Poughkeepsie Cumulus Cluster Among Stations To Be Sold To Townsquare Media

[MHVRadiofan]

This is the biggest news for the Poughkeepsie radio market in a long time.
http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/121835/official-cumulus-buys-dial-global-spins-some-stati?ref=mail_bulletin

According to All Access the Cumulus of the Hudson Valley cluster in Poughkeepsie are among 53 stations to be sold to Townsquare Media in a deal that has Cumulus acquiring Dial Global which it will rename Westwood One Networks. It is a complex deal. Cumulus will use some of the cash received for the stations sold to retire some of its enormous debt.
Quote from All Access article :“The FRESNO cluster will then be swapped to CUMULUS in exchange for 15 stations in DUBUQUE, IA and POUGHKEEPSIE, NY plus a de minimus cash payment to TOWNSQUARE.”
Approvals for this big deal will take a while but I wonder what changes we can expect , when it happens.

 

[Roger]

More cut backs!!

 

[MTNProductions]

That must be one of the biggest changes in HV radio history in years. Townsquare is taking over all of the Cumulus HV stations as in the coming weeks or months. But I don't see any changes coming. But I guess it will happen. I found this article from the Time Herald Record about Cumulus is getting Townsquare. The article is posted here.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130831/BIZ/308310337

I don't see any changes on any of the 6 Cumulus HV radio stations at the moment. Is CJ is staying on "The Wolf" in mornings, or will the Yankees simulcast ends until Townsquare takes over, or maybe Beth Christy should stay? I don't know what's going to happen. Or maybe other stations like WKNY, WCZX, WRRV, WPDH and the "True Oldies" stations like WEOK and WALL will someday should make some changes if Townsquare takes over. I would like to see WEOK/WALL's "True Oldies Channel" go and leave it to WGNY's "Fox Oldies" and bring in some listeners from the demise of Scott Shannon's "True Oldies Channel". WBPM had some great competition from WGNY-FM's "Fox Oldies", because WEOK/WALL's "True Oldies" was on AM, and they are not supporting the three oldies/classic hits stations since the station was struggling in the Spring Poughkeepsie ratings book. WKXP/WZAD's "The Wolf" has not been doing well in the last 10 years in the past Poughkeepsie ratings books, because it still hurting WRWD which has been a country station since 1989 and "The Wolf" has been there on 94.3 and 97.3 since 2003 according to the station's sweepers. WKNY hasn't been change yet, because Warren Lawrence has been on that station for over 40 years since it started in 1972, the same year as WCBS-FM in NYC started as a oldies station. WCZX's "Mix 97.7" and WRRV/WRRB are not at the moment, but will see what happens if Townsquare should take over the HV Cumulus stations.

BTW, Townsquare owns most of the Albany stations including WQSH's "Pop Crush" at 105.7 (which is continue to splatter WKZE's translator in Red Hook, NY at 105.9 when it reaches Kingston, Saugerties and Catskill), WGNA, WTMM and WQBJ/WQBK. But what's going to happen if Townsquare should take over all of the Cumulus stations? We shall see.

Let the speculation begin!

 

[RadioGuyKingston]

The best changes WKNY could use are regarding staffing/sales/revenue. This seems like obvious for any station, however Cumulus did not have any of its sales staff in its Poughkeepsie office sell WKNY. This resulted in WKNY's revenues being limited to the "good faith" accounts that have been compiled over the years by its Program Director. With such limited revenue, Cumulus removed almost all the staff at WKNY's Studio, including its Office Manager. WKNY is in its own studio in Kingston, seperate from the Poughkeepsie building that houses the rest of the stations in this cluster. This meant that the only Full-Time staff member in the WKNY Building was Warren, who had to handle everything from phone calls, office management, walk-ins for prize pick-up, etc....in addition to his 33 hours of live, non-voice tracked on-air programming, and other PD duties. Cumulus allows WKNY to employ only two other Part-Time DJs for weekday afternoons and weekend mornings, and refuses to pay for WKNY to receive voice-tracking software. This has caused a strain as any required live carried programming hours have to be shuffled between these three employees. TownSquare will hopefully employ a sales staff dedicated to only selling WKNY, or provide Voice-Tracking availability.

 

[MHVRadiofan]

According to Scott Fybush North East Radio Report ( subscription) http://www.fybush.com/nerw-20130902/ in addition to the Poughkeepsie Hudson Valley group which is Technically an exchange of stations with Townsquare media the Cumulus Danbury group is also being sold outright to Townsquare The stations include , WRKI Rocker, Country , WDBY, as well as WINE and WPUT. Cumulus s keeping the Westchester group probably because they are in the top 100 market stations, which they want to focus on.

 

[MTNProductions]

And what about WKXP/WZAD's "The Wolf", are they going to stay with the country format after Townsquare takes over and dropping its "Nash" brand since the format has been in NYC on 94.7 for about 9 months, or if there's going to be a format flip to either Rhythmic CHR since it used be back in the "B94" days, or maybe they should flip to Urban AC or classic hip-hop or Rhythmic AC like they used to do back in the "Mix 102.7" days in NYC since 2004. I hope there's going to be some format changes at 94.3 and 97.3 being planned in the coming months or weeks, and perhaps 94.3 and 97.3 should stunt to all-Christmas after the Yankees baseball ends its simulcast. We shall see what happens soon if Townsquare should be taking over.

 

[HawkeyeST]

This is the biggest news for the Poughkeepsie radio market in a long time.
http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/121835/official-cumulus-buys-dial-global-spins-some-stati?ref=mail_bulletin

According to All Access the Cumulus of the Hudson Valley cluster in Poughkeepsie are among 53 stations to be sold to Townsquare Media in a deal that has Cumulus acquiring Dial Global which it will rename Westwood One Networks. It is a complex deal. Cumulus will use some of the cash received for the stations sold to retire some of its enormous debt.
Quote from All Access article :“The FRESNO cluster will then be swapped to CUMULUS in exchange for 15 stations in DUBUQUE, IA and POUGHKEEPSIE, NY plus a de minimus cash payment to TOWNSQUARE.”
Approvals for this big deal will take a while but I wonder what changes we can expect , when it happens.

Other markets in Iowa are affected, including the Quad Cities...

 

[MHVRadiofan]

And what about WKXP/WZAD's "The Wolf", are they going to stay with the country format after Townsquare takes over and dropping its "Nash" brand since the format has been in NYC on 94.7 for about 9 months, or if there's going to be a format flip to either Rhythmic CHR since it used be back in the "B94" days, or maybe they should flip to Urban AC or classic hip-hop or Rhythmic AC like they used to do back in the "Mix 102.7" days in NYC since 2004. I hope there's going to be some format changes at 94.3 and 97.3 being planned in the coming months or weeks, and perhaps 94.3 and 97.3 should stunt to all-Christmas after the Yankees baseball ends its simulcast. We shall see what happens soon if Townsquare should be taking over.

There is only one person on the planet who would write this, Disney Fanatic has a new name. I thought so from the jumbled up grammar, but reference to B94 confirmed it. Nobody knows what will happen until after Townsquare takes over in a few months.

 

[luperm]

There is only one person on the planet who would write this, Disney Fanatic has a new name. I thought so from the jumbled up grammar, but reference to B94 confirmed it. Nobody knows what will happen until after Townsquare takes over in a few months.

I should have known based on his Fox Oldies posts on the NYC board.

 

[MTNProductions]

Will have to find out if it's going to happen in a few months. If "The Wolf" drops country if Townsquare takes over, maybe they should bring many of the "Wolf's" listeners to WRWD and 94.3 and 97.3 will flip to something else. "The Wolf" has been with country for 10 years. Will have to wait and see.

According to "MHVRadioFan's" post, I was "Disney Fantatic" until the upgrade happened. I can't seem to logged in due to errors, so I created a username instead.

 

[MHVRadiofan]

.

According to "MHVRadioFan's" post, I was "Disney Fantatic" until the upgrade happened. I can't seem to logged in due to errors, so I created a username instead.

This whole changeover was rather poorly executed . Although I verified they had my correct e-mail address and after trying 3 times over 3 days I had not received a e-mail to reset my password. I was far from the only one. So, for those who still have an issue é-mail this person with your e-mail and screen name and they will fix the issue. '[email protected]' This is how I got back on. Chris, the good guy, I would know your writing style anywhere.