And some of that may have been dealt with in the bankruptcy, where all contracts are canceled and must be renewed. These are the first of the Disney trademarked call letters to come up.
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WABC Sold?
- Thread starter mets18
- Start date
And some of that may have been dealt with in the bankruptcy, where all contracts are canceled and must be renewed. These are the first of the Disney trademarked call letters to come up.
My question is how is he gonna get wabc back to better numbers and revenue if he isnt gonna make changes? He said no changes. Makes no sense?
Here's what he said:
"We have no changes planned. I’m going to sit down, break bread, and have lunch with all of the employees and get their input on how we can make it better."
So he'll ask the employees. Maybe they have some ideas.
Since the buyer paid the fire sale price of $12.5M for the station, I don’t envision him investing much in programming. His show on am970 is unlistenable.
$12.5 million is not a fire sale price. It reflects the current value of AM stations in general.
There is a question in my mind as to whether the revenue and ratings can be significantly increased.
The buyer is probably not under the delusion that ratings can be greatly increased. He likely understands the limited upside that exists with any AM station today and will establish reasonable goals and expect a moderate rate of return on the investment.
In the interview he talks about using the radio station to drive people to his other businesses. He wants to use the station to create podcasts. He has some ideas.
Obviously these people who've been buying time see some value in the station, even with bad ratings.
I think he has all but stated that he will take control of the station, enhance the quality and tweak it based upon suggestions of his staff and certainly use it to drive revenue/profits to his empire and increase revenues for the station. I have said it before, and I will say it again...smart business people do not use a losing business to justify write-offs. It simply does not make sense, nor is it a winning financial formula. In this case, I believe he sees it as a way to make his money back over a decade or so and he fully understands his $12.5M investment will pay off and when he decides to sell in a decade, the station will be worth 1/2 or less. So he will MAKE money. Now, in all fairness, he doesn't need or care. Yes, ego may well be involved, but I don't see this as being anything more than a business where he invests less than 3-5% of his time. And all you folks trashing him for his wealth, politics or grocery store issues....why did you not take your billions and buy this? Answer: we all know why. So, let it go on here. No one wants to hear this tired banter. This is a business transaction and he is in a much better place than Cumulus or iHeart. Facts are facts and he made a good, but not great business decision and within a year or two, you won't hear a peep out of him and this "agenda." The sales will be better. I also believe that Disney will not sayONE word about the call letters or what is on this station. They don't care a bit about radio in NYC.
But Disney cares about ABC7 and the ABC TV network. They probably have plenty of language in the original Citadel agreement as to authorized usage, damage to or depreciation of the brand, etc.
One big difference between him and Cumulus: he is a successful businessman, and he knows OTHER successful businessmen in the NY area. I wonder how often the Cumulus market manager hung out with the other self made billionaires in NY. He said it in the interview. If he can get a few of his friends to advertise, he will beat last year's numbers.
You haven't heard me say this in a while, Tibbs, but I think radio was a better place when it was not the only revenue stream for the owners. I think radio was better when insurance companies owned radio, when electronics companies owned radio, and when car dealers owned radio stations. That's the kind of guy this is. He'll pay the broadcasters to do the stuff he doesn't know. But he won't live or die on every dollar that this station makes. Meruelo in LA is the same kind of guy. In my view the problem with the 90s in radio was not that a few companies bought a lot of stations, but those companies didn't own anything else but radio. That was a bad idea.
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I get what you say, David. Us radio folks pay attention to these call letters and multiples and things that not 1/20 of the public even thinks about or knows. I don't disagree about the comparison, in name, to the TV properties. But, I have to wonder why would Disney have not required Citadel to change the call letters before they sold it or even changed them before they sold the stations. And why did they not contest it with Cumulus, who after all their years of business issues, lawsuits and the like? I honestly think TV is one thing, radio is nothing to them and when they sold these stations, they did not intend to look back. What would they benefit to make an issue, because that would hurt them more with sales and stock, than 10,000 listening to a radio station in a city where this AM station is pretty much a has been. Now, I do believe Cumulus sold this station for better money than if they WABC calls had been changed years ago. Maybe, Disney agreed to something monetarily and/or contractually upon this sale, but I still tend to believe they had no interest or standing.
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Well said, my friend. If it's hard for the companies/corps we all know to make any money in radio, then why would anyone be surprised that stand alone owners have to have other businesses to help their stations through the lean times? And sometimes a small radio station owner knows the cost of advertising is more expensive than the cost of owning the station, so why not let others help pay for the price tag and actually spend less?
That's what it takes. I think iHeart is a stronger company now than it was 15 years ago because it's diversified. That was the original vision, and its why Sillerman bought all those concert promoters. Live Nation is a strong company without radio. But imagine if they had stayed together. Plus now they also own Ticketmaster. We know that to be successful, you have to diversify. You can't expect one revenue stream to carry the full load. How many billionaires are there in this country? We just need a couple dozen to buy some radio stations.
Cumulus is a pathetic excuse for a company and i hope they go bankrupt and own no radio stations again. What they did with plj and now wabc. is sad and they need to learn how to manage their debt better than selling off stations and firing people.
The sale of stations is part of their plan that allowed them to emerge from bankruptcy as a very viable company.
By selling off the major market stand-alones and small clusters, they can pay down much of the remaining debt and focus on the markets where they have larger synergistic clusters. The problem in NY, DC and Atlanta was that they were competing with larger clusters without the ability to combine stations for nicely targeted and priced buys.
Selling off assets is a common way to manage debt. Business 101.
In recent years WABC has established an identity as a BAD talk station with aged-out hosts, too much syndication and infomercials all weekend. A total rebranding might go a long way toward attracting new listeners.
Just waiting for WNBM to be sold..I wonder if WFAS will be part of the package Hmm.
Remember now...Cumulus OWNS Westwood One
Which Catsimatides friends have sponsored his am970 show?
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