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Stephen King "losing his shirt" on his Bangor radio stations

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"I have a total payroll of about 60 people, most of them working for the two radio stations I own in Bangor, Maine. If I hit the movie jackpot—as I have, from time to time—and own a piece of a film that grosses $200 million, what am I going to do with it? Buy another radio station? I don’t think so, since I’m losing my shirt on the ones I own already."

Caution: lots of FCC-unfriendly language in the rest of his rant, which is about tax policy and not radio per se:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/30/stephen-king-tax-me-for-f-s-sake.html
 
Stephen King is a generous man with some pretty good sounding radio stations. It's too bad he said what he said in the article, because that's not what you'd call a high compliment to his staff.
 
ray ting said:
Stephen King is a generous man with some pretty good sounding radio stations. It's too bad he said what he said in the article, because that's not what you'd call a high compliment to his staff.
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Poor choice of words/phrases indeed. And I'm no prude, but in a public forum, why use foul language to try to get one's point across?
 
Ya gotta give the guy credit for NOT running radio on the cheap. He could easily run them with less than 5 people. Having nearly 50 full- and part-time employees for 2 or 3 stations is the way radio used to be. Stephen King therefore contributes to the community with employment opportunities on his stable stations; and those employed aren't watching their back every day of the year, wondering when the axe will fall. Most of the other stations: axes fall and stations are usually up for sale or in bankruptcy relatively often.
 
JIB, maybe the lesson here is that radio stations should viewed like racehorses - a toy owned by the wealthy not as a device from which they demand maximum ROI (cough, cough, Bain Capital), but rather as a fun side project that might make some nice money if it's the very best.

Maybe that's King's approach to the radio business...he doesn't have to own a radio station to make money. Hell, he doesn't have to work ever again. But he's clearly passionate about letting his wealth trickle down to people that are creative like him, and those people have built him a fun side business in addition to his novels.
 
Make no mistake. Stephen King is operating two of his stations to get his agenda out there. Even in rural central Maine, conservative talk rules.
 
I would guess that Mr. King's views are liberal. His stories are full of mocking the extreme right., right from the near-beginning with "Carrie". And certainly liberalism is confirmed by his recent piece on The Daily Beast. So why has he had conservative yakkers on his station(s)?
 
Stephen King's stations (WZON and WZON-FM) air Progressive Talk, not Conservative Talk. If I recall correctly, when he reacquired WZON many years ago, he immediately removed Rush Limbaugh from its on-air lineup.
 
Seltzer said:
Make no mistake. Stephen King is operating two of his stations to get his agenda out there. Even in rural central Maine, conservative talk rules.
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Even in? How about "especially in"? ;)
 
Conservative talk does indeed rule in rural Maine, what with the format going out far and wide via WGAN and WLOB in Portland and the blowtorch signals of WVOM/WVQM in Bangor and Augusta. If Stephen King is "losing his shirt" operating WZON AM-FM, I would suggest that a large part of the problem is that neither station's signal is reaching what should be his target audience: the considerably more politically liberal Maine coast. I live there, only 35 miles from Bangor. I can get WZON-AM's signal very well during the day, less well at night. The FM signal doesn't come in at all --- interference from blowtorch WBLM on the adjacent 102.9.

Most people wouldn't be inclined listen to an AM station if an FM simulcast is available. In this instance, it's not. If Mr. King wants to make a bigger dent in the ratings books, he needs to build or, more likely, buy an FM station somewhere between Ellsworth and Rockland that will simulcast WZON's signal. As a classical music lover, I don't want to see W-BACH bite the dust, but I have to admit the sale of the Nassau stations certainly would be an opportunity for him.
 
JIBGUY: His station's don't have conservatives talkers. I think Seltzer is referring to a competing station WVOM that carries Rush, etc. and that they 'rule'.
 
amguy said:
JIBGUY: His station's don't have conservatives talkers. I think Seltzer is referring to a competing station WVOM that carries Rush, etc. and that they 'rule'.
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When King bought WZON back in the early 90's they were running talk with Rush. King flipped ZON to sports and Jerry Evans started up WVOM


DougD said:
Most people wouldn't be inclined listen to an AM station if an FM simulcast is available. In this instance, it's not. If Mr. King wants to make a bigger dent in the ratings books, he needs to build or, more likely, buy an FM station somewhere between Ellsworth and Rockland that will simulcast WZON's signal. As a classical music lover, I don't want to see W-BACH bite the dust, but I have to admit the sale of the Nassau stations certainly would be an opportunity for him.
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The problem with his "other" FM, WZON is it's a Class A, licensed to Dover-Foxcroft. He actually spent money (off air) to upgrade the station: Move the WERU translator from 102.9 and move the transmitter of 103.1 WZON closer to Bangor. It's not a Bangor station, he's just trying to make it one.

King won't buy another station, ever. They're his play toys. As long as they're covering the bills he's fine with that.
 
And unfortunately we are mandated by the FCC to reduce the power at night on WZON AM, which is probably why DougD has the difficulty he mentioned.
 
According to www.Radio-Locator.com, WZON 620 runs 5000 watts around the clock. By day, it's non-directional. But at night a directional pattern puts most of the signal to the north.

There are other 620s in Burlington VT and Jersey City NJ, part of the NYC market, which I guess are being protected.
 
Gregg said:
According to www.Radio-Locator.com, WZON 620 runs 5000 watts around the clock. By day, it's non-directional. But at night a directional pattern puts most of the signal to the north.

There are other 620s in Burlington VT and Jersey City NJ, part of the NYC market, which I guess are being protected.
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Looking at the FCC database though, they've got an engineering STA to drop down to 500 watts at night, non directional. Other than that, their normal day pattern and night pattern are the same: 5kw non directional.
 
All I know is that when I go in every night and throw the switch to night settings, the power drops of dramatically. But what do I know...?
 
Maybe the studios are in one of the pattern nulls, so the drop in signal strength would sound like a power reduction.
 
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