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Which Bay Area radio stations would both CBS and Entercom agree to sell

MarioMania said:
I had to look up divest on google

Still don't understand, Can you care to expain it to me?
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Divest is to "sell off". It means, in this case, that the government's various divisions has required that a number of stations be sold off in order for the CBS and Entercom merger to be approved.

That means that, prior to closing the deal, they have to get rid of certain stations.
 
Kent said:
Most of the divestiture list wasn’t particularly surprising. I was a little surprised KZOK in Seattle was on the list, though it seemed unlikely Entercom would be able to keep both KZOK and KMPS.

The list in San Francisco, however, was pretty surprising to me. I was VERY surprised to see KOIT on the list and almost as surprised to see KITS wasn’t on it. I have to wonder if the DOJ wasn’t looking a little more closely at the English-language revenue shares like it was in Denver a few years ago.
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I'm certainly going to expect a major shakeup once the buyers of Entercom's divestitures are announced.
 
I just saw the list.

This is INSANITY.

Entercom/CBS Radio (post-merger) is going to keep 97.3 KLLC but is going to divest both KMVQ *and* KOIT ???!!! That is absolute insanity!!!

KMVQ and KOIT as a combo will be very formidable in terms of winning female-oriented advertising dollars. You've already got Star 101.3, the Eighties Channel and KISQ as a tandem (all owned by iHeart). Good luck trying to vie for female ad dollars with Alice as a de facto standalone!!! Seriously, none of the retained stations complement KLLC formatically, with the possible exception of Q102.

They're going to keep underperforming losers like 95.7 The Game and Live 105?? Why???? Even if the plan is to relocate the IP of either KOIT or KMVQ to one of those two signals, it would be a shame given the fact the coverage areas of the 96.5 & 99.7 signals are superior to 95.7 & 105.3.

So, basically, once everything is signed, sealed & delivered, the married CBS/Entercom San Francisco cluster will consist of powerhouse KCBS and Alice @ 97.3, surrounded by a big pile of garbage. Makes sense. (Sigh.)
 
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MarkW said:
I just saw the list.

This is INSANITY.

Entercom/CBS Radio (post-merger) is going to keep 97.3 KLLC but is going to divest both KMVQ *and* KOIT ???!!! That is absolute insanity!!!

KMVQ and KOIT as a combo will be very formidable in terms of winning female-oriented advertising dollars. You've already got Star 101.3, the Eighties Channel and KISQ as a tandem (all owned by iHeart). Good luck trying to vie for female ad dollars with Alice as a de facto standalone!!! Seriously, none of the retained stations complement KLLC formatically, with the possible exception of Q102.

They're going to keep underperforming losers like 95.7 The Game and Live 105?? Why???? Even if the plan is to relocate the IP of either KOIT or KMVQ to one of those two signals, it would be a shame given the fact the coverage areas of the 96.5 & 99.7 signals are superior to 95.7 & 105.3.

So, basically, once everything is signed, sealed & delivered, the married CBS/Entercom San Francisco cluster will consist of powerhouse KCBS and Alice @ 97.3, surrounded by a big pile of garbage. Makes sense. (Sigh.)
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I think a lot of the choices have to do with making the DOJ comfortable with the share of the market's revenue the surviving cluster will earn. And there's nothing that says Entercom has to---or will---spin KMVQ and KOIT to the same owner.
 
MarioMania said:
Oh Cool

So they have to find an new owner for 99.7?
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The buyers will be announced as soon as that information is available. It's possible that Entercom could move the format to one of the stations they're keeping. It will be interesting to see how Entercom will shake things up in San Francisco.
 
Maybe Eagle Communications should buy the stations that are being divested! They own and operate several successful stations in Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska! Or what about Townsquare Media?
 
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We may see Universal Media Access, Alpha Media, Lotus or Lazer go after some of these divested stations, but we'll see. Format swaps are a possibility in this ongoing transition such as KOIT or Now moving to 105.3 or 97.3. Resulting the drop of Live 105 and Alice.
 
Why would Alpha buy these stations? They already own 94-5 Bay-FM, and KEZR(Mix 106) in San Jose and also KKIQ/KKDV in the Far East Bay and KUIC in Vacaville!
 
1069_KIFR said:
Will we see another WiLd 107.7 to 94.9 and 94.9 KSAN to 107.7 frequency swap with KOIT or/both KMVQ??
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What would be the point of that? IIRC, when Clear Channel took over KYLD, they swapped frequencies with whatever company owned KSAN at the time, for the better 94.9 signal. The other company (that got the weaker 107.7 signal) got $$$ out of it, I assume. But 96.5 and 99.7 are both strong signals.

Speaking of which, I'm also surprised that CBS wants to hold onto 105.3. I've never been a fan of the format, but used to like Alex Bennett in the morning when he was on Live 105 in the 90s. But their signals was always awful - at least in a moving car driving around SF.
 
Radiomusik said:
We may see Universal Media Access, Alpha Media, Lotus or Lazer go after some of these divested station
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Alpha is overextended and trying to sell some markets after discovering that Digity was too big a bite to swallow.

Aside from the fact that CBS does not want to do cash sales, the three other companies are value buyers or acquire distressed properties. They would not be going after major San Francisco stations. Lotus has a very successful business model (and no debt) but generally only plays in diary markets with its FM stations; it's one PPM market, Sacramento, has not been very successful and one of the cluster stations is dark.
 
DaveBayArea said:
Am I missing something? Their 92.1 and the 890 AM (along with its 104.7 translator) are both on the air. Do they have something else I don't know about?

Dave B.
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Mr. Eduardo was referring to KDND in Sacramento, which signed off the air and had its license returned to the FCC in February 2017.
 
I thought Entercom owned 107.9 in Sac (prior to FCC terminating its license) ???

Hubbard and Beasley are the obvious candidates to acquire the divested stations in Boston and the Bay Area. Seattle is a little trickier.

I agree that it won't be Alpha. Alpha basically owns a big pile of garbage, with the exception of its west coast markets and its West Palm Beach, FL stations. They paid an outrageous amount of money for an ownership group that largely consisted of stations located in diary markets and peripheral suburban areas near major PPM cities.

Even prior to Digity, Alpha made a handful of one-off acquisitions that made little to no sense (at least to me). Prime example - Dayton, OH. Cox and iHeart have owned that market for years. The common theme? Alpha seemed willing to overpay simply for the purpose of accumulating stations. Sound familiar? (*Cough* Cumulus *Cough*)
 
MarkW said:
I thought Entercom owned 107.9 in Sac (prior to FCC terminating its license) ???
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Entercom voluntarily turned in the 107.9 license. No termination.

MarkW said:
Hubbard and Beasley are the obvious candidates to acquire the divested stations in Boston and the Bay Area.
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Beasley did a deal with CBS a few years ago that it's still absorbing. Not sure that they have the finances to do another mega deal after buying Greater Media.

MarkW said:
Sound familiar? (*Cough* Cumulus *Cough*)
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More like Citadel, which was previously owned by Alpha's current owner Larry Wilson.
 
HenryOchs said:
Maybe Eagle Communications should buy the stations that are being divested! They own and operate several successful stations in Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska! Or what about Townsquare Media?
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The problem is that Entercom wants stations in major markets. Eagle owns stations in small markets, and TheBigA told me that Entercom doesn't want stations in small markets. Likewise, Townsquare doesn't want stations in major markets, as they mainly focus in small markets.
 
The curious part of this market is why would Entercom willingly give up the top-rated music station in the market? That seems like insanity. The spin-offs in this market alone would make for a very profitable group.
 
miketheradioguy said:
Most likely to ensure less scrutiny from the DOJ.
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The DOJ doesn't really care which stations are involved. It's strictly about the market saturation numbers.

My view is they were picked specifically because of a particular buyer. When we learn who it is, it'll become obvious.
 
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