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RUBBER CITY AND CLEAR CHANNEL

E

ericjbard

Has anyone else heard the rumbles on the street that Rubber City has been in chats with Clear Channel about a big swap that would give them 107.3 Cleveland in exchange for 98.1 WKDD, 101.7 WHOF, 106.9 WRQK and 1350 WARF?

Supposedly this would give Clear Channel the opportunity to sell a Cleveland FM to Educational Media Foundation and make some cash. In addition 640AM would remain with Clear Channel becoming a partner of WTAM-AM and giving WAKS a sister AM band station.

Rubber City would then spin off WHOF to D.A.Peterson in Canton which would give them two full Stark county FM signals.

It would give Rubber City Radio:
1350 WARF-AM Sports/Talk
1590 WAKR-AM News/Talk
94.9 WQMX-FM Country
97.5 WONE-FM Classic Rock
98.1 WKDD-FM Top 40
106.9 WRQK-FM Rock
 
Three reasons I don't see this happening...
1) Having 4 FM's of that size in Akron/Canton would put Rubber City way, way over the FCC ownership cap in Akron and Canton. I can't see WNIR or WHBC allowing this to happen.
2) Rubber City just bought the Wave and has put tons of money into a new office space for Cleveland. Selling to CC means they would lose that money, and I think Rubber City likes having their niche in Cleveland. Not sure if they're making any money with it yet.
3) What's in it for CC? Selling a frequency to EMF in Cleveland? Having just one stand alone AM? CC would be better off selling Akron/Canton to Cumulus, CBS, or some other large group operator than taking this deal.
Nothing surprises me in radio any more, but this one would be very surprising!
 
Sorry...just don't see it.

RCR has put too much time/effort/money into "The Wave" just to sell it off.

They like having a Cleveland station in their portfolio.
 
wffm78 said:
Three reasons I don't see this happening...
1) Having 4 FM's of that size in Akron/Canton would put Rubber City way, way over the FCC ownership cap in Akron and Canton. I can't see WNIR or WHBC allowing this to happen.
Click to expand...

Depends. Here's the FCC rule:


As a general rule, one entity may own (a) up to five commercial radio stations, not more than three of which are in the same service (i.e., AM or FM), in a market with 14 or fewer radio stations; (b) up to six commercial radio stations, not more than four of which are in the same service, in a market with between 15 and 29 radio stations;

So it depends on how the FCC views the market.
 
If the market for Akron is viewed as the Akron metro, most likely not...there's about 7-8 liscensed stations in the Akron ARB metro book. Owning 5-6 of them would be a no go. On the other hand, if the criteria is signals in the market, then it may be able to go, But competing media could still file a complaint or challenge the merger.
 
wffm78 said:
If the market for Akron is viewed as the Akron metro, most likely not...there's about 7-8 liscensed stations in the Akron ARB metro book. Owning 5-6 of them would be a no go. On the other hand, if the criteria is signals in the market, then it may be able to go, But competing media could still file a complaint or challenge the merger.
Click to expand...

Typically it's signals, and non-coms are included.
 
LMAO.

Rubber City spends $$ to build a studio only to trade/sell it off?

CC just hands over the $$ they are making in the Akron market (with both Cleveland and Akron signals) to Rubber city?
BTW, CC is moving their Akron based signals from their Freedom Ave location to a studio inside Canal Park in Downtown Akron, leaving 101.7 and 106.9 in N. Canton.

D.A. Peterson fought their ex morning show over $3,580. They don't have, won't spend the $$ for another stick. Even if they did 106.9 would be the combo sell they'd want. http://www.cantonrep.com/news/x1400285008/Former-Q92-hosts-settle-lawsuit

Good one.

The ONLY place this rumor has been is here. It's not on the streets, nobody is even talking about this. Nice try.
 
Clear Channel needs to liquidate and FAST. Mansfield, Canton, Akron, Lima, Marion, Chillicothe, Washington Court House, Wheeling, Parkersburg, Huntington, Youngstown will all be sold in the coming year or two and they will swap what they can to get into bigger markets.
 
John Baylor, I know you hate to admit that something big is going to happen here soon with CC Akron/Canton but its going to.

Look at the NextMedia deal no one is talking about. NextMedia is now backed by OakTree which also happens to own Townsquare Media. Townsquare owns no stations in Ohio, yet. However would own WHBC-A/WHBC-F once a full company shakedown happens.

Townsquare would obviously be on the hunt for some more properties. Rubber City could own WONE, WQMX and WKDD along with WHLO, WAKR and WARF. They may have to reset the license on WARF to a city outside the metro, say "Doylestown" and viola, they own 6 stations.

Anyone else remember when Clear Channel tried to make a move on 104.5 WQKT Wooster so they could put WKDD there and license it to Barberton?

Clear Channel then could sell of their Freedom building to Townsquare or D.A. Peterson. Peterson has the money btw. Just a matter if he would want to buy it or not.
 
NextMedia was purchased by an Oregon Based company...there should be a link on this website to the announcement of that deal..

But Clear Channel is in serious trouble financially, as is CBS, as is Cumulus..as soon as the Fiscal Cliff issues are resolved, in terms of Capital Gains taxes and other issues, you're going to see another round of consolidation, and its going to leave blood on plenty of walls.
 
Speaker of Truth said:
NextMedia was purchased by an Oregon Based company...there should be a link on this website to the announcement of that deal..
Click to expand...

That deal hasn't been announced yet. However, the rumor mill still says something's about to happen.

But Clear Channel is in serious trouble financially, as is CBS, as is Cumulus..as soon as the Fiscal Cliff issues are resolved, in terms of Capital Gains taxes and other issues, you're going to see another round of consolidation, and its going to leave blood on plenty of walls.
Click to expand...

CBS and even Cumulus are still pretty healthy. Granted, they're not what they once were, but they're still not doing as badly as you may think. Cumulus, for example, almost never buys with cash. Even the Citadel deal was at least 75% paid in stock. Of course, they bought WFME with cash, but that's a pretty rare transaction. Their debt is much more serviceable than Clear Channel's.
 
And if it's Alpha, they won't just stop at WHBC-A/F. Sorry, let the consolidation games begin in that case. Alpha is good people, but they want a lot more than a standalone.
 
Looks like a lot of worthless speculation to me. Why would CC swap for WNWV just to sell it? It's at the cap for Cleveland FM's. It only can hold WAKS because it's licensed to the Akron market. Aside from FCC caps based on the number of stations, the DOJ could get involved in any situation that would create a monopoly. I doubt they would let Rubber City own every station in the metro save for WNIR and WJMP. Some more likely scenarios... CC moves WHLO and/or WARF closer to Cleveland or simulcasts WTAM on 98.1. I could also see someone picking up 95.9... could be CC, NextMedia, DA Petersen (trust me, they aren't broke),even EMF.
 
I don't think CBS will enter into Akron and Canton as they are concentrating on larger markets. Cumulus maybe, but we shall see if there are other companies interested, but that's if CC is even going to sell stations in those markets.

I doubt Rubber City will even purchase all the Akron stations. That would be too much for the existing staff to handle in addition to FCC restrictions. Plus, I think RCRG wants to keep WNWV. They've made a lot of investments in that station.
 
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