WBLS Sale Appears Likely

[davideduardo]

I am looking at from a black perspective and a better job reaching both the older and younger demographic groups with a full-service rather than a limited 'adult contemporary' urban format.

"Full Service" in an era of targeted, specialized media means pleasing no one fully, and giving everyone the choice of going to a station that is closer to their core preferences.

"Full service" is like the original Model T: any color as long as it's black.

Your can't serve everyone the same dish today.

 

[kilamanjero]

I am looking at from a black perspective and a better job reaching both the older and younger demographic groups with a full-service rather than a limited 'adult contemporary' urban format.

"Full Service" in an era of targeted, specialized media means pleasing no one fully, and giving everyone the choice of going to a station that is closer to their core preferences.

"Full service" is like the original Model T: any color as long as it's black.

Your can't serve everyone the same dish today.

It all depends on how that 'full service" is programmed. You can't judge all full-service urban contemporary stations by the same barometer. Some are relics of the past that are just lucky to be the only game in town; whereas, others keep up and set the trends for their market. I've heard too many disgruntle urban music listeners from various age groups in this market to know Kiss, Hot 97, UAC-version of WBLS, and Power 105.1 are 'all over the place' not in a good way.

 

[Rusty Muck]

News/Talk will do well on FM in New York if it's mostly live and local. Moving WOR or WABC to FM with all their boring, syndicated programming won't help their demos or ratings. A reinvented WOR on FM, with mostly local NY area oriented programming would be very successful and rejuvenate the WOR brand. Where's Bonneville when we need them?

Bonneville now operates in just Salt Lake (d/b/a fellow LDS arm The Deseret News), Phoenix, Seattle and Los Angeles. They unloaded most of their stations - including WTOP - to Hubbard Radio early last year. So it's a moot point.

The WOR calls are all but dead. You can't reinvent them just like Randy Micheals failed to revitalize WGN in Chicago (although, to be fair, WGN is a standalone AM signal, but it too caters to the 55-dead demos). WABC could be reborn if they had better ownership and a solid commitment to live/local programming, neither of which is on the horizon.

 

[radioguy39nj]

News/Talk will do well on FM in New York if it's mostly live and local. Moving WOR or WABC to FM with all their boring, syndicated programming won't help their demos or ratings. A reinvented WOR on FM, with mostly local NY area oriented programming would be very successful and rejuvenate the WOR brand. Where's Bonneville when we need them?

Bonneville now operates in just Salt Lake (d/b/a fellow LDS arm The Deseret News), Phoenix, Seattle and Los Angeles. They unloaded most of their stations - including WTOP - to Hubbard Radio early last year. So it's a moot point.

The WOR calls are all but dead. You can't reinvent them just like Randy Micheals failed to revitalize WGN in Chicago (although, to be fair, WGN is a standalone AM signal, but it too caters to the 55-dead demos). WABC could be reborn if they had better ownership and a solid commitment to live/local programming, neither of which is on the horizon.

I'm aware Bonneville now operates exclusively in the west. I just admire and respect how they took heritage AM brands and sucessfully migrated them to FM. Might Hubbard possibly want in to the New York market?

WOR will be adding Dave Ramsey to their evening lineup this week. I doubt Ramsey will draw big numbers in NY. The move will do nothing to resurrect the WOR brand. It might even do further damage.

Forget WABC! Cumulus has it just the way it wants it, a 50 kW non-D blaster in market #1. It's disgraceful that this is what passees for talk radio in NYC.

 

[Barry]

We may find out next month the fate of WBLS/WLIB, and the other Inner City stations.
Evidently the 2 options are to purchase Inner City in its entirety, or just KBLX, in San Francisco. Bids are due on February 13.

http://www.radio-info.com/news/bids-on-inner-city-stations-are-due-february-13.

 

[TonySantiago]

Whoever buys these stations, I HOPE that they leave them alone.

'BLS and 'LIB mean TOO MUCH for the African-American heritage. It's not just the music. It's the personalities, it's the people, it's how they reach out to the communities. In this day and age where it seems to be about commercialism and just "playing the music", for 'BLS and 'LIB to do what they have been doing is remarkable .

Yes I want a dance station badly but in the case of a BLS and LIB....LEAVE THEM ALONE

 

[WNTIRadio]

Isn't this the same company that LMA'ed WLIB to Air America a few years back?

I see they really cared about the African American community when they did that. Like any company, they cared about a marginal AM property contributing to the bottom line.

And I don't see a new company leaving things alone, since the way things were got the present company into a heaping mound of debt. Obviously, things are going to change at least somewhat in the operations of the stations.

 

[xmusicmatt]

Sell WBLS to EMF .. Then move KLove to there.. and put Air1 on 96.7 --- ok I am gonna hush up now =)

 

[TonySantiago]

And I don't see a new company leaving things alone, since the way things were got the present company into a heaping mound of debt. Obviously, things are going to change at least somewhat in the operations of the stations.

Granted, new management is going to operate things as they are used to. I just hope that the format stays intact or at the very least get tweaked musically but remain strong in serving the African/Caribbean-American communities in NYC.

 

[JerseyDude]

February 13th is almost here. Sale time.

 

[badjef]

Chances are very likely WBLS and 'LIB are not going to stay as they are. If they were as profitable as they need to be, Innercity probably would not be in the shape it's in.

I'd be curious, in the PPM world, if 'BLS and 'LIB are still "weighted".

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[davideduardo]

Chances are very likely WBLS and 'LIB are not going to stay as they are. If they were as profitable as they need to be, Innercity probably would not be in the shape it's in.

I'd be curious, in the PPM world, if 'BLS and 'LIB are still "weighted".

A panel survey has no weighting in theory. In practice, as not every panelist participates every single day, there is very slight weighting.

Individual stations are not weighted. Never have been, never are today.

Weighting is simply a process of making a statistical sample proportional to the actual population. If the population is 52% women and 48% men, but the sample is exactly 50-50, then men will be weighted down roughly 4% and women weighted up. Thus the sample exactly reflects the universe.

When we speak about "Black weighting" or "Hispanic weighting" what we are really saying is that African Americans and Hispanics are among the stratification variables in a sample... the sample must match the actual population. Similarly, yet somehow not frequently mentioned, there is geographical weighting. If a county or borough is, for example, 8% of the total market, but gets 10% of the sample, it will be weighted down; geography is also a stratification variable as are age, gender, income levels, etc.

In the end, with each subset being forced, by weighting, into proportionality, the total sample better reflects the actual market on all counts.

Oh, and Inner City's issues were debt service. Were the debt not so onerous, they would be throwing off nice cash flows in NY.

 

[badjef]

Chances are very likely WBLS and 'LIB are not going to stay as they are. If they were as profitable as they need to be, Innercity probably would not be in the shape it's in.

I'd be curious, in the PPM world, if 'BLS and 'LIB are still "weighted".

Oh, and Inner City's issues were debt service. Were the debt not so onerous, they would be throwing off nice cash flows in NY.

Did that "debt service" occur as a result of the purchase and deflowering of WOWO. And the subsequent upgrade to WLIB? Or was it another problem?

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta?

 

[Barry]

The Radio-Info home page is reporting that WBLS & WLIB MD/Production Director Brown HornHit "is no longer handling those duties."
I wonder whether his leaving those positions is a cost cutting measure related to the expected sale of the Inner City radio stations.

 

[davideduardo]

Did that "debt service" occur as a result of the purchase and deflowering of WOWO. And the subsequent upgrade to WLIB? Or was it another problem?

Inner City bought WOWO and WOWO-FM for $2.3 million in '94. They changed the technical facilty, and sold the AM and FM separately the same year for $1.9 million.

The $400 k loss is pocket change, if you consider WBLS grosses that much a week.

 

[badjef]

Did that "debt service" occur as a result of the purchase and deflowering of WOWO. And the subsequent upgrade to WLIB? Or was it another problem?

Inner City bought WOWO and WOWO-FM for $2.3 million in '94. They changed the technical facilty, and sold the AM and FM separately the same year for $1.9 million.

The $400 k loss is pocket change, if you consider WBLS grosses that much a week.

I was thinking of the engineering logistics, along with the downgrade of one facility and upgrade of the other facility. Each step of the way, they had to dish out the cash and the attorneys fee to make it all look pretty to our friends at the appointed place in D.C.

P.s. I wouldn't mind carrying around that pocket change...

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[davideduardo]

I was thinking of the engineering logistics, along with the downgrade of one facility and upgrade of the other facility. Each step of the way, they had to dish out the cash and the attorneys fee to make it all look pretty to our friends at the appointed place in D.C.

The costs were probably in a very manageable zone considering what at the time a fulltimer in NY was worth, and in any case was probably paid off nearly immediately. Even at 4 or 5 million with land, directional proofs, towers, engineering, it's not a lot compared to the debt Inner City was defaulting on.

 

[badjef]

I was thinking of the engineering logistics, along with the downgrade of one facility and upgrade of the other facility. Each step of the way, they had to dish out the cash and the attorneys fee to make it all look pretty to our friends at the appointed place in D.C.

The costs were probably in a very manageable zone considering what at the time a fulltimer in NY was worth, and in any case was probably paid off nearly immediately. Even at 4 or 5 million with land, directional proofs, towers, engineering, it's not a lot compared to the debt Inner City was defaulting on.

Then if it wasn't radio-related, what was Innercity's other business that took down the profitability of their radio stations to a point that they had to liquidate the profitable arm of the company?

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[TimeIsTight]

Then if it wasn't radio-related, what was Innercity's other business that took down the profitability of their radio stations to a point that they had to liquidate the profitable arm of the company?

It had to be radio related since Inner City has been in only the radio business since 2006 when it sold most of its investments outside of radio. It still owns a total of 17 radio stations.

What happened appears to be the equivalent of somebody going out and living high on the hog on their credit card, and then not being able to pay the bill, or switch the balance to another card when the payment is overdue.

According to press reports, the lenders say Inner City didn't make any payments on its debt for two years. Like with a credit card, when the bills weren't paid on time the fees and interest started to add up. The debt started at $197-million and is now around $250-million.

The lenders say they made a deal for a pre-packaged Chapter-11 reorganization, but that Inner City Chairman Pepe Sutton, who controlled 49% of the voting power at the company, backed out of that deal. The lenders then filed with the court to force the company into bankruptcy. There are too many details after that to get into here, but, as has been well noted above, the cost of the WOWO deal was long ago pocket change that probably had no impact on the bankruptcy situation.

 

[davideduardo]

Then if it wasn't radio-related, what was Innercity's other business that took down the profitability of their radio stations to a point that they had to liquidate the profitable arm of the company?

All I said was that the current issues have to do, as has been explained, with other debt. The approximately $250 million in debt does not come from some minor technical costs nearly 20 years ago.

The root cause of the problem is that Inner City expanded via debt-financed station purchases, couldn't make enough to pay for them, did not cut expenses enough, and then kept trying to refinance, sometimes capitalizing the missed interest payments.

The debt comes from radio... I don't know why you think it is not radio related... and it is probably 100 times what the minor matter of upgrading WLIB cost. Further, the WLIB upgrade was likely, even if capitalized, amortized before we were more than a few years into the 21st Century. Many stations have to make transmitter moves or are faced with a major rebuild of a transmitter site, and it does not bankrupt them. All we are talking about with WOWO is a purchase, followed by a downgrade of the signal, and then a resale at almost the same price plus some relatively simple re-engineering costs.

You say "the part that was profitable" but the issue is that while there may have been some decent cash flows from operations, there was not enough to pay down the debt. Sort of like having the money to pay the water and electric, but not the mortgage.