I don't know, but I'm leaning towards Family Radio turning in 1560's license at this point.
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Good Karma To Lease 880; WCBS News Programming To End
- Thread starter lanceventa
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Wouldn't WCBS-TV become WCBS? Recall that, under Tribune's ownership, 101.9 MHz was WPIX-FM, while the television station was, and remains WPIX (not WPIX-TV).
My reaction is a mixture of being totally surprised and stunned, but also a feeling that says “Of course”.
Agree that there are more wheels to be set in motion in the near future. Has Family Radio really recovered enough from the Harold Camping fiasco to now afford 1050? They had all but their little toe in the grave a decade ago.
Days like today are what keeps the broadcast industry interesting, I guess.
BTW the station will mark its 100th anniversary on September 20.
Agree that there are more wheels to be set in motion in the near future. Has Family Radio really recovered enough from the Harold Camping fiasco to now afford 1050? They had all but their little toe in the grave a decade ago.
Days like today are what keeps the broadcast industry interesting, I guess.
BTW the station will mark its 100th anniversary on September 20.
I realize that. But Good Karma doesn’t care about ratings so I find it hard to believe they would go through all this trouble just for a little better coverage.
The company that he started sold all their radio stations. That was when he should weep. The bigger problem for his company is the stock is in the toilet.
Family Radio has a nice pile of cash from the sale of the 1560 tower site.
Good Karma is based in Milwaukee. Here's what they did over the years. I'll just give frequencies.
When they launched ESPN Radio, it was on a daytimer, 1510. They needed night programming to compete against Entercom's new Sports format on 1250. So they leased nights on an Urban Talk station, 1290.
Salem decided to leave Milwaukee. They sold their FM to K-LOVE, Good Karma bought the AM. 540. Full market signal, 24 hours. ESPN Radio went there. 1510 went to ESPN Deportes.
Then in 2017 Good Karma sold 1510 to a broadcaster who wanted to run Progressive Talk.
Then in 2018 Good Karma bought Scripps heritage stations WTMJ (620) and WKTI (94.5) The local ESPN lineup went to 94.5. The AM, 540 went to the national ESPN feed.
Then the Progressive Talk broadcaster sold 1510 back to Good Karma. They put an Urban Talk format on there with a lightbulb signal. Has a translator with good coverage.
During the coronavirus Good Karma simulcast Doctor Radio from SiriusXM on 540.
Then a couple years ago, Good Karma sold 540 to the Progressive Talk broadcaster, who merged with another company.
In other words, what they do with the signals could go anywhere. Nobody expected Good Karma to get as large as they are. They were always a small time company with a few ESPN stations and their culture is the same. More of a family business. Craig Karmazin is the owner, Mel Karmazin's son. But even so, Good Karma is at it's core a smaller company with very large radio stations. Almost all of them ESPN.
When they launched ESPN Radio, it was on a daytimer, 1510. They needed night programming to compete against Entercom's new Sports format on 1250. So they leased nights on an Urban Talk station, 1290.
Salem decided to leave Milwaukee. They sold their FM to K-LOVE, Good Karma bought the AM. 540. Full market signal, 24 hours. ESPN Radio went there. 1510 went to ESPN Deportes.
Then in 2017 Good Karma sold 1510 to a broadcaster who wanted to run Progressive Talk.
Then in 2018 Good Karma bought Scripps heritage stations WTMJ (620) and WKTI (94.5) The local ESPN lineup went to 94.5. The AM, 540 went to the national ESPN feed.
Then the Progressive Talk broadcaster sold 1510 back to Good Karma. They put an Urban Talk format on there with a lightbulb signal. Has a translator with good coverage.
During the coronavirus Good Karma simulcast Doctor Radio from SiriusXM on 540.
Then a couple years ago, Good Karma sold 540 to the Progressive Talk broadcaster, who merged with another company.
In other words, what they do with the signals could go anywhere. Nobody expected Good Karma to get as large as they are. They were always a small time company with a few ESPN stations and their culture is the same. More of a family business. Craig Karmazin is the owner, Mel Karmazin's son. But even so, Good Karma is at it's core a smaller company with very large radio stations. Almost all of them ESPN.
They had similar setups in Milwaukee and Cleveland, but in the case of the "all network" sister stations, they sold off the former (WAUK) and handed in the license for the latter (WWGK). And they can make nice pocket change selling off 1050.Here's how GKB handles their two stations now. My expectation is that 1050 stays the same, while 98.7 moves to 880. Two stations:
ESPN New York - Good Karma Brands
Your City! Your Teams! Your Sports! Your radio home for Knicks, Rangers, Jets and Islanders.goodkarmabrands.com
Good Karma also has a standalone in LA, with some (but hardly all, especially on weekends) of the national lineup cleared on a suburban AM.
Craig Allen won't be fully retired owing to his weekend gig on Channel 2. He is 67, however.
Assuming they haven’t spent it to pay down debt and sustain the remaining operations.
It got them the Mets and Rutgers. That's a big W that helps the ESPN New York digital platform 880 will simulcast.
All of that pre-dates their 2023 deal with ESPN that put them in charge of sales operations for the national network:
Good Karma Brands To Take Over All ESPN Radio Sales & Sales Operations
Good Karma Brands will take over all sales and sales operations for ESPN Radio and ESPN's podcast business. ESPN will
radioinsight.com
From what I can see, those two stations ended in 2022. Now GKB is in a different position. They need the NYC clear for the network, which would give them an advantage over both Infinity Sports and Fox Sports.
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This makes sense. Especially, after telling your audience for the last year you’re only moving to 1050. I hope everyone sees this is sarcasm
Here's how GKB handles their two stations now. My expectation is that 1050 stays the same, while 98.7 moves to 880. Two stations:
ESPN New York - Good Karma Brands
Your City! Your Teams! Your Sports! Your radio home for Knicks, Rangers, Jets and Islanders.
Seems like, at least for now, the two will co-exist.
The license surrender of WWGK happened in August 2022 (but was not in the books until April 2023 due to an FCC clerical error) and the flip of WAUK to liberal talk occurred in January 2022 prior to their sale later in the year, so yes.Did that happen before or after this happened last year?
Good Karma Brands To Take Over All ESPN Radio Sales & Sales Operations
Good Karma Brands will take over all sales and sales operations for ESPN Radio and ESPN's podcast business. ESPN will
Truthfully, WWGK had one of the worst AM signals in the entire Cleveland market, and that's saying something. There was nothing lost in giving it up.
Exactly the same situation as in Milwaukee a few years earlier (detailed by Jeremy above), and they had no problem selling off the lesser station.
The LMA is only 3 years, so they might hang on to it for awhile, either run something else or LMA it to someone else. In radio, 3 years seems like forever the way things are going but it's still not very long for a longterm LMA.
Here are some Classic WCBS-AM Promos of the past. And Gotta look at the promo when they went after their former rival 1010 WINS in the 1992 promo before the Group W and CBS deal shut that down.
They're likely not in a position to buy 880 outright. The deal they made with Disney for 1050 was a real good deal. So it's good to hold onto it.
Price For Good Karma’s 3-Station Deal With ESPN: $15 Million.
Last week’s announcement from Good Karma Brands that it will buy The Walt Disney Company’s ESPN Radio sports stations in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago included lots of details
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