Hubbard Buys up Bonneville DC stations

[Signal_Faded]

I was shocked when this came down for sure!

http://www.radioink.com/Article.asp?id=2086562&spid=24698

WTOP, WFED, WWWT, WTLP, WBHQ, and WWFD all change hands.

 

[TVradioguru]

Why were you shocked?

 

[MattParker]

WTOP has been sold before:

CBS > The Post > Bonneville > Hubbard.

From all I've heard about them, Hubbard is class act. They own some good operations and launched an early satellite news channel (and story exchange for terrestrial stations). I have never been comfortable with a church operating a news organization - Mormons, Moonies or anybody else.

 

[fybush]

From all I've heard about them, Hubbard is class act. They own some good operations and launched an early satellite news channel (and story exchange for terrestrial stations).

Come up to Rochester and watch their station here and you might be singing a different tune.

 

[TheBigA]

More than a few observers were hoping that Bonneville might buy the former ABC stations. Now it looks like Bonneville will focus their attention on the west coast.

 

[radioguy39nj]

Any chance Hubbard flips WTOP out of all-news? Seems crazy to do that, since the station is a ratings and advertising success. ???

 

[TVradioguru]

Plaaleeze! Hubbard paid a half a billion dollars for profitable operations, not fixer-uppers. Actually, they got a pretty good deal. No broadcast group with cash available to do a deal like this is stupid enough to kill the goose that poops out golden eggs.

Now will they look at making the operations more efficient? Probably.

 

[smedge2006]

Any talk of downgrading WFED so KSTP can get better coverage in southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin at night?

 

[fybush]

Any talk of downgrading WFED so KSTP can get better coverage in southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin at night?

It's not that simple, since there's also 1500 in Detroit to be protected. And there's a huge NIMBY issue with doing any tower moves in DC, of course. In an ideal world, the WFED towers would be somewhere out around Potomac, throwing a near-total null toward St. Paul and a big lobe into DC, but you'd never, ever get towers built there, of course.

 

[Old PD]

My best guess, keep the same pattern for WFED, just shave about 20k off the night time power. Then use it as trade fodder to Salem for that 9 tower money pit in Detroit...and pull the plug. Joy in St. Paul.