I wonder if Beasley would consider moving WBT from 99.3 to 95.1? Or does Kiss still do well with the Hit Music format against Channel 96.1? And is there a need for 2 CHR stations in Charlotte? 95.1 has a very strong full power signal from one of the tall Dallas TV towers, similar to WLNK. And no null to the west. Although their HD antenna is not as stro as WLNK.
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Greater Media Sold to Beasley
- Thread starter eacalhoun1
- Start date
Except that advertisers who use ratings don't buy cume.* They buy AQH audience levels.
On average, WNKS is around 12th in 25-54 and WKQC is 6th. They are around 9th and 10th in billings.
* Cume is mostly used as a metric to determine reach and frequency on multi-station buys.
There is no real difference between combining the HD and analog on one antenna and using separate ones. The real issue is at which of the FCC-authorized HD power levels is the station operating.
Well the 107.9 HD signal is a good bit stronger in the fringes than 95.1. I think their larger HD antenna may make a difference. And 107.9 increased their HD power 2 years ago; I am not sure if 95.1 is full power on the HD.
But WKQC has a limited coverage area due to WNOK in Columbia which is also 104.7. There is mutual interference in York and Lancaster counties. Perhaps both 104.7 and 99.3 should be the stations sold by Beasley due to the weaker signals and limited coverage areas.
Any chance someone would sell WKQC to the WNOK owner? And if that happened, a new stronger signal could be broadcast from somewhere in the middle.
I remember living south of Monroe in the early 80s and WNOK and WEZC (as it was called then) fought to decide which one I would hear.
I've never been in sales, but I've always been told you'd rather have your AQH driven by cume than by TSL. A regular turnover of listeners is better in terms of getting advertisers to buy more spots than to have the same listeners for a long period of time, or so I've been told.
Like a lot of CHR's, I suspect TSL is a horror story for both WNKS and WHQC, but I doubt they care much.
Unlikely for two reasons:
(1) WNOK is owned by iHeart, which is maxed out in Charlotte.
(2) A stronger signal in the middle is a weaker signal in both Columbia and Charlotte. You'd end up with a signal that was strong over a less populated area and weakest where most of the audience is.
That #2 reason is probably why 105.3 was moved from Gaffney to Charlotte, and why 105.7 was moved from Statesville to Greensboro. A small town station in a less populated area did not have as big an audience and generate as much revenue as a station in a larger city. And they did not want to serve just parts of 2 markets, as there would be different advertisers to target. When 105.3 was in Gaffney, it would reach Greenville-Spartanburg and Charlotte, but not all of both markets. And it was only focused on Cherokee County. But a great small town station nevertheless, and it is still missed. Although I think some of it moved to an AM channel.
I didn't actually mean it would cover both cities. I was thinking it would cover the northern part of the Columbia market better because there wouldn't be interference from WKQC.
Okay David, given what you said what is the billing for WKQC? I ask because at one time they put much more effort into WNKS than WKQC I don't know if that holds true now. WKQC ran voice tracked much of the time.
As for giving up on top 40 don't count on it. Right now Beasley can match iHeart format for format with iHeart having more Classic Rock and Beasley having more Urban. Why would they want to give that up?
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The latest is the stations will be going into a trust, although it wasn't announced which stations would be in that trust. We can assume it will be the Greater Media Charlotte stations but who knows? I don't have a lot of information when it comes to profit and loss but I do know WBT and WLNK are big billers but there is also expense involved in their personality driven formats. The two stations have brand recognition.
Curtis Media has been mentioned and that might be a good thing. K-Love and Radio One as well. I would think the K-Love and Radio One deals would involve different stations if that was to take place. Can you imagine Radio One owning Power 98 and V-101.9? They'd have a lock on Urban. I have no idea what K-Love might go after, that would lead to some interesting speculation.
Lets talk about "owner limbo" whatever stations get placed into a trust might have a tough go of it. Many times before a company or station is sold there is a slashing of the budget to make P&L look better to perspective buyers. Purchases are postponed, staff is cut and often times maintenance is neglected. Hopefully this won't happen to whatever stations end up in the trust.
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That would happen regardless. The reason they put it in a trust is so the sale won't hold up the license transfer. The FCC won't approve the transfer to Beasley as long as they're over the limit. So for the short term, they place the extra stations in a trust. But once they've decided which stations they're going to sell, they have to "fatten the pig," or make it attractive to buy. Some of that has already occurred, since all of the stations were recently sold or transferred. Looking at similar trusts, such as the famous Aloha Trust set up by Clear Channel, stations can remain there for a while. CBS had an LA station in a trust for so long, a competitor complained to the FCC, and they were forced to sell at a less attractive price. But there are still quite a few stations in the Aloha Trust, which was set up over ten years ago. Sometimes staff gets cut, but if the stations are profitable, that doesn't happen. If local station management is good, and I imagine it is, maintenance will be kept up, because local management makes those decisions, not corporate.
If, in fact, it does end up being WBT/WLNK that get divested, I don't think you'll see them in a trust for very long. I believe it was Tom Taylor who reported that they do just under 20% of the market's revenue. Greater Media is the third largest biller in a growing market. That would have to be attractive to somebody.
If Beasley wants to keep WBT/WLNK, it would have to divest two FM's totaling about 15% of the market's billing. The same article mentioned Beasley's current cluster did just under 35% of the market's billing and would need to stay at or below 40% to satisfy the DOJ. Those numbers might not work. It's entirely possible, if not likely, that Beasley couldn't divest two FM's that would make adding WBT/WLNK worth the effort to add to the cluster.
If Beasley wants to keep WBT/WLNK, it would have to divest two FM's totaling about 15% of the market's billing. The same article mentioned Beasley's current cluster did just under 35% of the market's billing and would need to stay at or below 40% to satisfy the DOJ. Those numbers might not work. It's entirely possible, if not likely, that Beasley couldn't divest two FM's that would make adding WBT/WLNK worth the effort to add to the cluster.
The issue is that WBT alone, despite decaying shares, does over 10% of the market revenue. WLNK does another 9%. And they are both at the high end of the expense spectrum and the low end of the sustainability scale.
One of the assumptions behind many comments is that Beasley does not prefer high cost formats. Both WBT and WLNK are not likely to have an upside, and are costly to operate. They just might be happy to spin them off.
Oh, and add in that "WBT" also includes WBT-FM, and the FM adds one FM to the market cap and there is another reason to do a spin-off.
David I can see what you're saying makes perfect sense. Who do you see as a potential buyer? I can only think of two but their might be others. My two are Entercom and Curtis Media Group. Curtis would have a nice North Carolina group with addition of WBT/WLNK.
Does Greater Media own the syndication rights to Bob and Sheri, or is that a separate concern? How will the sell of WLNK affect that program? And they need a stronger signal for Bob and Sheri in GVL, SC since the translator interference began on 107.9. Perhaps if Entercom buys them, they could put Bob and Sheri on one of their GVL stations, since that morning show did have listeners here before the interference issue. iHeart put Ace and TJ on My 102.5, and they have always had John Boy and Billy on Rock 101, WROQ. Would be nice to see Bob and Sheri also on an Upstate station. WLNK is clear in Spartanburg, but the interference begins in Greenville where it previously had also been clear. But fortunately my home receiver still gets a strong signal for WLNK, including the HD with rabbit ears antenna. But car reception is now very problematic but the HD will still lock in certain areas. Tired of complaining about the translators.
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