Mega Media Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

[stormy01]

Maybe Family Radio could switch WFME to dance. A full powered fm signal in market number 1 and no one is listening anyway. They could make some money to support their crusade.....

LOL!!! U R Dreaming!!! No, there will be re-runs of Harold Camping's sermons even after he croaks...No way Family Radio gonna have dance. Try the 96.5 pirate instead.

 

[nd2023]

What use would a religious broadcaster have for a channel 6 that can't be seen more than a mile away (but can be heard as far as Atlantic City)? If Pulse couldn't raise enough in its beg-a-thon, a religious station will most likely not raise $15 million. And no one will struggle to hear the preacher on 87.7 when WFME comes in loud and clear.

 

[d21ofnj]

You guys exaggerate the supposed "weakness" of Pulse's signal, but, of course, the station could've used a better dial position. As for Now-Fm, somebody on the dentist's board said that they were adding a certifiable Rock song to their playlist, something any CHR station has to do if they expect to play in the big leagues, even in the NYC market.

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=LD1113032.html

Tell me if that signal is "exaggerated" compare to the other NYC FM signals.

 

[d21ofnj]

And this has come just before the news that Pulse officially broke the 1.0 ratings barrier in the July 2009 period. Oh, what cruel irony.

Oh, and while I don't think they'll get anywhere close to $15 million, it's not really for the 87.7 frequency but the RF 6 slot for television. Look for a religious or Spanish-language group to snatch it up if no one steps up to save Pulse.

The 1.0 share does attest to the fact that you *can* have a viable dance-formatted station in the New York City market, but expecting it, as Tony Santiago does, to reach into the top five is, well, rather delusional. A dance-formatted station might perform reasonably well in the 5 boroughs, but will probably not do so in the Nassau-Suffolk embedded component of the market.

So explain where would Pulse be for the Jersey markets, or they don't count?

 

[Jeffrey]

Maybe Family Radio could switch WFME to dance. A full powered fm signal in market number 1 and no one is listening anyway. They could make some money to support their crusade.....

LOL!!! U R Dreaming!!! No, there will be re-runs of Harold Camping's sermons even after he croaks...No way Family Radio gonna have dance. Try the 96.5 pirate instead.

uuuh it was a joke

 

[d21ofnj]

1.0 in the July PPM's and increasing cume...despite the poor signal. Not bad.
It will be sad if Pulse disappears. I'm hoping someone other than Mega Media can swoop in and pick up the format but I wouldn't know who...
Call me crazy but 92.3NOW seems to be adding more dance in rotation...if they picked up Pulse's loss they may increase their cume. It's doubtful Pulse listeners will go to KTU.

Maybe Family Radio could switch WFME to dance. A full powered fm signal in market number 1 and no one is listening anyway. They could make some money to support their crusade.....

1.0 cume for a signal, which Pulse 87's coverage map link is POSTED ABOVE, is really impressive. For the fact that the pirate 87.9 blocks the tropo we can get from Central Jersey and manage to pick up Pulse from Northeastern Monmouth County is something. As far as having Pulse on 94.7, yes, it would be a dream come true, but all jokes aside, you'd better off simulcasting on 87.9 and knock that ignorate pirate that's on. Or, if Pulse does go, they can do what the russian station did and pop up on a random frequency

 

[Jeffrey]

What use would a religious broadcaster have for a channel 6 that can't be seen more than a mile away (but can be heard as far as Atlantic City)? If Pulse couldn't raise enough in its beg-a-thon, a religious station will most likely not raise $15 million. And no one will struggle to hear the preacher on 87.7 when WFME comes in loud and clear.

I didn't say swap, I said switch.
The joke was that instead of religious programming Family Radio could program dance and make some money to support their crusade as opposed to the current format which no one listens to.
Perhaps my sarcastic joke wasn't clear.

 

[Jeffrey]

1.0 in the July PPM's and increasing cume...despite the poor signal. Not bad.
It will be sad if Pulse disappears. I'm hoping someone other than Mega Media can swoop in and pick up the format but I wouldn't know who...
Call me crazy but 92.3NOW seems to be adding more dance in rotation...if they picked up Pulse's loss they may increase their cume. It's doubtful Pulse listeners will go to KTU.

Maybe Family Radio could switch WFME to dance. A full powered fm signal in market number 1 and no one is listening anyway. They could make some money to support their crusade.....

1.0 cume for a signal, which Pulse 87's coverage map link is POSTED ABOVE, is really impressive. For the fact that the pirate 87.9 blocks the tropo we can get from Central Jersey and manage to pick up Pulse from Northeastern Monmouth County is something. As far as having Pulse on 94.7, yes, it would be a dream come true, but all jokes aside, you'd better off simulcasting on 87.9 and knock that ignorate pirate that's on. Or, if Pulse does go, they can do what the russian station did and pop up on a random frequency

true..or maybe Pulse should just come on as an independent pirate station not supported by any media conglomerate. They'd probably be on the air for years to come. The Caribbean pirates in Brooklyn certainly have no problem with the 20 or so nightly pirates that swamp the dial. No talk of bankruptcy there. lol

 

[d21ofnj]

What use would a religious broadcaster have for a channel 6 that can't be seen more than a mile away (but can be heard as far as Atlantic City)? If Pulse couldn't raise enough in its beg-a-thon, a religious station will most likely not raise $15 million. And no one will struggle to hear the preacher on 87.7 when WFME comes in loud and clear.

I didn't say swap, I said switch.
The joke was that instead of religious programming Family Radio could program dance and make some money to support their crusade as opposed to the current format which no one listens to.
Perhaps my sarcastic joke wasn't clear.

The sad part is WFME has a killer signal.

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=FM1184871.html

 

[nd2023]

The 87.7 signal covers much more area than the map suggests. The video signal covers less area. I was blasting Pulse 87 on the streets of Atlantic City yesterday morning with little static. Granted, that was due to tropo, but still, it normally makes it down to Seaside Heights. It makes it from Trenton, NJ to Meriden, CT all the time, but it may not be strong. It's more than 20 dBu weaker than the Empire State Building stations. The 87.9 pirate takes out Pulse 87 in Newark, which is a large city with a club scene.
I have personally seen car radios that don't even tune to 87.7. And even some home stereos don't tune to 87.7. My car radio happens to reset all its presets to Pulse 87 when I disconnect the battery, so that's about the only advantage the 87.7 dial position has.

So we have three factors that hurt Pulse 87: weak signal, pirate stations, and radios that don't tune to it. And also, the only outdoor promotion is the Pulse 87 van parked outside the studio or station events (I saw a parking ticket on the Pulse 87 van once), or driving around the city.

People are still finding this station every day, as there are calls from brand new listeners daily and the cume is increasing steadily. At the current rate, it will break a million by the end of the year.

WFME and WBAI are being beaten in the ratings by little class A stations that can't even be heard within 40 miles of Manhattan. At least WFME is beating WBAI.

 

[oaktree]

OK, so there must be an answer ... and there is. It's not about "haters" or that "dance doesn't work on terrestrial." It's something much bigger and it's been discussed here. A really simple reason, actually.

1. The signal is weak. We know that. Horrific frequency, a louder pirate next door, directional signal with a huge null, many radios can't even tune to it, lower 20dbu below the ESB stations, a non-useable "tropo" signal is hugely inconsistent, and nobody is advertising from New York to grab an audience in Trenton, let alone Atlantic City.

2. The cume is up to a 1.0. "Impressive." But to whom? Less than a million cume when the leading station has 80% more than that. And down the list of the top 10 stations that eat up a lot of cume. Buying down to the 1.0 level is not common. In fact, it doesn't happen. Local direct? Sure. But how much local direct money went into the station? Obviously, from the filing with the SEC, not a lot.

3. The AQH could well reflect a decent TSL, but consistantly, not enough ... or the cume would be higher.

4. Management or ... mismanagement. Too much going out, not enough coming in.

So, where's the problem? The problem is $$$$ and lots of it. A $3.5 million loss against $180,000 in assets, management way overpaid for the debt ratio, bills not being paid (including lease payments) and capital not being available to "spread the word" to the market.

The problem was not enough street sales in a market where there are no street direct sales ... it's agency buys and Pulse had none.

Now, the question is ... why? The answer is for whatever reason lack of experienced "local" sales, etc. ... advertisers that could, didn't. Advertisers that didn't ... didn't. And the fact that it was at a 1.0 wasn't enough to move the needle. At the end, it was the investors who had enough and the cume share of loyal listeners did all they could ... they listened with a passion.

For a reason, however, those who were needed to keep the business alive didn't or couldn't come through ... and were, apparently, not ready to, in a horrific economy. The shot-clock eventually ran out of time.

A new owner doing the same? Not for two years when the frequency will be permanenly lost. Not in a rebuilding process of throwing millions into a format that good as it may be, didn't get the job done with an 800,000+ cume, in a market where a 5-million, to 2.5 million cume is needed to make a dent in agency regional/national sales. And then, expenses. Island wants to sell a LPTV, not just an audio carrier. It is asking for $15-million, in a market where stations are desperate to get their facility prices up. Remember ... it wasn't that long ago when 'RXP was rumored for sale at $200-million. Imagine that. No one bit. No one bought. And now look what Emmis is stuck with.

There may be a faint light on at the end of the economic disaster tunnel. Just hope, as owner are thinking, that it's not a fast moving freight train bearing down. It's still way early to tell. By the time of recovery, the life of 87.7 will be well into history, if for no other reason, than its frequency. No matter what, 87.7 will not be an overnight success ... and for two years, that's what will be needed. And a multi-million dollar success at that. Not likely at that frequency, with that cume.

 

[ronkaram]

For some reason I have always felt Mega Media is run by Russian Mafia that justs pockets all the money they can get thier hands on.

 

[nd2023]

For some reason I have always felt Mega Media is run by Russian Mafia that justs pockets all the money they can get thier hands on.

Well then, you would think that they would have kept the donation drive running all week and pocket a million dollars before fleeing to Russia.

 

[TonySantiago]

Excuse me all while I clasp my hands, mumble "Oh God" and hide my face in frustration here with a lot of these comments! :-[

Not on you Oaktree. In fact, you are dead on with what you are saying. But there are some things that have to be taken into consideration here.

1. Mega Media was having financial issues BEFORE Pulse launched. That's why they did the swap of the Russian brokered programming to become Pulse 87.
2. With their nuances being taken to consideration, 1.0 for what it was is NOT bad. It could have been a LOT worse and I know that.
3. The ads were mainly local places (such as tanning salons, clubs, car dealerships). Not enough national and okay, things being what they are was a hard selling point. But for whatever the sales department could do, kudos....especially on Rick Hernandez.

I mean, when you REALLY go with apples and oranges here, Pulse 87 basically started from "scratch" in regards to radio. I don't know any of the sales people personally (outside of Rick), but I think they might have been all new to this and went on the local (and someone correct me if I am wrong here), whereas they didn't have a "rolodex" of national clients.a

Once again I stress, that if the station was above a 92 with the strong signal, you know what? I'm going to change this around and twist it in another fashion here.......

The dance fans would be celebrating the success of the station being in the Top 5 while those that have doubted the format would be shocked and either

1) Gracefully acknolwedge and give credit to the station for going with a format that they all thought would fail.
2) Find another way to attack the dance format somehow. And judging on some of the responses, I could actually see why some would want to go after the fans of this (hey, gotta call it as I see it and can actually realize the "fanatic" part of this whole thing.)

 

[MarcR]

Excuse me all while I clasp my hands, mumble "Oh God" and hide my face in frustration here with a lot of these comments! :-[

Not on you Oaktree. In fact, you are dead on with what you are saying. But there are some things that have to be taken into consideration here.

1. Mega Media was having financial issues BEFORE Pulse launched. That's why they did the swap of the Russian brokered programming to become Pulse 87.
2. With their nuances being taken to consideration, 1.0 for what it was is NOT bad. It could have been a LOT worse and I know that.
3. The ads were mainly local places (such as tanning salons, clubs, car dealerships). Not enough national and okay, things being what they are was a hard selling point. But for whatever the sales department could do, kudos....especially on Rick Hernandez.

I mean, when you REALLY go with apples and oranges here, Pulse 87 basically started from "scratch" in regards to radio. I don't know any of the sales people personally (outside of Rick), but I think they might have been all new to this and went on the local (and someone correct me if I am wrong here), whereas they didn't have a "rolodex" of national clients.a

Once again I stress, that if the station was above a 92 with the strong signal, you know what? I'm going to change this around and twist it in another fashion here.......

The dance fans would be celebrating the success of the station being in the Top 5 while those that have doubted the format would be shocked and either

1) Gracefully acknolwedge and give credit to the station for going with a format that they all thought would fail.
2) Find another way to attack the dance format somehow. And judging on some of the responses, I could actually see why some would want to go after the fans of this (hey, gotta call it as I see it and can actually realize the "fanatic" part of this whole thing.)

Why of course a dance-formatted station in the commerical band would reach the top 5! Just look at how many successful commerical dance stations there are out there! Every large market in North America has one, and they're all ratings Juggernauts!! It's the height of stupidity, actually, to think otherwise!! (Good Grief)

 

[TonySantiago]

2) Find another way to attack the dance format somehow. And judging on some of the responses, I could actually see why some would want to go after the fans of this (hey, gotta call it as I see it and can actually realize the "fanatic" part of this whole thing.)

And MarcR....case in point on the attack. BTW, what took ya? :

 

[MarcR]

2) Find another way to attack the dance format somehow. And judging on some of the responses, I could actually see why some would want to go after the fans of this (hey, gotta call it as I see it and can actually realize the "fanatic" part of this whole thing.)

And MarcR....case in point on the attack. BTW, what took ya? :

After spending almost a decade socializing in bars and clubs on the Island, I came to the conclusion that current-dance acolytes were some of the most self-indulgent and intellectually incurious people I've ever met, so there's my "other way" to attack the dance format.

 

[nd2023]

Let's say you met 100 "self-indulgent and intellectually incurious people" in bars and clubs. Those 100 people don't represent the personalities of 800,000 other people.
I could easily make ASSumptions about the listeners of stations like WBAI and WFME, but I don't. Why must you then make ASSumptions about people that listen to WNYZ?
You can't judge anyone by what music they listen to.

 

[MarcR]

Let's say you met 100 "self-indulgent and intellectually incurious people" in bars and clubs. Those 100 people don't represent the personalities of 800,000 other people.
I could easily make ASSumptions about the listeners of stations like WBAI and WFME, but I don't. Why must you then make ASSumptions about people that listen to WNYZ?
You can't judge anyone by what music they listen to.

The 800,000 number is the station's Cume, or the number of people that at least sample the station, and of course it's ridiculous to make assumptions about them. I was thinking about the so-called P1 or most devoted listeners of a current-dance formatted station.

 

[TonySantiago]

2) Find another way to attack the dance format somehow. And judging on some of the responses, I could actually see why some would want to go after the fans of this (hey, gotta call it as I see it and can actually realize the "fanatic" part of this whole thing.)

And MarcR....case in point on the attack. BTW, what took ya? :

After spending almost a decade socializing in bars and clubs on the Island, I came to the conclusion that current-dance acolytes were some of the most self-indulgent and intellectually incurious people I've ever met, so there's my "other way" to attack the dance format.

MarcR,

I'm sorry you have gone through such a negative experience based on certain folks attitudes.

I've dealt with my share of "egos" as well, believe me. Why those people have to act as they do is totally beyond me, because for whatever insecurities they have in their own lives no one should have to be the "fodder" for those "egos" to feed off of. It's not right on ANY level for anyone to do that. A lot of that "angst" within myself comes from the music being picked on, which is why I fight as hard as I do to at least set the record straight somehow. But there HAS to be change within and part of it has a lot to do with the attitudes.

I am working on a big project called the "Dance Music Creed" which is a "code of ethics". One of the creeds I have is about keeping "knives" and "egos" at the door. There is certainly a lot of "backstabbing" going on and I've heard plenty of stories with that. And I've met some of those with the "egos" within the dance music industry. As much as I would like to help, for the sake of the music, to those people I just avoid. I say nothing bad about anyone, let alone them, and if people "go there", I just leave it alone. If they are the ones having the insecurities, in my opinion it is their problem...not mine. I just smile and walk with my head up high knowing that I am happy.

However, on the other side of the coin there have been MANY people I've met during my travels that are nothing but the coolest and nicest people around. It's the positivity that I want to stick around with and THAT will make the difference within. Hopefully for those with the egos, that positivity can "rub off" somehow and in the process they can bring themselves to some sort of "humble" fashion. If it doesn't happen, oh well!

What the coalition does is all about positivity. You don't have to join us but at the very least, learn what we're about and have an open mind with it . We really are trying to make change for the better, outside and in.

I am not going to apologize for being defensive here, because with all of the "hate" I had dealt with over the years, I had to take on that thick skin to defend things. But Marc, you should have NEVER gone through what you did based on some jaded "egos". To that I say, let your anger and attacks be on them, not the music that they represent.

Thank you for your understanding