• 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

A River Runs Through The ABQ!

Will be interesting to see what happens next given today's deal. Could The River show up on one of the Univision stations AGM is acquiring as 106.7 is definitely going religious? Can't imagine AGM toasting KKSS, KIOT, KABG, or KLVO, but I'm less certain about 105.1. AGM doesn't subscribe to Nielsen. So, it could move one of the formats on a signal it's dumping to 105.1 if it's doing okay given that "Yo!" has performed poorly.
 
What I'm not certain about, is about the future of the Univision ABQ cluster on iHeartRadio, as they can be streamed from there, or how Kiss 97.3 will drop in the Nielsen ratings (or their presence in the ratings book at all, despite their success).

Will they leave iHeart, or will AGM bring not just their Albuquerque cluster, but their other stations that they own, such as in Bakersfield and Durango?
 
Whether or not the new AGM cluster ends up on iHeart will be between AGM and iHM. There are a few isolated cases of stations staying on iHeart after an ownership change, but it's usually because the streaming link doesn't change after the sale, and the station continues the required iHeart promotional spots.

My guess is that the cluster will find itself on TuneIn only, but I suppose this deal could make AGM reconsider.
 
Thomas H Lee, the private equity firm that has equity interests in iHeartMedia also has equity interests in Univision. The majority of Univision's radio stations are in the same markets iHeartMedia operates. I think this deal makes sense after all, but it will lead to a massive shakeup on the Albuquerque radio dial.
 
See my post on the Phoenix board for more information, but the long and short of it is that this deal wasn't part of a strategy on the part of THLP to stop competing with itself. In fact, Univision and iHeart have been healthy in-format competitors in several markets, including Albuquerque, for a number of years.

Univision had been shopping the Albuquerque cluster for about 10 years. The only surprise to me was that Entravision didn't end up with any of the stations.
 
BTW - Does anybody know who BB Broadcasting, the company that's buying 106.3 from AGM, is?
 
Kent said:
See my post on the Phoenix board for more information, but the long and short of it is that this deal wasn't part of a strategy on the part of THLP to stop competing with itself. In fact, Univision and iHeart have been healthy in-format competitors in several markets, including Albuquerque, for a number of years.

Univision had been shopping the Albuquerque cluster for about 10 years. The only surprise to me was that Entravision didn't end up with any of the stations.
Click to expand...

My point is that 104.7 has been sitting in the Aloha trust for about the same time when Univision was planning to divest their Albuquerque cluster. The two other markets where Univision operates and iHeartMedia divested stations are Houston and Austin. I thought that AGM was interested in acquiring iHeartMedia's 104.7 signal after they decided to unload their 95.5 signal until this Univision deal came around.
 
only1moore said:
Personally I don't see 106.3 lasting much longer with Top 40/CHR, even with the new owners.
Click to expand...

At this point, I don't think anybody knows. However, I can't imagine too many people at either cluster feel particularly safe right now. Remember what happened about 3 years ago when AGM raided Univision's staff? I'm pretty sure all of them were let go within 2 years. I don't see a lot of format changes happening at the stations ending up under AGM's roof, but wholesale staff changes certainly aren't out of the question. Having worked in a situation like that before, you have to look at it as, "I've been through this before, and it happens all-the-time," but I have to think a lot of people's blood pressures have risen over the last 48 hours.

I'm wondering if BB Broadcasting could be a/some family member(s) of the Brandons who run AGM. I guess we'll know for sure when the FCC filing hits.
 
miketheradioguy said:
My point is that 104.7 has been sitting in the Aloha trust for about the same time when Univision was planning to divest their Albuquerque cluster. The two other markets where Univision operates and iHeartMedia divested stations are Houston and Austin. I thought that AGM was interested in acquiring iHeartMedia's 104.7 signal after they decided to unload their 95.5 signal until this Univision deal came around.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you're getting DOJ and FCC requirements mixed up. Both 104.1 and 104.7 were put into the Aloha Station Trust because Clear Channel was able to own six FM's in a market that only allowed four after the FCC decided to start using Arbitron market definitions. When Clear Channel's ownership changed, it had to divest two FM's. It took KTEG back after it was reassigned to the Santa Fe market. I believe it has since been added back to Albuquerque, but the addition of KOAZ made it a 45 station market.

The FCC doesn't care that THLP owns a portion of iHM and Univision because it doesn't own a controlling interest in Univision. It was the DOJ that mandated divestitures in Houston and Las Vegas because of THLP's connection to both. It was also concerned about THLP's ownership in Cumulus Media Partners, though Cumulus took care of that by absorbing CMP, and another PE firm paid THLP out for its share. The DOJ had no such concerns about Albuquerque.

Thinking AGM might be about to grab another standalone station in Albuquerque was a rational thought when it announced it was putting KHFM into trust. I don't think anybody saw this big deal coming until a few hours before it broke.
 
Kent said:
Sounds like you're getting DOJ and FCC requirements mixed up. Both 104.1 and 104.7 were put into the Aloha Station Trust because Clear Channel was able to own six FM's in a market that only allowed four after the FCC decided to start using Arbitron market definitions. When Clear Channel's ownership changed, it had to divest two FM's. It took KTEG back after it was reassigned to the Santa Fe market. I believe it has since been added back to Albuquerque, but the addition of KOAZ made it a 45 station market.

The FCC doesn't care that THLP owns a portion of iHM and Univision because it doesn't own a controlling interest in Univision. It was the DOJ that mandated divestitures in Houston and Las Vegas because of THLP's connection to both. It was also concerned about THLP's ownership in Cumulus Media Partners, though Cumulus took care of that by absorbing CMP, and another PE firm paid THLP out for its share. The DOJ had no such concerns about Albuquerque.

Thinking AGM might be about to grab another standalone station in Albuquerque was a rational thought when it announced it was putting KHFM into trust. I don't think anybody saw this big deal coming until a few hours before it broke.
Click to expand...

In Austin, iHeartMedia also had to divest one station there which like I said before, Univision owns stations there. iHeartMedia ended up moving the Christian format to the 105.9 signal before unloading it to Crista Ministries, and then moved The Beat to the stronger 102.3 signal in 2010.
 
miketheradioguy said:
In Austin, iHeartMedia also had to divest one station there which like I said before, Univision owns stations there. iHeartMedia ended up moving the Christian format to the 105.9 signal before unloading it to Crista Ministries, and then moved The Beat to the stronger 102.3 signal in 2010.
Click to expand...

That has nothing to do with the investment bankers and their ownership interests. Clear Channel had to sell off properties in a variety of markets when it went private. Those markets that were over the caps in effect at that time of the sale had previously been grandfathered (allowed to continue "as is") when the Arbitron market-based caps were adopted. At the time of a sale to a new owner, grandfathered ownership cap excesses have to be reduced to current rules.
 
DavidEduardo said:


That has nothing to do with the investment bankers and their ownership interests. Clear Channel had to sell off properties in a variety of markets when it went private. Those markets that were over the caps in effect at that time of the sale had previously been grandfathered (allowed to continue "as is") when the Arbitron market-based caps were adopted. At the time of a sale to a new owner, grandfathered ownership cap excesses have to be reduced to current rules.
Click to expand...

I understand when iHeartMedia was going private, they divested stations, most of them being in small markets and not only the ones where Univision operates. As part of the CBS Radio-Entercom merger, Entercom must divest one station in Wilkes-Barre despite CBS not operating there, but Entercom will lose their grandfathered status in that market, which shouldn't be a bad thing since Entercom plans to divest a repeater anyway, and it should have a minimal impact in the market.
 
I found out that American General Media will park the KAGM call letters on one of their new frequencies, although it hasn't been determined which frequency yet.
 
Kent said:
I'm wondering if BB Broadcasting could be a/some family member(s) of the Brandons who run AGM. I guess we'll know for sure when the FCC filing hits.
Click to expand...

BB Broadcasting is run by Tom Bozzuto, who is from a D.C. area-based real estate group known as The Bozzuto Group. Vanguard Media will also program KDLW under a time brokerage agreement.
 
Now that the transaction closed, I expect American General Media will begin making changes to their new Albuquerque cluster next week.
 
miketheradioguy said:
Now that the transaction closed, I expect American General Media will begin making changes to their new Albuquerque cluster next week.
Click to expand...

The Univision to AGM closed, but now there is the second step of AGM spinning some of their own stations and switching ones they bought.

I'd suspect some simulcasting while they move audiences to new frequencies.
 
DavidEduardo said:


The Univision to AGM closed, but now there is the second step of AGM spinning some of their own stations and switching ones they bought.

I'd suspect some simulcasting while they move audiences to new frequencies.
Click to expand...


I would likely see these two changes taking place:

La Jefa and Radio Lobo would merge their formats, with 97.7 becoming La Jefa and the KJFA calls being transferred to 97.7, and then EMF would be free to use the KLVO calls to launch a future K-Love station.

I could see 106.7 The River move over to 105.1 replacing classic hip hop Yo! 105.1, since American General Media launched The River nearly a year ago.
 
I suspect Radio Lobo will be the surviving brand. It has performed better than La Jefa for quite some time, though AGM doesn't sell the numbers.

Not sure about the River and Yo. Yo was up pretty big after moving to 105.1. Urban-based formats are typically harder to sell, but Yo might be a better fit with AGM adding Kiss to the mix.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom