Sheridan Broadcasting Sells WAMO to Religious Organization

[Radio_bored-Op]

So....
I live in buffalo/niagara falls
(ps: loves pittsburgh sports, enjoys visits to the city),
and I want to pose this question:

So, 8.9?/was the price for the combo...in a major market like
Pitt! how...much, (i dont know all the ins and outs, of P'City),
and you may not know the history of buffalo/market #53...maybe #54
by now, but what would a 2FM/am combo sell for here
(estimations, only expected)....

 

[Jay F]

Radio station prices are plunging hard. For example, An AM/FM combo in Portland OR that was bought for over 50 Million a decade ago just sold for 11 Million!

 

[MsMusicRadio]

Nobody sees CC flipping 3WS to the beat format ?

 

[Jay F]

Nobody sees CC flipping 3WS to the beat format ?

No,It would canabilize WKST

 

[only1moore]

Parttimer, remember that quote you made back at the time of B94's return to Top 40 in 2007....

Kiss and WAMO don't count? You do remember that this is a market with only a little over 10% minority population, right?

...Well, one has to wonder if Kiss or B94 will try to court that 10%, even if they have to do promos to convince them that they have a new choice to hear Kayne or T.I.. But at the same time I agree with you that they'll go elsewhere for their Hip-Hop and R&B because B and Kiss don't want to jepordize their current gameplan.

If anything, this situation could end up like Syracuse, where they already have a unique Top 40 war going on between conservative WNTQ and Rhythmic-heavy WWHT.

 

[Parttimer]

Nobody sees CC flipping 3WS to the beat format ?

Well, let's see.... 3WS has higher 12+ ratings than WAMO. I'm sure they have higher 25-54 ratings as well. I'm sure that the music format bills more than WAMO, plus they are the home for Pitt play-by-play, which would probably not want to be on a hip-hop station.

So, uhh, no.

 

[johnknapik]

Wow... very saddening news. I remember listening to WAMO back in the day when the only hip-hop played on the radio was Tone Loc and Young MC. I always appreciated their mix of R&B and Rap and there was no better soundtrack to cruising the North Side, The Hill, or East Liberty. As many others have said, I don't see anyone in the 'Burgh going full urban. While there were a few white WAMO listeners (including myself), I know a lot of black females that already listen to KISS.

WAMO will be missed.

 

[Parttimer]

Parttimer, remember that quote you made back at the time of B94's return to Top 40 in 2007....

Kiss and WAMO don't count? You do remember that this is a market with only a little over 10% minority population, right?

...Well, one has to wonder if Kiss or B94 will try to court that 10%, even if they have to do promos to convince them that they have a new choice to hear Kayne or T.I.. But at the same time I agree with you that they'll go elsewhere for their Hip-Hop and R&B because B and Kiss don't want to jepordize their current gameplan.

If anything, this situation could end up like Syracuse, where they already have a unique Top 40 war going on between conservative WNTQ and Rhythmic-heavy WWHT.

I barely remember what I had for lunch, let alone something I wrote in 2007 (LOL).

As I said earlier, I think the only thing that will happen is that both B and Kiss will add a few more Urban titles, but I rather doubt that they will change their imaging. WAMO's core audience won't like either station no matter what they do (and I don't exclusively mean African-Americans. My very Caucasian 17-year old stepdaughter listens exclusively to WAMO.... when I told her about it this morning she asked if there would be a new station, and when I said no, just B94 and Kiss her response was "eww.") All B and Kiss can do is try to hold on longer to those listeners who split time between their station and WAMO.

It's a little less of stretch for Kiss to gain some from this, but maybe a point 12+ will be it.

The signal that would be the best suited as a standalone Urban, from a sheer coverage standpoint, is 98.3, but that would mean blowing up the whole Froggy thing. As much as I'd like to see that, Keymarket won't do it. The only hope would be that an Urban-focused company like Radio One or Inner City, which made a disastrous attempt on 1550 a few years back, would come in. But I suspect that they already passed on the opportunity to buy WAMO.

 

[Word!]

Such a shame! I can understand if there was major competition in the market, but being the only Urban as well as being the heritage, thats madd heartbreaking!

Many factors probably came into play. As the owners of AURN, if you look at the network, they are mainly UAC-targeted. As the owners aged, they always seem to care less and less about Hip Hop (look at Radio One). Also, radio advertising revenues are crumbling, especially the auto industry... who is a big source of revenue for urban stations.

No financing, no loans, no sales, equals no advertising. And at this point, with any station that is being sold/bought, companies must have cash on hand i would assume..... to make the transactions happen.

There was a solid cash offer it seems, and they solidified the transaction in this tight economy. I'm sure they hated to end the legend, at the same time they had to take the cash offer due to the economy, and possibly shrug their shoulders, saying what can we really do?

Unfortunately ANY time a station is sold and doomed to flip from a very popular format, listeners will be alienated... and wont know where to turn. Change happens, we've seen many of our favorite stations change hands and formats year after year, its no different.

I will compare this market to Des Moines when 106.3 The Beat became the only Urban in that market, owned by Clear Channel, only to be killed off 8 months or so later because their ratings TRUMPED CC-Owned KissFm. Since then, there still is not a mainstream urban in that market since...... I believe this will be the future of Pittsburgh.

It would be smart for someone to look exclusively at the revenues and ratings that WAMO achieved, and compare them to their own...... and if the Urban format did better than some other stations ratings/revenue, they could capitalize on the gap in the market and make the flip.

Unfortunately, radio execs are not the brightest when it comes to researching and taking a gamble like that. Good luck Pittsburgh, the radio dial jus got "less popular" so sad

 

[kenhawk1160]

I'm going to de-lurk and put in my two cents here.

It would not surprise me if this station was to go Contemporary Christian, much if not all of it automated. I had read somewhere that this format was number-one for in-car listening in this market. The only problem with this format is obvious: is it going to get those who are listening to it to fill out a diary thus proving that the listenership is there?

Even if they show up in the Pittsburgh book under a CCM format, they're not going to have any choice but to run the leanest operation possible. It might generate some agency revenue since all they do is look at numbers, but there's that local image problem with this format. And Salem has the moxie to spank any 'competitor' trying to take its candy.

Actually I'm actually surprised that Salem didn't jump on this first. They're one of the few broadcast companies out there right now profitable enough for growth, even with this recession going on. They do have some CCM FM stations in their portfolio, usually paired with the much more profitable Christian Talk format that's made them famous.

So it's hard to say what'll be in store for WAMO. I have my own thoughts on what I'd like to see, but so do the rest of you. With that in mind and with the immortal words of Mr. Ingram...

"Back in stealth mode"

 

[Parttimer]

Contemporary Christian is a sleeping giant. I have been told that in Orlando, a non-commercial CCM, WPOZ (Positive Music) is #1 in the market with women 25-54. Because it's in the non-comm section of the dial the ratings aren't included in the ones made public, but subscribers can see them.

Most of the successes that I know of, however, are in the South where the religious base is less Catholic and more of a mix of other Christian denominations.

Now here's the part I don't know... in the commercial band, do these stations sell spots or do they make most of their money from brokering blocks of time for teaching? And do they ask for listener support (contributions?)

Ken, you worked for Salem as I recall, what's the story on cash flow?

 

[MsMusicRadio]

Wouldn't want to let anybody down. Whatever the new owners do would be my personal idea of "waisted air space". Just my two cents. Howver with Bob, WISH, Q, 3WS, and Star overlapping music, I would think any of them but WSHH might see this as an opportunity. Or not

 

[Pratte4Life]

My ancestory is that of Quakers, so let me first get this obligitory statement off my chest-

THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY EVER! THE WORD OF THE LORD WILL BE HEARD INSTEAD OF GANGSTA RAP! GOOD HAS DEFEATED EVIL! THIS IS BEST FOR THE COMMUNITY- WHAT IS BEST FOR THE HUMAN RACE!

Now that my puritanical side has spoken, let me just ask this-

Is Pittsburgh radio now COMPLETELY middle of the road?

I mean, the formats we have left are nothing exciting. What's out there- mainstream country, soft rock, best hits of yesterday and today, contemporary hit radio, and christian stations? Maybe a few AMs playing oldies?

I may not like hip-hop or radical leftist talk radio, but at least it was in-your-face. Now it seems that every radio station that plays music is almost programming playlists for elevators and workplaces.

WDVE has updated its playlist, but they still have Fleetwood Mac on it, you know?

I actually like Fleetwood Mac but when WDVE and WISH can share songs on their playlists something is wrong. Why not just put Huey Lewis on WDVE as well?

Even the talk radio stations are boring. KDKA is KDKA. Everything you can hear on 104.9 you can hear somewhere else in the country with the exception of Ellis Cannon, who is hardly a personality in the sense that Mark Madden or Myron Cope were (or even Rev. Bill Currie, come to think of it).

True, there's Jim Quinn, but while he may be hard hitting he is hardly fresh.

WPTT is now business talk. Sports Talk isn't even that personality based anymore locally.

That essentially leaves The X. While I do think this speaks volumes about sports talk being the most creative radio, you do have to ask yourself if this is all there is.

I legitimately think two of the best personalities on Pittsburgh radio today are still Jack Bogut and Bill Cardille. They are friendly, engaging, true professionals and legends in every sense of the word and nobody who hasn't retired yet listens to them.

 

[BoscoGoldBear]

I'm from Boston, where something like this happened about 3 years ago. The staff of WILD-FM (now WKAF, a satellite of WAAF, a heavy metal station west of Boston), a then-sister of Radio One-owned WILD-AM, which was owned by Sheridan in the 1970s, was given maybe about 3 or 4 hours to clear out of 97.7 FM because Entercom bought the station that Monday afternoon and flipped to heavy metal (satellite) the next day. A year before that, the same Entercom flipped its decently rated rhythmic AC (then WQSX) to Boston's third classic rock station (currently WMKK). Net result: Boston only has one rhythmic station, and it's ALL gangsta rap (CC's WJMN). Meanwhile, we're left with 10 headbanger-dominated stations: WAAF/WKAF, WBCN, WBMX, WBOS, WFNX, WMKK, WROR, WXKS-FM, WXRV and WZLX, plus another two (WMJX and WODS) which venture in metal frequently, with one of these two passing off metal artists Journey, Bon Jovi and Nickelback (plus AC/DC and Van Halen) as soft music (WTF?).

Now does anyone wonder why so-called "hate speech" talk (represented in Boston by WEEI, WRKO and WTKK) have big ratings?

 

[only1moore]

I'm surprised that the African-American community have not spoken out on this yet. Something is really wrong with this picture.

 

[Jay F]

Is this well known yet by the general public or only those who follow radio?

I'm surprised that the African-American community have not spoken out on this yet. Something is really wrong with this picture.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

It's time to bring back Richard Routree because the African-American community just got the SHAFT

 

[MsMusicRadio]

What about a non-commercial outlet?

 

[xmusicmatt]

Contemporary Christian is a sleeping giant. I have been told that in Orlando, a non-commercial CCM, WPOZ (Positive Music) is #1 in the market with women 25-54. Because it's in the non-comm section of the dial the ratings aren't included in the ones made public, but subscribers can see them.

Now here's the part I don't know... in the commercial band, do these stations sell spots or do they make most of their money from brokering blocks of time for teaching? And do they ask for listener support (contributions?)

A CCM station in Columbus pulls very decent ratings and is in the Comm part of the band, they sell ad time + listener support to make up the difference.

 

[greg.hahn]

A couple of thoughts,
Based on the information in the PG article, I would guess this is a Catholic group buying the stations. Usually, major Christian groups have issues with Saints, so if it were St. Joseph's mission, well, that basically all but gives it away.

LOL. That is some really convoluted logic. Protestant groups have a problem with praying to saints and worship of saints, but no problem at all with the fact that there ARE saints. In fact, in protestant theology all believers are saints. Foxe's Book of martyrs is still a classic on protestant shelves, and it's chock full of catholic saints.

That being said, you can Google "Saint Joseph Missions" and find they've been buying radio stations for some time now. They were working on a deal last summer.

I'm not sure what's up here, but this isn't the local dioceses buying some stations.