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Scripps Getting Out Of Radio


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The million dollar question is: who could possibly be a buyer in this market?

 

I also wonder what this will mean to the Milwaukee cluster.... it'd be a shame if this puts an end to radio broadcasting originating from "Radio City." Hopefully whomever buys them will arrange to remain in that facility.

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The million dollar question is: who could possibly be a buyer in this market?

As we saw with the CBS Radio-Entercom deal, anyone could be a player, even iHeart which is on the verge of some kind of reckoning with its massive debt.

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I also wonder what this will mean to the Milwaukee cluster.... it'd be a shame if this puts an end to radio broadcasting originating from "Radio City." Hopefully whomever buys them will arrange to remain in that facility.

 

And this literally puts the Brewers and Packers up for bids too since Scripps owns those networks. Entercom is the front-runner for me; ditch WSSP to the WRRD owners and satisfy their whining about WTMJ outbidding them for an FM translator, and there you go. I just don't see iHeart bidding and we get the fun of WTMJ and WISN in the same studio and daily on-air battles between Jeff Wagner and Mark Belling, sadly. It might be interesting to see TEGNA make a bid too since they're retaining KFMB-AM/FM if the cross-ownership stuff is dealt with to return them and the JS under the same corporate banner.

 

The 'local' possibility is Midwest Communications, which basically rules everything north of the Ozaukee County line and would love to do what Gannett has basically done with consolidating almost all the state papers from Wausau, Green Bay/Fox Valley, the lakeshore and then the crown jewel in the Journal Sentinel. With Midwest controlling the Packers rights in all those markets, that would be the most 'status quo' result (and outside of Wisconsin they'd love to get Omaha, though they might not go further than that).

 

At least, the WTMJ's will continue to collaborate for Packers coverage on radio or TV; no way you lose that synergy.

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And this literally puts the Brewers and Packers up for bids too since Scripps owns those networks.

At least with the Brewers Radio Network, that's owned by the Brewers themselves, IIRC. Scripps manages it for them out of WTMJ as the "flagship station," but it is still owned by the Brewers.

 

Unsure how the Packers Radio Network is run; I'd guess it's similar to the Brewers.

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Whoever wins the stations also gets the Packers and Brewer radio networks in Wisconsin so this is a really big deal in Milwaukee I just don't see iHeart doing it maybe Midwest Communications locally since they seem to be pursuing the same strategy Gannett did to consolidate Wisconsin's newspapers

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The million dollar question is: who could possibly be a buyer in this market?

 

I also wonder what this will mean to the Milwaukee cluster.... it'd be a shame if this puts an end to radio broadcasting originating from "Radio City." Hopefully whomever buys them will arrange to remain in that facility.

 

It's possible to do this given the buildings layout, but it wouldn't be pretty.

 

If radio leaves Radio City, the building will mostly be empy. Radio takes up a large portion of the building (the majority of the space in the "original" building is radio.) At some point a contact at the station told me it was one of the largest buildings in the Scripps portfolio. I could see them just throwing in the towel and finding WTMJ-TV a new building all together if radio leaves.

 

Sad!

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As we saw with the CBS Radio-Entercom deal, anyone could be a player, even iHeart which is on the verge of some kind of reckoning with its massive debt.

It took CBS a decade to get out of radio, and even still, they had to do the Reverse Morris Trust in which CBS technically has a sizable stake in the new Entercom.

 

iHeart is stupid enough to be a buyer, but are they at the cap in Milwaukee?

 

Hubbard was the first thought that came to my mind with these stations.

Entercom actually makes a bit more sense, as most of Scripps' radio markets don't have much overlap with them IIRC. Hubbard doesn't go buying stations all over the place.

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Anything Scripps sees as non-core is on the block.

 

So if you want to dominate "all platforms" you go and sell a time proven mobile platform where 93% of adults still are still listening on a regular basis?

 

I don't know crap about that Scripps radio portfolio, but there has to be some profitable legacy stations that group....or did Scrapps destroy those also?

Running radio and tv is like farming goats and chickens...every farmer knows how to raise both..

 

The point is you need to own all those platforms in your area...even the radio ones.

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So if you want to dominate "all platforms" you go and sell a time proven mobile platform where 93% of adults still are still listening on a regular basis?

 

I don't know crap about that Scripps radio portfolio, but there has to be some profitable legacy stations that group....or did Scrapps destroy those also?

Running radio and tv is like farming goats and chickens...every farmer knows how to raise both..

 

The point is you need to own all those platforms in your area...even the radio ones.

scripps never wanted the radio stations... they have basically been running as they were when they took control of them... i think the only radio executive to have an office in Cincinnati is steve wexler... who is there part time and still has his office at WTMJ... hope he's renting his place in cincinnati...

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Scripps was clueless about radio and about its radio group specifically. Yesterday a Scripps executive said one of the reason they were getting out of radio was because they wanted to focus on news and journalism. Some of its most successful radio stations are stations that have large news departments, lots of people turn to those stations for traffic reports and are in big severe weather markets. Also in markets that have both TV and radio, tv people are regularly on radio to give news or weather reports.

 

In Milwaukee, Boise, Tucson, and Omaha TV and radio are in the same the same building. my guess Scripps will try to get the the new owners to rent space from them, they probably don't want half vacant buildings and don't have much use for it otherwise.

 

Scripps will try to get rid of radio fast, the radio group has been underperforming for the last few years after being very successful under Journal ownership.

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I recently predicted that Scripps could get Cumulus (which is now bankrupt); if so it would be less likely for Scripps to get out of radio. Scripps has podcasts anyone across the country can listen to; why not give them a lot more radio stations? They once wanted to be on every platform.

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I recently predicted that Scripps could get Cumulus (which is now bankrupt); if so it would be less likely for Scripps to get out of radio. Scripps has podcasts anyone across the country can listen to; why not give them a lot more radio stations? They once wanted to be on every platform.
looks like... you predicted poorly...

 

if they wanted to add to the radio stations, they would have bought some by now... another sign they weren't in it for the long run...

 

journal had expansion ideas... those journal people went to scripps... and after almost three years they didn't get anything done...

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  • 4 months later...

Griffin Communications here in Oklahoma has bought the Tulsa radio stations from Scripps which will now partner KOTV channel 6 and News Talk 1170 together and allow the NewsON 6 weather team to broadcast weather updates along with severe weather coverage on the stations. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10158164791687837

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Griffin Communications here in Oklahoma has bought the Tulsa radio stations from Scripps which will now partner KOTV channel 6 and News Talk 1170 together and allow the NewsON 6 weather team to broadcast weather updates along with severe weather coverage on the stations. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10158164791687837

Weird, Griffin Communicatons wants to get in the radio business. Has the company owned radio stations before?

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  • 1 month later...

Scripps finally found a buyer for WTMJ/620 and WKTI/94.5.

 

It’s... Good Karma Brands, headed by Craig Karmazin (Mel’s son) for $16M. They already own “540 ESPN” WAUK and a bunch of smaller sports stations in the Midwest, including WKNR in my hometown of Cleveland.

 

In a way, I’m legit stunned.

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Scripps finally found a buyer for WTMJ/620 and WKTI/94.5.

 

It’s... Good Karma Brands, headed by Craig Karmazin (Mel’s son) for $16M. They already own “540 ESPN” WAUK and a bunch of smaller sports stations in the Midwest, including WKNR in my hometown of Cleveland.

 

In a way, I’m legit stunned.

 

I see this now... WTMJ Sports on 540.

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Scripps finally found a buyer for WTMJ/620 and WKTI/94.5.

 

It’s... Good Karma Brands, headed by Craig Karmazin (Mel’s son) for $16M. They already own “540 ESPN” WAUK and a bunch of smaller sports stations in the Midwest, including WKNR in my hometown of Cleveland.

 

In a way, I’m legit stunned.

 

Many thought that Entercom would get the Milwaukee properties but it makes since for Good Karma, WTMJ has all the major professional PBP sport contracts which is very lucrative. I wouldn't be surprised if Good Karma moves the sports PBP properties to its station in the Madison market in the future.

 

WAUK's studio and offices will move from downtown Milwaukee into the Radio City building with WTMJ TV. The radio stations will be under local ownership once again.

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