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Signs of the Time

S

SirRoxalot

'JYE shifting format, resurrecting "JOY", and running a big TV campaign.

Jack running billboards around town on major highways - not the cut-rate, back-burner billboards.

Regent in bankruptcy, mostly because of debt incurred in buying the Buffalo cluster.

The ice is breaking on the purchasing freeze, as indicated by the creation of "Cumulus-3", trying to come up with a BILLION investment dollars for radio.

Kind of makes you wonder if there's any connection. Cumulus relied on strength in numbers - mostly small and mid-market stations, so they should know how to manage them. Regent has a fistful, and the price - once they've shed a bunch of debt - could be right.

Or, maybe Regent is painting lipstick on their biggest pig for some other reason. If you see the painters in the Rand Building, watch out...
 
Regent is going to the wall for WJYE and Jack this Spring book, almost as if its life depended on it, very likely because it does. It may be putting lipstick on a pig as Rox suggests. But might it also be that Regent is re-investing in its largest holding in an attempt to shore-up Jack, which has been sagging and re-brand WJYE with the hope of evetually emerging from bankruptcy? Three days ago, I walked into a health food store that for years was locked on Star 102.5. The radio was tuned to Joy. Three women, looking to be in the 35-49 demo, were handling the check-out lanes. One of those women controlled the radio or they came to a concensus and the station they selected was WJYE.

As to Cumulus buying Regent or its Buffalo stations, heaven help the employees if Lew Dickey and his blundering herd buys the cluster: That could only mean more cuts, more voice-tracking and very likely a management team that would make Silver's present crew look like the Brothers of Mercy. I've known two people who worked for Cumulus, one in a major market, one in a small mid market. Each said, without provocation, that it's a rotten-to-the-core radio company. Although Cumulus secured an additional $500 million, it remains to be seen who'll sell to them. Regent may be more secure than we think. It's very likely the financiers who now control Regent won't be eager to sell it to Cumulus for ten cents on the dollar. Consider this, Citadel's bankruptcy wiped away about 60% of its debt through Chapter 11, so it's likely Regent's lenders would want at least 40-60% of the cluster's original purchase price, which was $125 million.
 
Three women, looking to be in the 35-49 demo, were handling the check-out lanes. One of those women controlled the radio or they came to a concensus and the station they selected was WJYE.
Click to expand...
And you were there for this demonstration of loyalty?
 
Rox loves the conspiracy theory!!! Try this one on for size consultants said "hey JOY is a strong brand, all the market testing proves this, could we shift back to it?"

Proof meet pudding

As for jack billboards, I remember not too long ago jack running newspaper ads, and a tv campaign last year around this time...it's just promotional season.

I just think its funny that they spent a a bulk of money then delcared bankruptcy, kinda makes you wonder if the money was sitting unspent and needed to be burned before chapter 11....now on to chapter 12. Sticker flash mobs and ratings without christmas music...
 
SirRoxalot said:
The ice is breaking on the purchasing freeze, as indicated by the creation of "Cumulus-3", trying to come up with a BILLION investment dollars for radio.
Click to expand...

Saw that. Someone, somewhere is on drugs. All the biggies are declaring bankruptcy and THEY get big money to play with?
 
Guys, I'm just speculating. Just seems that there are a lot of parts in motion, the NAB is about to fire up, and Cumulus-3 comes out with a billion dollar warchest.

Buffalo's not a growth market. The current census is likely to send us spiralling even farther down the food chain. The guys who've engineered a Chapter 11 bankruptcy actually will be in better shape financially than the guys who "survived" the recession. The downside is that they're going to be owned by souless bankers who know nothing about broadcasting if it doesn't fit on a spreadsheet. Of course, in some cases, that just means that they've swapped one group of souless bankers for another group of souless bankers...

I can see some people thinking that their money could be better invested in markets with more growth potential. I can also see other people looking at the balance sheets, and saying that the profit margin wouldn't be bad at all if there wasn't so much debt load. And, there are always the guys with enough hubris to think that they have the "tighter, lighter, and brighter answer" to making stations more profitable than current management.

Maybe it's just "promo season". Maybe 'JYE just accepted the fact that half their listeners still call it "JOY". Maybe they've detected a weakness in Star's endlessly repetitious rotation. Maybe there's nothing in the wind. But maybe that smell ain't "teen spirit"...
 
OneDaySale said:
I just think its funny that they spent a a bulk of money then delcared bankruptcy, kinda makes you wonder if the money was sitting unspent and needed to be burned before chapter 11....now on to chapter 12. Sticker flash mobs and ratings without christmas music...
Click to expand...

"Sticker flash mobs" of 35-44 year old moms? Hahahahahaha!
 
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