My thoughts on the sale of WMCR

[SirRoxalot]

FOUR full-time newspeople who anchor and report? They've barely got that many real news anchor-reporters at WBEN in Buffalo. That's MORE staff than WBFO in Buffalo. WSYR in Syracuse doesn't have that big a news staff.

More realistic would be a full-time reporter-anchor handling the news segments on the morning show, and a full-time reporter-anchor-jock covering the second half of the day. Live jocks 6A-7P, and your afternoon reporter-anchor-jock VTs overnights. Your afternoon person handles the big stories, and stringers cover local governmental meetings. LOTS of local/regional sports 7-midnight & weekends. Your stringers could be part-timers on the weekend to keep the local news up to date, board-oping sports, and updating elements in the automation.

Even that's more people than a lot of "news" stations now carry.

 

[JakeLongwell]

I agree that four full timers in a news department may be a bit overkill for such a rural area. Two fulltimers and several part time stringers seemed to work very well for us when I worked for a similar station to WMCR about ten years ago.

With regard to formatics. I can see I am in the minority with my opinions on this board, which is fine. Opinions are what these boards are all about after all. And I am almost certain that some sort of consistant format WILL be coming to the station(s) before too long. Though I sitll don't see a need for it. Most of you argue it will help attract more listeners. Perhaps, but it would depend on the format, and, if that format is already being done by another station, you would have to di it BETTER than said competing station. Not an easy task when you are smack in the middle of two larger markets. I'll bring up the country example again. Do you think that someone who is a dedicated WFRG listener is going to switch to a WMCR country format JUST because it is being done in their hometown? I think now. I think most will just blow it off and say that it's not as good because it comes from their community, and not from "the city". I think that is a typical small town mentality, especially among a lot of the youth population. Where I worked, we ran a satellite country format on AM, and satellite AC on FM. Yes, the town we were based in was definitely a "country town", but, most people I came in contact with still prefered WQNY or WBBS or even WOKN over our station. Even the radio in the local restaurant was tuned to WQNY most of the time. I honestly think the general consensus among the population was "these guys are bigger, so they must be doing it better". While I don't live in Oneida, nor have I ever been there, I would bet you'd get the same thinking if WMCR were suddenly to try and play hardball with WBBS or WYYY or even WNTQ.

As I said before, the "variety" format is how the station has always operated. It's been that way since the station's inception, or so it would seem. Now, I would think if it wasn't attracting listeners, then the Warren's would have filed for bankruptcy years ago. Don't you think? Ok, I suppose one could argue that the reason it's "worked" is because MCR was/is the only game in town, so listeners had to put up with the programming that the owners deemed suitable. But I don't think that argument holds water. Listenres and advertisers especially, have a say in what goes on at their local radio station. If advertisers demanded a consistant country or oldies format, then that is what WMCR would be. This current strategy of "something for everyone" seems to work well for them. The community appears comfortable with it, and so do the advertisers. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Lastly, I have to say I don't see the need to VT evenings and weekends. I admit overnights will have to be VT or automated in some other way. But do we need to start that at 7 pm? Just because most other "local" stations do it, doesn't mean they have to. And that goes double for weekend shifts. There have always been live jocks on this station all day, every day, including weekends. Why do we need to change that now? And don't give me that line about "that's just how it's done". Yes, that's "how it's done" because most companies are too cheap to do it any other way. I think if you were to poll the population of this country that sill listens to radio, you would find most of them like having a live voice on the air, especially at night, or on the weekends. Letting the computer entertain your listeners after 7 pm and all day Saturday and Sunday is not going to do your listeners any favor. And most of them won't buy the line about "we have to cut costs" or "that's just the way radio is done in 2009". The Warrens never had to "cut costs", at least not to the point that weekend programming was handled by automation, not even a "carts and reels" automation system.

And yes, I am very aware that Mr. Johnson is not Mrs. Warren by any means, and that he is going to want to try to recover the money he paid for the station as quickly as possible. That's just good business sense. But running it "on the cheap" isn't going to recover any of that money any faster.

 

[ThePickleReport]

In a market this size, those four employees are all you can afford. The rest of the day will have to be some form of automation. Question: Is there really enough news on a daily basis in Madison County to keep a 4 person news staff busy and keep your audience interested?

Jim is a wise man and I'll tell you why.

Hiring a couple of hip DJ's to sling tunes won't make the station profitable. It's never going to be a Syracuse station or a Utica station. It's actually going to serve the city of license and immediate area. Local content; news and current events will and should set the pace.

Story time: I worked for a combo in a small rated market that had one newsperson. This persons salary was just almost enough to qualify for food stamps. When this person finally left they had no replacement plan and promptly grabbed the night jock to moonlight as news anchor by doing rip-and-read newscasts. I've NEVER seen advertisers run away faster, and the station received a flood of calls from listeners complaining about everything from diction and mispronunciations to little local news.

I am a radio geek (or maybe I should say ex-radio geek). I would love to be sitting around picking out jingle packages, creating a logo and a website, shopping for a remote vehicle, etc. However, maintaining and growing a revenue stream has to be priority #1. Where is the money for all of those improvements going to come from?

We can debate how big the news staff should/could be and what it would cost. But I can tell you this, my first hire if I bought that station would be (if they don't already have one) to hire and experienced news director/anchor with a plan. I'd consider it a lesson learned.

 

[TheBigA]

Once again, folks, someone has to create the budget. That is how you have to determine a lot of these things. You can determine how large a staff, how much they'll get paid, and what kind of local service you can afford to provide. Even when I was at a small community radio station, we couldn't begin to talk about employees, hours of broadcast, or services until we knew how much money we had. It starts with the budget. Someone has to be the adult. You can't hire people or make decisions until you know what you've got.

 

[Adman4120]

Hello Again Everyone...I guess I am somewhat confused at all of the discussion on what WMCR should do since it will have new ownership.

Here is my question for many of you that are very knowledgeable. I respect your comments in case I am thinking crazy or do not understand fully everyone else's reasoning

Since WMCR was making money or I should say, is making money under the current way of operating, which includes programming, overall sound, and the current way of operating, don't you think that continuing to operate this way is fine and in the new owners best interest?

Don't you think that trying to switch things or change things that will add more expense might be in vain, being nestled in between Utica and Syracuse market stations?

I keep asking myself since this station has a very small, but loyal audience, will any large investment ever help it to increase it's place in between both markets. It just seems to me that there isn't enough money to invest that will pay back those dividends in the short to mid term.
I agree with everyone that additional staff, format and technical improvements would be nice, but when I look at the price tag, I wonder how many new listeners one day, will just decide to scan the dial, land upon 106.3 and say this is the station for me.

I hate to sound so negative, because I wish them the best, but I would feel more confident if it were a small community station physically in Syracuse or Utica, that found a new owner, who in turn would change things around.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

Thanks for the accolade, Pickle; Rox, you make a good point; and BigA, your questioning hiring four people in news is absolutely what I'd expect a lender or board of directors to do: "Justify this, please."

For the record, I've put together budgets for stations larger than Oneida. Going through budgets line by line with corporate PDs and CEOs is grueling, especially if you're running a news-talk station. We worked budget lines down to the dollar, which is challenging, because you never know what the hell's going to happen in the news that will blow your monthly figures out of the water. Need a Marti shot to cover a news conference? Have to assign more reporters to cover the President's visit? A politician gets charged with misappropriating federal grant money? Incidents like these require coverage. More reporters. Tech people in the field. Board-ops working longer (hourly) shifts. It all costs money. There goes the budget!

Also, allow me to clarify a concept. SirRoxalot must be a mind-reader, because those four news people that I proposed for Oneida would be multi-taskers, assigned primarily to news beats, but capable of doing other tasks. I neglected to clarify this when I submitted my previous post. As a reference, some years ago in Utica, I programmed a moderately successful daytime AM station that had a successful run against competitors that were bigger, more powerful and had larger staffs. Granted, our run lasted only about three years before our competitors got hip to the game and blew us out of the water with a 100kW station that did our format better, 24-7.

Our success came about because we had radio people who were young, smart and passionate about competing and doing what needed to be done and doing it well. The airstaff had zeal and enthusiasm. They were proud, professional broadcasters, which means they could read, write, jock, promote and even do some engineering when necessary. Broadcasters.

Our midday guy cut his chops doing news radio news in college, also on the Empire State FM Network and then at an AM station in Dunkirk-Fredonia. He wrote stories with major market style, was a pointed interviewer and had a good delivery. He wasn't too shabby a jock either, consistently top three Adults in his daypart. We teamed him with the morning guy. Yes, our midday guy was our Mon-Fri morning news guy. The results were amazing. Listeners liked the morning guy and trusted the news guy because they were believable, local and trustworthy in their capacities.

Trustworthiness, credibility and being likeable are critical elements for staff members in every environment, but especially in small markets. Those four news people would be multi-taskers. They'd be broadcasters. And they'd have the PD's, GM's and owners allegiance. They'd be an investment. And in small towns and communities, as Pickle notes, investments in local news pay off.

Clearly, a situation like this calls for a PD who would be responsible for 'gating' and assigning the tasks. News Director oversight is critical. It would be a return to an era when programmers "programmed," maintaining oversight and daily constructive contact with staff members. Easy? No. But it would be productive... and fun. And given the proper budgeting, it could be successful. Thanks for the read.

 

[JakeLongwell]

Adman, I like your way of thinking. One shoulnd't tamper with a winning system.

I would also like to add that people in smaller communities are very set in their ways. Most do not like change. The more changes made, the greater the risk of alienating long time listeners and advertisers. Even if you say it's for their own good. I wonder if the majority of listeners would see it that way.

 

[Adman4120]

Hello JakeLongwell...This subject has me more confused because I keep thinking something different the more I think. I understand your comments and Jim Pastrick's comments. I respect and agree with both of you on all of the possibilities for WMCR and how they would succeed if implemented. Since working in this area for so many years and monitoring all of the Utica and Syracuse stations on a daily basis along with WMCR, I guess I am more skeptical than others on whether changes that have been discussed would benefit them, let alone be successful.

I agree with everything said, but at the moment feel the odds of those things making that big of a difference slim. It will be interesting to see. I could be wrong, which would not be the first time, and hope I am. I would love to see even more competition.

 

[ThePickleReport]

Since WMCR was making money or I should say, is making money under the current way of operating, which includes programming, overall sound, and the current way of operating, don't you think that continuing to operate this way is fine and in the new owners best interest?

Very true. I think we've gotten carried away with the notion that the new owner is going institute changes like those of the stations he owned before.

If its a fact that the station is doing well the best changes he could make are 24-hour operation and improved audio. Case closed.

 

[DaveBullard]

Very cool discussion, and I'm sorry I'm late to the party. (will this website EVER support RSS feeds of individual forums?)

Every time I've ever done a back-of-the-cocktail-napkin calculation of the costs of running a small news-talk station, I come to this conclusion: Too expensive.

Most of your syndicated programming is very cheap or free (in return for ad inventory). But people? They like to eat and to buy stuff for their kids.

Jim Pastrick's idea -- that four people do it all, including news and running the board and vacuuming and whatnot -- is probably the only viable idea anymore, especially in small markets. However, there's a lot to be said for the notion that, if the station's making money now, and can pay its new debts to its new owners, it should stay the course. That said, it's fun to talk about ideas.

I was involved in budgets while at CC, but not deeply, so take the following hypothesis about the Oneida market with a grain of salt:

12 min. of spots per hour, at average $10 per 30 sec., 50% of inventory sold 6a - 6p, 250 weekdays per year = $360,000. Add some extra cash for high school sports (and WMCR is about the most active HS sports broadcaster in the area) but subtract for holidays and make-goods and screwups and everything else.

Now, 20% of that number -- $72,000 -- needs to go to the mothership as profit, and to pay acquisition debt. A debt-free owner can take less, but this is an acquisition.

That leaves less than $300,000 to hire people and pay the massive electrical bill and everything else.

If the AM/FM combo splits, the numbers might not change significantly as each will have a smaller reach and be, individually, a little harder to sell.

(Again, take all of this with as much salt as you can find. It's just for discussion's sake. WMCR may be making a hell of a lot more than this, or less. I don't know and won't pretend to.)

It doesn't look like you can afford to hire a full air and news staff. There had better be a working owner, or this group starts off even more shorthanded. (And don't forget you need a sales staff.)

One more thing: I grew up with a local radio station, Fulton's WOSC. As a music-loving radio addict in my youth, I gravitated to Syracuse radio as fast as I could, as WOSC just sounded "hometown". It is doggone hard to compete against the slick boys from the city. Voicetracking isn't the answer, even though it sounds more professional. The only answer, as noted above, is to superserve the community. But this will run headlong into the limit on what the owners can spend. It's a mistake to romanticize the sound of a semi-professional radio station. In a media world where one can buy airtime on Time Warner Cable for $10, radio that sounds like it could have been made by your neighbor is in a risky place.

 

[ThePickleReport]

If you split the AM off is it even viable? An AM day-timer at 1600? Maybe the best bet is to turn it off or sell it to a religious broadcaster and re-coup some capital.

 

[JakeLongwell]

The only way that 1600 would really be of any value is if it covers some areas of the county that are not well served by the FM signal. Of course, with the nature of FM, sometimes an AM signal actually gives better coverage. Not familiar with the topography of the area, I can't say if this is the case with WMCR.

A separate format might work fine during daylight hours, but once the sun goes down, forget it. Oh, sure, they have night power, and it might be enough to cover Oneida proper. But what about Morrisville, or Hamilton, or other outlying areas? They deserve to hear the new format, too. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to sell it off. Let it go pay for pray. Some sucker would buy it thinking it will reach into Syracuse or Utica.

 

[ThePickleReport]

We have a purchase price. According to R&R: $950k

 

[Element9]

Let's travel 30 miles east to Utica-Rome, where in the mid 90s Ken Roser sold WSKS-FM, WSKU-FM, WADR and WUTQ to Clear Channel for $2.15 million. In August 2007, Roser re-purchased those stations after Galaxy bought the Clear Channel Utica-Rome clusterpluck and spun WSKS-FM, WSKU-FM, WADR and WUTQ to Roser for $650 thousand. Unless the WMCR AM-FM deal came with 100 acres of prime real estate, $950 thousand is way too much for a kiloWatt daytimer on 1600 and a 6kw FM on 106.3 in the the sticks.

 

[therealjm12]

Let's travel 30 miles east to Utica-Rome, where in the mid 90s Ken Roser sold WSKS-FM, WSKU-FM, WADR and WUTQ to Clear Channel for $2.15 million. In August 2007, Roser re-purchased those stations after Galaxy bought the Clear Channel Utica-Rome clusterpluck and spun WSKS-FM, WSKU-FM, WADR and WUTQ to Roser for $650 thousand. Unless the WMCR AM-FM deal came with 100 acres of prime real estate, $950 thousand is way too much for a kiloWatt daytimer on 1600 and a 6kw FM on 106.3 in the the sticks.

Maybe, maybe not. First of all, I believe Ken Roser paid more more than $650K for the stations this time around. I thought I read in the neighborhood of 1.5 mil. I might be wrong, so I will stand to be corrected -Adman, Fybush, anyone?
But that said, I think that WMCR may be billing more than those stations, believe it or not. All that nichol and diming can add up. I don't think WADR and WUTQ have produced any revenue in years and there is a good chance that WSKS-WSKU don't bill what WMCR does. There is a lot of money in high school sports and selling obituaries and birth announcements and the Warrens knew how to sell them.

Back to the programing and the music that WMCR plays. A friend of mine worked at WMCR in the 70's and told me the way the music was picked out was like this: The music came in and Mrs. Warren went thru all the arrivals. She picked out what she liked and put them in the library. That was it. No BILLBOARD, of course no R&R, no AllAccess. She's never heard of the last two. Hey, good for her. Her station she can play what she likes. Apparently that system worked for close to 40 years. But in regards to format changes postings above.... Certainly a heavy local news presence is necessary. At least one full timer for exclusively news duties. Part timers and interns could handle the rest. Hey, it's Oneida. For music, an adult oldies format would work. A lot of Beatles, Dione Warwick, Elvis, Neil Diamond, soft rock, and maybe some classic country thrown in.

 

[BobRoss]

I believe Ken Roser paid more more than $650K for the stations this time around. I thought I read in the neighborhood of 1.5 mil. I might be wrong, so I will stand to be corrected -Adman, Fybush, anyone?

According to AllAccess on 10/25/07, Galaxy bought the entire 9-station CC cluster, and then, Ed Levine...

spun WUTQ-A, WADR-A and WSKS-WSKU to ROSER COMMUNCIATIONS NETWORK for $650,000, then sold WOKR to EDUCATIONAL MEDIA FOUNDATION for $350,000 along with GALAXY's WRCK and W231BI for $1.224 million.

Now, the "old" rule was that you sell a station for 10 times the annual cash flow. I think it's pretty obvious that rule didn't apply here. WRCK alone going for nearly twice the price of Kiss FM and two AMs? Doesn't seem quite right.

Of course, this entire deal had some unique factors going on. It took CC quite awhile to unload this cluster, and Ed was in a position where he HAD to immediately spin some properties off, in order to remain under the CC ownership limits. It's a no-brainer he did this deal primarily to get WOUR, and secondarily to get Mix (since the format's similar enough to Sunny 102). Not much point in keeping Kiss, since Galaxy has no other CHR stations, nor experience in the format -- but Roser had those two stations back when they were Wow-FM. You could probably call it a win-win for both sides... Ed easily got rid of stations he couldn't keep, and Roser reclaimed old stations for a fraction of what he sold them for.

The fact that EMF was willing to hand over a truckload of cash for WRCK was probably just icing on the cake. I do have to wonder which side of the deal came up with that $1.225M price. Seems pretty high, especially for a religious buyer. I can't imagine people in this area sending in tons of donations like the folks down south in the Bible Belt. Getting $350K for WOKR alone is also a good deal for Galaxy; that station had floundered for years under CC ownership.

 

[Adman4120]

Hello....I think all parties did very well in obtaining and unloading properties, that being Galaxy and Roser Communications. To the RealJM12...I wouldn't say that WMCR bills more than most of the Utica radio stations, but they're expenses are a fraction of the Utica stations. So, WMCR's bottom line in many years, was better than the Utica stations. Just look at the number of employees to make a comparison. WMCR has always operated with a minimum staff, and mostly part-timers. If you add their payroll, and lower operating costs, including the power bill, that alone would give them a higher bottom, even if they did not sell as many ad dollars.

Too bad Vivian sold the station without much fanfare. I know several people, including myself and a few others that would have loved to own that station. As I have said many times, I really do believe that the way to continued success for the new ownership, is to leave things the way they are, and do not tinker with too much, except for sound quality upgrades. Many posters have talked about them adding more news, or a better staff for news. I might be wrong, but I would bet everything I have, that it will not make any difference at all. The only way I could see half or wholesale improvements working would be if their FM signal was more powerful and they had about a million dollars or so to do a full blown marketing campaign to promote the station and let most of Central NY, who doesn't have a clue they even exist, know there is a station in Oneida.

Many have played with something already successful, just to satisfy their egos and have failed.

 

[BobRoss]

The only way I could see half or wholesale improvements working would be if their FM signal was more powerful and they had about a million dollars or so to do a full blown marketing campaign to promote the station and let most of Central NY, who doesn't have a clue they even exist, know there is a station in Oneida.

Great point. I know I've often criticized other stations for not doing enough outside promotion, but I don't think I suggested it in this thread.

However, I'd still argue it would be a waste of money to promote the daylights out of WMCR if it's still the same, old, stodgy stuff people heard the last time they sampled the station 10 years ago. Even if you don't change the format (I'm starting to be convinced the "mixed bag" format is OK, and going for one specific format could be disastrous), definitely improve the audio chain and at least update the jingles, the imaging and the legal IDs. Let the jocks crossfade songs and talk over song intros to make the station sound a bit tighter.

And more than anything, a website with an updated program schedule. Let people see which games will be on the air next week... or look up what game they happened to catch in the middle of the 2nd quarter (because we all know, via some distant cousin of Murphy's Law, announcers take the longest to announce the teams in a game, when you join in progress and you have no idea who's playing). Having the schedule online would also be handy for new listeners who aren't even aware of everyday features like the Trading Post.

Then, when you go all out promoting the station, there WILL be some new things that will hopefully grab the attention of the first-time listener, or folks who only tuned in once in a great while. Maybe a newer logo and some kind of a memorable slogan or catchphrase, rather than just "WMCR" and that's it.

They might do very well to get some sort of promotional effort into Sylvan Beach, especially in the summer. Maybe a weekly live broadcast from the village gazebo or billboards in/around the village just to let people know the station exists. A great promotion would get people to listen to WMCR for the "discount codeword of the day" ... each day, a different codeword would get you a different discount at a different area business. The discount would be valid that day only. Every day, you're giving people a reason to tune in, and a reason to visit that sponsor's location TODAY. Plenty of legwork for sales (to have clients lined up for every day) and for the clients (who would have to ensure employee awareness so customers aren't given weird looks), but the effort could pay off nicely.

Maybe WMCR could even create signage (or encourage clients to make their own) to tease the promo... "How'd you like to get a free soda with your next lunch here? Listen to WMCR next Wednesday at 8am for details."

 

[Adman4120]

Hello Bob...I agree with the points you made in your last post. I would never invest a ton of money into WMCR, unless, like you said, were going to make wholesale changes. Doesn't make sense to let the world know about the stations current way of operating. Even if everything were revamped and a big push was attempted, I think I might still have cold feet with investing a lot, except for the audio quality and signal.

At the moment, some things are broke, but they have always been able to get away with it and make money, so I would be more inclined to leave things as is, except for those audio improvements. I do think the price the station was sold for was way to high, considering what it would cost just to make equipment and signal improvements, along with building some additional studios for production from the house that the station operates out of.

I do know WMCR does well selling high school sports. I know, because I sell a ton of high school and Utica College Sports to my clients which airs on WIBX. People just love the sports in this area and it is an easy sell. I am sure a big chunk of WMCR's bottom line stems from local sports.

Many different thoughts on this subject that will probably exist for several months.

 

[therealjm12]

I see on CNYradio.com that the programing on WMCR AM/FM is about to split. I was on the Thruway last weekend and it hadn't happened yet. Same old stuff. I like how they call themselves the sports authority of Central N. Y. I wonder how WIBX, WNNS, and WHEN feel about that. Their news intro sounded like something that Les Nessman would have had produced. They came out of the news with Show & Tell by Al Wilson then played some song that sounded like it came from the wedding scene in The Godfather. It just was really awful. I had to turn it off.
I gave the station some thought on the trip home. It is soul less. No humor. No heart. The announcers (not DJ's) are the most stiff a**ed sounding white people I've ever heard. Absolutely no personality or warmth at all. I know it is a small market station, but they could do better. I can tell you one thing. It sounded exactly the same as it did 30 years ago. So if consistency is the goal, they are doing it right.
I wish the new owners the best. I hope they serve the people of Madison County well.