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Another Christian FM For New York

B

Barry

RadioInsight is reporting that Texas-based Hope Media Group has made a deal to acquire 93.5 WVIP FM, for 8.15 million. Most of their stations broadcast Christian A/C music, which may put them in competition with K-Love. WVIP primarily airs brokered shows aimed at the Caribbean community.
The article states that WVIP's sister station WVOX 1460 AM will remain with the current owners-the family of William O'Shaughnessy. Mr. O'Shaughnessy passed away last year.
Most of Hope's stations are in the South and West. This will be their first acquisition in this part of the country.

RadioInsight Article
 
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Barry said:
RadioInsight is reporting that Texas based Hope Media Group filed with the F.C.C. to acquire 93.5 WVIP FM, for 8.15 million. Most of their stations broadcast Christian A/C music, which may put them in competition with K-Love.
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Hardly competition with a much more limited signal as a conforming Class A. It does have a 65 dbu over nearly 6 million people, but the weak signal means that it has poor building penetration even if it looks good on the maps.
 
Over 8 million for a New Rochelle station, I recall Cumulus got 7.2 million for WFAS FM, which also covers parts of NYC, but with less power. These religious operators must have money to burn. The O'Shaughnessy family finally cashed in after all these years.
 
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RadioGuy1864 said:
Over 8 million for a New Rochelle station, I recall Cumulus got 7.2 million for WFAS, which covers parts of NYC. These religious operators must have money to burn. The O'Shaughnessy family finally cashed in after all these years.
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The station covers with a 60 dbu all of the Bronx, over half of of Manhattan, half of Queens, half of Westchester and some pieces of Jersey. It is a decent suburban signal, but not a full metro area signal.
 
WVIP transmits from the same tower in the Bronx that was used by WFAS-FM. I believe they have similar Class A signals. So it's interesting that Hope Media Group is willing to pay almost 1 million more for WVIP.
I wonder what will become of WVIP's two translators, located in Queens and Brooklyn.
 
Barry said:
WVIP transmits from the same tower in the Bronx that was used by WFAS-FM. I believe they have similar Class A signals. So it's interesting that Hope Media Group is willing to pay almost 1 million more for WVIP.
I wonder what will become of WVIP's two translators, located in Queens and Brooklyn.
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One is 24 watts, and the other is 99 watts. Neither of those powers will penetrate office or apartment buildings.
 
@david Eduardo
I recall you often saying that the usuable signals (AM or FM) are not portrayed accurately by the red contours on the Radio-Locator maps.; that the business reach is a dense smaller region within those R-L red lines.
As a B&R NYCer, it occurs to me that even such a smaller and more potent service area would cost the Hope Media Group about a dollar per resident within such a more efficient zone.
Again, however, who among those eligibles in the signal zone would be listening? I know nothing about HMG's goals for this station, but that 93.5 is free from any of that NY-NJ-LI-CT suburban co-channel pile stifling other Class As...... 94.3, 92.7, 102.3, 103.9 and the rest.
HMG is not likely tithing 8 big ones for a suburban audience ; they just want the New York locale on the portfolio. Curious situation.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Again, however, who among those eligibles in the signal zone would be listening?
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None of us who have been in management or ownership knows precisely how many will listen. We can do pre-launch research, music and talent tests and all the rest and spend on advertising and contests. We still have no guarantee that it will work.
 
RadioGuy1864 said:
These religious operators must have money to burn.
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That’s the thing about non-profits, they have to spend the money that is brought in.

In many cases religious operators will overpay to ensure they get a particular station by pricing out any competitive bids. I recall when HMG bought 91.7 in Houston in 2016 they paid $10M for a stick probably worth half of that.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
In many cases religious operators will overpay to ensure they get a particular station by pricing out any competitive bids. I recall when HMG bought 91.7 in Houston in 2016 they paid $10M for a stick probably worth half of that.
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I don't think that is correct. There are certainly examples of non-commercials operators overpaying for a signal. I would agree with you that KHVU is probably an example of that, but there are also countless examples of commercial operators paying outrageous sums for not even top shelf signals: KXOL in Los Angeles is a prime example of that. KGOW in Houston is another on the AM side.

EMF could have outbid everyone in the last auction for a full market B in their home market of Sacramento and they chose to stop when it exceeded its value to them. Ultimately, iHeart won the CP.

I don't think overpaying is a trait that is primarily on the non-com guys and while there seems to be more well-funded non-coms buying commercial stations now, but that is mostly a function of the larger commercial operators overpaying in previous cycles, causing them to have horrible balance sheets with little room for large acquisitions.
 
It seemed WVIP FM did a good job of monetizing their HD signal. They leased out each of their 3 HD subchannels to different broadcasters. And they have translators rebroadcasting al least one of them.
 
Ryan Williams said:
I don't think that is correct. There are certainly examples of non-commercials operators overpaying for a signal. I would agree with you that KHVU is probably an example of that
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$10M was the announced price for the sale of what was then KUHA to HMG (under It’s previous name, KSBJ Educational Foundation.) It was pointed out at at the time that Houston Public Media got back exactly what it had paid five years earlier when acquiring the former KTRU.
MVB13 said:
The entire FM dial in NYC might as well be spoken word or Christian. 🙄
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RadioGuy1864 said:
Maybe in 25 years from now, but not today.
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As has been said on these forums before: If you want to know what the future of FM radio sounds like, just listen to what AM radio has already become.
 
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