KMCQ - First Broadcasting - OOPS

[TVradioguru]

So the whole thing was nothing more than a debt restructure! Bravo!

In the 9th inning, the score is: Seattle Radio-Info board 0, First Broadcasting 2.

The good news is Goldi can keep listening to the I-Pod live from Cougar Mt.

 

[Jay Peninger]

So the whole thing was nothing more than a debt restructure! Bravo!

In the 9th inning, the score is: Seattle Radio-Info board 0, First Broadcasting 2.

The good news is Goldi can keep listening to the I-Pod live from Cougar Mt.

It must be one hell of an iPod ;D

Maybe they hired that Watson computer to man the controls I mean hell it has mastered chess, jeopardy, why shouldn't it take a stab at running a radio station....

 

[radioplayer]

Ok, now I'm REALLY confused. The winning bidder on the KMCQ auction is CapitalSource Financing, the lender associated with First Broadcasting.

http://www.radio-info.com/search/tagged_with?search=First+Broadcasting+Capital+Partners

This 8 year old fiasco has more twists and turns than an Olympic ice skater. Somebody's GOT to write a book on this someday.

:-\

Hey FM, you're the perfect candidate to write up this one, so go for it! From what I recall, you had posted quite a bit on this mess. I'm sure it will be a great read to everyone on this board....but can I get an autographed copy from you when you're all published and done?

I promise to give you my Toys R Us gift card in exchange ......

 

[bossbill]

A credit bid. I was told Monday that could very possibly be the outcome. It appears to me that it intentionally was not heavily advertised (maybe to minimize the bidding?) If a bidder had come forth with more $$$, then the licenses could have been part of the equation.

So whaddaya do when the investors own all of the assets, and all you have are the licenses? I suspect this is not the end of it.

 

[FMSteve]

TRI is reporting that CapSource is going to court to appoint a receiver. Apparently between the 3 radio stations they are owed 48 million dollars and they only way they can get restitution is if they can get at the licenses.

More drama!

 

[Goldilocks94941]

Well, this sort of radio drama* seems to lack a plot and doesn't have much of a climax!

As much as I enjoy my 15 minutes in the car hearing a nicely-mixed set of pop music without commercials or BS on KMCQ, I really do lament what happened to all three of these stations, which used to be local stations with solid followings and reputations - and all three had vastly different programming. WOXY was one of those now hard to find and one-time legendary local album rock outlets that people used to drive a long way, just to get within their signal reach, before the days of internet streaming. WAOL played a wide range of classic country for its Appalachian audience in the rural mid-Ohio Valley, and KMCQ was a decent AC station for a wider swath of the Columbia River Gorge than anyone else had on the dial. The prior licensees made out like bandits, but the public is left with this strange operation.

* Speaking of radio drama, I wonder if anyone knows if the old CBS Mystery Theatre hours are available again, since producer Hyman Brown died last year. NPR had 'em for awhile, and I enjoyed airing them in Ohio on public radio as "Midnight Mysteries." But Mr. Brown didn't like that only a few NPR affiliates picked them up, and rescinded the rights for the show for anyone except WVXU in Cincinnati, when Dr. Jim King ran the place and befriended him. Would be fun to hear those again - and it certainly would draw attention to KMCQ at nights to counterprogram TV if they aired them! The dramas were a part of 1970s radio, so not really too far off the program affinity for their current format. But I digress...

 

[MarkW]

Ok, now I'm REALLY confused. The winning bidder on the KMCQ auction is CapitalSource Financing, the lender associated with First Broadcasting.

http://www.radio-info.com/search/tagged_with?search=First+Broadcasting+Capital+Partners

This 8 year old fiasco has more twists and turns than an Olympic ice skater. Somebody's GOT to write a book on this someday.

There's nothing at all confusing about this if you understand commercial lending workout situations. Creditors often are the "winning bidder" at Sheriff's Sales. Most commonly, it is the creditor who ordered the Sheriff's Sale.

Apparently, First Broadcasting is in Default on its financing arrangements. By bidding successfully, the lender now controls the asset (which, in this case, consists of the intellectual property) and has the ability to dispose of it.

That being said, I doubt the intellectual property -- absent the license -- holds much if any value on the open market. Getting court approval for a receiver is instrumental; this will ostensibly give the lender control of the license, I believe. The earlier posts have it right -- the STICK (license) itself is probably the only asset bearing any meaningful value. The $5 million guess an earlier poster made is not unreasonable in a forced liquidation siutation given current market conditions. The lender certainly won't get more than $10 million.

 

[jockeyjohn]

I just reminded myself that First Broadcasting still is licensee for the blowtorches north of me, in Forks. They bought the stations although they didn't need to, so that a frequency change could be made on the FM to facilitate the Bellingham frequency swap which in turn faciliated the Covington upgrade. They didn't need to, because they could have forced a frequency change without buying the stations.

They have lost many $$$ over the past several years in Forks, and had a couple of failed sales, and more recently taken off air due to "lightning damage", which was a convenient way to allow the stations to remain silent.

Did I dream this, or did I hear that someone made a deal to acquire this combo? There's nothing on the FCC site about it.

Got a call from a buddy of mine...he told me they just made a deal to buy those stations in Forks. Said that the equipment was pretty good...other than the lightning damaged stuff. Not sure when this will close...it was a quick call yesterday.

 

[bossbill]

Forks needs a hands-on mom/pop, or mom or pop operator. It has been without since the previous owner passed away. While it is a very small community, it can provide a good income to the right person(s).

 

[boiseengineer]

APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE
http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1418758&Service=FM&Form_id=314&Facility_id=41861

 

[GenXRadio]

Can someone PLEASE explain to me what the fascination is with "Smooth Jazz"?
I mean you might as well be asking for a "Beautiful music" station or as we called it when I was a kid "Supermarket music" because that's exactly what Smooth Jazz is, it's music to listen to while you're picking melons in the produce dept before you saunter off for some Little Debbies and maybe a pound of roast beef at the deli.

next, I thought part of the reason KWJZ moved away from Smooth Jazz was because it isn't measured by PPM, if that's the case and you want to sell spots how can you effectively do so with no measurement to be able to show to your client?
There's no more book and if PPM won't help you good luck trying to sell to anyone except mom & mom convenience stores or restaurants and even then the restaurants are going to want to do more trade than cash anyhow which doesn't py the bills but does keep management fed and able to entertain.
It just doesn't seem like it makes a lot of sense and on top of that Smooth Jazz is about as entertaining as watching turtles sleeping on heat rocks at a pet store.

Wonder if someone might buy this station and bring back Smooth Jazz? With the low power signal located on Cougar Mountain it is perfect for Eastside and Seattle office music formats or an in car format. Sports or News on FM or any Eastside/Downtown office music format like Smooth Jazz, might work. Signal is too weak to penetrate most buildings outside Eastside and downtown core ruling out formats like AC, HOT-AC, Rock, Classic ROck, Country, Oldies, CHR, anything that relies on big office listening in South King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties. Talk, News, Sports or upscale AAA or Smooth Jazz music formats all might work. Station could be tough to sell at auction next week.

 

[FMSteve]

APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE
http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1418758&Service=FM&Form_id=314&Facility_id=41861

Yep, saw this this morning. Apparently the buyers are doing an LMA prior to consumation of the assignment. I did a cursory look to try to find out what the purchase price was but wasn't able to determine that just yet. But it is a genuine voluntary assignment.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...xt=25&appn=101418758&formid=314&fac_num=41861

 

[TVradioguru]

Can someone PLEASE explain to me what the fascination is with "Smooth Jazz"?
I mean you might as well be asking for a "Beautiful music" station or as we called it when I was a kid "Supermarket music" because that's exactly what Smooth Jazz is, it's music to listen to while you're picking melons in the produce dept before you saunter off for some Little Debbies and maybe a pound of roast beef at the deli.

next, I thought part of the reason KWJZ moved away from Smooth Jazz was because it isn't measured by PPM, if that's the case and you want to sell spots how can you effectively do so with no measurement to be able to show to your client?
There's no more book and if PPM won't help you good luck trying to sell to anyone except mom & mom convenience stores or restaurants and even then the restaurants are going to want to do more trade than cash anyhow which doesn't py the bills but does keep management fed and able to entertain.
It just doesn't seem like it makes a lot of sense and on top of that Smooth Jazz is about as entertaining as watching turtles sleeping on heat rocks at a pet store.

I know this is a typical swerve off topic, but I'll attempt to answer your question..

If a station is in a metered market, as with Seattle and is encoding with the Arbitron encoder in the line, it will register on PPM. That is of course if someone in the sample is listening to the station. Even public stations are generally encoded.

That being said, in many markets where PPM still or used to exist, cumulative listening in the target 25-54 M-F has seen a precipitous drop with Smooth Jazz stations. TSL, or Time Spent Listening, for those who do, was generally pretty good on SJ, mainly attributed to the 'dentist office' and background music sector. The problem too was the demographics weren't very solid for 25-54, generally starting to skew older. As has been mentioned here before, advertisers drive the motivation car that are radio stations, and advertisers generally choose to want a station to be dialed into a specific demo range under 50 years old.

Why are some on this particular discussion board advocates for Smooth Jazz? Let's just say that those who do, clearly don't understand nor care to understand the business dynamics of programming a successful radio operation. Generally the format with the least listeners or the most esoteric, gets the vote of a tiny minority which hang around here.

 

[Goldilocks94941]

If every radio station only cared about attracting the largest share of English speaking listeners between age 25-54, then large portions of the population will be unhappy with programming that is does not appeal to them. Oh, wait. That's the way it is in US radio in most cities. And if we don't like it, we still won't go away to let you, the "I'm in Charge here and I'll make smart ass remarks about the rest of you" crowd take over the few options that are left, such as public radio and small station operators.

There's enough room on the dial for a wide variety of audiences and interests to be served (notice I'm not talking about only serving ad agencies). But there have to be lots of licensees, not just a handful, in major markets, to do this. Thanks to the NAB and a gutless FCC, the real estate has been taken over for a handful of no-talent, low-ethic corporations.

Those who destroy classical stations, for example, to have a 4th classic rock format (like in San Francisco) or religious station (as in Cleveland) show their lack of talent, taste, and professionalism. The scorn they show toward people who want more than rock and country music and right wing politicos, fundamentalist business-religion, or sports -- are putting the future of OUR industry up for grabs. Radio is more and more turning into irrelevant background noise that fewer listeners, and advertisers, will ever care about again. News departments are gutted, and full-service radio, we're told, is a thing of the past. I guess there's those of us who actually like the medium of radio, versus those for whom it's just another sales job. But some of us haven't completely given up yet and do our part to serve the public. And I'm a shareholder, too!

 

[jockeyjohn]

APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE
http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1418758&Service=FM&Form_id=314&Facility_id=41861

Yep, saw this this morning. Apparently the buyers are doing an LMA prior to consumation of the assignment. I did a cursory look to try to find out what the purchase price was but wasn't able to determine that just yet. But it is a genuine voluntary assignment.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...xt=25&appn=101418758&formid=314&fac_num=41861


Found an article the other day listing sale price as 25K. Fm is on air and the am is still off.

 

[semoochie]

AM?

 

[BurntOutRadio]

AM?

They are talking about an AM in Forks, WA.

 

[bossbill]

It's an AM and FM kids

 

[BurntOutRadio]

Yeah, I know that but Semoochie didn't read up above. He apparently thinks they are talking about KMCQ.

 

[semoochie]

Thank you for the clarification!