What happens to WGN Radio?

[Fenway1912]

With Clear Channel buying WOR-710 in New York it indicates they are willing to spend for a quality AM signal.

My gut says Clear Channel will go after WGN but I won't rule out Merlin.

In any event I doubt AM and TV will wind up with same ownership.

 

[secondchoice]

Tribune is in the process of getting out of bankruptcy. There is an amazing amount of paper work in any Bankruptcy. Some of the paper work still might not be finished but they court has accepted a plan so it is just a matter of public notices and filings. If there is an asset sale the bankruptcy judge will not be invoked. I am not privy to the WGN radio billings but I suspect they are higher than WOR's. Tribune has One Radio station 720, and a several TV stations. If I were running Tribune, I would sell 720 and concentrate on TV. I think there are at least 3 potential buyers: Cumulus, CC, and Merlin. What would 10 times 720's cash flow be? I bet it would be more than $25 million.

 

[L Mays]

With Clear Channel buying WOR-710 in New York it indicates they are willing to spend for a quality AM signal.

My gut says Clear Channel will go after WGN but I won't rule out Merlin.

In any event I doubt AM and TV will wind up with same ownership.

Clear Channel went after WOR because of the price. Cheap.

 

[Fenway1912]

With Clear Channel buying WOR-710 in New York it indicates they are willing to spend for a quality AM signal.

My gut says Clear Channel will go after WGN but I won't rule out Merlin.

In any event I doubt AM and TV will wind up with same ownership.

Clear Channel went after WOR because of the price. Cheap.

They just paid $14M for a Class A FM with a terrible signal in Boston
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WHBA&service=FM&status=L&hours=U

If the bean counters in Texas figure they are better off moving Rush and friends off WLS to WGN they might go after it.

I also think it is quite possible Tribune sells off the TV division and just keeps 720 as is.

 

[Arbitorn]

It's also possible that "Tribune," or the new owners (rather than the old guard) sell off the newspapers and keep the broadcasting. Which would you rather have: a bunch of anti-change dinosaurs riding the print media into oblivion or the potential of manageable overhead in 23 TV stations? Keep WGN if they can get the waiver (much easier without the newspaper, too) or sell itand stick with TV.

 

[schmave]

If Tribune selling WGN America means that station changes its philosophy and emphasizes its connection to Chicago again, I am all for it.
Otherwise, Clear Channel buying WGN scares the heck out of me. You don't find the local emphasis and all-live and local programming WGN brings just anywhere.

 

[williamb3]

That prospect scares me, too. WGN may be the best news/talk station in America--because it's almost all local; they have a strong news committment; a variety of different talkers with different voices; and it's not all politics. None of the chains mentioned as possible buyers will likely continue that, but CC in particular will ruin WGN. It'll be reduced to sounding like every other CC talk station, and that's not good.

 

[davideduardo]

That prospect scares me, too. WGN may be the best news/talk station in America--because it's almost all local;

The problem is that nearly no one under 55 is listening. They have worse demos than a newspaper! They are now consistently below 20th in that major sales demo even in baseball months.

There is no way to sustain the current programming in the long run; WGN still sells nicely based on heritage and inertia. But billings are off, in percentage, much more than the Chicago market has declined due to the recession and they continue to slip.

 

[Dr Wayne]

Thank You Dave FOR YOUR GREAT INSIGHTS!

 

[KeithE4]

The problem is that nearly no one under 55 is listening. They have worse demos than a newspaper! They are now consistently below 20th in that major sales demo even in baseball months.

When did WGN ever have many listeners younger than 55 other than for sports? They just get a new generation of geezers as the older geezers die off. In the '60s and '70s, they listened to Wally Phillips and Roy Leonard. Now, it's '80s-relics Jonathon Brandmeir and Gary Meier.

 

[uncamark]

The problem is that nearly no one under 55 is listening. They have worse demos than a newspaper! They are now consistently below 20th in that major sales demo even in baseball months.

When did WGN ever have many listeners younger than 55 other than for sports? They just get a new generation of geezers as the older geezers die off. In the '60s and '70s, they listened to Wally Phillips and Roy Leonard. Now, it's '80s-relics Jonathon Brandmeir and Gary Meier.

The dividing line probably was 40 decades ago and 30 in the late 60s when the ad agencies started jumping into young demos with both feet. Before then, 'GN sold on 12+--and it seems to me that in the 50s, they had teen-oriented shows at night that played rock before they "banned" it by the end of the 50s. (WJJD was considered the first Top 40 station in Chicago, but I don't know when they went Top 40--they were country by the mid-60s.) Back when Steve Dahl was making fun of Wally in 1979-80, the music programming on 'GN had already become more AC-sounding and I would guess that when 'GN execs would say that people came to the station at a "certain age," that it was around 35. The problem for 'GN is that somewhere around the time that Dahl returned to the Loop with Brandmeier and Matthews, the 35-year-olds had stopped coming to WGN and were sticking with the rock or pop stations they'd been with.

 

[davideduardo]

The problem is that nearly no one under 55 is listening. They have worse demos than a newspaper! They are now consistently below 20th in that major sales demo even in baseball months.

When did WGN ever have many listeners younger than 55 other than for sports? They just get a new generation of geezers as the older geezers die off. In the '60s and '70s, they listened to Wally Phillips and Roy Leonard. Now, it's '80s-relics Jonathon Brandmeir and Gary Meier.

For reference, WGN was #1 in 25-54 in Spring 1980, followed by WLS and FM 100. What killed WGN for younger demos was the move to FM and then the PPM.

 

[howardm]

The problem is that nearly no one under 55 is listening. They have worse demos than a newspaper! They are now consistently below 20th in that major sales demo even in baseball months.

When did WGN ever have many listeners younger than 55 other than for sports? They just get a new generation of geezers as the older geezers die off. In the '60s and '70s, they listened to Wally Phillips and Roy Leonard. Now, it's '80s-relics Jonathon Brandmeir and Gary Meier.

WJJD went top 40 in 1956 as I have surveys, Carmen Anthony, Sid Roberts, Cy Nelson, Del Clark were among the jocks. Of course they were killed by WLS going top 40 in 1960
The dividing line probably was 40 decades ago and 30 in the late 60s when the ad agencies started jumping into young demos with both feet. Before then, 'GN sold on 12+--and it seems to me that in the 50s, they had teen-oriented shows at night that played rock before they "banned" it by the end of the 50s. (WJJD was considered the first Top 40 station in Chicago, but I don't know when they went Top 40--they were country by the mid-60s.) Back when Steve Dahl was making fun of Wally in 1979-80, the music programming on 'GN had already become more AC-sounding and I would guess that when 'GN execs would say that people came to the station at a "certain age," that it was around 35. The problem for 'GN is that somewhere around the time that Dahl returned to the Loop with Brandmeier and Matthews, the 35-year-olds had stopped coming to WGN and were sticking with the rock or pop stations they'd been with.

 

[uncamark]

The problem is that nearly no one under 55 is listening. They have worse demos than a newspaper! They are now consistently below 20th in that major sales demo even in baseball months.

When did WGN ever have many listeners younger than 55 other than for sports? They just get a new generation of geezers as the older geezers die off. In the '60s and '70s, they listened to Wally Phillips and Roy Leonard. Now, it's '80s-relics Jonathon Brandmeir and Gary Meier.

For reference, WGN was #1 in 25-54 in Spring 1980, followed by WLS and FM 100. What killed WGN for younger demos was the move to FM and then the PPM.

That sounds about right. Steve and Garry's power demo (and the Loop's power demo) was 18-34--probably, to be more honest, 16-24 men. It seems to me that the Loop was the first AOR to be big in any kind of teen demos, thanks to Steve and Garry and Lee Abrams' decision to dump Loggins and Messina and James Taylor for Black Sabbath and AC/DC. So much so that shortly after Disco Demolition, Gehron at WLS dumped the JAM "Dance to the Music" jingle package and the marginal disco songs and replaced them with hard rock album cuts and a Gary Gears sweeper: "WLS Chicago--RULES ROCK AND ROLL!"

And 10 years later, when the Steve and Garry audience was according to WGN's belief supposed to become adults and make the switch to Uncle Bobby and Roy, they instead stuck with Steve and Garry and Brandmeier and Matthews at the Loop. The beginning of the end for 'GN.