Inside Radio reports Bonneville sells 17 stations

[uncamark]

You haven't described a single situation that's similar to the Bonneville/Hubbard deal. So, your analogies don't work. With the Bonneville/Hubbard deal, you have three successful stations changing hands from one committed commercial broadcaster to another. Does that mean everyone at The Drive, The Mix and Rewind are safe and that everything's going to remain the same? Of course not. Nothing stays the same in radio for long. There's no security in the business, and there never has been. However, it seems to me like the stations aren't likely to see significant changes. They just do too well.

And with not just Bruce Reece, but Drew Horwitz and Greg Solk, the head of programming, coming over. Patty Martin's not going to go anywhere at the Drive, and neither are any of the jocks. Sure as hell Eric and Kathy aren't going anywhere at TMX. Don't know about Rewind, but I would assume that there will be no big changes (for now--it's the station that Bonneville's diddled with the most here). And out in DC, Hubbard's not going to touch WTOP, the big dog all-news station in the biggest news city in the nation.

 

[FightingIrish]

Past experiences have shown that no matter how good (or bad) a station might be doing in any given market, whoever buys them has their own business strategy for their new signals.

This is why I'm really curious to see the shakeup that might happen with the Bonneville Chicago stations, and which is why I also said any format with the new owners is not secure. PERIOD.

Time and time again.... need I mention a few notables:

WKIE WKIF WDEK (yes i went there) Onda 92 then to 9FM and now FM talk.........What are you doing newsweb? I still don't know how they are making money, at least 9FM showed up in a book ???

WNIB/WNIZ to WDRV/WWDV (which made no sense, when they owned WLUP even though WDRV was aimed to target WXRT and they ended up selling WLUP?? Ok didn't make sense to me.. after so-called MAJOR market research they developed the Drive format??? Wow I wish ihad that paycheck for the consulting company because Bonneville got screwed! lol)

WJTW 93.5 to WVIX

WZFS to WPPN 106.7

WABT to WZCH to WWYW 103.9

WHTS to WLKU ... the most major shakeup in a market (Quad Cities) 98.9 The most popular station in the market went from CHR to CCM by the new owners. Wowwwwww

1. The Newsweb stations do show up in the book. Combined, they are just under a 1 share overall, probably better than what 9FM was doing. On par with what a strong signalled AM like WIND does. And that's about as good as a daytime AM and three rimshots will ever do in Chicago. Period. Plus, it's mostly syndicated bartered talk, which is really cheap to program. And they do have some dedicated advertisers. Plus, they lease out the nighttime hours to the Dance Factory people.

2. WLUP didn't really mesh well with Bonneville's philosophy, or so I heard. Remember, Bonneville likes blander formats. That's why you don't see them doing hard rock, hip hop and extreme partisan talk formats (though they do program and operate their stations very, very well, which is why Hubbard isn't getting many dogs with this purchase). The Drive featured a more sedate take on the format. Plus, trading WLUP to Emmis did get them those Phoenix stations.

 

[Kent]

And with not just Bruce Reece, but Drew Horwitz and Greg Solk, the head of programming, coming over. Patty Martin's not going to go anywhere at the Drive, and neither are any of the jocks. Sure as hell Eric and Kathy aren't going anywhere at TMX. Don't know about Rewind, but I would assume that there will be no big changes (for now--it's the station that Bonneville's diddled with the most here). And out in DC, Hubbard's not going to touch WTOP, the big dog all-news station in the biggest news city in the nation.

Rewind isn't likely to go anywhere. Since PPM and the switch to "Feel Good Favorites," 100.3's ratings are the highest they've been in a long time. Something else to keep in mind is that the revenue is very likely to go up at that cluster with Hubbard taking the wheel. After all, you'll soon be hearing those casino ads from Joliet and Indiana on those stations. I guarantee you they've been clamoring to buy The Mix, The Drive and Rewind, and Hubbard's not going to say, "No thanks!", like Bonneville's been doing.

 

[Word!]

The whole point i was trying to make with new ownership is no matter how good or bad a station is doing, when a company takes them over, they have their own programming ideas that they want to do with the signals. regardless of what others think.

Much like how Viva 1031 changed after it was sold by Big City, it was still a spanish format, but the sound took a dump once HBC bought it.

WKIE WKIF WDEK (yes i went there) Onda 92 then to 9FM and now FM talk.........What are you doing newsweb? I still don't know how they are making money, at least 9FM showed up in a book ???

This station has never done well. While it was dance, it had its best ratings. It didn't do poorly, but it still didn't do well. Besides, it was sold to a broadcaster that only targets the Hispanic audience. So, it was obvious it would go Spanish-language. As for Newsweb, they didn't want a poorly performing Spanish-language station. So, they've tried to make it work. It's not working, but, since it's been English-language, it hasn't been changing formats due to changing owners.

WNIB/WNIZ to WDRV/WWDV (which made no sense, when they owned WLUP even though WDRV was aimed to target WXRT and they ended up selling WLUP?? Ok didn't make sense to me.. after so-called MAJOR market research they developed the Drive format??? Wow I wish ihad that paycheck for the consulting company because Bonneville got screwed! lol)

You do realize, don't you, that The Drive is one of Bonneville's most successful properties? They bought a station in WNIB that had poor ratings and an unsellable demo and turned it into a consistent money maker over 10 years that recent PPM's show cumes over 1.3 million. If that's getting screwed, I bet more people wish they'd get treated that badly!

WJTW 93.5 to WVIX

A suburban station was sold to a Hispanic broadcaster who wanted to extend coverage for another station. This isn't what's happening with Bonneville/Hubbard.

WZFS to WPPN 106.7

Similar to the situation above. 106.7 went from a religious broadcaster to a Hispanic broadcaster. No Hispanic targeting broadcaster is going to run an English-language CCM format. It just doesn't happen.

WABT to WZCH to WWYW 103.9

A station got sold because it was doing poorly. The new owner, predictably, tried to do something it thought would do better.

WHTS to WLKU ... the most major shakeup in a market (Quad Cities) 98.9 The most popular station in the market went from CHR to CCM by the new owners. Wowwwwww

Bad deal for the listeners? You bet! However, no one thought EMF was going to keep the CHR on 98.9, did they? Everyone knows EMF's game plan.

You haven't described a single situation that's similar to the Bonneville/Hubbard deal. So, your analogies don't work. With the Bonneville/Hubbard deal, you have three successful stations changing hands from one committed commercial broadcaster to another. Does that mean everyone at The Drive, The Mix and Rewind are safe and that everything's going to remain the same? Of course not. Nothing stays the same in radio for long. There's no security in the business, and there never has been. However, it seems to me like the stations aren't likely to see significant changes. They just do too well.

 

[TheBigA]

The whole point i was trying to make with new ownership is no matter how good or bad a station is doing, when a company takes them over, they have their own programming ideas that they want to do with the signals. regardless of what others think.

However, in this case, the people running this new company are the same exact people who ran Bonneville. The top 3 people at Bonneville are moving to the same positions at Hubbard. That is very rare.

 

[RadioStarOne]

Sounds more like a merger to me than a sale. Just two different management heads at two different divisions. East and West so to speak. So who takes over the leadership of Bonneville's western stations? Somebody has to take over!

 

[Kent]

The whole point i was trying to make with new ownership is no matter how good or bad a station is doing, when a company takes them over, they have their own programming ideas that they want to do with the signals. regardless of what others think.

I think you're missing our point, actually. While there have been a number of changes in Chicago radio over the years, an ownership change doesn't always mean significant changes. Let's take a look:

WXRT 93.1 went from Diamond Broadcasting to CBS but has remained pretty much the same.

WLIT 93.9 went from Viacom to Chancellor/AMFM to Clear Channel but hasn't seen any significant changes since it went from being WLAK to WLIT in '89.

WNUA 95.5 went from Pyramid to Evergreen to Chancellor/AMFM to Clear Channel and kept basically the same format. While it's no longer smooth jazz, Clear Channel kept the format for roughly 8 years.

WBBM-FM 96.3 has been owned by CBS for what seems like forever, but CBS has changed hands many times over the years, the most recent being about 12 years ago when Viacom bought it from the old Westinghouse. B-96, however, has had pretty much the same format since the days when WBBM stopped meaning "We Broadcast Beautiful Music."

WLUP-FM 97.9 has gone from Evergreen to Chancellor/AMFM to Bonneville to Emmis but has been a rock driven format for at least the last 20+ years.

WUSN 99.5 went from Cook Inlet to Infinity to two incarnations of CBS (Westinghouse and Viacom) but has been country the entire time.

WVAZ 102.7 went from Broadcast Partners to Evergreen to Chancellor/AMFM to Clear Channel but has been an urban AC the entire time.

WJMK 104.3 went from Infinity to the two incarnations of CBS. Viacom took over CBS in '99 and kept the same format on WJMK for roughly 6 years before flipping it to Jack.

WGCI-FM 107.5 went from Gannett to Chancellor/AMFM to Clear Channel and has retained the urban format.

What we're saying is that the Bonneville/Hubbard deal seems to resemble the above changes more than the ones you mentioned. Again, no one is saying absolutely nothing will change, but you can make a bigger case for this deal resembling the ownership changes mentioned above than anything else.

 

[briancraig]

I understand Kent's point and it is well taken. But for the record and just to be 100% accurate, WBBM has had roughly the same format since about 1988 or 1989. It hasn't played what could be called Beautiful music since the 1960s.

WBBM-FM was pure CHR without a dance lean from 1982 to the late 1980s. Before that it was soft rock. In 1973, it was top 40.

It may have been progressive rock before that but I'm not sure. I would imagine it carried The Young Sound like most of the other CBS FMs in the late 1960s.

 

[radioman148]

I understand Kent's point and it is well taken. But for the record and just to be 100% accurate, WBBM has had roughly the same format since about 1988 or 1989. It hasn't played what could be called Beautiful music since the 1960s.

WBBM-FM was pure CHR without a dance lean from 1982 to the late 1980s. Before that it was soft rock. In 1973, it was top 40.

It may have been progressive rock before that but I'm not sure. I would imagine it carried The Young Sound like most of the other CBS FMs in the late 1960s.

WBBM-FM was indeed The Young Sound in the late 60s.

 

[uncamark]

I understand Kent's point and it is well taken. But for the record and just to be 100% accurate, WBBM has had roughly the same format since about 1988 or 1989. It hasn't played what could be called Beautiful music since the 1960s.

WBBM-FM was pure CHR without a dance lean from 1982 to the late 1980s. Before that it was soft rock. In 1973, it was top 40.

It may have been progressive rock before that but I'm not sure. I would imagine it carried The Young Sound like most of the other CBS FMs in the late 1960s.

WBBM-FM was indeed The Young Sound in the late 60s.

But only 24/7 on the weekends. Monday through Friday during the day they simulcast WBBM-AM, including the first years of Newsradio 78. WBBM-FM only went 24/7 full-time when CBS ended "The Young Sound" and they flipped to locally-programmed (but initially automated and with the same sort of key segues that "The Young Sound" did).

 

[radioman148]

I understand Kent's point and it is well taken. But for the record and just to be 100% accurate, WBBM has had roughly the same format since about 1988 or 1989. It hasn't played what could be called Beautiful music since the 1960s.

WBBM-FM was pure CHR without a dance lean from 1982 to the late 1980s. Before that it was soft rock. In 1973, it was top 40.

It may have been progressive rock before that but I'm not sure. I would imagine it carried The Young Sound like most of the other CBS FMs in the late 1960s.

WBBM-FM was indeed The Young Sound in the late 60s.

But only 24/7 on the weekends. Monday through Friday during the day they simulcast WBBM-AM, including the first years of Newsradio 78. WBBM-FM only went 24/7 full-time when CBS ended "The Young Sound" and they flipped to locally-programmed (but initially automated and with the same sort of key segues that "The Young Sound" did).

What year was that do you remember? I recall in 1971 WBBM-FM was doing a lite rock format with DJs such as Steve King & Bob Sirott. Sirott when he first started there was using the name "Robert R Bradley".

 

[Ronn]

One key ingredient and station has not been mentioned here. That is WGN. In bankruptcy. Who buys it? The company that sold all those stations and now has a boat load of cash? Or the company that has a few boat loads of cash and bought all those stations and still might want the creme de la creme to top it off?

 

[TheBigA]

One key ingredient and station has not been mentioned here. That is WGN. In bankruptcy. Who buys it?

I have a feeling that Tribune will sell off all its newspapers before it sells off any broadcasting. I believe we'll know for sure in a few months.

 

[radioguy39nj]

One key ingredient and station has not been mentioned here. That is WGN. In bankruptcy. Who buys it? The company that sold all those stations and now has a boat load of cash? Or the company that has a few boat loads of cash and bought all those stations and still might want the creme de la creme to top it off?

If anyone were to buy WGN, they would either migrate it to FM or make it a simulcast with 720.

 

[KeithE4]

One key ingredient and station has not been mentioned here. That is WGN. In bankruptcy. Who buys it? The company that sold all those stations and now has a boat load of cash? Or the company that has a few boat loads of cash and bought all those stations and still might want the creme de la creme to top it off?

If anyone were to buy WGN, they would either migrate it to FM or make it a simulcast with 720.

They don't own an FM, and they're not allowed to buy one without selling the newspaper, AM720, and/or Channel 9.

And, if Goldear is thinking that Bonneville would buy the Chicago Tribune, I say "fat chance." Their Deseret News is the Mormon Church mouthpiece, and I don't think they'd have any desire to own a paper in a city with almost no Mormon population.

 

[secondchoice]

They don't own an FM, and they're not allowed to buy one without selling the newspaper, AM720, and/or Channel 9.

Tribune just needs a betters set of lawyers (and a lot of cash) to get an FM in the Chicago market. Cox has the only daily newspaper in Atlanta (with any circulation to speak of) there is the Sun Times and the Tribune in Chicago. Cox owns Channel 2, and WSB 750 AM: the only AM station that covers the market 24 hours a day. Chicago has WBBM, WSCR, WLS, and WGN. WIND and WMVP also cover the market with good 24 hour signals. Cox had 98.5 WSB FM and has added 95.5, 97.1 and 104.1FM to form a cluster in the last 10 or 15 years. Cox also has an Athens GA operation which not that far from Atlanta. What would really shake up things in Chicago is to put the WGN, Bonneville, Citadel radio stations in a cluster.

 

[KeithE4]

They don't own an FM, and they're not allowed to buy one without selling the newspaper, AM720, and/or Channel 9.

Tribune just needs a betters set of lawyers (and a lot of cash) to get an FM in the Chicago market. Cox has the only daily newspaper in Atlanta (with any circulation to speak of) there is the Sun Times and the Tribune in Chicago. Cox owns Channel 2, and WSB 750 AM: the only AM station that covers the market 24 hours a day. Chicago has WBBM, WSCR, WLS, and WGN. WIND and WMVP also cover the market with good 24 hour signals. Cox had 98.5 WSB FM and has added 95.5, 97.1 and 104.1FM to form a cluster in the last 10 or 15 years. Cox also has an Athens GA operation which not that far from Atlanta. What would really shake up things in Chicago is to put the WGN, Bonneville, Citadel radio stations in a cluster.

They'd have to get that 1970 court order that forced them to donate WFMT to Channel 11 overturned first. After 40 years, I think it could be done, given precedents in other cities and the realities of broadcasting in 2011, which are much different than in 1970.

 

[uncamark]

They don't own an FM, and they're not allowed to buy one without selling the newspaper, AM720, and/or Channel 9.

Tribune just needs a betters set of lawyers (and a lot of cash) to get an FM in the Chicago market. Cox has the only daily newspaper in Atlanta (with any circulation to speak of) there is the Sun Times and the Tribune in Chicago. Cox owns Channel 2, and WSB 750 AM: the only AM station that covers the market 24 hours a day. Chicago has WBBM, WSCR, WLS, and WGN. WIND and WMVP also cover the market with good 24 hour signals. Cox had 98.5 WSB FM and has added 95.5, 97.1 and 104.1FM to form a cluster in the last 10 or 15 years. Cox also has an Athens GA operation which not that far from Atlanta. What would really shake up things in Chicago is to put the WGN, Bonneville, Citadel radio stations in a cluster.

They'd have to get that 1970 court order that forced them to donate WFMT to Channel 11 overturned first. After 40 years, I think it could be done, given precedents in other cities and the realities of broadcasting in 2011, which are much different than in 1970.

And it must be remembered that most of the complaints over the Trib owning WFMT were not that related to cross-ownership, but just over the worry by its listeners that the paper that still had the stamp of Col. McCormick on it was owning the de facto station of Chicago liberalism, thanks to Studs Terkel and the folk singers on "The Midnight Special." They were afraid that they'd tune in at 10 a.m. and hear instead of Terkel a rerun of the old WGN show "The Chicago Theatre of the Air," complete with the Colonel's rants--uh, speeches at intermission.