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Magic Johnson and Ron Burkle's Yucaipa invest in three Phoenix FMs

2

2Son

(From the main page)


Magic Johnson and Ron Burkle's Yucaipa invest in three Phoenix FMs.
From today's TRI Newsletter: The stations have all gone through some changes lately. But if Earvin "Magic" Johnson has some of the same luck in radio that former NFL star Willie Davis has experienced, he'll be a happy investor. And the other investment group is the famed L.A.-based Yucaipa Companies, which has done $30 billion in deals since it was founded in 1986 by Ron Burkle. The new venture that's buying the stations is named Riviera Broadcasting LLC (not the first time the Riviera name's been used in Phoenix) and it's led by two more pros, CEO Mike Cutchall and COO Jose Rodiles.

The stations are "95.1 Latino Vibe" KVIB, a Class C licensed to Sun City West. Rhythmic "Power 98.3" KKFR, Mayer, Arizona, also a full C. And modern rock "X103.9" KEXX, a C1 licensed to Gilbert, Arizona. Magic Johnson Enterprises and The Yucaipa Companies did the deal with Atmor Properties. Magic Johnson says "Market conditions make this the right time to take advantage of this opportunity, and we are confident we have the best leadership team in place to build out an exceptional broadcast radio group."
 
Nice rim shot collection; two from the north KVIB and KKFR (from the same mountain) and KEXX from the southeast.

It will be interesting to see the price on this, my guess is around ~$16 million each for a total of $50 million.
 
stationi said:
Nice rim shot collection; two from the north KVIB and KKFR (from the same mountain) and KEXX from the southeast.

It will be interesting to see the price on this, my guess is around ~$16 million each for a total of $50 million.
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I'd say they were sold for around a third of that. 103.9 was bought by the original Riviera group in 2005 for around $30M, and that was when stick values were at its highest.

With this ownership change, this means the rumor mill will once again be hopping over 103.9's format future.
 
Eric Stein said:
stationi said:
Nice rim shot collection; two from the north KVIB and KKFR (from the same mountain) and KEXX from the southeast.

It will be interesting to see the price on this, my guess is around ~$16 million each for a total of $50 million.
Click to expand...

I'd say they were sold for around a third of that. 103.9 was bought by the original Riviera group in 2005 for around $30M, and that was when stick values were at its highest.

With this ownership change, this means the rumor mill will once again be hopping over 103.9's format future.
Click to expand...


I'd rather be listening to 103.9 than KKFR, but that's just my personal preference in music. It's such a shame that KKFR is merely a shadow of what it once was.
 
2Son said:
I'd rather be listening to 103.9 than KKFR, but that's just my personal preference in music. It's such a shame that KKFR is merely a shadow of what it once was.
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I'd still listen to Power 98.3 over 101.5 Jamz. Not just that I want to "root for the small guy," but they play less pop fluff than Jamz does.

As for 103.9, the new ownership would be wise to bring back "The Edge" name back if they are keeping the same format. It has better brand recognition in this market than "X" will ever have.
 
DJ_Perry said:
They dropped the Edge to save money. It's a trademarked format.
Click to expand...

Now, the owners can once again afford the licensing fee to Jacobs Media!
 
Eric Stein said:
With this ownership change, this means the rumor mill will once again be hopping over 103.9's format future.
Click to expand...

Probably not. The release announcing the deal took pains to note "The X" had value in the market because of its position as the valley's only alternative stick.

Besides, what other format would work there? Hot/lefty talk has failed on FM repeatedly in this market (and there's no way a Magic-owned station would carry righties or even centrists), sports-talk is wildly over-saturated (and there are no pbp opps likely to open soon on which to hook such a format, anyway), pop/r&b/dance and Hispanic formats would interfere with the value of the other sticks in the deal, country is nearly dead in Phx, and adult-pop (both current and "classic") is firmly entrenched at market leaders.

So, then, why not rock? They could maybe fine-tune the station's mix to carry fewer Cage the Elephant or Black Keys tracks (one of each every three or four hours, at most, rather than the current almost-hourly, perhaps) and deeper alt golds, moving the station into somewhat higher-income demos, but they're the only local outlet for what is still a viable genre. A more appealing blend of tracks within the genre could easily add half a point to its Arb -- and almost entirely within desirable demos.

EDIT: Apostrophe trouble.
 
Deeper alt golds?! How much more RHCP or PJ could they play? Not to mention, NIN, Tool & Primus? I hear the same songs every day!!! They play the same amount of RHCP songs that they play Cage or Black Keys songs. (Or last year, the Dirty Heads.)

They need to make some serious tweaks...I mean, I tolerate it cuz it's all I've got in this market...but, seriously...Metallica's "Unforgiven" into Depeche Mode's "Policy of Truth" is just weird!
 
I'd like to see at least one station become a true Urban AC.

No, you don't need a full black population for the format to work any more than one of 3/4 HIPHOP stations that work. I'd like to see 103.9 X define it-self as a true altenative. I know this won't happen though.... ;D
 
My vote is to take 95.1 to a latin dance/ chr dance hybrid and call it Energy 95-1 :)
 
azenergyfan said:
My vote is to take 95.1 to a latin dance/ chr dance hybrid and call it Energy 95-1 :)
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They're not going to mess with 95.1. The 800-pound gorilla of Spanish-language radio has been trying to take them down with lackluster results on 100.3.
 
OneHorseTown said:
Deeper alt golds?! How much more RHCP or PJ could they play? Not to mention, NIN, Tool & Primus? I hear the same songs every day!!! They play the same amount of RHCP songs that they play Cage or Black Keys songs. (Or last year, the Dirty Heads.)

They need to make some serious tweaks...I mean, I tolerate it cuz it's all I've got in this market...but, seriously...Metallica's "Unforgiven" into Depeche Mode's "Policy of Truth" is just weird!
Click to expand...

Agreed. 103.9 is already essentially an alt. gold station at the moment. They were at their best when they were doing punk/pop-punk/female bands/alt. rock/new/classics, etc a few years ago. At least they are talking over the ramps again now. Sounded like a classical station when not doing that.

There are successful models to follow - KROQ, etc. KROQ, despite its repetition, is not an alt-gold station and you would never hear say 3 or 4 gold tracks back to back there as happens all day on 103.9.

That said it's certainly way better than no alt. station at all, it's better than it was a year ago, and also better than all of the active/alt. hybrids all over the US.
 
Saladressing said:
OneHorseTown said:
Deeper alt golds?! How much more RHCP or PJ could they play? Not to mention, NIN, Tool & Primus? I hear the same songs every day!!! They play the same amount of RHCP songs that they play Cage or Black Keys songs. (Or last year, the Dirty Heads.)

They need to make some serious tweaks...I mean, I tolerate it cuz it's all I've got in this market...but, seriously...Metallica's "Unforgiven" into Depeche Mode's "Policy of Truth" is just weird!
Click to expand...

Agreed. 103.9 is already essentially an alt. gold station at the moment. They were at their best when they were doing punk/pop-punk/female bands/alt. rock/new/classics, etc a few years ago. At least they are talking over the ramps again now. Sounded like a classical station when not doing that.

There are successful models to follow - KROQ, etc. KROQ, despite its repetition, is not an alt-gold station and you would never hear say 3 or 4 gold tracks back to back there as happens all day on 103.9.

That said it's certainly way better than no alt. station at all, it's better than it was a year ago, and also better than all of the active/alt. hybrids all over the US.
Click to expand...

KROQ is not a model for anyone. How many stations have a show like Kevin & Bean that have an 8 share in mornings. KROQ's success is really about their morning drive numbers.
 
Anyone who thinks these stations will remain the same and not have any changes is fooling themselves. Anyone who purchases these stations wants to make them profitable and these stations simply are not at this time. Yes there may be some minor tweaking at first but after they fully assess what they have, I see changes coming to these three stations.
 
azenergyfan said:
Anyone who thinks these stations will remain the same and not have any changes is fooling themselves. Anyone who purchases these stations wants to make them profitable and these stations simply are not at this time. Yes there may be some minor tweaking at first but after they fully assess what they have, I see changes coming to these three stations.
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Have you seen the P&L's on these stations. My guess is no.
 
Just read on all access that all 3 stations sold for 16 million? Seems very low for these three stations even in this economy.
 
azfmfan said:
Just read on all access that all 3 stations sold for 16 million? Seems very low for these three stations even in this economy.
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Ouch. That number has to put the owners of Mega/The Beat and Movin in a very, very, very sour mood.
 
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