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The cumulus/dg/townsquare deal - how will it affect buffalo?

M

Mike Brewer

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324324404579043213208012746.html

Snip:
"To finance the Dial acquisition, Cumulus is selling 53 radio stations in 12 small markets to Townsquare Media LLC for $238 million cash, the people familiar with the matter said. Cumulus also is swapping 15 other small-market radio stations with Townsquare in exchange for five stations in Fresno, Calif."

I can't see Buffalo being one of those markets...can you?
 
Town Square already owns four FM's in Buffalo: Urban WBLK; Modern Classic Hits WBUF (Jack); AC WJYE and market leading Country WYRK. With four high power FMs, some market pros consider it to be the best cluster in the market. Perhaps Cumulus' properties in Syracuse would be of interest to Town Square, which has a presence in Utica-Rome and Albany. Owning the Thruway Stations would be reminiscent of the Empire State FM Network.
 
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If the deal goes down as outlined in the RadioInk article, Buffalo will still be one of Townsquare's largest markets. They will add stations near their home offices in CT. Cumulus will give up Poughkeepsie, which might have impacted any further expansion in the NYC environs. Cumuless is essentially trading radio stations for syndication muscle. I guess that tells you what their long-term strategy is. If you work for Dial Global, I'd put off buying that house. Then again, that's not bad advice for anybody working for Cumuless.
 
It's all about Satellite-delivered formats, Cumuless wants Dial Global to be more of a competitor to Clear Channel/Premiere so it can spread cookie-cutter radio via XDS receivers across the nation.
 
Penrod Rightout said:
It's all about Satellite-delivered formats, Cumuless wants Dial Global to be more of a competitor to Clear Channel/Premiere so it can spread cookie-cutter radio via XDS receivers across the nation.
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The funny thing about that is that Cumulus already owns satellite delivered formats, the former Satellite Music Networks, based in Dallas. Neither they nor Citadel ever used any of those formats on their owned & operated stations. They were instead used by hundreds of mom & pop stations in small markets. So I really don't think satellite formats is very integral to this deal. Meanwhile, Premiere doesn't have any centralized satellite formats, but rather syndicates local talent from a variety of stations to other markets. Very different business.
 
TheBigA said:
The funny thing about that is that Cumulus already owns satellite delivered formats, the former Satellite Music Networks, based in Dallas. Neither they nor Citadel ever used any of those formats on their owned & operated stations.
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Cumulus uses the "True Oldies Channel" on several of its stations (including where I live), but I'm not aware of it using any of its other satellite formats anywhere. It was actually using "True Oldies" here before Cumulus ever went into the content business. The only time my local station breaks from True Oldies is during football season to air college football. It may have high school football, too, on Friday nights.

They were instead used by hundreds of mom & pop stations in small markets. So I really don't think satellite formats is very integral to this deal. Meanwhile, Premiere doesn't have any centralized satellite formats, but rather syndicates local talent from a variety of stations to other markets. Very different business.
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This is one of those situations where, "It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here." Clear Channel pulled something similar off a few years ago. I remember when KGBX in Springfield, MO and KTSM-FM El Paso, TX were essentially simulcasting the music on WLTW out of New York. They played the same songs in the same order just a bit apart depending on the local or voicetracked talents in the smaller markets and their commercial loads. So, it's not really that big of a stretch to think Cumulus could do the same thing (especially with how much Cumulus likes top-down programming), though I think we're more likely to see them use the voicetracking arm of Dial Global to reach out to their smaller market stations. Another of my local stations imports Rachel Marisay for middays, and I believe she's on several other Cumulus stations. So, the idea of taking that in-house would probably be pretty attractive.
 
My point is that I don't expect these 24/7 formats will be imposed on Cumulus stations, but rather syndicated to other stations to broaden the company footprint beyond its ownership. The goal is to MAKE money, not just save it. They MAKE money when they get their commercials aired on stations they don't own.
 
Acquisition of Dial Global also gives Cumulus access to DG Local and DG's STORQ. DG uses STORQ for its DG Local product which offers market-specific customized voice tracking with music played locally via STORQ.
 
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