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The Beast AM 980 SOLD!
- Thread starter 34james
- Start date
http://www.dailynews.com/sports/201...ast-980-is-sold-nba-team-may-need-new-station
Here is the link.
So what does everyone think the foreign format will be? Asian? Spanish?
Here is the link.
So what does everyone think the foreign format will be? Asian? Spanish?
Unless there is someone quite out of their mind, it's not going to be Spanish.
CTListener
Walk of Fame Participant
So, do the Clippers change flagships midseason, or continue as the only English-language programming on the station until the end of the season? Would the contract the team signed with current station ownership carry over, and if so, when does it end?
CaliRadioFan
Leading Participant
The only 'group that runs foreign-language' programming that comes to mind is Multicultural Radio (this would be their sixth LA market station) and since they pretty much just broker time, it all depends on who's buying. However, since all-sports stations make money, not ratings........
Frequency1
Leading Participant
The new licensee is not Multicultural but Mercury Capital Partners.
They own KLOK-AM in San Jose. Ethnic brokered time business model. Brokered out to the Asian Indian community.
They also own KKDZ-AM in Seattle. Ethnic brokered time business model. Brokered out to the Asian Indian community.
Clarifications in Inside Radio article: http://www.insideradio.com/free/l-a-s-kfwb-is-sold/article_753156be-b462-11e5-b573-dbadbe2cdd99.html
Actual licensee is
"Charlie Banta’s Universal Media Access", which is "affiliated with the private equity firm Mercury Capital Partners and Principle Broadcasting Network,
which owns ethnic stations in San Jose, Seattle and Boston."
As to the L.A. Clippers broadcast fate:
"KFWB’s agreement with the Clippers calls for it to honor the contract through the existing season in the event of a station sale.
Whether the Clippers remain through the current season and potentially into the playoffs is up to the team."
Actual licensee is
"Charlie Banta’s Universal Media Access", which is "affiliated with the private equity firm Mercury Capital Partners and Principle Broadcasting Network,
which owns ethnic stations in San Jose, Seattle and Boston."
As to the L.A. Clippers broadcast fate:
"KFWB’s agreement with the Clippers calls for it to honor the contract through the existing season in the event of a station sale.
Whether the Clippers remain through the current season and potentially into the playoffs is up to the team."
CTListener
Walk of Fame Participant
Principle (which Mercury is fronting for) operates WESX and WJDA in the Boston area. Both are leased, with most programming on WESX -- including a lot of paid religion -- in Spanish but some in Portuguese and Haitian Creole. WJDA is Portuguese, and primarily paid Godcasting.
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CBS eventually had to sell the station. Due to signal, this is not a fully competitive station and is better suited to serving groups like the various Asian populations in LA.
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
I think I should provide a little more detail than David did so that the questioner will understand.
The FCC has limits as to the number of radio and television outlets any one company can own in a market. CBS went over the limit because owning both KCBS-TV/2 and KCAL/9 requires them to have one less radio station in Los Angeles.
Looking at the rest of their portfolio, it made sense for them to keep KNX/1070 on AM and the FMs KCBS-FM/93.1, KAMP/97.1, KTWV/94.7, KRTH/101.1 and KROQ/106.7. So KFWB has been operated via a "blind trust" until a buyer could be found.
Do you think any of the stations they are keeping are more valuable than KFWB? I don't.
michael hagerty
Walk of Fame Participant
Microbob: For a signal-challenged AM in Los Angeles, $15 million's pretty good. KHJ only brought $9.75 million last year.
I wouldn't base the health of an entire industry on the sale price of a 5K AM station that hasn't been a player for over ten years.
Strange. That is actually quite a bit more than I thought it was worth.
Remember, somewhat comparable KHJ sold for under $10 million last year.
Because KFWB is not a full market signal (they put a 10 mV/m signal over only about 55% of the market population), it's only good for some kind of format that does not require either ratings or full market coverage.
The biggest issue is that KFWB is an AM station. With so little usage of the band by anyone under 55, the prices for AM stations have suffered because there are now two generations of Americans who have grown up on FM and associate AM with bad sound and static.
Radio is not in trouble financially. Bad stations and over-leveraged companies are in trouble, as they always have been.
Historically, this was a very good deal. Liberman paid $23 million for 930 AM and the transmitter site in 1989.
They sold the land two years ago for $28 million. They they sold the AM for $9.75 million without land.
That's a $15 million profit!
ChannelFlipper
Star Participant
The Big Question that is begging to be asked is: How much did CBS lose by not selling at the time they were deemed to be not exempted from the ownership limits by the FCC all those years ago until now?
I don't think it was worth much more in 2002 than the very high price they got today. The same issue of limited coverage, high metro area noise levels and urban sprawl existed back then, too.
In the meantime, the market has grown less than 5% in the last 12 years and nearly all of the growth is ethnic. So, for the buyer, the larger number of ethnic and foreign born persons may actually make it worth more today than back then.
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
Probably not as much as might be presumed, for the reasons David already gave. I recall that CBS got a lot of lowball offers around the time they put 980 into the trust, and when everyone is offering low, it becomes human nature to simply reject all suitors and hope something better comes along if you just wait.
I also recall that CBS had a waiver for a while and fought putting KFWB into the trust, so there were several years during which they probably didn't consider any offers, hoping to be able to somehow keep it.
Unless David beats me to it, I'll try to find time tomorrow to pinpoint when the waiver and the trust were on the timeline and then see what comparable AM facilities were selling for at those points.
I think all along, at least while Dan Mason was there, CBS thought that ownership caps might be relaxed in the biggest markets. So they really hoped KFWB would not be sold under the idea that they might be able to keep it.
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