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It's Official: WKDN Sold - To Merlin Media

observer2 said:
And with respect to aindik, why keep the AMs at all after you make the transition? What does 610 actually provide WIP? Why does CBS need to keep it? Why not sell it? There are interested owners for such stations, they're just not the largest operators.
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If they sold 1060 and moved All News to 98.1, they would be foregoing all of the revenue of WOGL, and also cutting the cost of WOGL. There's an annual profit there. How many times that annual profit (IOW, how many years) are they getting in a lump sum when they sell 1060?
 
They are also getting the delta in revenue between KYW-AM and KYW-FM, so that has to be included in the calculation.
 
Salty Dog said:
NigelWick said:
It's the same address as the Tv company Randy left to join Tribune, LocalTV. BTW, it's Fort Wright, not Fort Mitchell.
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That may be but I copied it straight from the domain registrar.
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Fort Mitchell, Fort Wright and Covington,KY are all the same place.
 
ixnay said:
Bill_W said:
Bongwater said:
Rick B. said:
mewing80 said:
I am thinking about working there when they get set up. I just hope they move somewhere else then where they are now
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They'll want more space than WKDN has now--it's about the size of a corner deli or beauty salon. OK for radio on a small scale--the old WSLT/WIBG studio in downtown Ocean City looked like it was the same kind of deal--but not for a major-market all-news operation.
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From what I know about Merlin, they are a corporation, run by very corporate types and if the overhead budget looks OK, a little old converted beauty salon storefront won't do for corporate digs.

They're likely going uptown.....
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They could probably rent out the old 610 studio in Bala now that WIP moved in with KYW in Center City.
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Speaking of WIP, who occupies the old 'IP/'MMR space on Rittenhouse nowadays?

ixnay
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I think it is law offices. I remember Pierre doing a remote from there for one of the anniversaries of the station and he was in a lawyer's conference room that he said used to be the WMMR studio. Hard to believe that WMMR used to be in that small studio compared to what GM built Preston & Steve in Bala down the hall from the studio the rest of the staff uses.
 
aindik said:
observer2 said:
And with respect to aindik, why keep the AMs at all after you make the transition? What does 610 actually provide WIP? Why does CBS need to keep it? Why not sell it? There are interested owners for such stations, they're just not the largest operators.
Click to expand...

If they sold 1060 and moved All News to 98.1, they would be foregoing all of the revenue of WOGL, and also cutting the cost of WOGL. There's an annual profit there. How many times that annual profit (IOW, how many years) are they getting in a lump sum when they sell 1060?
Click to expand...

They won't sell 1060. They'll probably sell 610 and make WIP an FM-only station at 94.1.
 
RyanHoward said:
They won't sell 1060. They'll probably sell 610 and make WIP an FM-only station at 94.1.
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Which would have nothing to do with people suggesting KYW needs an FM home.

But there's no reason now to ditch 610; it provides a convenient place for overflow, and a bit of extra cash.
 
... and Homer just answered this question from page 3 of the thread...

observer2 said:
What does 610 actually provide WIP? Why does CBS need to keep it?
Click to expand...
 
DToTheJ said:
... and Homer just answered this question from page 3 of the thread...

observer2 said:
What does 610 actually provide WIP? Why does CBS need to keep it?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
And even with the 2 WIP stations, CBS will still put some sports on 1210 pre-empting talk while both WIPs are running WIP sports talk.
 
Element9 said:
CBS knows how to do news and has a proven track record, whereas Cumulus thinks it knows how to do news.
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Companies don't do news. People do.

I think to imply Cumulus has any sort of realistic, big picture strategy is to totally disregard reality.
 
To Tom McNally,

Fort Wright, Fort Mitchell, and Covington are NOT the same place. They're in the same county, but DISTINCTLY different. You can offend someone in Fort Mitchell by telling them they live in Covington.
 
Sorry - I was going by maps online. You can do a search using any of those places
and come up with the same exact spot on the map. They seem to be used interchangeably
by the post office also.
 
I remember Bill Gardner in several stints at Wibbage & successes in SC and AZ & Andre at several stations (& even the PD/'dump button' pusher at WXRK) but where did Al Gardner work in Philadelphia radio?
 
Play Freebird said:
As for the WKDN translators -- if they transmit in the commercial portion of the band, they would be prohibited from taking a direct satellite feed from a distant Family Stations facility. Some, such as W249AA (the 97.7 between Lebanon and Lancaster), are licensed to outside owners. W249AA took a direct off-air feed from Camden (quite a filtering challenge due to the nearby 106.7 in Hershey/Elizabethtown) but has been off the air in recent months.
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A point of clarification I think - it's not the translator position in the bands that's an issue -- it's the fact that WKDN will be a commercial station, and translators must, by law, be within the over-the-air signal footprint.

Different story for non-commercial stations.

Richard in Allentown, PA
 
observer2 said:
I think you've misunderstood the disappointment that some of us feel here. I would have liked to see KYW abandon altogether the most obsolete, unlistenable technology in broadcasting (AM) for something less obsolete (FM). They are an established and competent operation. That's the reason you think it's good that they remain on 1060.

And with respect to aindik, why keep the AMs at all after you make the transition? What does 610 actually provide WIP? Why does CBS need to keep it? Why not sell it? There are interested owners for such stations, they're just not the largest operators.

And others have suggested that WOGL is a good FM home for KYW. That's nuts. If 1060 starts any kind of decline, the option will be to purchase another station, say 96.5, 97.5 or 98.9.
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Up here in the Lehigh Valley and over towards Reading, KYW's signal is local quality. Access to KYW kept me sane here before the days of portable Internet radio.

Most of Philly's FM signals are fringe at best, at dbms of -74.8 to -80.2 (per fmfool.com). Selfishly, I'd like them to stay on AM even though many below age 30 have never tuned an AM radio in their life.

Since KYW's AM signal quality is decent in most of the Delaware Valley, I suspect the WTOP DC precedent wouldn't be relevant. Down in DC the AM signal wasn't great towards the south & west, where much of the region's growth is...so the motivation to move to FM was probably greater there.

Per FCC rules could CBS purchase another signal in the region? Or would they instead need to sacrifice one of their existing signals?

Richard in Allentown
 
JeffDavis said:
To Tom McNally,

Fort Wright, Fort Mitchell, and Covington are NOT the same place. They're in the same county, but DISTINCTLY different. You can offend someone in Fort Mitchell by telling them they live in Covington.
Click to expand...

Most certainly in altitude if nothing else!

Sort of like saying Roxborough and Manayunk are "the same place".

The Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky region has some interesting and diverse communities...I used to live there...

Richard in Allentown, PA
 
rdcuffpa1 said:
Per FCC rules could CBS purchase another signal in the region? Or would they instead need to sacrifice one of their existing signals?
Click to expand...

As discussed here recently, the answer is "yes" if there are 20 or more "independent media voices" in Philadelphia (as that term is defined by the FCC) and "no" if there are not. Those are hard to count but there are probably still more than 20 despite the recent merger of Comcast and NBC.

However, if CBS acquires a station that is that owner's only station in the market (which it would have done had it acquired WKDN), it would be decreasing the number of voices by 1. If that 1 is the difference between 19 and 20, it would itself make the deal illegal.
 
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