I thought I caught it late last night but today I have confirmed that KFNN is back on the air and airing a business format. Of course, nobody knows how long either station will continue to broadcast...
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Remaining CRC stations going to liquidating agent
- Thread starter Sammi Brie
- Start date
I thought I caught it late last night but today I have confirmed that KFNN is back on the air and airing a business format. Of course, nobody knows how long either station will continue to broadcast...
I wonder if they will just shut down with no warning. Probably just running out ad contracts. The "goodbye" messages from Ron Cohen are playing during commercial breaks, along with dated promos for Westwood One NFL coverage (which has since moved). I'm guessing K257CD 99.3 will simulcast either KAJM or KZCE until they figure out what to do with it.
One week after their announcement, both stations are running as "zombies," pretty much airing nothing but syndicated programs. The power bill with little to no revenue coming in pretty much doesn't justify them staying on. Anyone want to guess when they shut down the transmitters once and for all?
I wonder if the current owner is waiting for the Federal government to reopen so he can either seek an STA or license cancellations for these two outlets. Either way, he might have to wait a while.
They just can’t shut down right away and file that silent STA once the government reopens explaining why it wasn’t filed sooner (in this case, because of the government shutdown)?
I doubt the creditors will cancel the licenses when the stations still have some value. Maybe I should consider sending them an offer.
Again, the power bill is a relatively minor expense compared to things like office rent, transmitter site rent or taxes, music licensing fees and other costs... even if there is no real staff.
The electricity is not a factor when trying to decide if they want to preserve the license if a buyer appears.
How much more value is added to a potential sale, if said station is still on the air with programming, as opposed to going silent? And this would be a station with no measurable listening audience for example (KFNN/KQFN).
I know other factors would apply, but is there a possible guestimate, percentage wise?
Both stations run almost 25kW each during the day, which can run down finances especially when there is little to no revenue coming in. Plus, the studios are in high-rent North Scottsdale (mind you that they're not in the most prime part of the North Scottsdale, but considering the area, it's got to be more expensive than other parts of the Metro).
Ron Cohen has already stated that the stations' formats are going away, in goodbye messages running on both stations. Are the brokered hosts still running on KFNN? If so, that may be the only revenue the stations have at this moment. The demand for financial news on the radio, self-proclaimed "money experts" that pay for airtime, and sports betting talk, is very small. There is no more local station-produced content on either station, and that should decrease the value of each station.
They might not be able to make it "FCC-legal" while they're shut down, but as long as there is some kind of legal notice published in a public site (for example, The Arizona Republic/AZCentral), wouldn't that be good enough in the short term? After all, it's not the station owner's fault that the FCC can't do its job right now.
I imagine the bankruptcy receivership is running the stations remotely on a laptop through a cloud based program. If something awry happens with the signals, then they would contact an engineer on contract, that's in the area.
That's assuming that there is one available, and they'd be willing to wait on being paid. If they're in that bad shape financially, I would guess that all bets are off in that regard.
Also, is the transmitter KFNN currently running the same one they used when they moved to their diplexed site with 960 nearly 30 years ago? If so, any new owner may want to replace that rig given spare parts may be hard to come by these days. That contract engineer would need to be skilled with its directional pattern too.
Someone with a little cash might be able to get the lenders to go along with a reduced principle (haircut) deal. If your plan shows they will get paid the reduced terms for a couple of years they might bite just to move this loan to performing from the default column on their books.
There's no need. They just need to file an STA when the shutdown ends.
I believe they're still being operated out of their studios in North Scottsdale. Their streams are still up and running (I imagine they're wired to the main board). Well, at this moment, KQFN is running dead air (did ESPN Radio pull the Eisen show from their lineup without finding new clearance, or is it the case of no one being home?).
Same deal with the 99.3 translator when its owner changes its programming source.
And a station on the air even if its not making much of anything is worth more. I contend simply shutting a station off and it being off drops the value 10 to 20 percent
Even if its niche canned programming which listeners can obtain easily elsewhere, which is what these two stations are doing at this time? If needed, find some programming with broader appeal temporarily.
I'm still asking "who is in the market for two high dial position AMs whose co-owned FM translators have very limited reach?" The debts need to be repaid, but selling these stations, silent or not, isn't exactly going to be an easy thing to do (and it hasn't been since they've been on the market months prior to them announcing the shutdown).
As a broker, I disagree somewhat.
The best answer I can give is, "it depends."
Obviously, if you're trying to sell a station as an active, ongoing business, it's worth more to a buyer if it remains on the air producing revenue.
But if all you're trying to sell is a license and maybe some equipment, and you're not expecting a buyer to take over your format or client base? It really doesn't matter whether it's on the air or not.
