That too. I'm thinking about cuts that involve blowing up radio stations in certain markets. However, I don't know what radio stations will get blown up under the new Entercom ownership. If blowing up stations is part of Entercom's agenda, I'll expect Entercom to blow up those radio stations within 6 months of closing.
-
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
Entercom's Impact on NYC
- Thread starter MVB13
- Start date
That too. I'm thinking about cuts that involve blowing up radio stations in certain markets. However, I don't know what radio stations will get blown up under the new Entercom ownership. If blowing up stations is part of Entercom's agenda, I'll expect Entercom to blow up those radio stations within 6 months of closing.
Much speculation on the Boston board on this topic. Entercom is going to wind up with two very healthy sports FMs. A format change for either is unlikely, but whether both will continue with separate in-house talk lineups is uncertain.
I can't really think of any CBS stations that need to be blown up.
To look good to the "new" investors... the current CBS shareholders who get Entercom shares as part of the deal... they need to keep cash flow up. If revenues fall, there will be a rush to the door by those new shareholders which will hurt the share price significantly.
Flipping stations or "blowing them up" generally creates a money losing operation for the first year; that would not look good. Instead, the opportunities are in cost cutting and consolidation. Format changes would be limited to those required by changes in competitors or stations that are losing money.
Of course, they could also spin the smallest markets, like Palm Springs, Victorville and such.
Last edited:
And when you flip, any existing revenue nearly all disappears.
And whether the DoJ will allow them to keep those two stations that have all the major team play by play and control nearly 24% of the total market revenues is a major question.
The Department of Justice won't allow Entercom to own both The Sports Hub and WEEI, so it's obvious Entercom will be required to let go of one of them.
I'm thinking an iHeartMedia/Entercom swap in Boston may be possible since iHeartMedia own 3 FMs and 2 AMs in Boston. Entercom would trade one of the sports stations plus another FM station to iHeartMedia, and iHeartMedia would trade Entercom their stations in Springfield MA, Worcester MA, and Providence, RI. That shouldn't seem too inconceivable.
There might be some CBS stations that Entercom will "blow up," but I'm thinking they might tweek the formats more than anything else, mainly in cases where they have two competing stations in the same market.
They also will likely spin off stations with the poorest signals in the markets where they must divest.
They also will likely spin off stations with the poorest signals in the markets where they must divest.
Thought they would have had to change it. Same thing happened in Cleveland back in the 70s. Per Wikipedia: The station moved to its present studios at 5800 South Marginal Road on November 2, 1975. While WJW-FM (104.1 FM) was sold in the late 1960s, Storer kept WJW (850 AM) until late 1976. The AM station's new owners were allowed to keep the WJW call letters, forcing channel 8 to change theirs. At the time, the FCC did not allow radio and television stations with different owners to share the same base call letters—this is not the case today. As a result, channel 8 changed its callsign to WJKW-TV on April 22nd, 1977.
I would think that somewhere down the road Entercom might insist on keeping the WCBS AM [and possibly WCBS FM] call letters and force the TV station to change theirs seeing as the AM station was around first and has the right to keep it's call letters. Of course they could always change the call letters to something that sounds the same, like WZBS, if it's not being used elsewhere. One or the other could do something so egregious that one of them could say "WHOA, we are not in any way, shape or form part of THAT corporation and don't want to be associated with what they said/did!" and decide to change the call letters post haste.
What they have in the sale contract will determine the surviving user of "WCBS", not the date they went on the air. Example: KKOB in Albuquerque where the AM changed calls despite being the heritage station in the market.
I think a slight shift in a music format (e.g. Mainstream to Rhythmic) for some of CBS Radio/Entercom's stations is possible for some of their stations, while others may get completely blown up for a new format. The big question would be which stations would get blown up upon closing. Like I said before, I'll expect any format changes to happen on CBS Radio/Entercom's stations within six months of closing.
We all observed what happened with WOGL in Philadelphia. The objective is to save money and not necessarily to change formats. I speculate that there could be more voice tracking on the CBS stations in NYC at night, overnight and weekends. All news formats are very expensive. There could be drastic cost savings moves at 880 and 1010. Time will tell.
What format would Entercom flip 92.3 or 101.9 to if either gets blown up?
92.3 should flip back to rock or 101.9.
Rock in a city with a population hard-wired for rhythmic, rhythmic, rhythmic. Right.
CBS moved the previous rock format on 92.3 to its HD2 subchannel when the station flipped to Top 40 in 2009. CBS did the same thing in Detroit and Boston when those stations flipped to Top 40.
Entercom
HD 2 can be something else AAA music. I could see 101.9 or 92.3 flipping. We have such a saturated market of CHRs and Rhythmics. Not enough variety on the dial. Maybe 92.3 could go AAA while 101.9 could go alternative. 101.1 stays the same as does 102.7. Or 102.7 becomes alternative rock while 92.3 becomes AAA and 101.9 becomes r&b or something.
HD 2 can be something else AAA music. I could see 101.9 or 92.3 flipping. We have such a saturated market of CHRs and Rhythmics. Not enough variety on the dial. Maybe 92.3 could go AAA while 101.9 could go alternative. 101.1 stays the same as does 102.7. Or 102.7 becomes alternative rock while 92.3 becomes AAA and 101.9 becomes r&b or something.
101.9 had an Alternative format until it was sold to CBS and flipped to a simulcast of WFAN in 2012. And CTListener has a point, New York City isn't the best market for a rock format.
- Status