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Mass Defection?

R

Radioalliance

A hot rumor from the Hall of fame city..(are several of the "pitch" emails hanging in a lunchroom on Market Ave?)

The PD from the cornfield has been pitching Nextmedia, Clear Channel, and RubberCity to flip to CHR on one of their signals. The pitch includes not only his programming, but the ENTIRE air staff will jump ship.

At one of the recent meetings the morning show was brought along.

As the story goes, they found some old memos about a staff defection in 1990. Mike Adams, Jeff Shreve, Jeff Turk, and Scott Davidson all jumped from then CHR Q92 to Hot 95.9 WNPQ. WDJQ was left with only Jerry Vincent and Zack Stevens and a handful of part-timers.

Would anybody jump at this? It's well known that while they achieve numbers, they can't monetize it. (local direct runs screaming from the morning show due to content)
 
From what I understand of that post, the PD of Q92 wants to move the programming/staff of the station to another Canton or Akron signal...and these other properties are actually meeting with him about it?!? Ooookay then.
 
I could be wrong, but I can't see this happening. I've also heard nothing in the Stark County Radio Rumormill (which is basically active anytime anyone sneezes in a Stark County radio studio) about it.
 
"local direct runs screaming from the morning show due to content"

So would you bring the current morning show? If they can't make money..no..so the "entire air staff" isn't coming..

This sounds like something that was hatched over a couple of beers..NextMedia is just emerging from bankruptcy and would sell WHBC-AM-FM in a heartbeat if they could find somebody to take the combo..Clear Channel and Rubber City probably got a good laugh out of it, if anybody really takes this seriously..

The Children of the Corn need to relax..they aren't going anywhere..
 
Speaker of Truth said:
"local direct runs screaming from the morning show due to content"

So would you bring the current morning show? If they can't make money..no..so the "entire air staff" isn't coming..

This sounds like something that was hatched over a couple of beers..NextMedia is just emerging from bankruptcy and would sell WHBC-AM-FM in a heartbeat if they could find somebody to take the combo..Clear Channel and Rubber City probably got a good laugh out of it, if anybody really takes this seriously..

The Children of the Corn need to relax..they aren't going anywhere..
Click to expand...

OK, I'll laugh with you. ;D

As far as NextMedia finding a buyer, if they are soliciting offers (and OMW is very up on this stuff), selling to Clear Channel would not pass FCC scrutiny. On the other hand, Rubber City's sale of its Lansing stations may provide the local owner with some capital.

That said, in the latter scenario, Ed Esposito be like a kid in a candy store. :)
 
Sean, you are incorrect on two points.

1-
If Clear Channel added WHBC AM/FM they would remain under the cap. FCC looks at Arbitron markets and Akron and Canton are separate markets. (As do syndicators and why WHBC hasn't picked up Beck, Rush or Hannity is a mystery.)

WHLO, WKDD and WARF are licensed to Akron. WHOF and WRQK to Canton. (They stay under the cap in Cleveland because WAKS is licensed to Akron.) Also, Cumulus is still the owner of WRQK.

On the flip side, Nextmedia could buy all the CC stations in Akron/Canton and also remain under the cap.
RCRG could not buy the entire CC cluster but could get WHBC Am/Fm

2- Rubber City sold Lansing for pocket change. IIRC, less than $2 million. There have been rumors RCRG has been kicking tires in Mansfield and Findley. Mandel also likes the 107.3 signal.

Also hasn't Nextmedia emerged from bankruptcy?
 
John Baylor said:
Sean, you are incorrect on two points.

1-
If Clear Channel added WHBC AM/FM they would remain under the cap. FCC looks at Arbitron markets and Akron and Canton are separate markets. (As do syndicators and why WHBC hasn't picked up Beck, Rush or Hannity is a mystery.)

<edit>

Also hasn't Nextmedia emerged from bankruptcy?
Click to expand...

I'm not an expert when it comes to programming rights, but my understanding is that CC has the Akron rights to El Rushbo and company. Those rights supposedly include Canton, though if that's true, I don't understand how that's possible with Canton being a separate radio market. Anybody? Bueller?

As for NextMedia's financial status, I have it on good authority that the company came out of Chapter 11 in May.
 
For about a year, the "this cluster could be sold to this group" rumors in Canton were overwhelming. We heard rumors of NextMedia selling the WHBC stations to everyone but Speedway. :) My favorite rumor was that Smyth Avenue was ready with "cash in hand" to buy those stations.

Things have been quiet ever since. I'm not convinced that any of the above rumors were more than just stuff that got passed around, which is why I never put them up.

To my understanding, Sean is correct. WHLO/CC asserts both Akron and Canton rights to all of its syndicated talk programming. It's the primary reason WCER/900 was forced to dump Michael Savage (at the time, cleared on WHLO). Whether they have the rights depends on their contract with the syndicators, which we hear was indeed the case regarding TRN stuff...and presumably, Premiere content (due to the in-house co-ownership).
 
And considering the "this cluster could buy stations" rumors:

* Clear Channel is not buying stations, especially in smaller markets.
* Who knows about Rubber City, though Lansing is in HORRID economic shape, and they probably made nothing in their time there. Lansing is so bad economically, it makes Akron's economy look dynamic.
* I have no indication that DPIII can raise the money to pay whatever NM would want for either 1480 or 94.1 or both.
 
The offers that NextMedia has had to sell the WHBC Combo have been in the 27 million dollar range..after you overpay to the extent that they did in 2000, getting 43.5 million for the combo in a depressed market will never happen..

Clear Channel did in fact make a serious offer around 2005 for the entire NextMedia portfolio..at the time conventional wisdom was that Clear Channel wanted the billboard/signage division and would have spun the stations off quickly..the deal fell through, and led to the breakup of the original trio that started NextMedia..
 
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