The Hispanic or "Latino" population in LA was relatively small in 1970. In 1972, I began a 3-year stint consulting KWKW in LA and at the time the Spanish language stations, basically KALI and KWKW, together got less than a total of 3 to 3.5 shares. Today, it is close to 25 shares and even more in 18-34.
San Antonio, El Paso, Albuquerque, Fresno, Bakersfield, Corpus, McAllen/Brownsville were the high percentage Hispanic markets in 1970.
All that says is that he's not selling the baseball team. Keeping it and selling the radio station (along with broadcast rights for the team) makes a certain amount of sense.
Someone paid 33 million for 1540 AM? It won't happen a second time.
Translation: “We couldn’t get the price we wanted for the Angels so we’re going to hang on to the team a bit longer and hope market conditions improve.”
Given the Angels' mediocre performance last season, that's understandable.
I wouldn't read today's announcement by Mr. Moreno as an indication the brokerage listing several weeks ago was not for KLAA. Just before Christmas, the commissioner of baseball said in an interview he expected the Angels to be sold by baseball's opening day in April. The decision not to sell was likely undertaken quite recently.
The franchise would be a lot easier to sell if it didn't have the huge contracts of bland, unmarketable superstar Mike Trout and the useless Anthony Rendon attached to it. Moreno is responsible for overspending on those two while neglecting the team's many other needs, and now he really needs a trading partner willing to take one or both of those contracts off his hands, which is not going to happen.
Yet I have family in the OC who has the kind of Angelitos loyalty I have only seen in the past with the Cubs.
I would hardly call Mike Trout bland. Unmarketable, maybe. But we all know that wouldn't be the case if he played for the Dodgers, in NYC or in his home market of Philadelphia.
Spectacular baseball player, the "bland" only applies to his public image, or lack of it. He apparently has no desire to be the sort of athlete who transcends his sport. He doesn't do many commercials; in fact, I'm hard pressed to remember even one. He's not seen in the company of non-baseball celebs or making the late night talk show circuit. For Angels fans, I'm sure he's as beloved as most superstars are by their home fans. But while old Angels fans will tell their grandkids and great-grandkids about him the way old Yankees fans now tell theirs about Reggie Jackson or old Cubs fans tell theirs about Ernie Banks, I somehow think it's unlikely that many outside the Angels fan base will have much of a memory of Trout. Maybe getting into, and starring in, several World Series will help, but the window on that is closing rapidly.
So none of the possible buyers for the team met the asking price. That probably means the team is overvalued. Not surprising.
It has been reported by local news media quoting sources close to the negotiations that that wasn’t the reason. Moreno just had a change of heart
Not to take this thread even further away from the mystery of the LA AM station for sale and toward baseball -- and incurring the displeasure of a certain non-baseball fan moderator -- but perhaps MLB's new schedule that starts in 2023 will help expose its stars more, as every team will now be playing every other team (in league and interleague play) every season.
Why does it make sense to sell radio rights that you already own unless you’re trying to raise money to keep a certain star pitcher who is about to become a free agent?
