I want to know how I can buy 107.5 FM WGPR and change it to a Hip-Hop station?

[Human Numan]

I want 107.5 FM WGPR to be a hip-hop radio station, so I would like to buy 107.5 FM WGPR and change it to a hip-hop radio station.

How much might it cost to buy 107.5?

Can I get a loan from a bank to buy 107.5 FM here in Detroit?

 

[Prais]

Any friends in banking?
What will your creditors say about you?
What is your radio experience?
Who will your competitiors be and what is their experience compared to you?
What sort of collateral might you have?

You need an fcc attorney, maybe a broker to present your deal properly (this is big time stuff and you are only a small timer)
Good luck.

PS Radio is dying/dead. Check the stock market prices of large operators. Actually, You'd be better off in the funeral home business, a much better business with a guaranteed future.

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

Re: I want to know how I can buy 107.5 FM WGPR and change it to a Hip-Hop statio

I want 107.5 FM WGPR to be a hip-hop radio station, so I would like to buy 107.5 FM WGPR and change it to a hip-hop radio station.

How much might it cost to buy 107.5?

Can I get a loan from a bank to buy 107.5 FM here in Detroit?

If you need to ask these questions, you aren't qualified or prepared to own or operate a station.

 

[pbf1]

Hey now.....I for one like watching fools and their eight figures part company! ;D

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

Re: I want to know how I can buy 107.5 FM WGPR and change it to a Hip-Hop statio

I want 107.5 FM WGPR to be a hip-hop radio station, so I would like to buy 107.5 FM WGPR and change it to a hip-hop radio station.

How much might it cost to buy 107.5?

Can I get a loan from a bank to buy 107.5 FM here in Detroit?

Im sure if you handed them a cashiers check for $150 million, they'd consider selling it to you.. it is one of the last major market independently owned FM stations in the country.

 

[Prais]

Mr. Numan,
It's good to dream.

Reality, however, will wake you up. Go learn lots about radio and about finance.

What do you know about the fcc, sales, politics, engineering, managing people? Nothing comes cheap. Make some friends who are already in radio. Study successful radio peeps.

Ever worked in a station? It's alot more than "playin' tunes." By thew way, where will the money for the electric bill and the mortgage and the payroll and the ascrap and bmi bill come from?

 

[kenhawk1160]

I want 107.5 FM WGPR to be a hip-hop radio station, so I would like to buy 107.5 FM WGPR and change it to a hip-hop radio station.

How much might it cost to buy 107.5?

Can I get a loan from a bank to buy 107.5 FM here in Detroit?

While I admire your willingness to buy a radio station of your own, there's a lot more to it than just writing the check.

You're asking to buy a radio station with low ratings AND in a FORMER Top 10 market that is continuing to slip. There's a very good reason for that slip. You've got the demographics of your audience moving to sunbelt states. Your overall radio market demographic is not getting younger, but OLDER. Where's your hip-hop audience???

More than that, it fluctuates between a 1.5 and a 2 share. Do you REALLY think you can do better than the 2.0 that was in the last book? It's different with the Masons...they're a nonprofit organization and their interest is in serving the community. The station is a vehicle that allows them to do that...ratings be damned.

More than that, you've got four urban formatted stations that are ahead of you in the ratings. One of those four just happens to be the NUMBER ONE station in the market. If you have ambitions of beating any of those stations, you're going to need a great deal more money than just to buy the license and equipment. You're going to need a TON more to be able to support the budget you're going to need to topple established competitors. Private owners often don't have pockets deep enough to do this. Clear Channel and Radio One (who own the four competing stations) do.

Oh yeah...there's also the usual fixed costs relative to operating a radio station. You know, FCC regulatory fees, ASCAP, BMI, and attorneys. There's also general business costs such as workman's comp, health insurance, payroll of course, utilities, rent, etc.

Take it from someone who's managed stations in the past. No matter how much you may like the kind of business that you're in, running a business (any business) is NOT FUN. If you're not prepared to roll up your sleeves and work harder than you've ever imagined to keep the ship afloat and your people paid, find something else to do with your life.

Better yet, get in this business and learn it...and I mean REALLY learn it. FROM THE GROUND UP. Start at a low-rated station you wouldn't be caught dead listening to. And start in sales.

 

[Prais]

Radio is a business with a very bleak future. Look at the stock value of lots of the owners, Just awful.

Be smart. Buy an i-pod and listen to your favorites, then read the Wall Street Journal and invest inn something that is GROWING.

 

[KFodor]

As an instructor in a college-level broadcast program and as a programmer in a medium market radio operation, let me tell you...

"if you build it, they will come" does not work in radio. (I can give you names of stupid owners who thought this and went bankrupt trying).

Because you like hip-hop, does not necessarily mean there's a market for it in your community.

There are bigger radio stations in front of you (no doubt, some of which play at least some of what you like). Can you come up with 5 or 6 figure promotions budgets and still pay your DJ's? (That's what you have to do..)

Got a few million to buy it? And still do all of the above? If not...take the advice of some on this board.