iHM names "new" PDs for 4 stations

[Kent]

BTW - Apologies for the "p" in Binghamton. Looks like the auto correct on my tablet strikes again!

 

[TheBigA]

Binghamton has six stations, and 10 full-timers on the programming side - including PDs. If that makes sense to you, then you're part of the problem, not the solution.

That's a good sized staff for a market of this size. It makes sense based on the budget. You can only afford so many people. If there was more money, there'd be more people. Then again, if there was more money, the city wouldn't be in the dismal shape its in. As I've said, this is not a corporate problem. This is an example of a dying market that's dragging down the company. And they have a lot of these. The people who are there are getting a great salary and benefits package...better than what they'd make at a locally owned company in that city.

What I'll say to your defense, Rox, is that the former Clear Channel overpaid for those stations.

They paid what they were worth at the time. Since then the city has lost 10% of its population. The market has been downgraded. But I agree that the city has too many radio stations. And I also agree it was the FCC that caused this mess. You see how they're handling it.

 

[Kent]

They paid what they were worth at the time. Since then the city has lost 10% of its population. The market has been downgraded.

One of the big problems with overpaying is that you don't always know you're doing it when you're actually doing it. A personal example would be the condo I live in that I'm getting ready to sell after I move in two weeks. I paid less than the appraised value a year or two before the housing market dropped out. A four bedroom condo in the same complex went for about $10,000 more than my two bedroom unit did a few years later. That condo is now a foreclosure and will likely go for less than what I paid for my smaller unit around the same time mine goes on the market. I'm very likely to take a bath on this place. So, I will likely find out that I overpaid by a lot in a few months, but, at the time I bought it, it looked like a good deal. CC/iHM announced 10 years ago this November (and slightly more than 5 years after buying it from Majac of Michigan) that it was shopping the Binghamton cluster. It never has found a buyer who will pay its price and can close the deal. As I said before, I'm sure someone else, probably Cumulus (since it bought Majac's other cluster in Flint around the same time), would've fallen for the trap if Clear Channel hadn't done it. However, Clear Channel was the company that bought the cluster, and, unlike some of the other smaller clusters it bought, it bought that one outright rather than because it had to buy the entire group if it wanted its best stations.

But I agree that the city has too many radio stations. And I also agree it was the FCC that caused this mess. You see how they're handling it.

In 1979, Binghamton had four commercial FM's and 8 commercial radio stations total. In 1990, it had five commercial FM's. In 2010, it had 12 commercial FM's and more than twice the number of stations it had in 1979. It has about the same number of owners as it did in '79. I don't know how many full-time programming employees the market had back then, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were a similar number.

 

[Rusty Bridges]

Binghamton is swamped with too many Docket 80-90 and translator FMs. Some of the population loss is due to people moving a few miles over the state line to Pennsylvania, which has lower taxes and a better economy, at least for now.