From Radio World: Radio Disney to Sell Most Radio Stations; Here's the List

[KB1OKL]

This will effectively clear the air of a lot of IBOC sideband noise coast to coast as I assume most new owners will shut off the useless expensive noisemaker. I am excited about WQEW NY being out of Disney's clutches, maybe I can DX splits next to 1560 again without having to try to null WQEW, it's really strong here and spews hash of course and is hard to null.


"Radio Disney says it’s selling most of its stations and focusing more on digital distribution — and away from broadcast.

The company plans to sell 23 out of its 24 stations, effective Sept. 26, according to officials; see the list at bottom. The one station its keeping, KDIS(AM), Los Angeles, will originate Radio Disney’s national programming. The national team will operate the facility."
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more at: http://www.radioworld.com/article/radio-disney-to-sell-most-radio-stations-heres-the-list/271800

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Gee, you mean pre-teens aren't buying HD radios to hear Radio Disney? Who could have foreseen that?

Seriously - I think they were hoping to continue the musical success they had with Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, and the Jonas Brothers with new acts such as Chyna Ann McClain and Ross Lynch. Never heard of them? Pretty much my point. Great acts - never transitioned into top-40. Not even their High School Musical franchise translated into top-40 artists, although Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale gave it their best. They have had more acting success than music. Disney's foray into music is pretty much over when Bidgit Mendler had her one top-40 hit. Radio Disney worked as a bridge into mainstream top-40 for a while, but no more. Bad news for their "Teen Beach Movie" franchise, which now has no bridge to top-40 outlet.

 

[radioskeptic]

If you want to know why they’re selling the stations, it’s because only 18 percent of their listeners were listening via over-the-air radio. Satellite in internet streaming each had about twice as many listeners as those transmitters! See “Radio Disney’s on-air became too small a world after all” at http://www.insideradio.com//Article.asp?id=2827302

And if you want to know why the OTA audience was so small, I can tell you not in two words, but in only two letters: “HD”! (Okay four letters: “AM HD”!)

 

[TheBigA]

And if you want to know why the OTA audience was so small, I can tell you not in two words, but in only two letters: “HD”! (Okay four letters: “AM HD”!)

The reason their AM audience was so small was because their parents don't own AM radios. That's also why their parents don't listen to AM.

What this means for AM DXers is another profitable company is getting out of radio, leaving AM for more brokered ethnic and religious programming.

 

[spunker88]

We all knew the day was coming, the last thing their demographics listens to is AM radio. Most of them don't even listen to FM anymore. A lot their demographic own some wifi capable device, tablets and smartphones are cheap these days. So it would make sense for Radio Disney to focus more on internet broadcasting.

That being said I'm curious to see what happens to these signals. I'm guessing these markets already had a good signal for ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes for markets with Spanish speaking population. Some of these stations like WQEW are really good clear channel signals in big markets. They should still be worth a lot of money even in this day and age.

 

[ContinuousWave]

1590 KMIC Houston evidently has had its IBOC off for some time....but they didn't open up the analog audio back to 10k..to see IBOC gone from AM will not cause anyone to shed a tear!

 

[CTListener]

We all knew the day was coming, the last thing their demographics listens to is AM radio. Most of them don't even listen to FM anymore. A lot their demographic own some wifi capable device, tablets and smartphones are cheap these days. So it would make sense for Radio Disney to focus more on internet broadcasting.

That being said I'm curious to see what happens to these signals. I'm guessing these markets already had a good signal for ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes for markets with Spanish speaking population. Some of these stations like WQEW are really good clear channel signals in big markets. They should still be worth a lot of money even in this day and age.

Once again, WQEW is far from a clear channel signal and is way down in the muck at night once you get a few miles into Connecticut.

 

[KB1OKL]

Once again, WQEW is far from a clear channel signal and is way down in the muck at night once you get a few miles into Connecticut.

Comes in great here in Ma at night, their IBOC was really obnoxious. There are no clear channels anymore anyway, that designation was done away with years ago.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Some of these stations like WQEW are really good clear channel signals in big markets. They should still be worth a lot of money even in this day and age.

Consider that Mickey paid $40 million for WQEW. Last year, WOR sold for $30 million.

WOR is a full market signal. WQEW is a very deficient signal in many parts of the metro and is at the "bad" end of the dial. It's unlikely they get even half of what they paid for the station

None of the other Radio Disney stations is worth even half what was paid for it.

 

[WJPYFM]

Who decided to put these on the AM dial anyway? I can hear WQEW in Buffalo during the late evening, but with all the noise it is not enjoyable for my 8 year old. In fact she will not listen to anything on AM due to the sound. I am not sure why they wasted money on IBOC for these AM stations also. Often you guys complain that with IBOC the audio is limited to 5k but what is the difference? My Ford car radio might get 5k if it is lucky with mono only as a bonus! FM is a different story. They would have done much better. At least FM is still used for music!
I know that kids have tablets glued to their hands but I don't think wifi works too well in the car. I will not spend money for very compressed Sat. I also will not spend the money for a data plan! Radio is free. Data streams are not. Cable companies are already thinking about usage based pricing and caps for data. I would rather see radio Disney go on HD2 channels it would still sound better than AM. Even with the dropouts! Don't get me wrong, AM still has its place but not for CHR(Top 40). Oldies/News radio in AM Stereo would still work. I just bought a new HD & AM Stereo & FM Stereo receiver.

 

[KB1OKL]

Who decided to put these on the AM dial anyway? I can hear WQEW in Buffalo during the late evening, but with all the noise it is not enjoyable for my 8 year old. In fact she will not listen to anything on AM due to the sound. I am not sure why they wasted money on IBOC for these AM stations also. Often you guys complain that with IBOC the audio is limited to 5k but what is the difference? My Ford car radio might get 5k if it is lucky with mono only as a bonus! FM is a different story. They would have done much better. At least FM is still used for music!
I know that kids have tablets glued to their hands but I don't think wifi works too well in the car. I will not spend money for very compressed Sat. I also will not spend the money for a data plan! Radio is free. Data streams are not. Cable companies are already thinking about usage based pricing and caps for data. I would rather see radio Disney go on HD2 channels it would still sound better than AM. Even with the dropouts! Don't get me wrong, AM still has its place but not for CHR(Top 40). Oldies/News radio in AM Stereo would still work. I just bought a new HD & AM Stereo & FM Stereo receiver.

I listen to WQEW on an RCA 13K console (my new toy) and even though Radio Disney is not my cup of tea it sounds great on this radio, 20 real watts with 6L6 power tubes and a 12" full range speaker with tuned ports, this is the way AM is supposed to sound. Most of RD's music is bass and drum heavy anyway and on this radio you feel like you are in a disco. This radio also has a primitive bandwidth control which works and stops the chugging sidebands from IBOC from ruining the music.