Report: Delmarva selling AMs

Can anyone confirm the trade site report that Delmarva has contacted a broker to offer their AM stations for sale? Will they move talk radio to FM or end the talk format? While everybody's worried about 1210 AM, it seems 1150 AM is in worse shape financially and some kind of drastic move is long-overdue.

It seems like the Holy Spirit Radio Foundation is looking to expand its regional network and has been in touch with the broker.

They already have a talk station on FM in the lower part of the state. That might be the plan. The only people around here that might know for sure likely can't talk about it.

Not at all an uncommon move. Stations give the OK to be listed to "test the waters" all the time and on a frequent basis every counple of years. Did you read this from a "broker's page" or a legitimate "trade". Big difference. 'DEL would sell for millions. Financially, it would appear they aren't doing that all that bad, though AM buying for advertising is down.

Move to FM? Doubtful. Why would they touch WSTW? They wouldn't. Speculation ...

oaktree said:

Not at all an uncommon move. Stations give the OK to be listed to "test the waters" all the time and on a frequent basis every counple of years. Did you read this from a "broker's page" or a legitimate "trade". Big difference. 'DEL would sell for millions. Financially, it would appear they aren't doing that all that bad, though AM buying for advertising is down.

Move to FM? Doubtful. Why would they touch WSTW? They wouldn't. Speculation ...

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WSTW outbills WDEL by a factor of almost 3 to 1, and WDEL still does a respectable $2.2 million a year... and did not lose as much during the recession as many stations did.

FredLeonard,

Can you provide a link to the trade site report? I'd LOVE to see it.

DavidEduardo said:

oaktree said:

Not at all an uncommon move. Stations give the OK to be listed to "test the waters" all the time and on a frequent basis every counple of years. Did you read this from a "broker's page" or a legitimate "trade". Big difference. 'DEL would sell for millions. Financially, it would appear they aren't doing that all that bad, though AM buying for advertising is down.

Move to FM? Doubtful. Why would they touch WSTW? They wouldn't. Speculation ...

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WSTW outbills WDEL by a factor of almost 3 to 1, and WDEL still does a respectable $2.2 million a year... and did not lose as much during the recession as many stations did.

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An agency buddy told me when they buy time WSTW, Delmarva throws in spots on WDEL. He thinks Delmarva may intend buy one or more FMs and they need to unload weaker properties. He doubts they will move talk to FM because nobody wants to buy the older demos and nobody trusts the diary numbers.

Don't believe everything you hear.... And that is FAR from a trade site report. Thanks for spreading falsehoods. We appreciate it.

Chris Carl said:

Don't believe everything you hear.... And that is FAR from a trade site report. Thanks for spreading falsehoods. We appreciate it.

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He said he saw it. Why should I believe you and not him? After all, you work there.

Sorry, the edit function timed out on me.

Here's why what my friend says makes sense. Your owners are invested in failing industries, newspapers, radio and coal mines. They may be involved in Lancaster affairs but not in Wilmington. Heirs to media companies have a history of looking for better ways to invest granddaddy's money.

If what my friend says is accurate, employees are usually the last to know. If they do know, they are obliged to not say or to deny.

WWDB. WCAU. WILM. Hundreds of others. People who worked those stations probably didn't expect the plug would be pulled until it was pulled. Nothing lasts forever.

I'd believe Chris, who is from all accounts a stand up guy over someone just trying to bash talk radio on a message board.

ProducerGuy said:

I'd believe Chris, who is from all accounts a stand up guy over someone just trying to bash talk radio on a message board.

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Possibly a stand up guy kept in the dark. Radio owners never want the workers to know the end is coming.

You all don't want to believe it, fine. Time will tell.

Fred,

You have a good point. But please ask your friend where he saw it. Again, I've LOVE to see it.

The only way I could see Delmarva selling WDEL would be if they were able to get at a reasonable cost [whatever that is] a strong FM signal that would cover at least as well as WDEL now does to move their successful news/talk format to FM, as they now have in lower Delaware via Delaware 105.9.

Finding that FM signal probably would probably be difficult at best to find, especially the reasonable cost part.

From what someone posted earlier here, WDEL is doing quite well in this day and age money wise for an AM station, so why would Delmarva sell it off other than to move it to FM? They sure aren't going to mess with either their Wilmington FM's: WXCY or WSTW as both are quite successful.

Someday, if WDEL were a drain rather than a money maker for the bottom line of Delmarva, sure that would make sense, but not before.

If WDEL were in financial trouble, my guess is the first thing they'd do is cut the live and local aspect of their broadcast day, laying off a pile of people and changing WDEL from live and local to a station in a closet on a computer taking all its programming from the bird. But WDEL seems to be expanding more and more what they do as a live and local. Delmarva wouldn't be doing that if they were losing money on WDEL.

There's only so much Chris can tell us, he's an employee and it wouldn't be ethical for him to even speculate. So its not reasonable to ask him to do that. Even if he knew of a sale, he'd not be able to say anything until the deal is done. That's not just radio, but any business.

Hope WDEL stays around for a long time Chris [be it on AM or FM], its a great station.

Chris Carl said:

Fred,

You have a good point. But please ask your friend where he saw it. Again, I've LOVE to see it.

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Don't hold your breath, my friend. Like most rumors it's likely just made up.

MikefromDelaware said:

If WDEL were in financial trouble, my guess is the first thing they'd do is cut the live and local aspect of their broadcast day, laying off a pile of people and changing WDEL from live and local to a station in a closet on a computer taking all its programming from the bird. But WDEL seems to be expanding more and more what they do as a live and local. Delmarva wouldn't be doing that if they were losing money on WDEL.

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Case in point, we've added John Watson to the lineup from 7p-10p on nights when the Phillies are off - including four nights next week during the All-Star break. We couldn't do that if we were giving away spots for free.

Hypothetically:

Station A has a line-up of mostly syndicated national hosts.

Station B has a local line-up.

Station A consistently and soundly beats station B in the ratings.

Station B takes away station A's syndicated hosts.

So, station A picks up station B's former local hosts, the same ones the national hosts beat so consistently and soundly.

Station A then trumpets its "strategy." Only in radio.

Beyond insanity: Repeating the actions of someone you beat and expecting to win.

Lucky for me, that's not happening here.

According to the Arbitron 12+ ratings published on Radio Online for Wilmington, in the last four ratings books, WDEL beat WILM two times, and WILM beat WDEL two times. In the most recent book, WDEL beat WILM by 1.2 points: WDEL 3.8, WILM 2.6. WDEL's 3.8 is the highest 12+ rating for either station in the last four books. WDEL does better in Fall. WILM does better in Spring. Given that Fall 2012 was the Presidential election, it's interesting to note that the local programming on WDEL did better, 12+, than the all national after 9 am programming on WILM.

Chris Carl said:

Lucky for me, that's not happening here.

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Sounds like that's exactly what's happening. But I guess the station gets affirmative action points for Watson because it can't be drawing power. How many different hosts trounced him?

Still no source for that rumor. We're waiting.

And real classy with the racist comment about John Watson, by the way.