PLJ SOLD

DavidEduardo said:

NPR and K-Love are listener supported (although NPR gets grants and underwriting, which EMF stays away from)

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I'd actually be curious to know how much financial support EMF gets from right-wing/evangelical conservative organizations which would essentially be the same as a grant. Political operatives like that are rarely transparent so we'll probably never know.

Wimmmex said:

Most people "in the biz" can appreciate a job well done, well run, and quality produced product...even if it is targeted to "someone else".

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I can't think of a single person "in the biz" who appreciates a company that fires an entire station's staff and runs it as a satellite repeater, forever eliminating that station as an employer for radio people in the market.

Theater of My Mind said:

I can't think of a single person "in the biz" who appreciates a company that fires an entire station's staff and runs it as a satellite repeater, forever eliminating that station as an employer for radio people in the market.

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-No, but people "in the biz" can appreciate the good job they do with the programming content....and that they have a different funding model based on listener contributions.

-If they get people to listen, enjoy and support it financially...they will be successful. If not, they will go away.

-People "in the biz" understand that the former incarnation of the station was on a crash course, and could not sustain the jobs or programming...and apparently no one else wanted to purchase it.

Theater of My Mind said:

I'd actually be curious to know how much financial support EMF gets from right-wing/evangelical conservative organizations

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If the Salvation Army contributed to their funding, would that be a problem?

If the Billy Graham organization or if Rick Warren's Saddleback Church contributed, would that be a problem?

You can admire these characters business acumen if that is your perspective. Reality is they are taking advantage of a declining industry and turning formerly viable, locally programmed facilities into ghost ships.

Consider that they are closing-in of 600 stations they will O&O, none will have anything more than a contract engineer. At minimum you are seeing the loss of 2000 jobs in an already shrinking industry.

Nothing “positive and encouraging” about this situation.

LCG

“200 of those stations are translators, which would not have a staff anyway.”

Many of those translators would have been used to improve the viability of local operators.

“And nearly 300 are on non-commercial frequencies, and would not necessarily be large generators of employment.’

My original estimate was quite “conservative” and based on approx 2.3 employees/facility. Even small NCE’s will often have more than that employed.

There is a bigger issue as far as I’m concerned; the fact that some of these NCE licenses have been divested by schools and colleges is illustrative of a diminished role for traditional radio.

“The fact is that EMF has a business model which can afford to pay the best prices for commercial stations in situations where the station is not cash flowing or where it is only minimally profitable.”

This too shows the diminished role of commercial OTA in today’s society (yeah, I know 98% reach…..), Here in NYC WPLJ was competing against two other stations in nearly the same format. This was noting new. PLJ’s musically conservative approach dated back to the early 1990’s after the “Mojo” flop. Until just recently, the pie was big enough for two or three operators to each get a share of the female-friendly and office crowd.

Not anymore. That combined with Cumulus’ financial problems has led to this sorry situation.

Regardless of how one tries to spin the actions of the company with the somewhat deceptive name, having these facilities fall under their grasp is an ominous sign for OTA radio and those who work in the industry.

LCG

L Chanon Gade said:

This too shows the diminished role of commercial OTA in today’s society

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You're focusing on one thing, and using that one thing to drive a negative narrative. The bigger picture is the strong stations in NYC are growing stronger, while the weak are weaker. If you work at iHeart or Entercom, there are no ominous signs. You prefer to see the glass half empty. Sad.

DavidEduardo said:

What you are not taking into account is the fact that WPLJ failed in no small part due to ownership by a company that was mismanaged back to its Citadel days

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I'd suggest the station was mismanaged much longer than that. It's obvious that ABC radio started its mismanagement under Disney, and that's why they were so anxious to get rid of it.

L Chanon Gade said:

Regardless of how one tries to spin the actions of the company with the somewhat deceptive name...

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I think we are uncovering the point that you don't like their programming/product.

I am guessing you have a problem with faith based activities...and broadcasting...which is probably not related to K-Love, etc....right?

DavidEduardo said:

For starters, they did not engage in the consolidation activities of the mid-90's,

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That's correct, and they were asked about it at the time. Because prior to 1996, ABC was in fact the largest radio group in the country. They owned the maximum number of radio stations allowed by law, and those stations were in the largest markets. Plus they had a very successful radio network. So industry observers figured the big companies like ABC would want to get bigger. But prior to buying ABC, Disney was not in the radio business. They really didn't see what the attraction was. So they told analysts that they'd be sitting this out. CBS, on the other hand, bought several groups around the country. NBC left the radio business in 1988. But I think that decision not to expand radio in 1998 was indicative of the strategic thinking at Disney that radio didn't fit its core business, and they'd leave it at a time when it would be beneficial. That time came when Citadel came along. But by then, the division had already begun its decline.

TheBigA said:

But I think that decision not to expand radio in 1998 was indicative of the strategic thinking at Disney that radio didn't fit its core business, and they'd leave it at a time when it would be beneficial. That time came when Citadel came along. But by then, the division had already begun its decline.

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Absolutely. Remember that Disney was absolutely flush with cash from the halcyon Michael Eisner “Disney Renaissance” days. They were aggressively trying to expand their business and invest cash in virtually any viable entertainment format (remember go.com?). Given the bullish attitude investors had with radio in the late 90’s, and some of the borderline-foolish investments Disney had back then, radio for them seemed like a solid and conservative fit.

Fast forward 15 years, new tech has reduced radio’s value and Disney as a company was trying to drum up cash to buy several movie franchises. Unloading stations that will likely lose additional face value made financial sense in the situation.

As for WPLJ...that was Scott Shannon’s station. Had been since Mojo Radio. I felt the death rattle occurred once he jumped ship to CBS-FM and Todd took the helm of the morning show.

seattlesarchiebunker said:

Given the bullish attitude investors had with radio in the late 90’s, and some of the borderline-foolish investments Disney had back then, radio for them seemed like a solid and conservative fit.

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No, that's not what I'm saying. Had they wanted to expand radio in 1998, they could have. But they didn't. Because they never saw themselves in that business.

seattlesarchiebunker said:

Absolutely. Remember that Disney was absolutely flush with cash from the halcyon Michael Eisner “Disney Renaissance” days. They were aggressively trying to expand their business and invest cash in virtually any viable entertainment format (remember go.com?). Given the bullish attitude investors had with radio in the late 90’s, and some of the borderline-foolish investments Disney had back then, radio for them seemed like a solid and conservative fit.

Fast forward 15 years, new tech has reduced radio’s value and Disney as a company was trying to drum up cash to buy several movie franchises. Unloading stations that will likely lose additional face value made financial sense in the situation.

As for WPLJ...that was Scott Shannon’s station. Had been since Mojo Radio. I felt the death rattle occurred once he jumped ship to CBS-FM and Todd took the helm of the morning show.

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I agree. As soon as Scott left back in 2014 I knew it was over. Hell even before that they had flush the format days. It's been on life support at least since 2014. It has been 5 years now i am shocked it last as long as it did. I cannot stand Todd and Jade.

TheBigA said:

No, that's not what I'm saying. Had they wanted to expand radio in 1998, they could have. But they didn't. Because they never saw themselves in that business.

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By the time belts started tightening around Disney post-9/11, they could have unloaded their radio division for far more than they did a little over a decade later. The revenues made off the licenses justified the company to keep them.

They were certainly not radio people, but the situations that allowed them initial ownership and the economy of the time justified them continuing to hold onto the properties for the long-term. The classic “buy and hold” situation.

TheBigA said:

No, that's not what I'm saying. Had they wanted to expand radio in 1998, they could have. But they didn't. Because they never saw themselves in that business.

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After the CBS/Infinity deal, rumors were going around that Chancellor was practically begging ABC to buy it. Evergreen was also looking for a suitor; CBS was reportedly about to bite before Karmazin approached.

Less than a year later, it seemed like Chancellor was trying to engineer a similar situation to what Karmazin pulled off with CBS. It likely wanted to lead ABC Radio into becoming a supergroup, but Disney wanted no part.

seattlesarchiebunker said:

By the time belts started tightening around Disney post-9/11, they could have unloaded their radio division for far more than they did a little over a decade later. The revenues made off the licenses justified the company to keep them.

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They kept them because selling them would create a capital gain tax problem for them. The solution was the reverse Morris Trust that they did with Citadel.

bizzle13 said:

I agree. As soon as Scott left back in 2014 I knew it was over. Hell even before that they had flush the format days. It's been on life support at least since 2014. It has been 5 years now i am shocked it last as long as it did. I cannot stand Todd and Jade.

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PLJ was dead for at least 10 years prior to Shannon leaving. The station was stale, it sounded horrible, and Shannon was out of place on a contemporary format. The same old 1980s morning zoo schtick was so odd to hear...it did not keep well with the more contemporary sound PLJ was trying for. He does sound better on CBS-FM.

In any case, what was PLJ? It was a third rate hot AC wannabe that was all over the place formatically.