What to make of this Herald article?
http://www.bostonherald.com/busines..._radio_stations_would_reshape_boston_airwaves
http://www.bostonherald.com/busines..._radio_stations_would_reshape_boston_airwaves
look for amp to be flipped immediately. If Entercom buys even part of the divsion would they flip the new stations as to not compete with their existing stations?
Rick Shaffer in Herald
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/2016/03/shaffer_old_am_radio_model_is_broken
>>Radio stations have become depressingly less profitable over the past decade..,More and more people, especially young adults, are turning to online sources for their information, entertainment and music — radio’s reasons for existence.. In the near future, AM radio stations like WBZ Radio will likely be relegated to niche-casting — foreign language programming, specialty shows like finance and infomercials. Indeed, in the next year or two, many new cars will not include AM stations on their radios.
Why would they flip AMP? Entercom does not have anything that competes with it...and it would be a good demographic for their older male oriented cluster.
(And no, Oldies is not coming back...)
IF WBZ-AM is excised from 1170 SFR—and that, in itself, would be a bombshell!—I think 10-30 would pair up nicely with Coxʼs Fox-25 (à la their Atlanta WSB AM-TV combo) or possibly even Sunbeam (Ansinʼs WHDH-TV) adding them as a radio property.Who besides CBS does all-news? I fear that if someone who is not already doing all-news successfully elsewhere takes over WBZ (AM), they won't want to deal with the expense/work of all-news, and it will end up more satellite-fed talk shows, which would be a shame.
IF WBZ-AM is excised from 1170 SFR—and that, in itself, would be a bombshell!—I think 10-30 would pair up nicely with Coxʼs Fox-25 (à la their Atlanta WSB AM-TV combo) or possibly even Sunbeam (Ansinʼs WHDH-TV) adding them as a radio property.
However, if, say, Westinghouse - I know they exist as a shell of what they used to be - were to re-form Group W and re-purchase some of their old properties (WBZ, WINS, KYW, KDKA) that would be nice. (WOWO, WIND, KFWB were all spun off by Group W before CBS got into the picture.)
It was a very confusing transaction so I might be wrong, but I thought Westinghouse was CBS: Westinghouse took over the original CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) and then changed the name of the merged company to CBS, Inc because the name was better known, and then was taken over itself by Viacom (which actually started as a CBS subsidiary that grew bigger than its parent). And I believe Westinghouse sold off its non-broadcast divisions to other companies, with the right to continue using the Westinghouse name. For example, the "Westinghouse Electric" company that builds power plants is actually owned by Toshiba.
So maybe Moonves et al could spin off CBS Radio as a separate unit called Group W.
You're assuming that any of the people associated with Group W or Westinghouse Radio are still there, and that use of the brand name would also bring back their way of doing business. I don't think one can make that assumption.