• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Will The Big Talker Survive?

This issue has finally made radio business news, because Oak Ridge FM has now filed in protest of Citadel's bankruptcy plan. Seems Citadel wants to "reject the LMA" going forward.
 
jetfli said:
This issue has finally made radio business news, because Oak Ridge FM has now filed in protest of Citadel's bankruptcy plan. Seems Citadel wants to "reject the LMA" going forward.

Anyone know what this means for 100.3? What exactly does "reject the LMA" mean in legal terms? Does that mean that Citadel is claiming that they can not pay the LMA fees and still operate the station. How on earth could that be legal? If I was Pirkle and they didn't pay, I'd yank the da*n thing off the air tomorrow and dare them to sue me. After all, if he is still the technical owner and they are not making payments, why can't he foreclose and reclaim his property?

Anyway, should be interesting. I really thought that as big of a cash cow as WNOX is, that Citadel would find the funds or sell something elsewhere to be able to go ahead and outright buy 100.3 (or at least make sure to keep leasing it). Wonder if we really could see 100.3 back in Pirkle's hands (or even sold by him, out from under Citadel to someone like Journal). One thing is for sure, this is getting interesting. Who knows, we may soon be seeing "NewsTalk 98.7, WNOX" if Citadel doesn't pony up the funds.
 
It is this kind of thinking that got Citadel into bankruptcy in the first place. If they can’t sell $60,000 a month on what might be the best (coverage wise) fm property east of the Mississippi some one need fired! You could get a “number pusher” order taker type and sell that on the phone with out hitting the streets. The debt service on one of Knoxville’s few full market coverage FM stations would at least twice the LMA fees. One of two things is happening. Citadel is going to sell the Knoxville cluster and there is a legal reason they can’t sell the LMA too. Or some one thinks they can move the audience back to AM. Selling the Knoxville cluster might be for some short cash term reason. Or I guess Citadel feels with their other prosperities in bigger markets (WLS, WABC, etc.), they can keep their current programming line up off whoever ends up running 100.3 and force them to run “second tier” talk or go to a music format. I predict some one at Citadel will realize the mistake they are making and keep the LMA.
 
Ya know right now all anyone wants to do with any station is find someone to buy it! Big Talker is no longer a cash anything. Heck even IVK had problems selling FOOTBALL last fall. Economy and the mega bite taken by satellite radio has caused all of the groups in Kvle to head to the bunker with a supply of canned goods and shotgun shells.

The old AM 850 is being painted and patched up but management problems coupled with a format that is going to be strange to say the least will stifle any chance it has to breathing above water.

Journal has an FM on the block for 2M, and it was worth that 18 months ago. Today 350K would be too much to pay for it. Landscape has shifted to the point if you can afford a used single wide you can buy a radio station.
 
I don't know what WNOX sells remotes where HHH or Phil Williams broadcast the show live from a client location, but they seem to sell plenty of them.
 
you are saying what? Are you asking how much they charge in talent and airtime for a remote? Question is do they charge or trade them? If they do charge do the bonus spots on their other stations. Oh and the BIG question...does anyone ever show up at them besides those from the station?
 
If I were they, I would be sitting down with the Citadel powers and making sure they had a pen that works.
 
MurvleJumpUp said:
Economy and the mega bite taken by satellite radio has caused all of the groups in Kvle to head to the bunker with a supply of canned goods and shotgun shells.

I'll give you the economy, but satellite radio? I don't know one person in Knoxville that has a working satellite radio in their car, and I do business with a lot of people. It hasn't made much of, if any, impact in the Knoxville market.
 
I don't know one person in Knoxville that does not HAVE sat. in their car. Being a tight wad I never buy new but I did put the old XM in mine and now it is in the truck and the other two cars. Ask anyone you know who has bought a new car about their sat. radio and they say the same thing. First, I will try it for free but there is NO WAY I am going to pay for radio. Then after the FREE runs out they always buy it. Sorry but just like the death of AM, Sat is the death of over over the air. As the years roll on the folks with only over the air radio in their cars will be those who you pray never come to a remote because they can't afford to buy anything.

Yes sat. radio can be beaten but only by doing things it can't do, starting with being local and never EVER get into a WE PLAY MORE MUSIC or WE PLAY BETTER MUSIC then it does. Guess what, you can't and you don't.
 
Murville. Since about 1 in 11 cars in East TN has satellite radio, perhaps you should broaden your horizons and meet some new people. Nationally, far more people listen to AM radio than Satellite (Arbitron), much less FM.

By constantly breaking SEC law, totally ignoring FCC regulations and their own consent decrees and screwing stockholders, Sirius has finally been able to show a paper profit. But they are far from the biggest threat to broadcast radio.
 
Super you have to be in sales! LOL
1 in 11? odd that number was used 3 years ago..no growth since then?
Oh and don't forget to factor in the number of Ipods and MP3s not to mention phones that folks used to program their own personal radio station!

Keep swinging for the fence Super and you just might hit one..but while you are at it look at the big BIG drop in numbers over the last 4 years. Remember when WIVK pushed a 32 and most of the top ten were in the low to mid TEENS. Riddle me this, where DID all those subscribers go?

Truth is it is just like olden times where Knoxville had 2.5 TV stations...then here comes CABLE. Well between the MP3s/Ipods and Sat radio the local stations are out numbered and out gunned. Hard as can be to sell a product that can no longer motivate crowds to visit your client.
 
Nah, I'm not in sales WJ. Just doin the math.

You didn't mention Ipods, streaming etc in your earlier post, just satellite. There are plenty of competitors. Satellite is a minor player. Just like Pandora has 40 million registered users, but probably has less listeners at any given time than the top 5 stations in a major market have.

Radio in Knoxville has the same total cume it's had for years plus or a minus a thousand or two. The time spent listening and thus the quarter hours are down some, particularly with 12-34.

As for WIVK's declining ratings, sure the days of having four stations in double digits and WIVK with 30's are long gone here as they are everywhere else. There one helluva lot more little radio stations gobbling up a point here and a point there. KMOX used to have a 20 share, and now is happy with a 6 or 7.

Plus, as a media mogul like you would know, that 16.4 represents not how many people are listening to WIVK, but what percentage of those that are listening to the radio are listening to that particular station. The "shares" of the top five stations could all be cut in half and there still could be more actual people listening than before.

Total up the Merles, the WCYQ's, the WFIV's, the WJRV's, the WDVX's, WYLV, 88.3, 96.3, 95.7, and pretty soon you got a bunch of shares that used to belong to 107.7, 97.5, 103.5 and 102.1.

Radio has competition as it did when TV came along. Hopefully, we can get unshackled from the corporate BS that that doesn't allow for the bad quarter or two that would come from re-inventing ourselves again.
 
I'm just catching up on this thread. Going back a few posts.... if it's true that Citadel is paying $60,000 a month just to RENT the 100.3 signal they are crazy! What a waste of money! I don't know how long this LMA has been in place, but with the money they've spent on the lease, they could have bought the thing! If I were them I would end the lease immediately and put WNOX on 98.7. I'm sure the dittoheads will have no problem finding their favorite talk shows a few notches lower on the dial. The signal difference shouldn't matter. So what if 98.7 isn't clear in Kentucky!? 98.7 covers the immediate market fine especially if they are programming talk and turn the stereo pilot off.
 
RMarino said:
I'm just catching up on this thread. Going back a few posts.... if it's true that Citadel is paying $60,000 a month just to RENT the 100.3 signal they are crazy! What a waste of money! I don't know how long this LMA has been in place, but with the money they've spent on the lease, they could have bought the thing!

I'm told that it used to be more than that. I've certainly never seen the financials, but that's what I've been told.
 
Super...thanks for actually believing in radio! Truth is the shift in the landscape from over the air to every dang where you look is killing it big time.

Why listen if you can have YOUR fav. songs in your ear anytime you want them?
Why listen when you can have a signal in your car that never goes away and offers you hundreds of stations?
Why listen when the better the over the air station the more the spots clutter it up?
Why listen now that only one station locally SORT of gives you a touch of local news?

Sorry but if you will just come out from under the porch long enough to look around you will see records are no longer being played, the sale staff is the owner and everyone on the air is in another city.
Bless its heart it just isn't making it although I sure wish someone would figure out a simple way to both bring the fun back and SELL it to someone!
 
RMarino said:
I'm just catching up on this thread. Going back a few posts.... if it's true that Citadel is paying $60,000 a month just to RENT the 100.3 signal they are crazy! What a waste of money! I don't know how long this LMA has been in place, but with the money they've spent on the lease, they could have bought the thing! If I were them I would end the lease immediately and put WNOX on 98.7. I'm sure the dittoheads will have no problem finding their favorite talk shows a few notches lower on the dial. The signal difference shouldn't matter. So what if 98.7 isn't clear in Kentucky!? 98.7 covers the immediate market fine especially if they are programming talk and turn the stereo pilot off.

You're about a month late for an April Fools post, but thanks for the chuckles anyhow.
 
"Why listen if you can have YOUR fav. songs in your ear anytime you want them?"

I will concede that Wall Street has $%##*$ed up radio. But the people who want their favorite songs in their ear anytime they want them have never been Radio P1's, They do listen to the radio, but they've always been the ones with the big album collections, which they taped on to cassette to listen to in their walkman, and then they bought the big CD changer for their trunk in the early 90's, and were very early adopters of Ipods and satellite. There have always been a lot of those people, and they've always dissed radio because it didn't play their favorites and only their favorites. Many of those people now hate satellite, because within a given genre, satellite plays the hits just like radio. But they're not the big quarter hour contributors and never have been. The vast majority of radio listening has always come from people looking for company, the occasional sing along song, and quite frankly "noise" in the background. Some others were attached to their local personalities. Radio can still hang on to those folks if they will transition back to what radio does best.
 
Sorry but a new group is out there with these things they put in their ears to listen and they also dock them in the cars.

Remember when the kids made the call on what station was on in the car? Those kids could care less cause they are plugged in, mommy is on the phone and dad is following on the motorcycle.

It is a new world now and MUSIC (ask the record companies) is very personalized. Sorry but those with stacks of LPs first heard the single on the RADIO before they bought them. Today they heard it on the web then downloaded it.

Festivals are pulling in tons of people buy using acts that are not even signed but ARE pushing their tunes on the web. Yep, lonely people looking for a friend and even a kid doing homework sure did turn to their local station DJ but that DJ is today in South Carolina, never mentions their town and is working on a deal get on satellite!

Can it come back...might...but right now all of radio is just like AM was when FM started to make its big move.
 
Am I the only one who can connect the dots? Citadel is going to cut loose 100.3. Citadel canned Ed Brantley. If I was “stuck” with 100.3 who do you think I would be calling! Of course you would half to build new studios (I personally have built a studio in 5 days) and wait out any non compete.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom