Considering their financial issues, no surprise after selling The Fish to EMF/K-Love Inc. a few months back, they'd sell the rest of their Honolulu cluster which features a few stations with formats you don't think of when it comes to Salem. Salem Sells Six Station Honolulu Cluster
-
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
Hawaii Salem sells its 6-station Honolulu cluster to Malama Media Group
- Thread starter NYAZSporty
- Start date
formerradio
Banned
Since they are not disclosing the amount. I'm guessing that it is very little or next to nothing. Perhaps an amount to be paid later based on how the business preforms?
2mil. It’s in the article.
I don't think it was there when first posted. The press release came out before the FCC filing and did not include price information.
Honolulu is notorious as being a very bad radio market for all but the very top performers.
formerradio
Banned
One might possibly conclude that previous owners wanted the stations there just as a reason to write off trips to Hawaii.
If I recall, the co-founder and current executive chairman of Salem, Ed Atsinger, is from Hawaii.
That was always a "thing" for some owners. But running a station or cluster there is very expensive, and revenue is hard to come by. Cheaper to buy the airfare and hotel rooms.
Several owners have bought in markets like Traverse City and Palm Springs and Monterey for that reason, too. Even CBS had a station in Palm Springs, not even back then a top 150 market, but it obviously was hard to justify.
It was odd that Salem had stations and formats in Honolulu that it had nowhere else: Country, Classic Hits, an all-sports AM station and a Mandarin language AM station. IIRC, Salem bought the cluster so it could put its three primary formats in Market #63: Christian Talk and Teaching, Christian Contemporary and Conservative Talk. The other signals came along for the ride.
I can understand Salem spinning off the non-core formats. And the new owners say they'll keep all the formats as is. But it shows how bad things are for Salem that it's even getting rid of its Christian Talk and Conservative Talk stations.
I can understand Salem spinning off the non-core formats. And the new owners say they'll keep all the formats as is. But it shows how bad things are for Salem that it's even getting rid of its Christian Talk and Conservative Talk stations.
I don't think that analysis is quite right. Salem didn't need to sell these Honolulu stations...
With the sale of the CCM stations to K-Love, their balance sheet is going to be very strong.
However, with 95.5 The Fish going to K-Love, that weakens the cluster. If you were to sell of 97.5 and 107.9 and 690 because they are non-core formats, I don't think the calculus for running stations in a soft market so far away from other clusters still makes a lot of sense.
In the scope of Salem's station portfolio, Honolulu is already on the small side. It's also small in terms of numbers of conservatives and evangelicals for their two remaining core formats and as David has already pointed out, is a weak overall market due to extremely high operating costs and low overall market revenues and way too many signals due it's remote location.
I think you factor this all together and it just isn't worth the hassle anymore for almost no revenue when they can sell it off to another operator who can focus on just Honolulu and perhaps increase the non-block programming revenue.
I think there will be a few more sales to trim the portfolio of dead weight. I also would not be surprised if they made some small "tuck-in" acquisitions in an existing market or two later this year if they came across an opportunity that made a lot sense.
I've always thought Salem's revenue model is a bit different than other owners. In most of the top 50 markets, and some markets between 50 and 100, the company operates a Christian Talk and Teaching station. While Salem might sell some commercial time between programs, those time slots are sold as brokered programming. The evangelical hosts buy the time, appeal for donations to their ministries and then wait for the dollars to come in. Honolulu's over-radioed market and high overhead may not be that important if those preachers get their donations and they pay Salem for the time.
The conservative talk format is also a bit different. Sure, Salem wants those stations to each generate income. But I think they make most of their profits on a network basis. Its stations run virtually the same schedule of hosts, all employed by Salem. Only in a few markets does a Salem talk station carry a show from another network. In those markets where you can see the ratings, Salem talk stations have poor numbers, usually not even a 1 rating. So I've always thought, most of the sales must be national.
The conservative talk format is also a bit different. Sure, Salem wants those stations to each generate income. But I think they make most of their profits on a network basis. Its stations run virtually the same schedule of hosts, all employed by Salem. Only in a few markets does a Salem talk station carry a show from another network. In those markets where you can see the ratings, Salem talk stations have poor numbers, usually not even a 1 rating. So I've always thought, most of the sales must be national.
Salem's news/talkers also carry brokered programming. Of course, the degree to which it helps with a station's bottom line varies market by market.
For example, at my station in New York (WNYM) we broker the following hours during the week: 4 to 8 pm Monday; 4 to 7 pm Tues-Fri; and Midnight to 3 am Tues-Sat. Most original weekend programs are also brokered.
The biggest issue with brokered shows are that many of them are short-lived, often gone after 13, 26, or 52 weeks for a variety of reasons. If it was a show brought to us by an account executive (and, more often than not, hosted by a radio neophyte), the client may also be responsible for bringing in their own sponsors–putting the client in a make-it-or-break-it situation.
Last edited:
I just returned from a week in Hawaii and took Ubers everywhere outside of Waikiki. About half of those drivers had Decades 107.9 on. Did the station sound like that during Salem’s ownership? If so, I was very impressed at how good they could program a station that’s outside of their wheelhouse!
The station is still under Salem's ownership. The sale hasn't closed yet.
Thank you for this information.
- Status