Will Oldies 98.9 be next?

[DavidZ]

With Citadel flipping affiliates around the country to Imus in the morning followed by Scott Shannon’s True Oldies Channel the remainder of the day. Will Citadel’s WORC-FM Oldies 98.9 in the Worcester market be the next to switch?

From a purely business standpoint it would make sense especially with Citadel in a major cost-cutting mode. They made the move yesterday in Providence when Citadel Broadcasting told employees it would be changing formats on “The Score” — WSKO AM and FM. Apparently the AM side will be Imus & True Oldies with the FM side simulcasting WPRO-AM.

Once again more local voices are being silenced in favor of syndicated programming and the shareholders of the big broadcast groups

 

[deff junction]

Citadel is run by a real "genius" Their stock price was $25 a share 5 years ago now its about $1.40 a share.

 

[deff junction]

Citadel stock just closed at $1.70 a share. Hoo Boy,those stockholders are really in the money. ;.

 

[exxear]

I kinda thought Shannon's True Oldies format would die out, but it would seem otherwise.
Citadel has Shannon's format on in Chicago, (http://www.947chicago.com/), although
they do use live jocks, too, including the legendary Dick Biondi.

 

[WMC2006]

With Citadel flipping affiliates around the country to Imus in the morning followed by Scott Shannon’s True Oldies Channel the remainder of the day. Will Citadel’s WORC-FM Oldies 98.9 in the Worcester market be the next to switch?

From a purely business standpoint it would make sense especially with Citadel in a major cost-cutting mode. They made the move yesterday in Providence when Citadel Broadcasting told employees it would be changing formats on “The Score” — WSKO AM and FM. Apparently the AM side will be Imus & True Oldies with the FM side simulcasting WPRO-AM.

Once again more local voices are being silenced in favor of syndicated programming and the shareholders of the big broadcast groups

David, I think you've become the new Joe Gallant of the new Radio-Info. You like to speculate, that's for sure.


Well, I certainly hope you are wrong about Oldies 98-9. While I don't get to listen to them alot, I do enjoy listening to them when I do and it's usually middays. Dave O'Gara is a Worcester legend in my opinion. I listened to him on the morning show (with Phillip James Lagious on the news) on the old WORC-AM 30 years ago. I just wish they had a stronger signal.

 

[Keith321]

Citadel is run by a real "genius" Their stock price was $25 a share 5 years ago now its about $1.40 a share.

The "Genius's" there do not set the stock price.

The marketplace does.

 

[deff junction]

The "genius's" make the decisions,right or wrong, that make the marketplace determine the stock price. If I were a stockholder from 5 years ago, I would be VERY unhappy with the current price and I would be asking lots of questions about how the price got so low.

 

[Keith321]

The "genius's" make the decisions,right or wrong, that make the marketplace determine the stock price. If I were a stockholder from 5 years ago, I would be VERY unhappy with the current price and I would be asking lots of questions about how the price got so low.

Sometimes it is not something you can control.

If you are selling eggs at the side of the road, and no one wants to buy them, that just may be beyond your control....and lack of demand may reduce the price for next to nothing.

Wall Street is not too keen on all radio right now. Investors are not in a hurry to pick up any radio stock.

If you were running the company, what would you do to raise the stock price?

Cut and slash some more? That usually raises any stock price, however, I would like to think we've done all the slashin and cutting that radio can take!

 

[faderraider]

The "genius's" make the decisions,right or wrong, that make the marketplace determine the stock price. If I were a stockholder from 5 years ago, I would be VERY unhappy with the current price and I would be asking lots of questions about how the price got so low. 

If you are selling eggs at the side of the road, and no one wants to buy them, that just may be beyond your control....and lack of demand may reduce the price for next to nothin

Or maybe you are selling what is perceived as a "rotten" egg

 

[Keith321]

The "genius's" make the decisions,right or wrong, that make the marketplace determine the stock price. If I were a stockholder from 5 years ago, I would be VERY unhappy with the current price and I would be asking lots of questions about how the price got so low.

If you are selling eggs at the side of the road, and no one wants to buy them, that just may be beyond your control....and lack of demand may reduce the price for next to nothin

Or maybe you are selling what is perceived as a "rotten" egg

If that's the case, then all of radio is perceived as "rotten" because all of the radio stocks are in the dumper.

You are right that perception is reality....

Again, what would you do if you were in charge to raise the stock price?

 

[faderraider]

I don't mean that radio stocks are bad. Stock prices in general are set by value vs. expected return etc. If people don't think a stock is worth it, they won't pay the price.

 

[Keith321]

I don't mean that radio stocks are bad. Stock prices in general are set by value vs. expected return etc. If people don't think a stock is worth it, they won't pay the price.

And right now people don't think most radio stock is worth the price.

Check out Regent Communications....a pretty good company....but, again, the radio sector is out of fashion for investors.

 

[WMC2006]

I just happened to look at Oldies 98-9's dj bio page and AJ Crozby's bio has gone missing in the last day or two. He normally does the 7pm to midnight shift and, through the miracle of modern technology, does the very same shift on WXLO/Worcester. His bio is still on XLO's bio page but gone from WORC's. I'm listening to 98-9 now but havent heard him. His bio says he is Head of Production for all Worcester Citadel stations.

Maybe something IS happening here.

 

[WMC2006]

Correction: Just heard some guy named Matt signing off for the night, saying he'd be back tomorrow night "as always" from 10 to midnight. So maybe AJ did 7pm to 10pm?? Regardless, AJ's bio is still gone from Oldies and they have no one listed following Mark Veau from 3pm-7pm.

 

[exxear]

Correction: Just heard some guy named Matt signing off for the night, saying he'd be back tomorrow night "as always" from 10 to midnight. So maybe AJ did 7pm to 10pm?? Regardless, AJ's bio is still gone from Oldies and they have no one listed following Mark Veau from 3pm-7pm.

Citadel has a 3 station cluster in Worcester, (WXLO, The Pike and Oldies 98.9), so it's not surprising to hear that they "moved" a voice to fill a vacant shift on one of the other stations. I would imagine there's still some settling in that needs to be done since the departure of Jaybeau Jones.

 

[radiodouble]

The "genius's" make the decisions,right or wrong, that make the marketplace determine the stock price. If I were a stockholder from 5 years ago, I would be VERY unhappy with the current price and I would be asking lots of questions about how the price got so low.

If you are selling eggs at the side of the road, and no one wants to buy them, that just may be beyond your control....and lack of demand may reduce the price for next to nothin

Or maybe you are selling what is perceived as a "rotten" egg

If that's the case, then all of radio is perceived as "rotten" because all of the radio stocks are in the dumper.

You are right that perception is reality....

Again, what would you do if you were in charge to raise the stock price?

radio depends on advertising for revenue. ultimately, revenue determines the stock price. companies are pulling away from advertising on radio because less people are listening thanks to competition from internet, satellite and new digital and mobile technology. that's the reality. you're only bs-ing yourself if you think that this is perception.

 

[radiodouble]

I don't mean that radio stocks are bad. Stock prices in general are set by value vs. expected return etc. If people don't think a stock is worth it, they won't pay the price.

And right now people don't think most radio stock is worth the price.

Check out Regent Communications....a pretty good company....but, again, the radio sector is out of fashion for investors.

radio sector is out of fashion because it's not making money. it's pretyt simple. instead of trying to improve the quality of content and programming to retain listeners, radio companies are slashing costs and sticking to the same crappy formula that got them in trouble in the first place. disney got out of the business. clear channel will do the same next week. soon it will be cbs, entercom and citadel all selling out to the garbage pickers which are equity firms.

 

[MassMusicMan]

Again, what would you do if you were in charge to raise the stock price?

Attempt to compete AGAINST personal music devices instead of WITH them.

 

[FPB]

>If you were running the company, what would you do to raise the stock price?<
>
I don't mean to sound like a primadonna (sp?). I know that radio stations must operate in the real world. But the question itself is the problem.

Do you prefer to eat at a good-tasting local restaurant, or at McDonalds? My choice is the local restaurant. It's better for my health and my enjoyment of life. We KNOW that McDonalds is all about raising their stock price. The local restaurant is CERTAINLY concerned with their profitability - maybe even their stock prices. But the way they drive their profitability is by concentrating on the PRODUCT FIRST.

In an abstract question of what someone should do if they were running the company, the "Common Knowledge" answer is the one to be expected. But if you look at how people actually behave, you see that the common-knowledge answer is actually not the right answer.

If I were running the station, I would concentrate on quality programming with locally connected staff and live on-air talent. This is what brings listeners, and thus profitability to a radio station.

 

[spilot113]

radio sector is out of fashion because it's not making money. it's pretyt simple. instead of trying to improve the quality of content and programming to retain listeners, radio companies are slashing costs and sticking to the same crappy formula

>If you were running the company, what would you do to raise the stock price?<
>

If I were running the station, I would concentrate on quality programming with locally connected staff and live on-air talent. This is what brings listeners, and thus profitability to a radio station.

So, if it is because of revenues, you would spend more money on programming?

If you dump more money into programming....is that guaranteed to increase billing?

What could WBZ or WMJX spend on programming that would increase revenue?

BTW..Someone mentioned Regent Communications. From what I hear they are billing virtually as much as it did. Yet they're stock price is still in the dumper.

I think where the "perception" comes in is when investors don't think radio is going to survive.

It's "perception"...because thats yet to be seen.