Sell WRR

[LibertyNT]

Or what if Dallas does a total revamp?
W Argh Argh 101.1 The Pirate
"Shiver Me Classical Timbers"

 

[Gopher]

Jerry Jones has always wanted his own radio station. ;D

 

[arnoldevns]

I have to laugh everytime I see this come up. In this case, Jeff appears to just be lobbing a firebomb onto the board for no reason. But so be it..

WRR has been a political hot-potato for years. Various offers have come in for the station over the years. Each time the city council gets deluged with angry calls, letters and e-mails from citizens who don't want anything to happen to the station.

The city explored the 105.7 swap a few years back but rightly determined that it would seriously hurt the station.

WRR generally runs a small profit each year. That money is not plowed back into the station. It usually goes right into the general fund for the city. I think in recent years the council specifically allocated the money to go toward the convention and visitors bureau.

It's true the city could get lots of money for WRR to solve this year's budget problem. What about next year's budget? Also, you know the council loves the fact they can do their grand-standing on the public airwaves. Running the city council meetings on WRR is somewhat silly, but it's exposure for those politicians and they don't want that to go away.

Is there some way the city could put the thing in a trust with NTPB to keep the format and get a pile of cash for the station? Maybe, but I doubt it. I also don't think NTPB would be terribly interested in such an arrangement because it would require them to raise enough money to make the deal worth it to the city. That's not exactly an easy thing to do right now.

Simply put: unless something highly unusual happens, WRR will remain city-owned.

 

[davideduardo]

It's true the city could get lots of money for WRR to solve this year's budget problem. What about next year's budget?

The price the station would get today is less than half of the range reported when this idea was presented the last time... maybe less than a third.

The last full C with no billing went for around $65 million ten years ago. So think way below that. Such a sale won't pay for very much of the budget of a city the size of Dallas.

 

[amisdead]

Is there some way the city could put the thing in a trust with NTPB to keep the format and get a pile of cash for the station? Maybe, but I doubt it. I also don't think NTPB would be terribly interested in such an arrangement because it would require them to raise enough money to make the deal worth it to the city. That's not exactly an easy thing to do right now.

I think a deal would look slightly different than you assume:

Broadcaster X sends $30,000,000 to the city for the license, $5,000,000 to start a new endowment for WRR at 91.7 under NTPB, and a few hundred thousand into a fund to ensure the city council meetings stay on the air somewhere... like 1480 for the next 5 years.

The city gets a huge amount of immediate cash. The city leaders can still hear their meetings on the air. NTPB gets an out from the KXT disaster and gets a great brand, cash and a format that is a lot more viable in the non-commercial space. The listeners get to keep enjoying classical music from WRR everywhere they are currently enjoying it on 101.1 with assurance that WRR is here for generations to come.

 

[LibertyNT]

but wait there's this.

the Call Letters WRR cannot go anywhere but on 101.1 and 1310.
They cannot go anywhere else.

so technically it would have to be KWRR,
which at the moment is being used on 89.5 in Ethete, WY.

 

[davideduardo]

but wait there's this.

the Call Letters WRR cannot go anywhere but on 101.1 and 1310.
They cannot go anywhere else.

so technically it would have to be KWRR,
which at the moment is being used on 89.5 in Ethete, WY.

Stations under common ownership can transfer calls, as in the case of 550 in Phoenix, formerly KOY. The owner moved the calls to co-owned 1230 AM and put KFYI on 550.

So, were the current owner to buy another station before selling 101.1, they might be able to more WRR to the new acquisition. 1310 on the other hand can never get the WRR calls back as the FCC will not reissue if the station has changed hands after the call change took place.

 

[LibertyNT]

I did not know that David. But that does explain the WBAP calls on 96.7 (WBAP-FM used to be 96.3)

Essentially if anyone were to attempt to move WRR Dallas would have to buy another frequency just to move WRR, which they would be trying to sell.

Seems to me to be a pain in the rear, and thus not worth it, So WRR cant move. at least not with the WRR Calls.

Also isn't WRR a commercial Station? I swear I've heard ads there before.

 

[davideduardo]

The city gets a huge amount of immediate cash.

The city budget is over $2 billion dollars. $30 million is not even 5% of just the school budget. It's a tiny amount, and really resolves no budget shortfalls...

Interestingly, there is a line item of over $3 million for the radio station... but it does not show revenues. Estimates of revenue show about $2.8 million, so the facility is likely losing money or barely breaking even.

http://www.dallascityhall.com/Budget/proposed1011/FY11_budget_overview.pdf shows the budget overview.

 

[unclepudd]

'tested' took the words right out of my mouth and said it very well. This is apparently a topic only to generate discussion. The sale of WRR has been talked about every few years since the beginning and nothing has been done, or ever will be done to sell it. There are powers at work to keep WRR like it is which few realize exist.

 

[technodj]

Lifted from the WRR Info page on the website: "Instead of operating at taxpayer expense, WRR is funded solely by advertising revenue. A portion of its profits is donated to the City's Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA Department) as a funding source for cultural arts groups."

That station is going no where.

 

[grantchester]

That page from the budget indicates a $400,000 cut? OUCH!
Also puzzling is how it costs $3 million to run. Maybe I'm not reading it correctly.

 

[charlievandyke]

Question for David regarding calls reassigned after a sale. 930AM in LA was, of course, KHJ. Later, it became KKHJ upon a sale. The owners were able to get the 3 letter call KHJ back after some fancy footwork with the FCC. David, do you recall how they pulled that off?

 

[davideduardo]

Question for David regarding calls reassigned after a sale. 930AM in LA was, of course, KHJ. Later, it became KKHJ upon a sale. The owners were able to get the 3 letter call KHJ back after some fancy footwork with the FCC. David, do you recall how they pulled that off?

The claim was that the calls KKHJ (which, interestingly, the petitioner had themselves requested) when pronounced in Spanish came out as Ka Ka Ahchay Jota, and thus sounded like "caca" which means "poop."

The Commission accepted this argument and reassigned the calls.

Of course, the licensee claimed minority status when purchasing the station and the principal of the purchaser has Spanish as his first language... it is interesting that the very calls they asked for were "discovered" to be offensive at a later time. Even more interesting is that the calls were never spoken in Spanish on the air, and only given once an hour as per the rules in the legal ID... so the "ka ka" Spanish pronunciation was never heard on the station (I have this on the best of sources... the OM and PD of the station in the early to mid 90's).

 

[davideduardo]

That page from the budget indicates a $400,000 cut? OUCH!
Also puzzling is how it costs $3 million to run. Maybe I'm not reading it correctly.

I'm curious about the costs... I can not see in the other online budget details any mention of income, but there are a lot of pages in that sucker!

It does seem costly given the format and such. That's about $250 k a month. When you think that the average gross of all US commercial radio stations is just over $1 million, this is an expensive operation.

 

[arnoldevns]

The city gets a huge amount of immediate cash.

The city budget is over $2 billion dollars. $30 million is not even 5% of just the school budget. It's a tiny amount, and really resolves no budget shortfalls...

Interestingly, there is a line item of over $3 million for the radio station... but it does not show revenues. Estimates of revenue show about $2.8 million, so the facility is likely losing money or barely breaking even.

http://www.dallascityhall.com/Budget/proposed1011/FY11_budget_overview.pdf shows the budget overview.

Interestingly enough, I went to city hall a few years back and saw a specific break out of the WRR numbers. It made about a half a million in the particular year I looked at it. Perhaps this year it's lost a little money. It's up and down, but never a big money maker or loser.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Which seems to me that the city needs to do a FORMAT FLIP of WRR more than selling it. There are non-commercial groups that own commercial stations, and make coin off their properies. I'm all for the city continuing to own the station, but maybe classical has ran it's course. Let a non-comm have that format, if they can survive playing it for donations. Pandering to a select few people that want a certain format isn't in the best BUSINESS intrest of a city that should get a respectable return on their investment. The current format doesn't and should be kicked on 101.1 IMHO.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

One prime example of a non-commercial group making money off their station is WHUR. Howard prints money off that thing. Why can't the city of Dallas at least make some money off their propery opposed to making a few noisy metro folks that demand their format continue on happy?

 

[amisdead]

As long as the city owns WRR, it will be classical.

 

[grantchester]

the city needs to do a FORMAT FLIP of WRR more than selling it.

I respectfully disagree.
I think it needs a renewed marketing effort. WRR was pulling 3 shares just a couple of years ago. The 'qualitatives' are spectacular, but it should and could have a larger audience.