There are a lot of major media companies that either own no radio, or have sold off radio stations. In just the last few years, those media companies include ABC/Disney, CBS, and Scripps. But Fox has never owned radio stations. Time Warner has never owned radio. Comcast has never owned radio. NBC sold off its radio in 1988. My point being that if any of those companies had bought Tribune, WGN would be for sale. Not because of some "curse," but because they simply don't own radio stations. Nexstar has never owned radio. Sinclair might have kept the station, since they own radio in Seattle. But its likely WGN-AM will be sold regardless of who is in the lineup, where the studio is located, and how expensive their staff is. It's a single station AM. Not part of a group. It's an orphan.
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It is time to ask the question
- Thread starter sjs1959
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Entomological warfare?
IMHO After 6 PM there has been very little “live and local” broadcasting in the small markets since the development of PC automation systems and automated transmitter control systems 1990's. If you take it back farther, the old Satellite Music Network started in 1981. I don’t have the numbers to prove it, but I would bet a cup of coffee there are less on the air employees now than before 80-90 and FCC Order 84 FCC (2nd) 968 after FCC report 81-17 ("In The Matter Of Deregulation of Radio") written on January 21, 1981 when there were fewer radio stations.
The current EAS system legally covers owners during emergencies. I personally believe the issues with EAS are due to the local authorizes not knowing how to us it. My local law enforcement uses Facebook to notify folks. Reverse 911 is used for weather emergencies.
With the exception of sports, there is very little “revenue” after PM drive in radio. I have more fingers and thumbs that “live” announcers in Atlanta after midnight not counting news readers and traffic folks. Atlanta is radio market #8.
IMHO: The lack of jobs at small stations the last couple of decades is one of the reasons the industry is suffering now. Baseball has the minor leagues where players learn lessons. Radio use to have night jobs in small towns across America where folks could “learn the craft”. I get that radio is a business but on music stations entertaining announcers are about the only advantage we have over a iPod on shuffle , Spotify or Pandora.
Maybe. That could apply to a lot of businesses. A lot less buggy whip makers and blacksmiths. By the same token, there are lots of different jobs now that didn't exist then. People who want to work in radio need to adapt or be kicked to the curb. I tell that to college kids all the time. Somehow, our company and competitors keep hiring new people. I keep reading these comments about "no farm team," and it ignores the fact that kids have access to a lot more training today than ever. Colleges have radio stations, digital work stations, and lots of experienced out of work former radio people there to train them. There are lots of industry seminars where people get training. And somehow, every day, I get tapes from new kids and they sound pretty good for never having done overnight radio. The kids I speak with know digital editing, they know social media, and they know web design. How many overnight DJs from the 70s can say that?
If you want to talk about the past, name all the local DJs in radio in the 1930s and 40s. Back then local stations were basically repeaters for the networks in NYC. If you owned a station that didn't have a network affiliation, you were flat out of luck. Somehow, radio listeners didn't mind listening to Fibber McGee & Molly or other network radio shows from far away places.
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I thought Cochran had the highest numbers on the station? I read people on here complaining about him, but SOMEBODY must like him if he gets those numbers even as the demise of AM continues......
The issue is not about a particular host or program. It's about the fact that the station is not even in the top 25 in 25-54. It has aged badly, and it is losing revenue year after year.
In fact, in the books so far this year, the station has been around 24th to 27th in the sales demo.
That is not a curse... that is a fail.
Carson even had a famous chat with Gary Owens which went something like "you know I am using your Burbank thing..." to which Owens responded with a certain amount of pleasure and agreement.
This was, of course, an inside joke in many ways, as nondescript as Burbank is.
By the same token, what option did they have? Hire younger people? Talk more about local school boards and other local issues? Seems to me that's what WVON is doing, and it hasn't helped them.
That's what makes a possible sale so difficult. It's one thing to buy an old car. Lots of people do that. But in this case you're buying an old car with all of the baggage and none of the charm. It's a 62 Rambler that has 500K miles, all of the parts are worn out, and the paint is gone. Who wants to pay $18 million for that?
Docket 80-90 in many ways precipitated the 1996 deregulation, as so many stations had ceased to be profitable owing to the slew of upgrades, move-ins and new licenses.
I know of quite a few smaller markets where there had been good local, live programming until late at night and even in overnights that had to cut to bare bones staffing and automation when the FCC allowed some markets to double the number of stations while radio revenues stayed the same.
He is, in fact he is the only WGN Radio show host that show even cracks into the top ten any time of the day. Mid mornings/ mid day all the top ten stations are music stations. I have seen people complain about him, that is for sure, but I am sure the only reason that he cracks into the top ten because he has a contest that they mention that happens at 7:20 in the morning. And plus there are always stations mornings shows that are even ahead of him, like take for example Steve Harvey's morning show is always above his ratings of where it comes in, and Steve Harvey's show is not even a local show, it is a syndicated show. And plus with Steve Cochran he is either late almost all the time, or interrupting. Like say he will be late for a lot of the time the bottom of the news, where he might not get to it until 6:35, and then the bottom of the hour news won't even be done until 6:45 at the very earliest, and it should already be done. And plus he doesn't really add much new to the morning show, and can kind of be a thief.
Bottom line here is Tribune Media is a television station operator, which happens to own one AM station. Most television operators have gotten completely out of radio. So the list of potential acquirers of Tribune Media who would also want WGN-AM in the long-term are extraordinarily limited.
Even if WGN-AM was making lots of money (and it might be), I don't think that changes the strategy. Maybe it would be more attractive for someone like Nexstar to keep if there were a cluster to surround WGN-AM.
Even if WGN-AM was making lots of money (and it might be), I don't think that changes the strategy. Maybe it would be more attractive for someone like Nexstar to keep if there were a cluster to surround WGN-AM.
Yet, still, the station is not in the top 20 in sales demos. The 12+ does not matter. Agencies don’t look at it and most of us in radio ignore 12+ in our own markets.
And yet they still billed over $25M in 2016 (I haven't found any figures for last year yet). Granted, that's over 40% down from WBBM, but it's still a nice chunk of change, even for Chicago.
In the early 2000's, WGN was billing nearly $50 million. This year should see them just under $20 million.
While some of the revenue loss is from the loss of the Cubs, the station is gradually losing tradition-based buys because it is not even a good match for 36-64 campaigns, as few as there may be of them.
And it is a really expensive station to run. It just might be a case of a station selling for less than one times the gross billing.
I would not take it if you gave it to me. The profitable options for an AM are already taken, so there is not a very bright future.
They lost out of the Cubs, but they won the Chicago White Sox, either case WGN Radio has had a losing baseball team on its station since the 2009 season, that is when the Cubs started to lose again, and when they switched over to CBS radio they started winning again. And in 2016 they won the World Series, was WGN Radio their only so called curse? In the meantime WGN Radio went without a baseball team for the years of 2015-2017. While the Score did not go without a baseball team, for not even a full year. But still please correct me if I am wrong but didn't the Cubs wanted to leave WGN Radio?
They must not since his show still gets even better ratings then most of the local shows in Chicago, that will ever be the day if he beats the Mix or even WBBM
The land the tower sits on is worth at least 5 times what WGN billed in 2016. With WBBM soon to be piggybacked onto WSCR's tower, I wonder what that land sold for, if it already has.
Outside of sports, there's not much anyone could do with WGN. Its best days are long behind it, and its core audience has died off for the most part (see also: WLS).
Once the team was no longer part of the Tribune "empire" (2009) they were free to negotiate with all stations that wanted to bid. After 27 years, and with a new-found freedom from media ownership, things changed.
Radio revenue from teams has more to do with long term interest in baseball in the market and team partisanship than with "winning" or "losing" seasons. Negotiations for the upcoming season are based to an extent on previous season audience levels, but just as there is the intangible "feel" of having stadium naming rights, there is a certain sponsor image and pride factor in being a team sponsor. And most sponsorship deals now include multiple media platforms, such as radio, TV, new media, signage, etc.
I've studied a number of similar "empires" where you had media and other attractions together, and one thing fed the other. Certainly another very similar example was TBS and the Atlanta Braves. In both cases, you had "Super Stations" that brought those baseball teams to larger parts of the country. That was very effective in its day, but as the MLB has grown, those national teams have become less of a factor. Now the marketing of the MLB is more important than the individual teams. MLB owns a lot of the online business and that gives local owners less independence in what they do.
What you said, plus: All the professional sports teams are all focusing on subscription streaming revenue of the broadcast rights, unlike their only prior options of just negotiating Radio and TV rights. MLB, NHL, and the NBA are all trying various PPV and streamed audio options. These days if a radio station wants to bid on broadcast rights for the local professional sports team, there will ultimately be the requirement at least a three year term and a hefty escalator in years two and three, with much smaller number of avails in the game. Things like playoff coverage rights may be at a premium too.
Unless the parent company also owns the radio station, professional sports on radio is a very expensive programming option.
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