WGN/TRIBUNE SHOULD BUY THE CHICAGO EMMIS STATIONS

[OldChicago]

There was some talk in another thread about the Chicago Emmis stations
(WKQX/WLUP) could be up for grabs. I think this would be the perfect
time for WGN to to get an FM station in Chicago. Does anyone know...
are the Emmis stations loosing money ?


OldChicago

 

[radioguy39nj]

Emmis is in trouble in other markets as well. Rumors are flying in New York regarding rocker WRXP. For two years, speculation has been rampant that it will be flipped to ESPN.

To my knowledge, Tribune cannot buy an FM station in Chicago. WGN could definitely benefit from either a migration to or a simulcast on FM, but from what I know, that can't happen as long as Tribune owns it.

 

[dave73]

Tribune would have to sell the Chicago Tribune in order to buy the Emmis's stations. WGN-TV/AM & the Chicago Tribune are granfathered in, since they got a waiver to keep the newspaper, radio, & TV station. Had Sam Zell not bought Tribune Company, there wouldn't have ben anything to worry about, except that they still couldn't have bought the Emmis stations, due to owning the Chicago Tribune. Remember, Tribune Company nearly lost WGN-AM & I believe TV too, due to Sam Zell buying Tribune, & lost their grandfathered status on all 3. Tribune had to sell their other radio stations in other markets due to not being able to get a waiver on those stations (only in markets where they also owned a newspaper).

 

[secondchoice]

Tribune would have to sell the Chicago Tribune in order to buy the Emmis's stations. WGN-TV/AM & the Chicago Tribune are granfathered in, since they got a waiver to keep the newspaper, radio, & TV station. Had Sam Zell not bought Tribune Company, there wouldn't have ben anything to worry about, except that they still couldn't have bought the Emmis stations, due to owning the Chicago Tribune. Remember, Tribune Company nearly lost WGN-AM & I believe TV too, due to Sam Zell buying Tribune, & lost their grandfathered status on all 3. Tribune had to sell their other radio stations in other markets due to not being able to get a waiver on those stations (only in markets where they also owned a newspaper).

Tribune could and should use the same legal approach as Cox has in Atlanta. Hell Cox has the only daily newspaper with any circulation to speak of. Chicago has the Trib. and the Sun Times. Back in the day, Cox was grandfathered too with the news papers (they had both papers at the time: Atlanta Journal in the afternoon and the Consitution for the AM, Channel 2 and WSB am & FM too. Now Cox has managed to ad 97.1, 104.1, and 95.5 in the last 10 or twelve years.

 

[Kent]

While Cox has managed to add additional radio stations to its Atlanta radio/TV/newspaper combo, it's a much different situation than any proposed Tribune/Emmis combination. If my memory serves me correctly, the only station that Cox had any real fits buying post Telecommunications Act of '96 was 97.1.

When New City Communications sold WYAY/WYAI in '93, Cox was denied an outright purchase of 104.1 due to ownership concentration concerns. It was due to the total market share Cox was getting. That stick was nearly 60 miles from downtown Atlanta and didn't put enough of a signal over Atlanta to create overlap issues with the Journal Constitution. Cox has been trying to backdoor it closer into Atlanta ever since they were allowed to go ahead and buy it roughly 15 years ago.

95.5 was also backdoored into Atlanta. When Cox bought it, it was an Athens station. Even after recent upgrades, it doesn't put enough of a signal into Atlanta to raise newspaper/radio crossownership issues.

I believe Cox was able to sneak 97.1 into its portfolio after getting several temporary waivers and getting a permanent one in 2003 after the FCC changed its ownership rules. They actually bought 104.7, the former WALR, from Midwestern Communications about 10 years ago and decided not to try to get further waivers. They sold it to Salem and moved its programming to 104.1.

A Tribune/Emmis deal would add two radio stations right in the center of town to an existing radio/TV/newspaper cluster. That's not likely to be allowed under the current administration.

 

[davideduardo]

Tribune had to sell their other radio stations in other markets due to not being able to get a waiver on those stations (only in markets where they also owned a newspaper).[/color]

Tribune has never been a radio company, other than the heritage WGN.

Over the last 25 years, they had:

WICC in Bridgeport which they sold, IIRC, under no pressure other than not really being committed to radio ownership.

KESI and FMs in Denver, which went away after quite a few years of ownership.

WQCD in NY, which they had owned for a while but which became "worth selling" post-consolidation.

Sacramento, which stations they had for a while (even named on KGNR) and seem to have sold when they got a good offer.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Tribune has never been a radio company, other than the heritage WGN.

Eons ago Tribune had an FM station in Chicago, WGNB, first on 45.9 MHz (in the old original FM band) which was moved to 98.7 in 1948. WGNB was shut down in 1953, and WFMT took over the frequency the next year (moving from 105.9.)

Tribune actually owned WFMT for a few years in the late 60's/early 70's before donating the station to WTTW.

Interesting history of WGN is here: http://67.162.73.47/public/zecom/museum/Chiradhist/wgn.htm

 

[Kent]

Tribune has never been a radio company, other than the heritage WGN.

Over the last 25 years, they had:

WICC in Bridgeport which they sold, IIRC, under no pressure other than not really being committed to radio ownership.

KESI and FMs in Denver, which went away after quite a few years of ownership.

WQCD in NY, which they had owned for a while but which became "worth selling" post-consolidation.

Sacramento, which stations they had for a while (even named on KGNR) and seem to have sold when they got a good offer.

While I'm not sure about Bridgeport, I know Tribune did some swapping with some of their radio stations. They swapped Sacramento to Henry Broadcasting for what was KVOD 99.5 in Denver. I believe Emmis bought a TV station, which they then swapped to Tribune for WQCD, though I'm hard-pressed to remember which one. Denver, however, may have been an outright sale. I'm not thinking Entercom bought any TV to swap them.

Tribune used all of its radio stations other than WGN to augment their TV side. As you've mentioned, Tribune never was very committed to radio. They used their stations effectively as chess pieces, but that's about it.

 

[davideduardo]

Tribune has never been a radio company, other than the heritage WGN.

Eons ago Tribune had an FM station in Chicago, WGNB first on 45.9 MHz (in the old original FM band) which was moved to 98.7 in 1948.

WGNB (originally W59C), moved from the old channel to the new band somewhere between late 1945 and early 1946 and was on 98.9 following the move. The theoretical changeover end date was January, 1946 or earlier.

 

[secondchoice]

While Cox has managed to add additional radio stations to its Atlanta radio/TV/newspaper combo, it's a much different situation than any proposed Tribune/Emmis combination. If my memory serves me correctly, the only station that Cox had any real fits buying post Telecommunications Act of '96 was 97.1.

When New City Communications sold WYAY/WYAI in '93, Cox was denied an outright purchase of 104.1 due to ownership concentration concerns. It was due to the total market share Cox was getting. That stick was nearly 60 miles from downtown Atlanta and didn't put enough of a signal over Atlanta to create overlap issues with the Journal Constitution. Cox has been trying to backdoor it closer into Atlanta ever since they were allowed to go ahead and buy it roughly 15 years ago.

95.5 was also backdoored into Atlanta. When Cox bought it, it was an Athens station. Even after recent upgrades, it doesn't put enough of a signal into Atlanta to raise newspaper/radio crossownership issues.

I believe Cox was able to sneak 97.1 into its portfolio after getting several temporary waivers and getting a permanent one in 2003 after the FCC changed its ownership rules. They actually bought 104.7, the former WALR, from Midwestern Communications about 10 years ago and decided not to try to get further waivers. They sold it to Salem and moved its programming to 104.1.

A Tribune/Emmis deal would add two radio stations right in the center of town to an existing radio/TV/newspaper cluster. That's not likely to be allowed under the current administration.

They have figured out how to “back door pretty good! Cox has a CP to move 104.1's COL to Palmetto GA which gives them a pretty good signal in most of the Atlanta market:

http://www.radio-locator.com/info/WALR-FM .

Rumor has it they are going to be able to move 95.5 to the old Channel 2 tower in town, because 95.5 WSBB’s COL is now Doraville GA., inside the Interstate 285 perimeter. The 97.1 tower (which use to be and still might be the tallest man made structure in Georgia) gives them a good mono signal on the North side of the Atlanta market which is the “conservative”side of town which matches the News Talk demographic of WSB which they now simulcast with:

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WSBB&service=FM&status=L&hours=U.

The amazing part of this: the Cox heirs are general perceived as “Democratic” but the 97.1 deal happened under the Bush administration. Also there are TWO newspapers in Chicago, Atlanta has only one. None of the other operators in (CC, CBS, Cumulus) have been able able to stop them.

Back to WGN:

IMHO What really needs to happen at Tribune is to split the company into two separate companies: print and broadcast companies.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Rumor has it they are going to be able to move 95.5 to the old Channel 2 tower in town, because 95.5 WSBB’s COL is now Doraville GA., inside the Interstate 285 perimeter. The 97.1 tower (which use to be and still might be the tallest man made structure in Georgia) gives them a good mono signal on the North side of the Atlanta market which is the “conservative”side of town which matches the News Talk demographic of WSB which they now simulcast with:

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WSBB&service=FM&status=L&hours=U.

Don't forget that the now-WSBB/95.5 also broadcasts in mono to complement WSB. That alone eliminates even more of the fringe issues for the station around the Atlanta metro.

Back to WGN:

IMHO What really needs to happen at Tribune is to split the company into two separate companies: print and broadcast companies.

They should (or the TV division should just merge with Local TV LLC already and get it over with), but I seriously doubt that will ever happen.