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Merlin owns WKDN

L

LA_Guy

From Radio Ink:

The sale of WKDN-FM in Philadelphia from Family Radio to Merlin has closed. The price is believed to be $22.5 million for the Class B facility. The station will be LMA'd back to Family Radio while Merlin continues to build its new facility.
 
So wait, Merlin owns it now, but family radio is still programing & running it? Why? Even if they don't have the facilities to broadcast anything themselves, I would let the station broadcast deadair until I had something ready to go.
 
Um, that's essentially what they did in NYC + to some extent Chicago. Since they didn't have the newsroom facility built out yet, they went with 2-3 weeks of Hot AC programming with the little "chocolate/fashion radio" nuggets thrown in as filler.

Then when the news product hit the air, it was woefully disorganized in presentation - not just the usual first day technical glitches that would be expected, but mismatched on-air personalities and uneven story selections that went on for several weeks.

I think they've learned from that lesson and will not hit the air until everything's lined up properly. There's plenty of time; no need given the current religious format (as mentioned in previous posts) to do much in the way of stunting and/or interim formats. No sense making a horrible first impression that may blow off potential new listeners forever.
 
Remember, it's Philly, so Merlin might want to try a stunting tactic that caters to them... Can you say "cheese steak radio"? ::)
 
If Merlin had any interest in stunting they wouldn't have LMA'ed the station back to Family Radio while they build their facilities. Most deals have the new owner LMA'ing until the sale is approved; the Merlin/Family deal did the reverse, meaning Merlin has no interest in using the frequency until they are ready.

They learned from New York.
 
No offense, DJ, but Philly isn't even close to being all about Cheesesteaks. Philly cares about Traffic and Community, from my experience of living here.

And the cheesesteaks can fit into Community. :D
 
Merlin's learning some lessons I think from their Chi and NY bumpy roads... It makes sense to LMA back to Family while they build out their facilities and get ready to launch.. why stunt when you can make some cash back airing the same programming that's always been on air?
 
How much could they possibly be making off of this? I doubt family radio has any desire to pay much just to stay in a market they're ready to leave. I would've let the station go dark.
 
Irishfl said:
How much could they possibly be making off of this? I doubt family radio has any desire to pay much just to stay in a market they're ready to leave. I would've let the station go dark.
Click to expand...

They should have stunted with Oldies or Classic Rock, in my opinion.
 
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