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What About Emmis' WQHT?

B

Barry

Now that Emmis' has ceded control of two of its stations in New York, the only one that it still programs is WQHT, Hot 97. In the press release about leasing Kiss FM to ESPN, Emmis cited the negative effect of PPM on earnings from the station.
The same could be true for WQHT. It could also be adversely affected by PPM, as many urban stations have been. And Emmis could still have financial issues. Furthermore its rival WWPR, Power 105, is getting ratings that are roughly equivalent to that of Hot 97. And unlike WQHT, Power is not a standalone station in the market. It is a part of a very successful 5 station cluster run by Clear Channel.
All this leads me to wonder whether it seems likely that Emmis may throw in the towel in New York, and eventually make WQHT available too, for sale or a lease arrangement. They could then sell its intellectual property to Clear Channel for use on Power 105.
Prior to today, this could have seemed far-fetched, as Hot 97 is at or near the top with the young demos. But after today's news, this possibility may be worth considering.
 
All this leads me to wonder whether it seems likely that Emmis may throw in the towel in New York, and eventually make WQHT available too, for sale or a lease arrangement.
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It seems like Emmis is in rather serious financial straights and is making these moves to keep its financial head above water as a company.

As with the sudden demise of Kiss, which had good ratings, what's going on here is not about how well the stations are doing, its about how much money the corporate office needs to pay the bill collectors next week.

Without pouring through lots of financial data, the hints from the stock market are not positive. Emmis stock trades around a dollar a share, and the stock market values the company (market cap) at about $38-million. That is for a company that owns a couple of dozen radio stations, many in big markets like New York and LA. All this means that the stock market types who have done their homework have little faith in the company and don't see a bright future on the immediate horizon.

Today's sudden death of Kiss was a big surprise, debt and other financial problems may cause more surprises from Emmis in the future and, at this point, even the insiders don't know, for sure, what's next.
 
My prayers are with the people being let go from 98.7 with this merger im sure something good will come to them in time

on the other hand if hot 97 wants to survive they need to change the sound up a bit they sound like they are stuck in the year 1997 get with the times its 2012
 
On air at least, no one is losing their job. Joyner and Baisden (syndicated talent on Kiss) won't be coming over. The midday woman from Kiss will take the same shift at WBLS, replacing Egypt Sherrod, who left for Atlanta a couple of months ago. The night guy at Kiss will replace the syndicated "Sweat Hotel" on BLS. Some part-timers and sales folks may not make the transition though.
 
I don't understand why they merged these two stations they don't even have the same format! It just doesn't seem to make sense. Why not just put ESPN on 107.5? 98.7 has been fine where it was for years!
 
I'd say we now know that the store is open for business, and Emmis is accepting all offers. My bet is that QHT will be LMA'd soon. By the way, the FCC long ago ruled that LMAs count against ownership cap, so CC or CBS can't LMA their way around ownership limits.
 
XCountry285 said:
I don't understand why they merged these two stations they don't even have the same format! It just doesn't seem to make sense. Why not just put ESPN on 107.5? 98.7 has been fine where it was for years!
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The two stations were not "merged." One station simply changed format, and the other, WBLS, continues in its same format; hiring a good talent from the disappearing format is not a "merger."
 
XCountry285 said:
Why aren't they calling it 107.5 Kiss FM?
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Probably because they do not have the rights to use the trademarked "Kiss" station name.
 
But WBLS did purchase the "intellectual property" of WRKS (for whatever that's worth) and the two stations are obviously working together through this transfer process, including a shadowcast and their websites being merged.
 
XCountry285 said:
Why aren't they calling it 107.5 Kiss FM?
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WBLS is a heritage station in New York and with Inner City was much more influencial and active in the community than WRKS was.
There are few in New York that do not know WBLS.

While I'm sad to see KISS go, WBLS in terms of a heritage station would have been a bigger loss.
 
Hot 97 may not be around much longer given Emmis' financial situation. We all know CC and CBS are maxed and cannot acquire 97.1. Is Cumulus (perish that thought!) in a position to purchase? How about Entercom? ???
 
Cumulus is still trying to sell some its stations from the preivous owners. Entercom could be a possible buyer after they just purchased KBLX in SF.
 
Mike said:
... If Hot 97 wants to survive, they need to change the sound up a bit. They sound like they are stuck in the year 1997. Get with the times; it's 2012.
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Likewise, if when WFAN moves to FM, they too need to change their sound up - their imaging sounds like they're stuck in the year 1987!
 
Back in the 90's WBLS used to be called "Power 107.5 WBLS", although I don't recall exactly when they dropped the "Power" moniker. Obviously that is no longer an option as we have Power 105. With the acquisition of the Kiss talent, I think they should use it as an opportunity to create new imaging, while still keeping the WBLS calls. "107.5 WBLS" sounds so mundane. Maybe something like "Magiq 107.5" similar to Atlanta.
 
radioguy39nj said:
Hot 97 may not be around much longer given Emmis' financial situation. We all know CC and CBS are maxed and cannot acquire 97.1. Is Cumulus (perish that thought!) in a position to purchase? How about Entercom? ???
Click to expand...
WQHT is now a standalone property in NY under Emmis, but the same can be said for its west coast counterpart KPWR in LA in a matter of time. Emmis is set to sell KXOS there for that reason, so basically while the owners are going from clusters to standalones in the two big radio markets (while keeping clusters in Indy and Austin), it seems like Emmis wanted to hold on to its flagship rhythmic stations as much as possible due to their heritage.
 
If I worked at any Emmis station right now I would be keeping my options open... and getting my resume and air check in shape.

Kiss is no real loss, so much of it was syndicated fare. When you syndicate AM and PM drive on a music station in NYC, you've given up anyway. The ratings loss isn't PPM's fault, it's the lack of good programming on Kiss' fault.

The "new" WBLS will be more local than either station was before, so really, it's a win for local programming.
 
ansky212 said:
Back in the 90's WBLS used to be called "Power 107.5 WBLS", although I don't recall exactly when they dropped the "Power" moniker. Obviously that is no longer an option as we have Power 105. With the acquisition of the Kiss talent, I think they should use it as an opportunity to create new imaging, while still keeping the WBLS calls. "107.5 WBLS" sounds so mundane. Maybe something like "Magiq 107.5" similar to Atlanta.
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although I lived in Europe through most of the 90's I don't remember WBLS ever being Power 107.5 WBLS and I followed urban radio in NY pretty closely. Do you remember what years they might have used that moniker? I tried to find it online but couldn't find anything.
I know PLJ used to use the Power 95.5 moniker back in the late 80's when they were more top 40 and competing with Z100 but obviously they dropped that a long time ago.
Other than that I don't think Power has ever been used in NYC.

In this day and age using call letters as a moniker for a station is rather lame but rebranding WBLS might be a risk. Everybody in New York has heard of WBLS since it's such a heritage station and the last thing you want to do when trying to gain listeners from another heritage station like KISS is rebrand into something unknown especially for the age group that fits their demographic.
 
WNTIRadio said:
If I worked at any Emmis station right now I would be keeping my options open... and getting my resume and air check in shape.

Kiss is no real loss, so much of it was syndicated fare. When you syndicate AM and PM drive on a music station in NYC, you've given up anyway. The ratings loss isn't PPM's fault, it's the lack of good programming on Kiss' fault.

The "new" WBLS will be more local than either station was before, so really, it's a win for local programming.
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welll actually in the last few books WRKS did better than BLS so I'm not sure syndication is the actual reason. Nonetheless you can't beat local programming which is a dying breed. Hopefully BLS will introduce more community based programming with local talent.
 
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