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Cumulus Sells WPLJ and WNSH/New York, Many More


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A bunch of Cumulus stations, including WPLJ/NY, WRQX/DC, WYAY/Atlanta sold to EMF, which will flip them all to Contemporary Christian on its K-LOVE network:

 

https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/184047/emf-buys-wplj-new-york-wyay-atlanta-wrqx-d-c-more-

 

And Cumulus swapped Nash FM/New York and two stations in Springfield, MA to Entercom for three in Indianapolis:

 

https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/184048/entercom-gets-wnsh-new-york-wmas-whll-springfield-

 

Interesting, in light of talk that Cumulus' debt even with Chapter 11 reorganization is still too heavy...

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I wonder if it's time to give up on the idea of reserving 88.1-91.9 for noncommercial use. If EMF is the only company with money anymore then surely segregating FM is an awful idea.

 

When relatively profitable stations have no takers, you know your medium is screwed.

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29 minutes ago, scrabbleship said:

I wonder if it's time to give up on the idea of reserving 88.1-91.9 for noncommercial use. If EMF is the only company with money anymore then surely segregating FM is an awful idea.

 

When relatively profitable stations have no takers, you know your medium is screwed.

 

NPR stations and college/university stations would still fill that area though?

 

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18 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

NPR stations and college/university stations would still fill that area though?

 

 

Just give them the option to sell ads or that if they wanted to cash out to a commercial operator that they could do so. It's only fair if EMF is the only company with money and scores of commercial stations are going noncommercial to even the score.

Case in point: WGTS in the DC market, the CCM station that has about the same ratings as WRQX has now, should be able to sell a limited number of ads, perhaps alongside their underwriting/support tags, as a means of making more money and solidifying the locality they've had for so long. It would be fair to do so, what with a commercial allocation becoming basically dead out of sins such as sloth (of Cumulus, Hubbard had more than enough room to keep the status quo) and vainity (of EMF, who at this point is buying for the sake of buying and little else).

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EMF is like the Hobby Lobby of radio....they keep popping up EVERYWHERE and people wonder how they stay in business.

 

Makes me recall 7 years ago, when longtime, locally-owned 97.5 WABB cashed out.  Their final sign off into EMF programming sounded like a funeral...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODDTMGRKi5U

 

Ironically, it was Cumulus that didn't miss a beat, flipping "Jack FM" 104.1 WYOK into WABD (with a virtually identical logo and format at the stroke of midnight when WABB-FM went away...)  They even hired many of the former WABB personalities!

 

And several months later, with a series of swaps between Nashville and several other Mobile-area stations, Nashville got a full-power EMF station, and the CHR format moved BACK to 97.5 to live on as 97.5 WABD.

EMF ended up on 98.3, whose R&B format and calls (WDLT) migrated onto the better signal of 104.1.  So in the end, Cumulus ended up with the successor to WABB on 97.5.

 

And recently, over in Panama City, longtime CHR 107.9 WPFM was sold pre-Hurricane Michael to EMF.  This was before the cluster was destroyed and the owners decided not to rebuild.  The stations (aside from WPFM) have since been sold and are in the process of being resurrected by the new owners.  I believe EMF recently launched on 107.9 as well...

 

 

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3 hours ago, scrabbleship said:

 

So if Tegna goes under the only company to rescue them would be...TBN?

 

I was just making a comparison. Most of Cumulus' major-market radio stations are struggling (they weren't before their ownership). Most of TEGNA's major-market TV stations are struggling (many of them weren't before they became TEGNA).

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29 minutes ago, TVIntheDesert said:

 

I was just making a comparison. Most of Cumulus' major-market radio stations are struggling (they weren't before their ownership). Most of TEGNA's major-market TV stations are struggling (many of them weren't before they became TEGNA).

 

How many major market Cumulus stations didn't come via Citadel or Susquehanna outside outliers like WCNN (owned separately by the Dickey family) and WNSH (the post-failed apocalypse Family Radio selldown)? The Citadel stations were already suffering after being taken off the teat of the Mouse, the Susquehanna stations have been a bit more and that company was the class of radio.

 

With all the hand wringing about WPLJ, what might happen in DC will be interesting: WRQX is currently a Top 10 station and Entercom bailed on taking them on when they flipped WIAD last year. That and WGTS, the locally based CCM station, is VERY well-run and VERY local and will do anything they can to protect their turf. At the same time, who might end up with WMAL? Hubbard who should've made a deal for WRQX to begin with?

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Cumulus is a fucking joke, more of a joke than iHeartMedia.

 

I find it funny that Cumulus is selling off core properties while iHeartMedia gets to retain theirs. How the fuck is iHeartMedia still in business today?

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8 hours ago, TVLurker said:

Cumulus is a fucking joke, more of a joke than iHeartMedia.

 

I find it funny that Cumulus is selling off core properties while iHeartMedia gets to retain theirs. How the fuck is iHeartMedia still in business today?

 

Market presence? Using NYC and DC as examples, iHeart has a lot more skin in the game (5 FM's/1 AM in NYC, 5 FM's in DC plus an iHeart-controlled rimshot up in Frederick, MD) than Cumulus does/did (3 FM's/1 AM in NYC, 2 FM's/1 AM in DC). Considering that as it is the only buyer with money and will is a freaking nonprofit, I'd hate to see what iHeart's endgame is.

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It's an end of an era for sure in NYC for WPLJ. I'm sure in DC for WRQX as well. PLJ as heritage as its call letters had lost equity, luster, you name it, thru the years. Its brand was inconsistent. It had its moments. Successful AOR then switched to Top 40 in early 80s. Only to be encountered by the rising success of Z100 + 72 days of going from worst to first. WPLJ held on competitively until the 90s. An ebb + flow of rotations thru AC with some gold records caused its instability. Mismanagement here + there deepened further, thus the billing lowered. You can say once Scott Shannon left for WCBS-FM, the writing's on the wall. We may not have predicted the result but still, if given the chance, they needed to skew a bit more 80s, 90s + 2k with today's hits like a cooler version of CBS-FM if that makes sense. Be on the lookout for cumulus other NY holdouts WABC-AM and WNBM (radio 103.9-urban) + see what they're gonna do with. I fear other heritage stations may be marked for shredder (like KLOS?) to EMF or its ilk. 

 

Not too far OT but regarding the jingles used in its glory days in comparison with Z100, which station had the better jingles? Z had the Flamethrower, Warp Factor, Skywave + Turbo Z while PLJ had Into the Music, Non Stop Power, Power Station + My personal fave, breakthrough. To me, though WHTZ had the better imaging + often imitated elsewhere, WPLJ had the catchier jingles especially in the later JAM/TM jingles. Competition wasn't just the rotation + presentation. Nonetheless RIP WPLJ.

 

 

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EMF already bought a full-market LA FM when 100.3 came on the market during the Entercom buy of the CBS stations. I think that an EMF buy of KLOS would trigger a lot of red flags, especially how a non-profit would be able to afford the cost of a full-market commercial band FM station in LA twice.

If they launch a third network, which at this point I wouldn't be shocked if they do, and end up buying a stable of stations for that which happen to be above 91.9, it would potentially raise eyebrows even with this FCC. At which point do you start to wonder if something is seriously up?

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9 hours ago, scrabbleship said:

 

Market presence? Using NYC and DC as examples, iHeart has a lot more skin in the game (5 FM's/1 AM in NYC, 5 FM's in DC plus an iHeart-controlled rimshot up in Frederick, MD) than Cumulus does/did (3 FM's/1 AM in NYC, 2 FM's/1 AM in DC). Considering that as it is the only buyer with money and will is a freaking nonprofit, I'd hate to see what iHeart's endgame is.

 

I know iHeart has market presence. I'm just talking about the poor management decisions that Cumulus frequently does rather than market presence.

 

iHeart may be more successfully run but they've had bad decisions dating back to Clear Channel and if it weren't for the fact that they ran their prime stations well, they'd still be in trouble.

 

iHeart is a joke solely because they run Hannity and the like, those kinds of radio shows that make you wonder "how the fuck did they even get the gig in the first place?".

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

WPLJ's announcement of the sign-off date in 2 parts. 11:59pm May 31st.

 

The last NYC Radio landscape change in that affect was 98.7 Kiss FM dissolved after "merging" with WBLS (intellectual property shifted there). ESPN Radio NY has since moved to that dial from 1050 AM.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Jack Diamond announced today on his morning show that WRQX Mix 107.3 will end on Friday at 7pm with the farewell hour preceding at 6pm. However, the morning show will continue elsewhere. No word on where it'll end up but said an announcement is imminent soon. Video of announcement is in link.

 

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/177273/jack-diamond-announces-wrqx-sign-off-move-of-morning-show/

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