Along with WRQX and WGTB (Georgetown U's pioneering student station) as well as the loss (several times) of WHFS
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No Sale Looming, ESPN 98.7 expected to pivot to Music
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Along with WRQX and WGTB (Georgetown U's pioneering student station) as well as the loss (several times) of WHFS
And TelevisaUnivision. If any commercial broadcaster has the cash, this is the one.
Televisa doesn't really seem to want to expand their list of radio stations. Uforia probably won't even exist in the next decade.
The problem is that the Mexican audience is vastly under-sampled in NYC, as most do not live in the HDHAs where the immense, vast majority of the measured Spanish language listening takes place. The HDHA areas are nearly all Caribbean origin or Ecuadorian / Colombian / Venezuelan and they have essentially no interest in Regional Mexican.
TelevisaUnivision sees the opportunity for cross-media (radio, TV, audio and video streams) artist options that require radio. But they moved out of some dreadful markets (Fresno, Vegas, McAwful) and a lot of dog AMs to make radio more efficient in the places where it can contribute.
Televisa moved out of radio in Mexico because El Tigre had used radio to hold non-performing TV management in lieu of non-competes. That ended up with more executives there than air staff, and big losses. But the issue was El Tigre's management style, not a dislike for radio; they simply moved the admin of the stations to Grupo PRISA from Madrid... and PRISA got rid of all the excess staff and made the stations profitable and viable.
I agree entirely,
To put it into context, there’s very few companies operating clusters of 3 or more in massive markets, Univision, Mediaco, iHeart, Cumulus, Bonneville, Meruelo Group, Audacy, Urban One, and Hubbard I believe is it in terms of people operating a cluster (3+) in the top 5. I may have missed one: Stretching it to top 15, we can add Lotus, Beasley and Cox, the latter of whom I believe has shown signs of exiting the business.
The only one of these companies operating a “single station” in the top 10 markets is Hubbard, with WTOP.
Hubbard, if, for whatever reason, wanted to consider New York, could we think of them hypothetically making back that 50 million before 5 years?
Is it reasonable for one station alone to bill over 10 million a year?
TelevisaUnivision is Univision, correct?
They seem to be a clustered operator, preferring to operate in clusters only. Did I miss Univision in my list of people operating full market FM clusters that operate a solo station?
They’d be a welcome addition looking at NY’s formats existing.
There are also expenses, and NY is an expensive place to own a business. Cumulus couldn't make a profit in NY, so they sold their stations and left. WNSH was billing less than $2 million when they traded it to Audacy.
Hubbard owns WTOP in DC. It's their only FM, but it's the highest billing station in the country. They couldn't do those numbers with a music format. The public wouldn't put up with the commercials.
Salem IS NOT in "full sell mode". They are selectively letting go of unprofitable markets and/or unprofitable stations.
No. Univision alone does not exist anymore. The name is TelevisaUnivision.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Nevertheless, they are selling stations right now, not buying them.
Cumulus has KRBE as a stand-alone in Houston.
Judging by the properties they are letting go of, FISH brand, Salem is keen to give to groups of faith. EMF has swooped on a few, Nashville being the most note worthy..
I nearly took a weekend sports anchor tv gig in McAwful. I know exactly where you’re talking about 😭. An overnight trip to New Orleans from my former boss changed my mind on going there
I remember reading a rumor in 2019 that (then) Entercom was looking to buy WAVA and put the Hot AC format back in the market. Then the pandemic happened and it seemed like Entercom, now Audacy, really took a beating at the same time.
Shame that sale didn’t take place.
I'm pretty sure that both Audacy and iHeart are at their ownership limit in DC.
These antiquated ownership limits are hurting format diversity. The FCC thinks imposing by fake limits on big companies it will encourage new companies to buy radio. Instead all it does is open the door for religious owners to swoop in and take some great radio stations and replace mainstream formats with religion. We're not seeing a lot of new owners enter radio ownership. I don't expect to see it in NY either.
So are you suggesting no limits? Or increased limits?
There's a big difference between 5 FMs and no limits. If that number was 6, there would be a country station in NYC. Maybe even an alternative. But no company is going to take that risk when the limit is 5. I know that iHeart would love a country station in NYC.
NYRadioFan22
Banned
I wonder when we’ll start hearing hints on the new format
I agree but I honestly would rather see 3 large operator clusters per city, if radio was profitable despite its large entry cost that would be more obtainable.
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