WADO 1280 AM Among 18 Univision Stations to Be Sold

[Barry]

The Spanish language talk/sports station will be sold, along with 17 others owned by Univision in various markets, to a new Latin broadcaster called Latino Media Network. The total price for all 18 stations is 66 million dollars.
It's unclear whether WADO will continue broadcasting Univision's TUDN sports network.

From InsideRadio

 

[TheBigA]

Based on this quote, I would bet no:

We hope to create relevant content for radio and other audio platforms with content that our community can trust and rely on. Latino Media Network is going to ensure that the Latino community continues to be served with the news and information that local communities deserve.

It sounds like a national information programming service.

 

[davideduardo]

Based on this quote, I would bet no:

The full release shows that Univision will continue to program the stations for at least a year following the closing, and that the current staff will transfer to the new company. The TUDN network programming will continue for a minimum of one year.

Of course, they can initiate new programming if they want on the Fresno, Vegas and LRGV FMs but those are poor markets for Spanish language formats.

It sounds like a national information programming service.

Not for at least a year.

There have been several massive failures from trying to do a national Hispanic talk format in Spanish. This is because the different regions of the US have little commonality among Hispanic interests... even among Mexican origin Hispanics there are severe cultural difference between those imigrating from different areas of that country.

 

[Barry]

With the recent sale of WQBU 92.7, and now WADO, Univision in New York is left with stand alone station WXNY 96.3 FM. As the parent company is focused on Hispanic TV, and stations in large markets that aren't part of a cluster are frequently at a disadvantage, I wonder whether it will eventually also be sold. Perhaps it may make sense for rival SBS to purchase it as their third station in this market.

 

[TheBigA]

Perhaps it may make sense for rival SBS to purchase it as their third station in this market.

I doubt it. Keep in mind the company also owns Channel 41, so it's not a "stand alone" station. The efficiencies that come in owning multiple stations can be realized regardless of if the stations are radio or TV.

 

[davideduardo]

Based on this quote, I would bet no:



It sounds like a national information programming service.

Yet it has signed to keep the sports format for at least 12 months after closing. Perhaps they feel they need a year to relocate, plan, hire and create new talk concepts.

 

[andreaj10]

Yet it has signed to keep the sports format for at least 12 months after closing. Perhaps they feel they need a year to relocate, plan, hire and create new talk concepts.

Que pasa de los NY Yankees e Rickie Ricardo? (in other words, what's gonna happen with the NY Yankees broadcasts in Spanish - and Rickie Ricardo?)

 

[TheBigA]

Que pasa de los NY Yankees e Rickie Ricardo? (in other words, what's gonna happen with the NY Yankees broadcasts in Spanish - and Rickie Ricardo?)

They have a year to figure out what's more important: Making money or pushing an agenda. Personally I think they can do both, but the problem with an ownership consortium is getting everyone to agree. So my guess is between now and then they'll realize that they have very reliable revenue by staying with sports.

 

[AceBiscuits]

Que pasa de los NY Yankees e Rickie Ricardo? (in other words, what's gonna happen with the NY Yankees broadcasts in Spanish - and Rickie Ricardo?)

The Spanish-language broadcasts are produced for WADO by Audacy, and I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure Rickie is employed by Audacy. They could end up moving to another station (96.3) if the rights don’t get transferred during the ownership changeover.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

They have a year to figure out what's more important: Making money or pushing an agenda. Personally I think they can do both, but the problem with an ownership consortium is getting everyone to agree.

Hopefully they made a business plan before spending $60 million, instead of after.

 

[davideduardo]

Hopefully they made a business plan before spending $60 million, instead of after.

They have no currently or recently active and successful Spanish language radio or new media people in management or on the "advisory" board (which I presume will be a conventional Board of Directors after closing). There is no news within the Spanish language radio sector of any interviews or hiring of knowledgeable people.

I am guessing that the strategy is to have a raison d'etre and to build the structure around it afterwards; sort of like buying a piece of real estate and then deciding on an architect and building design later. When I was a GM for Metroplex, we did an annual evaluation by the manager of each station based on where we fit in the market and how that was the best option for our resources. The idea was not just to stay on our rails, but to be on the right track.

It's obvious from the statements of from the buyers that there is a very big sociopolitical objective and there is no mention of how satisfying that goal will produce a profit. So this is very much a "time will tell" situation. Until we see who will run the day to day operations and programming, no opinion can really be reached... although guessing is a lot of fun.

 

[davideduardo]

They have a year to figure out what's more important: Making money or pushing an agenda. Personally I think they can do both, but the problem with an ownership consortium is getting everyone to agree. So my guess is between now and then they'll realize that they have very reliable revenue by staying with sports.

Of course, that does not explain the three Fresno FMs, the two Las Vegas FMs, the essentially useless Dallas rimshot, the LRGV FMs and the second AM in Miami.

To be effective they would need to build out beyond those stations and markets.

And the Air America experience in progressive talk and news and the failure of a whole handful of national Spanish language talk networks is going to make finding viable affiliates hard. Their only strategy there is either to buy or to guarantee income to stations that are currently losing money. That means LMA agreements and not affiliation deals.

And they have more like a year and a half to build a concept and formats: they look for a closing in Q4 and then there is a 12 month deal with Univision to keep programming the operations. That also gives them a long period to build an operations team.