HHH said:There is one way they could right the ship: Sell their commercial-band 99.5 New York City frequency (full class B from the Empire State Building) with an interlocking agreement to buy WFME 94.7 in Newark, NJ (which is on the block). WFME is a full B broadcasting from First Mountain in NJ, which looks right into Manhattan. Their signal is not as good as being on the ESB, but it covers the five boroughs, northern NJ and pieces of LI and the 'burbs. They would get a fortune for 99.5, and only need to peel off maybe 25% to buy WFME.
Millions left over.
That's what should happen, except it makes too much sense. It is Pacifica we're talking about!
99.5 FM would be a great catch for a major operator to put on a mostly local talk station, a format New York doesn't have. Out in LA, you've got KFI, owned by CC, mostly local and doing well. A mostly local hybrid news/talk outlet on 99.5 would severely impact WABC (50 kW non-D of wall-to-wall syndication) and its knock-offs WOR and WNYM. It is unbelievable that almost every top 20 market outside New York has far more local talk radio.
If news/talk 99.5 is well executed and well programmed, WINS could be impacted as well. Forget Merlin's FM News 101.9 debacle!
New York doesn't need another FM station playing Adele, either!