WLS-AM & WLS-FM Now Officially Owned By Cumulus Media, Inc.

radioman148 · Sep 16, 2011

From the Chicagoland Radio & Media Board

http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/1937-wls-am-a-wls-fm-now-officially-owned-by-cumulus-media-inc

radioaircheck · Sep 16, 2011

Goodbye heritage stations. I grew up with both stations. Don't expect things to be the same. Look for automation 2/7 and great talent blown out.

illinimatt81 · Sep 16, 2011

radioaircheck said:
Goodbye heritage stations. I grew up with both stations. Don't expect things to be the same. Look for automation 2/7 and great talent blown out.

Also look for a return to 94.7 KICKS COUNTRY

KeithE4 · Sep 16, 2011

illinimatt81 said:
radioaircheck said:

Goodbye heritage stations. I grew up with both stations. Don't expect things to be the same. Look for automation 2/7 and great talent blown out.

Click to expand...

Also look for a return to 94.7 KICKS COUNTRY

Why would they do that? It already failed once. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of swapping the AM and FM formats, or at least moving the talk shows to 94.7 and doing something else with the not-so-Big-anymore 89.

The mainstream (read: news, talk, and sports) formats are moving to FM nationwide (see: news on 101.1 and 105.9). WLS can't lag behind and try to stick with only the geezer demos or they'll be toast. Unlike WGN and WIND, WLS can move the talk programming to FM if they choose to.

carolinaradio · Sep 16, 2011

I think saying "all automation" is a little extreme. Look at Cumulus's stations in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, San Fransisco, etc. - all smaller than Chicago, and are they all automated or anywhere close to it?
No.

WLS-FM will continue on. The only thing I'd look for MAYBE is automation after 7pm, but the market's so big, I doubt it.

scanman1 · Sep 17, 2011

illinimatt81 said:
radioaircheck said:

Goodbye heritage stations. I grew up with both stations. Don't expect things to be the same. Look for automation 2/7 and great talent blown out.

Click to expand...

Also look for a return to 94.7 KICKS COUNTRY

Or maybe 94.7 "The Zone", to replace the defunct Q101.

I really hope nothing changes, as I like the current format!

secondchoice · Sep 17, 2011

Cumulus with the big debt load (should) look at cash positive flows. News Talk radio is expensive (talent, syndication fees, the news gathering & readers). Music radio is not that expensive. News Talk does have a better sales factor. Do not look for any on air changes at WLS AM unless Merlin and WBBM's FM signal take a lot of listeners off the AM band. Do the Chicago Class B FM's have a good signal in the "fringe" areas of the market? Some of the move to FM by news talk operations' ratings "pop" were markets were the AM station did not have "good" coverage. WSB in Atlanta (along with all of the Atlanta AM's) suffer from crappy ground conductivity. None of the DC AM's have a 24 hour suburb covering signal. Even the DC's only Class A AM 1500 signal does not cover the western area at night.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WFED&service=AM&status=L&hours=N

Does anybody know which has the best positive cash flow WLS AM or FM?

How long will Rush keep on bring in the ratings and $$. He has been at it for long time.

BRNout · Sep 17, 2011

And, as of yesterday, they've already appended "...a Cumulus Media station..." to the TOH ID. Yet another ominous sign. What a bad deal this is for Citadel employees and for listeners to the affected stations. Cumulus sucks.

Kent · Sep 17, 2011

secondchoice said:
Cumulus with the big debt load (should) look at cash positive flows.

Cumulus actually didn't accumulate a big debt load on this deal, and it didn't have an incredible amount of debt prior to this deal. It's a company that spends very little cash on acquisitions; most of its transactions are done with stock and with other people's money. In the case of the Citadel deal, which was for about $2.5 billion, $1.1 billion was a stock-for-stock deal while another $1.1 billion was paid by private equity and a stock transaction made earlier in the year. So, only about $300 million was bought with debt. Of course, $300 million is nothing to sneeze at, but it should be serviceable given the size of the company.

Do the Chicago Class B FM's have a good signal in the "fringe" areas of the market?

Heading east, most of the stations on the Sears/Willis put a signal to almost the St. Joseph Co., Indiana line in a car radio. While that's not indicative of where most listening will occur, I'd reason that the entire Chicago market to the east should have no trouble hearing them. I also know they cover well past the south suburbs along I-55.

RadioStarOne · Sep 17, 2011

http://www.citadelbroadcasting.com/citadel_broadcasting.aspx?id=2635 the website has been updated.

sdh483 · Sep 17, 2011

carolinaradio said:
I think saying "all automation" is a little extreme. Look at Cumulus's stations in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, San Fransisco, etc. - all smaller than Chicago, and are they all automated or anywhere close to it?
No.

WLS-FM will continue on. The only thing I'd look for MAYBE is automation after 7pm, but the market's so big, I doubt it.

Houston's Cumulus stations have on air staff with the most automation on KFNC ESPN 97.5.

radioman148 · Sep 18, 2011

I find it hard to believe that WLS AM or FM will be changing formats anytime soon. WLS-FM just had one of their best ratings in August.
They have tweaked the music to include more 80s & less 60s. Their demos still aren't ideal, but they're better than they were and the station is making money. Does anyone really think they will do better with a country format? They will flop miserably if they go there.
This is the most successful format 94.7 has had in 30 years.

Regarding WLS-AM, except for morning & afternoon drive, most of their programming is on the bird. They just renewed Roe Conn.
When is Don & Roma's contract up? Anybody know?

cyberdad · Sep 18, 2011

secondchoice said:
Do not look for any on air changes at WLS AM unless Merlin and WBBM's FM signal take a lot of listeners off the AM band. Do the Chicago Class B FM's have a good signal in the "fringe" areas of the market?

So far Merlin does not appear to be off to a good start at all. As for WBBM, that may prove to be another story, but I think it may be a little early to say.

As for the class B FM signals in the fringe suburbs.... For the most part, they're okay on a good car radio, as well as most boomboxes, and other mid to higher-end home receivers. They can be problematic on cheap radios and walkman-type units.

Where I live, in a far northwest suburb about 40 miles northwest of the downtown Chicago sticks, a second adjacent (105.5) regularly bites holes in the WBBM simulcast on 105.9. There are two other rimshot 105.5s around the area, so these may prove to be at least a minor problem.