• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

No Sale Looming, ESPN 98.7 expected to pivot to Music

TheBigA said:
The FCC seems to grant waivers to stations that can make a good case. The fact that the owner is selling the station likely qualifies for a waiver.

[...]

It's temporary until the station is sold. We also don't know if this is the only deal Emmis has made ... The goal for Emmis is to sell the station, not play radio.
Click to expand...
We have a disagreement here. (GWAS.) The owner, in this case, cannot make a good case. Emmis is a radio company, so the idea that they don't know how to operate radio stations is laughable. And this station has been on the market for what, a year? It's entertained multiple tire kickers and evaluated multiple offers, which they rejected because those offers didn't meet their unreasonable expectations, given current market realities. They had a deal, an LMA, and the other party walked away because Emmis was demanding an unreasonable amount of money to continue it.

Do I have any of those facts wrong?

Under those circumstances, if Mr. Smulyan wants to hold his breath until that proverbial bigger sucker does come along, the least he can do is follow all the normal rules sans any waiver. I suspect the FCC will see it the same way.
 
Weiserguy said:
Emmis is a radio company, so the idea that they don't know how to operate radio stations is laughable.
Click to expand...
Who is saying they "don't know how to operate radio stations?" Those are your words.

What I said is their goal is to sell. This is a temporary situation until that's accomplished. The FCC grants temporary waivers all the time.

Weiserguy said:
Under those circumstances, if Mr. Smulyan wants to hold his breath until that proverbial bigger sucker does come along, the least he can do is follow all the normal rules sans any waiver. I suspect the FCC will see it the same way.
Click to expand...

We're both making lots of assumptions here.
 
TheBigA said:
Who is saying they "don't know how to operate radio stations?" Those are your words.

What I said is their goal is to sell. This is a temporary situation until that's accomplished. The FCC grants temporary waivers all the time.



We're both making lots of assumptions here.
Click to expand...
Starting with a big one: that as the licensee of 98.7, Emmis hasn't been responsible for meeting the public service requirements all along.

Having negotiated LMAs, it's almost universal that the tenant actually leases only 166 hours a week of the station's airtime, with the actual licensee still responsible for a couple of hours on the weekends for public service programming.
 
fybush said:
Having negotiated LMAs, it's almost universal that the tenant actually leases only 166 hours a week of the station's airtime, with the actual licensee still responsible for a couple of hours on the weekends for public service programming.
Click to expand...

Fantastic. If they handled it under the previous LMA, then they're handling it the same way now. Whatever that is.
 
fybush said:
No, not really. The "-HD" so many stations use isn't an official FCC suffix. It's not part of the callsign. Both the analog and digital transmission are covered under the WEPN-FM license. The actual legal ID rule only says that stations broadcasting in HD have to "appropriately notify" their digital audiences accordingly. It doesn't specify how.
Click to expand...
Oh! I honestly did not know that. Thank you
 
Ryan Williams said:
It’s not going to EMF. If it was, it would be in their hands now.

Lance has mentioned over and over again about how their acquisition budget is limited at the moment.
Click to expand...

That and the deal that got them WPLJ (6 stations overall) was just over 100 Million. Why would they pay 50 Million for 1 station? They only paid 21 Million for WLUP, and that was over 6 years ago.
 
fybush said:
Starting with a big one: that as the licensee of 98.7, Emmis hasn't been responsible for meeting the public service requirements all along.
Click to expand...

You meant "has been responsible", I think, Scott. (Simple typo.) I've handled the PA commitment at enough stations during my career to know a bit about this.

And if Emmis is trying to handle that responsibility as simply and inexpensively as possible, they probably run the two bartered shows "Viewpoints Radio" and "Radio Health Journal" like a gazillion stations elsewhere do. (Including all of the ones I consult or program in New Mexico.)
 
Look, for post #800 (!!!), my point was that Emmis has been around a long time and knows what they're doing. They don't need any stinkin' waiver from the Commish. And if they wanted to sell 98.7 immediately, they'd accept the best of whatever offers they've already received. If they want to hold out for the Great White Whale (H/T to Herman Melville), they'll keep their corporate thumb up their corporate butt until the market values come back up to the stratosphere.

(Or they explode.)
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom