Greater Media Confirms WCRB Purchase Plans

[Joseph_Gallant]

Late this afternoon (December 15th), Greater Media issued a press release (this is a link to it on the Greater Media corporate website) announcing that they have entered "into exclusive negotiations to acquire Boston radio station WCRB".

Note that in the press release, Greater Media's Peter Smyth said something about "signal upgrade", and nothing about keeping the current WCRB format.

This means that within six or seven months, we'll have "Country 102-5", and that WKLB's current home at 99.5 will have to be spun-off.

Maybe the best thing would be for Greater Media to provide assistance (both monetary and otherwise) to a nonprofit group to acquire 99.5 and move the WCRB call letters and classical music format up there. And as a commercial frequency, the new owners of 99.5 could sell commercial advertising instead of running pledge drives.

A wild-card: Could Greater Media possibly "blow-up" WBOS-92.9, move WKLB calls/format at 92.9, and keep 102.5 classical?? I doubt it will ever happen, but it would be great PR for the company.

 

[JIBGUY]

A wild-card: Could Greater Media possibly "blow-up" WBOS-92.9, move WKLB calls/format at 92.9, and keep 102.5 classical??

-------------------------------------------------------

ABSOLUTELY NOT! No one in their right mind would pay $90+ million for any station, and make/keep it classical music. Economical suicide. It would never pay for itself over the next several decades. (Unless they put classical on the future "HD-2" channel) - Switching 102.5 with 99.5? -I doubt it. Perhaps the reason that 99.5 does so well is that it's signal is NOT centered on the city. If I owned 99.5 (with its very high ratings) I wouldn't touch a thing!
----jibguy

 

[raccoonradio]

> Perhaps the reason that 99.5 does so well is that
> it's signal is NOT centered on the city. If I owned 99.5
> (with its very high ratings) I wouldn't touch a thing!
> ----jibguy
>

I mentioned that in a post above...when there was a format flip between smooth
jazz at 99.5 (WOAZ) and country at 96.9 (WBCS? or was it WKLB by then), they
put country on the Andover stick at 99.5 (smooth jazz 96.9 later went to talk).
The idea was that country would do better further away from the city, so it
was put at 99.5 out of Andover (though licensed to Lowell)...and the more
urbane, citified smooth jazz (and now talk) would be out of 96.9 (forget where
they broadcast from--the Pru?)<P ID="signature">______________

</P>

 

[JustinT]

> > Perhaps the reason that 99.5 does so well is that
> > it's signal is NOT centered on the city. If I owned 99.5
> > (with its very high ratings) I wouldn't touch a thing!
> > ----jibguy
> >
>
> The idea was that country would do better further away from
> the city, so it
> was put at 99.5 out of Andover (though licensed to
> Lowell)...and the more
> urbane, citified smooth jazz (and now talk) would be out of
> 96.9 (forget where
> they broadcast from--the Pru?)

But this was given their existing portfolio. And it was likely the best decision; smooth jazz gave a poor signal to downtown on 99.5, and the format that would benefit most from the northern rimshot was country. The flip gave smooth jazz a prime signal, and if we saw Greater Media to be invested in the smooth jazz format, the station would have lasted longer on a Boston signal.

 

[raccoonradio]

> But this was given their existing portfolio. And it was
> likely the best decision; smooth jazz gave a poor signal to
> downtown on 99.5, and the format that would benefit most
> from the northern rimshot was country.

True. Where I am, 99.5 does well (in fact I work in N. Reading and 99.5
is one of the strongest signals I can pick up at work). But I didn't
know that it was weaker in Boston itself

The flip gave smooth
> jazz a prime signal, and if we saw Greater Media to be
> invested in the smooth jazz format, the station would have
> lasted longer on a Boston signal.
>
Yes, but I guess it and the other SJ experiments (99.1, and 96.9 _before_,
as WCDJ) didn't pan out in the ratings. There have been other places where
SJ was let go as a format...like up in VT where they had 92.1 as smooth jazz
but later I think they went to a simulcast of a Rutland CHR station.<P ID="signature">______________

</P>

 

[JustinT]

> The flip gave smooth
> > jazz a prime signal, and if we saw Greater Media to be
> > invested in the smooth jazz format, the station would have
> > lasted longer on a Boston signal.

> Yes, but I guess it and the other SJ experiments (99.1, and
> 96.9 _before_,
> as WCDJ) didn't pan out in the ratings.

Greater Media's idea to can WCDJ was not all that smart, though, as Fairbanks had clearly beaten them to the punch with country. How WCDJ doing in the ratings back then?

I get the sense that while the later 96.9 (WSJZ)'s effort with smooth jazz didn't receive the best ratings, WSJZ was competing for ad dollars with WMJX. Apparently Magic brings in 40% of the Boston cluster's revenue, so the station had to go.

And with 99.1: If WPLM had waited 8 more months with the smooth jazz format, they would have had the format all to themselves, and would probably still be here today. Instead, they went to "Easy 99.1" on 1/1/99.

> There have been
> other places where
> SJ was let go as a format...like up in VT where they had
> 92.1 as smooth jazz
> but later I think they went to a simulcast of a Rutland CHR
> station.

That's happened in a few bizarre markets that you wonder how smooth jazz got in in the first place. Clear Channel was running smooth jazz in Bangor, ME, of all places. The station flipped to its former oldies format after a year.

 

[Slinky]

> A wild-card: Could Greater Media possibly "blow-up"
> WBOS-92.9, move WKLB calls/format at 92.9, and keep 102.5
> classical?? I doubt it will ever happen, but it would be
> great PR for the company.

Not likely. Here's why:

The average Classical station's share of revenue in a market is about HALF of its 12+ ratings. In the industry, that's called a "power ratio". The average AAA station's share of revenue in a market is about ONE AND A HALF its 12+ ratings.

Do the math on WBOS and WCRB, then take into account that the Classical audience is quickly aging out of any profitable demographics. It becomes readily apparent that the AAA station is more valuable than the Classical station even though the Classical station has twice the audience share. WBOS should be outbilling WCRB.

 

[EWF]

Are you saying the only option for Classical Music will be on WGBH-FM or WBUR-FM?


> > A wild-card: Could Greater Media possibly "blow-up"
> > WBOS-92.9, move WKLB calls/format at 92.9, and keep 102.5
> > classical?? I doubt it will ever happen, but it would be
> > great PR for the company.
>
> Not likely. Here's why:
>
> The average Classical station's share of revenue in a market
> is about HALF of its 12+ ratings. In the industry, that's
> called a "power ratio". The average AAA station's share of
> revenue in a market is about ONE AND A HALF its 12+ ratings.
>
>
> Do the math on WBOS and WCRB, then take into account that
> the Classical audience is quickly aging out of any
> profitable demographics. It becomes readily apparent that
> the AAA station is more valuable than the Classical station
> even though the Classical station has twice the audience
> share. WBOS should be outbilling WCRB.
>

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

> Are you saying the only option for Classical Music will be
> on WGBH-FM or WBUR-FM?

Won't be WBUR. They run 24/7 NPR news and information, and were they to go to classical music, they'd lose a lot of their listener pledge $$$. And many other NPR member stations around the country in recent years have likewise cut back or eliminated music for 24/7 news and information, again because news and information attracts more listener pledge dollars than music.

WGBH?? They have some classical music in the mid-days, and might expand it a little (maybe they'd even go as far as dropping "Morning Edition", "All Things Considered" and "Marketplace", all heard on WBUR as well, and expand classical to 6 A.M.-7 P.M.). But at night 'GBH runs jazz, which would be a stumbling block to expanding classical music.

 

[DanStrassberg]

> > Are you saying the only option for Classical Music will be
>
> > on WGBH-FM or WBUR-FM?
>
> Won't be WBUR. They run 24/7 NPR news and information, and
> were they to go to classical music, they'd lose a lot of
> their listener pledge $$$. And many other NPR member
> stations around the country in recent years have likewise
> cut back or eliminated music for 24/7 news and information,
> again because news and information attracts more listener
> pledge dollars than music.
>
> WGBH?? They have some classical music in the mid-days, and
> might expand it a little (maybe they'd even go as far as
> dropping "Morning Edition", "All Things Considered" and
> "Marketplace", all heard on WBUR as well, and expand
> classical to 6 A.M.-7 P.M.). But at night 'GBH runs jazz,
> which would be a stumbling block to expanding classical
> music.
>
If Greater Media doesn't run classical on the HD-2 subchannel of 102.5, GBH is likely to do so on its HD-2 subchannel. This would not get either station a classical-music audience right away, but it probably would do so in time. Actually, the idea makes more sense for WGBH, because I believe that GBH wants to further pare back classical from its main channel in favor of news and talk, which pull a more favorable demographic and more pledge $$$. By doing classical on the subchannel, GBH would replace a full-time commercial classical station with a full-time noncommercial classical station. That fact alone would win the public station a lot of favorable publicity and probably some increase in contributions. Sure, many people would be disappointed and even angry that they would have to purchase expensive new radios (or even new cars) to hear the broadcasts, but over time the unpleasant memories would fade. With the more focused and more affluent audience on the subchannel, there might even be an opportunity for a more diverse selection of classical music. Those who read Boston radio message boards are familiar with the postings of Laurence Glavin from Methuen, who loves to excoriate WCRB for programming junk classical music simply because of its popularity. Perhaps WGBH HD-2 would program all-Alban Berg weekends just for Laurence. I wonder what size donation it would take to get them to do that.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

> Are you saying the only option for Classical Music will be
> on WGBH-FM or WBUR-FM?

WBUR will not tinker with their very successful NPR/BBC news and infomation format.

Don't forget most of WHRB's daytime programming is classical.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

> Greater Media's idea to can WCDJ was not all that smart,
> though, as Fairbanks had clearly beaten them to the punch
> with country. How WCDJ doing in the ratings back then?

I don't know, but WKLB does quite well in the ratings now, especially considering the signal isn't very good in town. As they speculated with moving Country to the Andover stick, it must be mostly suburban numbers.