Any updates on the sale of wlvq,wazu,whok

[Radioma18]

I thought that the new owners where to take over nov 1?

[xmusicmatt]

from what I read on allaccess I think or another site I cant remember the LMA begins Nov 1st.  Guess we'll have to listen to hear if they do make any changes..

[boyerfm]

The LMA did begin November 1st.  Benefits people in 11/2 and beginning to believe the remarks made about the company on previous posts might not be far from the truth.  Been told no changes yet.  Leaving Q alone for now since the last book was the best in about 3 years.  WAZU will  likely be going through the "blender" before long.  Not making enough to justify the format.  WHOK could be in trouble, but they are bringing in Rusty Walker to consult 'HOK for the time being.  The vibe is pretty cautious.  Not that it matters, but since they are small company, no group discount for health insurance, which means the "benefits" will be costing the average employee 3 times what it did under CBS, and a deicision had to be made yesterday.  If you declined the insurance, you are without until April.  Not a good first impression.

[CBusDave]

Not that it matters, but since they are small company, no group discount for health insurance, which means the "benefits" will be costing the average employee 3 times what it did under CBS, and a deicision had to be made yesterday.  If you declined the insurance, you are without until April.  Not a good first impression.

Yee-ikes.  In other words... pay cut (even though it's not a literal cut in pay).  Since Jeff Wilks bio says, "His expertise is in acquiring under-performing radio stations and improving station billings through aggressive marketing and promotion, while consolidating operations to reduce costs." I am not surprised there are already some cost-cuttnig moves being made.  I suspect many more will be made in the not too distant future.

[gabigley1]

Info from the FCC.gov site today shows that WHOK (95.5 FM) and WAZU (107.1 FM) have been sold to Wilks, pending FCC approval, BUT WLVQ (96.3 FM) has not been sold. Is the WLVQ sale an omission in FCC data or is WLVQ not part of original the deal with Wilks??

Click here for the WLVQ Application list:

http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_list.pl?Facility_id=11277

[Kent]

Info from the FCC.gov site today shows that WHOK (95.5 FM) and WAZU (107.1 FM) have been sold to Wilks, pending FCC approval, BUT WLVQ (96.3 FM) has not been sold. Is the WLVQ sale an omission in FCC data or is WLVQ not part of original the deal with Wilks??

Click here for the WLVQ Application list:

http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_list.pl?Facility_id=11277

Nope, it's out there.  WLVQ's sale application is included with WAZU's.  It's common practice anymore.

[radiorep]

Yes, it's a bit of a cluster.  As previously mentioned, medical insurance has tripled for employees, their is no match for the 401k plan, less holidays, it takes 13 years to get a 3rd week of vacation and on and on.  Also, look for sale managers roles to change dramatically.  They will be AE's with "some" reporting responsibility.  Also, there has been one casualty, the business manager will be let go as soon as the deal is cleared through the FCC and the license transfered.  Seems their accounting functions happen out of their Atlanta HQ, so all they need here is an assistant.  Commission structures are going and how AE's get paid will be changing a lot.  It's going to be a mess over there for those poor folks.

[Kent]

Have any of the cuts happened yet?  They apparently axed at least four jocks yesterday in Kansas City and didn't renew the contract of another one, who's headed across town after his non-compete.  Lots of office and support staff were apparently chopped there, too.

[boyerfm]

The bloodletting has begun.  Yesterday, (Friday) the day of the company Christmas party, at least 7 people were let go.  They include Officer Al, whose been with the station for over 25 years, Kim Taylor, K95.5 News Director, Program Director Dave Cooper, Assistant Promotions Director, a station engineer, plus numerous sales people and parttime air talent.  Wilks plans to have only a sales force of 6 people.  Valeria Brooks is still technically with CBS Radio, so she's safe (for now).  Felt for her yesterday.  Apparently the owners sent her a list of the people to fire.  She fought to wait until the end of the year.  Cold hearted bastards.  I'm sure the cuts are not complete.  The posts regarding this company when the sale was announced were right on the money.  I've been in this business for over 27 years and I have never seen anything like this. Wilks spoke so highly of heritage stations and how nothing would change.  Guess everything changes at some point.  Sad day for one of the few heritage stations in the country.

[Kent]

The bloodletting has begun.  Yesterday, (Friday) the day of the company Christmas party, at least 7 people were let go.  They include Officer Al, whose been with the station for over 25 years, Kim Taylor, K95.5 News Director, Program Director Dave Cooper, Assistant Promotions Director, a station engineer, plus numerous sales people and parttime air talent.  Wilks plans to have only a sales force of 6 people.  Valeria Brooks is still technically with CBS Radio, so she's safe (for now).  Felt for her yesterday.  Apparently the owners sent her a list of the people to fire.  She fought to wait until the end of the year.  Cold hearted bastards.  I'm sure the cuts are not complete.  The posts regarding this company when the sale was announced were right on the money.  I've been in this business for over 27 years and I have never seen anything like this. Wilks spoke so highly of heritage stations and how nothing would change.  Guess everything changes at some point.  Sad day for one of the few heritage stations in the country.

Sorry to hear about that.  It looks like the same company that squandered a great cluster in Des Moines is trying to do the same thing in Kansas City and Columbus.  I don't know about the Columbus market enough to tell you how things have been going there, but I could kind of understand their desire to make cuts at KFKF in KC.  It hasn't been performing at the level it once did and had a bloated payroll to boot.  That's a terrible combination when a station changes hands.  However, most of the cuts they made were good people and wouldn't have been my choice if I had bought the stations.  It seems like they're following a pattern in that many of the same positions, like news director, were cut at KFKF, too.