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Merger

The Lincoln breakup in the previous post looks logical. I know any answer to why would they sell everything to Raycom is pure speculation. Raycom is a television company, privately and 100% owned by the Alabama School Teachers retirement fund. Every investment has been profitable from the tv stations to the Robert Trent Jones golf course. I can't i

But radio people, they're not.

So what's in it for Raycom Media to spend time having to go thru the process of dealing with two, three, maybe four company's over radio markets when interested buyers are already wanting to wrap up a deal. They have specific interest from buyers for each market. Why prolong it?

Morale and fatigue sets in very quickly when a staff knows major changes are coming. I hope Liberty is humane enough to say "let's do it" and get this over with.

The phrases "IF Lincoln decides to sell" is odd. They've made it clear they want to sell. If this has been a "we're just testing the waters" a lot of people have spent a lot of valuable time taking their conversation seriously. In this market, if there were better offers coming, they would have been made by now.

No doubt the entire value of WSTR is now debateable. A legendary station now with a new unproven morning show on the way? If Lincoln REALLY knew radio they would have sold this thing before the Steve and Vikki thing went away. They lost their quarterback. Price dropped. That's the way it goes. Get the money while you can and do what insurance company's are famous for doing: don't pay a few claims and that'll make up the difference.
 
I'm not sure any of us really knows what will happen.

From what I read, the companies mentioned above made offers to Lincoln Financial for those markets. But Lincoln Financial wanted to sell the radio group as a package and not by individual markets. So everything apparently will go to Raycom at first. Then Raycom could quite possibly divest themselves of the radio stations. But I'm not sure the stations would go to those individual suitors. I don't think anyone knows, and several groups have been mentioned as logical prospects for the entire radio package or most of it.
 
With Cumulus taking over Star 94, one could not see the reason to keep Q100 on a Top 40/Hot AC format. A flip to oldies would be a breath of fresh air since there are no oldies stations in Atlanta.
 
WCNN is not owned by Cumulus, but by Dickey Broadcasting (owned by the brother of Cumulus' CEO).

I still think 790 The Zone will be sold to Big League, regardless of who gets LFM (even if the deal goes through the new owner). Raycom will get the three TV stations and the sports production arm (because Raycom has a stake in LFM Sports).

Raycom once had radio stations (WMC-AM/FM Memphis), but they bailed out of that a while back. The radio properties will most likely be sold as a package, but not to Raycom.

From what I am reading, the TV deal appears close. The radio deal may take a little while.

BTW, Cumulus reported a $70 Million loss today. And it looks like Cumulus is taking over 100% of the partnership of the old Susquehanna stations ($507 Million deal). I don't know if Cumulus has the cash for the LFM properties or not.

http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=139953&pt=todaysnews
 
Good memory jal41. Raycom did own WMC Am/Fm as part of a Scripps Howard purchase of WMC TV channel 5. They sold the radio immediately. Raycom runs a lean company and it's possible TV stations in the Liberty (Jefferson Pilot) group have lots of room for cuts and scaling back.
The Cumulus financial report yesterday is tricky because much of the loss seems to be right offs and adjustments. With their plans to go private and with some Cumulus stations still on the market, they seem to be fine tuning lots of things.
I'm sure they'll do whatever they have to do if getting a legendary Atlanta station is in the cards.
 
Being with a non-Cumulus outfit, I can't speak of first hand knowledge. I can speak from knowledge from friends within the Lincoln Financial family. Despite what is being talked about, there is no usch existing clause that would give the potential buyer of the Lincoln Financial radio properties no voice in the operation of WQXI. That is flat out false.
In fact, one of the most desirable things about the potential acquisition on the local front would be for the ability to have 790 and 680 under one base of operation. Lincoln Financial does not put language that no one will have input into the operation of a station in their LMA's. That is nonsense.
The Dickey's could then operate 790 and the weaker signal as their syndicated sports station. They then have 680 live and local probably from 6am-7pm. They cherry pick the talent that they want to bring over from 790 and have their ESPN programming parked there. I would figure that 790 would have a local afternoon drive show and that they would probably attempt to keep that more urban.
I can only speculate that talents like Dimino, Bell, Oliver and some others would find a home at 680 in the two mid-day slots.
This would be good for the sports fan like me, who likes a local and national option.
 
While this story has nothing to do with Lincoln/Cumulus & our talks it shows how all the assets of these company's are being adjusted and rethought. A company called Providence Equity has previously offered 1.2 billion to buy CC's 56 tv stations. Today's Wall St Journal reporting the deal could go south and Providence would have to pay 45 million just to stop the deal (ouch). Reason? Medium markets like Memphis & Montery California are not doing now what they were. Plus "the exit of some key talent." What does that mean? Think "Star 94 doesn't have a long running established money making morning show right now.."

Maybe the delay is somebody is rethinking the offer. It sure hit CC between the eyes today.

I am not nearly as intimate with the Cumulus / Dickey side of things as Atlsportsfan is. And not intending to get into a contest of words reguardless of how Lew likes to do business, legally, an LMA agreement gives that person the priviledge of running the leased facility as he sees fit. The owner whether it's Lew or Lincoln has no right to interfere as long as the monthly payment is being made. 790 bills more than 680 by 4 million. But clearly 790 has greater program costs with more live hosts. I'm sure there is room to scale back and reduce costs. But the guy with the LMA doesn't take orders from the owner. At least that's the understanding I have with FCC rules which of course could be different than Lew's
 
Ready for air said:
Good memory jal41. Raycom did own WMC Am/Fm as part of a Scripps Howard purchase of WMC TV channel 5. They sold the radio immediately. Raycom runs a lean company and it's possible TV stations in the Liberty (Jefferson Pilot) group have lots of room for cuts and scaling back.
Click to expand...

Actually, Raycom owned WMC AM/FM for about 7 years before spinning it to CBS/Infinity. It was purchased in September or October of 1993 when I was going to school in Memphis, and it was sold in June or July of 2000. The only reason they sold the radio side was because station values were at an all time high, and CBS offered them $75 million for the AM/FM combo. However, I do have to think Raycom will probably not hang onto the LFM stations unless prices go far below what they should fetch.

I am not nearly as intimate with the Cumulus / Dickey side of things as Atlsportsfan is. And not intending to get into a contest of words reguardless of how Lew likes to do business, legally, an LMA agreement gives that person the priviledge of running the leased facility as he sees fit. The owner whether it's Lew or Lincoln has no right to interfere as long as the monthly payment is being made.
Click to expand...

While I don't know the specific details of this LMA, the way you're describing the arrangement is illegal if it's true. While it can give the programmer a great deal of latitude in how he programs the station, an LMA can't permit the programmer to run the facility as he sees fit. The licensee must still have control over the station and must be able to take control of the station if necessary. If indecent programming were to air on 790, the owner would be the one held responsible. The owner must also be responsible for public affairs programming and maintaining the station log, transmitter and EAS equipment. When I worked at a cluster that got LMA'ed (to Cumulus ironically enough), the public affairs director, chief engineer and traffic director did not become Cumulus employees until the day the keys were handed-over.
 
Ready for air said:
790 bills more than 680 by 4 million. But clearly 790 has greater program costs with more live hosts. I'm sure there is room to scale back and reduce costs.
Click to expand...
"greater program costs" and "more live hosts" = 4 million? Hmmmmmmm.....
 
Read like this a comment like "hmmm" might be deserved. Let me put it in context as previously posted. Billing does not equate to program costs. 790 reportedly is billing around 20 million. 680 is billing around 8 million, remarkable figures for mediocre signals. Great sales and marketing. 20 million for 2 sports stations? Great job.

The point made in previous posts was 790 has greater programming costs and more live hosts than 680. For a long time 680 had more syndicated programming on and lower costs, and the question was if Cumulus or Dickey Broadcasting obtained 790 would they have rroom to cut costs and make more profit IF that billing pattern continued? Yes. For the sake of redundancy I did not give these details on the line "TrustY" picked up.

Since that earlier post we now know (1 the LMA for 790 is rock solid and stays with Big League as long as monthly rent is made when the property is sold and (2 now that Lincoln is resisting the new figures of what buyers think they are REALLY worth, nobody's buying anything in Atlanta, this week.

Reguarding comments on Cumulus' debt remember they have several facilities on the market as well and have been seeking debt reduction on a way to taking it private. It's in an adjustment mode and a few property's sold solve that problem in reguard to acquiring Star94.
 
Slider7 said:
There's really no reason to move Q to another frequency. As I said, I bet there is a high probability per Bert's contract that he is moved over to 94.1. That, I would agree, makes better sense. He's popular and then you get him on a bigger signal. So, why move the whole thing when you can just move Bert? There is absolutely nothing else going on at Q. Star, however, has a nice little thing going in the afternoons with Cindy and Ray. Particularly since Cindy and Ray have essentially no competition in afternoon drive as far as content based shows go (which is another whole discussion). So, tossing out the branding of Star and potentially upsetting the apple cart of Cindy and Ray is pleny of reason to leave it alone, especially when you can just move Bert over and then do something different with 100.5.
Click to expand...

... look what I stumbled upon! Star stays and here goes Q to 99.7... looks like there was reason enough to move Q to another frequency......
 
You're all a bunch of idiots. WSTR has not been sold and for that matter is not even close to being sold.

P.S. Miller Kaplan reports Star as billing more than 25 million per fiscal year.
 
houston said:
You're all a bunch of idiots. WSTR has not been sold and for that matter is not even close to being sold.

P.S. Miller Kaplan reports Star as billing more than 25 million per fiscal year.
Click to expand...


I'd add about $2.7 million onto that. Now that they've become the new Coke, er, Star, this will
cost themselves 10%-12% of that revenue. Thankfully, Steve McCoy was shown the door as a prize
for 'ruining' Star's profits for 17 years. And the next four morning teams to try in 2008 will sink it into
oblivion.
 
Actually, you're the idiot since this was a thread from 2 months ago and it was amidst the sale rumors of Lincoln Financial, which were quite rampant at the time. And, the billing number for Star has been published here about 100 times. So, perhaps it would do you a service to actually read threads and look at the original posting dates before you start calling people names.

And, for sman02, the comment about Q not needing to move was relative to the scenario of Cumulus buying WSTR and had absolutely nothing to do with what is actually going on now, since that sale never happened. The discussion had nothing to do with Q moving to the 99.7 frequency. But, once again, a little more reading might have gotten that across.
 
I unlike you sir have the facts. Perhaps you should focus your delusions into something worthwhile, for example I hear Brittany Spears is pregnant. You'll garner more response.
 
Slider7 said:
Actually, you're the idiot since this was a thread from 2 months ago and it was amidst the sale rumors of Lincoln Financial, which were quite rampant at the time. And, the billing number for Star has been published here about 100 times. So, perhaps it would do you a service to actually read threads and look at the original posting dates before you start calling people names.

And, for sman02, the comment about Q not needing to move was relative to the scenario of Cumulus buying WSTR and had absolutely nothing to do with what is actually going on now, since that sale never happened. The discussion had nothing to do with Q moving to the 99.7 frequency. But, once again, a little more reading might have gotten that across.
Click to expand...

..dang, no need for name calling here. I just thought it was interesting to point this out when I came across this thread that there was no need at the time and here we are now with a frequency change.
 
Pretty easy to have the "facts" on January 14 when you are responding to a conversation from November 7. It's a shame that Vegas doesn't work that way. I would have won every football bet this year....

If anyone needs me, I'll be scouring last years posts looking for prediction mistakes.....
 
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