Agreed.
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Here comes Audacy Atlas...
- Thread starter ckg279
- Start date
I wanna see WLS-AM or KABC-AM joining Audacy if there's a swap
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If they're swapping away two FMs, you can expect them to swap for two FMs somewhere else.
Majic rockstar
Banned
I could see cumulus getting 102.5 and town square getting 98.5 then turn around and unload there torch 92.9 to EMF. 92.9 is definitely the most expendable station in the market and has a large listening area also.
Townsquare doesn't need to buy a station in order to sell one. If they want to sell 92.9, or flip it to CHR, they can do it without 98.5.
But I don't see them as a player in this.
Or one FM in a larger market. Looking at the markets where Audacy and Cumulus each own stations, my guess would be that Audacy will get WDRQ in Detroit for the Memphis and Buffalo FM's assuming a swap comes to fruition. That, however, is strictly a guess. Without having seen the billing numbers for the stations involved, saying for certain is impossible.
There are, however, only a few markets where the two overlap and where Audacy could add stations. I can’t see those two stations being worth a Houston or a Minneapolis FM. So, that leaves Detroit. Then again, maybe Audacy is getting ready to spin a station in another market where it currently has a full cluster, and a Cumulus property across town could replace it.
It is, or at least recently was, the highest billing FM in Audacy's Buffalo cluster. You're not going to be able to service $2 billion in debt off of one FM in Buffalo alone.
iHeart/Clear Channel passed on entering both of those markets when CBS put them up for sale. Clear Channel predecessor Jacor swapped its way out of KC in 1997.
Not that its strategy couldn’t have changed, but iHeart hasn’t shown much interest in making large acquisitions lately.
IHeart also has a presence in Erie, and a pretty large one at that; they own six stations in total. They compete with Cumulus(who own 5 stations)as well as a few other companies who only own 1 or 2 stations.
And very cheap bad facilities.
KABC is a dreadful facility. It covers almost nothing but the highly ethnic areas of LA, and is not a good signal in much of Orange County, big parts of the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and terrible in the Santa Clarita area.
Do you think Audacy does anything to their hartford stations. Thats another mid sized market
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The addiction to "growth" is like crack cocaine to Wall Street and the corporate culture. Once the business plateaus they'll do anything to keep it going, so they inevitably turn to mergers they can't afford. Leaders of so many companies don’t know when to stop, or more to the point, their personal wealth depends on it. Consequently, they keep expanding until their companies collapse under their own weight.
They'll kick the Debt Can down the road for someone else to deal with and parachute out before the house of cards collapses. I recall the 107.7 signal was purchased by Entercom for something like 12 million in 2004. It's now worth likely less than 1 million. That's some serious depreciation and only one example. David Field certainly knows he's near the end of the plank and the briny deep is nigh...
The people who created the situation never lose. If they don't get the golden parachute they'll at least get a multimillion dollar severance package. Sometimes they even talk their way into staying on to 'save' the company from the disaster they created, post-bankruptcy after they've screwed over everyone else. Gotta love those MBA moves.
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That was really not the case for Entercom. They were an old school radio station owner. Their stations had live & local talent. They didn't buy lots of stations as Clear Channel did. The fact of the matter was CBS was going to sell their stations to someone. Les Moonves wanted to sell. Radio was not something he was interested in. When Entercom got them, most people were happy because Entercom wasn't run by investment bankers. David Field was a second generation owner, whose dad was still a big stockholder in a family run company. So don't lump this in with the Appollo or Blackstone Group deals. This wasn't one of those deals. The failure of this isn't because of Wall Street. It's because of Broad Street in Center City Philadelphia.
The NEXT group who comes in will be the Wall Street guys. These will be the MBAs who have no emotional connection to the company. They won't care what they sell or who they fire. That's what comes next. Get ready. It will be very different. I'm expecting the news to come tomorrow (2/22/23) afternoon during their quarterly earnings call.
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Do they make those public?
Sometimes, but the industry press is on the call, so there will be reporting on what was said.
I don't see any major swapping for any AMs at this point, and certainly not swapping FMs for AMs.
I like your thinking, Kent.
Audacy does indeed have room for another FM in Detroit, an acquisition of WDRQ would eliminate WYCD's competition, and it would also provide Audacy a place to give Newsradio 950 WWJ an FM home.
The question then becomes - would Cumulus be content on being left with only 96.3 WDVD and 760 WJR? Audacy conceivably could take WJR off Audacy's hands, although I'm not sure why they'd want it. Beasley has room for another FM in Detroit, and 96.3 WDVD would fill a void relative to their existing portfolio of stations.
I will disagree, BigA, in one respect. This was, in effect, a leveraged buyout. That financing came from big banks and hedge funds. CBS Radio issued a bunch of new debt shortly before the merger was completed; that new debt was carried onto the balance sheet of Entercom post-merger. The net proceeds of the new debt were distributed to CBS Corporation.
CBS Corporation Announces Proposed $1.46 Billion Debt Financing By CBS Radio Inc. In Connection With The Separation Of The CBS Radio Business
/PRNewswire/ -- CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) today announced that in connection with its previously announced intention to separate its radio...
www.prnewswire.com
Entercom Communications/CBS Radio: Bigger Is Better (OTCMKTS:AUDA)
On February 2, 2017, Entercom and CBS Radio announced a merger via a Reverse Morris Trust transaction.
seekingalpha.com
Did the C-Suite at Entercom screw up? Absolutely. I definitely agree with you on that point. I've been saying that for several years now. That being said, one or more investment banks were an accessory to the "crime," so to speak.
That 3.5x to 4.0x leverage ratio described in the investor presentation referenced in the Seeking Alpha article seems like a pipe dream now.
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Some irony in that Entercom (pre-Audacy) used a Reverse Morris Trust to secure the CBS Radio Group. Same maneuver that Farid Suleman used when Citadel purchased the ABC Radio Group.
Mark W makes a reasonable rebuttal to Big A's contention, although A nails it when he places the blame on "Broad Street in Center City Philadelphia." Entercom was a solid company that expanded methodically under the guidance of Joe Field, who started the company with a few stations in Florida. The company stepped up in 2000 when it purchased Sinclair's radio division (formerly Keymarket) and expanded with stability. Entercom appeared to be a solid company with a manageable balance sheet. Wall Street bought in.
The purchase of CBS Radio was the straw that broke the camel's back, a result of the confluence of many issues confronting Entercom, including the overall economy, the expense of running high-profile AM news-talk formats, debt service and the gradual migration of listeners away from Over The Air radio to entertainment of various sorts on-line. David Field, who worked on Wall Street, was the driving force on Entercom's purchase of the CBS Radio properties. It bit him in the assets. As has been noted earlier in this thread, the guys wearing the $2 thousand suits usually land safely by way of platinum parachutes, while the front line fodder in the trenches gets RIF'd and over-worked. Now Audacy is a laughingstock on Wall Street and the buzzards are circling.
As it applies to the next move for Buffalo stations in Audacy Atlas, some very good points have been made theorizing a Cumulus-Audacy swap of FMs in other markets, such as Detroit, for Star 102.5 in Buffalo; and there'd be little surprise here is Board-banned Buddy gets 107.7 and flips it to Classic Country, subsequently giving his seasoned sales force another format to sell and thrive. Maybe even establish a local sales office in Alden, Warsaw or Batavia to enhance the local presence of the station. Used to be the air staffs were the primary face of the station in communities, these days its the sales reps who are out shaking hands, pressing the flesh and picking fruit.
Time will tell.
Mark W makes a reasonable rebuttal to Big A's contention, although A nails it when he places the blame on "Broad Street in Center City Philadelphia." Entercom was a solid company that expanded methodically under the guidance of Joe Field, who started the company with a few stations in Florida. The company stepped up in 2000 when it purchased Sinclair's radio division (formerly Keymarket) and expanded with stability. Entercom appeared to be a solid company with a manageable balance sheet. Wall Street bought in.
The purchase of CBS Radio was the straw that broke the camel's back, a result of the confluence of many issues confronting Entercom, including the overall economy, the expense of running high-profile AM news-talk formats, debt service and the gradual migration of listeners away from Over The Air radio to entertainment of various sorts on-line. David Field, who worked on Wall Street, was the driving force on Entercom's purchase of the CBS Radio properties. It bit him in the assets. As has been noted earlier in this thread, the guys wearing the $2 thousand suits usually land safely by way of platinum parachutes, while the front line fodder in the trenches gets RIF'd and over-worked. Now Audacy is a laughingstock on Wall Street and the buzzards are circling.
As it applies to the next move for Buffalo stations in Audacy Atlas, some very good points have been made theorizing a Cumulus-Audacy swap of FMs in other markets, such as Detroit, for Star 102.5 in Buffalo; and there'd be little surprise here is Board-banned Buddy gets 107.7 and flips it to Classic Country, subsequently giving his seasoned sales force another format to sell and thrive. Maybe even establish a local sales office in Alden, Warsaw or Batavia to enhance the local presence of the station. Used to be the air staffs were the primary face of the station in communities, these days its the sales reps who are out shaking hands, pressing the flesh and picking fruit.
Time will tell.
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