Any speculation would be just as good as KBXD's speculation. Nobody has a clue.
Having worked securing such accounts, any old leads you might have already found a home or went to other markets. In other words any leads you have more than a few weeks old are useless. Anyway, if you call them, you are at a disadvantage in getting the price your owner needs. If they call you, you have the leverage you need to negotiate a price that works for both sides.
It is somewhat taboo to say you need a client, even on air. In the potential client's mind, if you have to say you need a client, they think you might not be a good signal in the market or you're difficult to deal with.
The entity looking for a station feels it is somewhat taboo to say they are looking. They think if they have to say they are searching for a station, they might not be seen as a stable and reliable client.
Indeed the best arrangements are when someone you know can make an introduction. In such an instance both sides are seemingly more open and can easily negotiate a deal.
When you run a loop saying you need a client, the phone rings off the wall. We'd call them 'tire kickers' in another field. The curious, those just starting out, those that might be out to get a really low price deal and the bad paying ones all call you. Sometimes a good one calls and that's the one you wait for. That wait might be a long one. I've gone 6 months but know others that went over a year trying to find a client. Remember, no client means all the bills every month but no revenue. And don't ever expect a client to want to pay more than they perceive the station costs to operate. Still, when you're selling those folks, you have to recover that zero revenue time with a higher than cost rate.
Selling to several clients is easier but you never sell out and you have much more time spent dealing with them, collecting and so forth. A single client is more apt to put up some cash to safeguard the station a little and then do a bank draft for payment. They tend to be pretty independent of the station itself (their own offices and staff).
No matter how you play it and no matter the contract terms, the client will be fine one day and shutting down the next day. The station is the last to know and typically finds the agreements cannot be fulfilled because the client went belly up. 3 to 5 years is a pretty good run. In rare instances at a renewal, a client might move to another station but that is quite rare because moving up or down the dial destroys lots of hard work the client has done.
