and that has has more to do with advanced media and very little to do with corporate.
 
"Live and local" has been glamorized and romanticized quite a bit on these boards, but small stations that are "live and local" often have very little money! And the first place where they always want to cut is employee pay! They pay employees as little as possible (usually minimum wage), and then they try to wring as much work as possible out of those employees for what little chicken feed that they actually do pay! Direct quote from one former GM: "Don't expect to get paid for everything you do!" (And he probably still wonders why that station failed under his "management." ::))

My first station was "live and local" to the extreme, doing remotes from events as dull and mundane as ribbon cuttings! BORRRINNNGGG! Ribbon cuttings are more suited to a photo in the local paper. But the GM at my first station covered everything! That station was so "live and local" that they apparently couldn't even afford to pay for a national news network! So we only had "local" news! And this was in 1990-1991 during the first Persian Gulf War! We had a TV monitor in our studio tuned to CNN, and we "reported" whatever we heard and saw there. That had to pass for "national news." Once I mentioned "CNN is reporting..." and the station management acted like I used four-letter words on the air! :eek: Well, give us a national news network and you wouldn't have had that problem! Other stations reported real news via their networks, while we "reported" on fish fries and other PSAs, and called that "news"! That station was a sick, sad joke! We couldn't even play music published, or even co-published, by ASCAP because that station owed ASCAP money! Take a look at your record collection, and you will see that that really thinned out our playlist to almost nothing! :eek:

That brand of "live and local"? You can keep it! :mad:
 
Wonder how many would listen to that type of station let alone work there. What did you have left to play, classical and folk music?
 
I worked for a station that owed a ton of money to ASCAP and BMI, even to the point of having judgements but they never sent us a C&D demanding we stop playing music
 
Bottom line is there's a reason why station values have dropped, and it's because ad revenues have dropped. There is no easy solution to the drop in revenue problem. Meanwhile, other operating expenses continue to rise. So even if you get a license for free, it still costs a lot to keep the station on the air, even without employees. If these places were bags of money just looking for real broadcasters to come in and unlock the value, they would have already been sold. But if you think the laws of economics don't apply to you, give it a try.
 
Bulls eye, grand slam, amen.

Bringing up radio remotes still makes me ill. Like it's some sort of magic and thousands of listeners are going to show up and ask for your autograph.
What great local radio. Card table-sound system-bumper stickers, tee-shirts and the like, all for a handful of prize pigs. "Come on down, we're having a great time."
 
gr8oldies said:
Wonder how many would listen to that type of station let alone work there. What did you have left to play, classical and folk music?
Click to expand...
We were country and gospel while I was there. The gospel was largely unaffected by the ASCAP ban. I worked there for six months, until I was hired away. Our listenership was mainly senior citizens. No surprise there. (I passed through there a couple of years after leaving there, and they were still playing the same handful of songs that I had played while I was there! ::))

I should have known that it was not that great a station when I observed the PD talking on the air without wearing a headset, on my first ever visit there. But then again, that was my first station, so it was my first "real" (post-college) experience.
 
gr8oldies said:
I worked for a station that owed a ton of money to ASCAP and BMI, even to the point of having judgements but they never sent us a C&D demanding we stop playing music
Click to expand...
I can't say if the station ever received a cease and desist, but at the same time, I figured that ASCAP had better things to do than to hassle a 500-watt daytimer in rural west Tennessee.

And they still didn't even have a CD player (yet) while I was working there! :eek:
 
firepoint525 said:
I should have known that it was not that great a station when I observed the PD talking on the air without wearing a headset, on my first ever visit there.
Click to expand...

I used to have my own checklist of things to look for and watch for when going for an interview and to visit a station. "Is the announcer using a headset?" was NEVER on my list. I guess I just didn't understand the business. ;D

Just for the record: In my own work I probably was as married to a headset as anybody in the station, but I also knew there were times when it just didn't matter.

Let's see if we can tie this side-road back to the topic of Good Times and Bad Times to buy a radio station. Be sure and budget for for headphones in your pro-forma financial statement.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom