T. Taylor, R-I.com: WCRB up for sale

[raccoonradio]

In his latest newsletter, Tom Taylor says he's hearing WCRB is up for sale. We know about the
failed effort by Entercom to get Nassau to carry WEEI in N. New England and Cape Cod, and
Entercom getting half of 99.5 was part of it. Now that that's fallen through, it looks like
the longtime classical signal's on the market. "But word in the dealmaking community is that Star Media Group’s Doug Ferber has the listing to sell WCRB" (free subscription by email)

So if the station's sold, is it possible classical will be ditched? There is that long term agreement made
after the original owner's death to keep it classical, but they could do something like put it on HD or
on an AM or a weaker FM signal. Stay tuned as they say.

[BRNout]

Raccoon, I think that another sale of WCRB would represent the last gasp of classical on standard (analogue) FM.  There's just no way that anyone would spend that kind of money and keep classical on what amounts to a rimshot signal.  There just isn't enough money in it, going forward. 

The demos skew older and, even though the listenership is very high-income, older demos seem to be death in the advertising community.  I don't like it either, but that's how it is.  Any buyer would almost certainly flip the format to something else and relegate the classical format to an HD channel (thus keeping the agreement).  I think that's it. 

Another blunder by Nassau, who doesn't appear to be able to make a go of things when they cannot put one of their insipid McFormats (i.e. Frank, Wolf, Hawk, etc.) on a station. 

[raccoonradio]

I'd agree and it's been speculated (Fybush did, recently) that maybe someone could set up a sports
station, perhaps on the cheap (pick up ESPN, now on 890 and 1400--maybe do one local show). Wouldn't
match WEEI in ratings but could bill well ("could ESPN and Nassau team up to flip 99.5 into a sports competitor to WEEI? It wouldn't have the Sox, of course, or Dennis and Callahan, but it would have a fairly potent FM signal, at least.") http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html

Then again we're kinda parochial about our sports here, and even on a signal like that, would people
tune in or not (to an all- or mostly-ESPN product)?

In some places when deals were made involving classical stations, the classical signal wound up on
a rimshot or weaker signal (Cleveland comes to mind)

[encarta95]

In some places when deals were made involving classical stations, the classical signal wound up on
a rimshot or weaker signal (Cleveland comes to mind)

That deal already took place, though, when WCRB moved from 102.5 FM to 99.5 FM. And I'm sure Greater Media made less of a profit spinning off the intellectual property of WCRB with the 99.5 stick because they were able to avoid the PR disaster that they experienced in Philly and Detroit (with WFLN 95.7 and WQRS 105.1, respectively).

I thought Entercom was clueless in some of their decisions, but Nassau seems to have hit a high point, particularly this week. First the WEEI deal falls apart, then "Ray Brown" is out for unknown reasons, and now WCRB is for sale?

Who wants 99.5 anyway? CBS and Greater Media must be at their caps, and Clear Channel doesn't really appear to be in the mood to invest in people or facilities. Could Entercom make it a WEEI O&O affiliate? Could Salem make it a CCM "Fish" before K-Love and other religious broadcasters invade the market? Or could it become the market's first Spanish FM? Unfortunately, it doesn't seem too likely that the potential owners would make it the much needed rhythmic competitor.

[BRNout]

Who wants 99.5 anyway? CBS and Greater Media must be at their caps, and Clear Channel doesn't really appear to be in the mood to invest in people or facilities. Could Entercom make it a WEEI O&O affiliate? Could Salem make it a CCM "Fish" before K-Love and other religious broadcasters invade the market? Or could it become the market's first Spanish FM? Unfortunately, it doesn't seem too likely that the potential owners would make it the much needed rhythmic competitor.

Sadly, I must agree.  Looking at the cards on the table, the most likely taker would be Entercom - who could use it to expand WEEI to FM.  That would be a great move for them, if they did it.  As for having a Rhythmic competitor in the market (which is SORELY needed), the players in this particular card game don't seem to support that.  For one thing, the rimshot signal misses too many potential listeners.

Second problem is ownership.  Clear Channel has "rhythmic" music locked up in the market and so would not be interested in picking up the 99.5 signal for such a purpose.  CBS Radio is topped out in the market and certainly wouldn't sell off a city signal to pick up a rimshot.  Greater Media is out as they just washed their hands of this last year.  So, this would leave Entercom or a new player.  Salem has been mentioned and all I can say is "I hope not."  What a waste that would be. 

A Spanish-language broadcaster is certainly a possibility but, again, I would hope not.  Also, the 99.5 signal would not be ideal for this.  Yes, its great in the Merrimack Valley but much less so inside of 128 and points south.  So, you wouldn't even be able to serve the entire Spanish speaking population.  Also, Spanish formats tend to sport a very poor power ratio - meaning that their income is not as good as their ratings would imply.  In a place like New York or LA, its fine because big Spanish-language broadcasters do boffo numbers.  So, there's a lot of $$ to be made.  Not to mention that many of the owners are dedicated to the formats (i.e. SBS, Entravision, etc.).  But, in Boston, unless one of them buys 99.5 - this may not happen.   And, I tend to doubt that the ratings would be as good as you'd think - particularly once PPM is implemented.  It would certainly do better than what happened in Philly, but not that great either.   

Who does that leave?  Well, someone who wants to get into the market and doesn't mind having only one station.  And, someone who is buying (which would seem to exclude Emmis or Citadel).   All in all, it will be very interesting. 

If I had to bet on this, I'd put $5 on it going to Entercom and the new WEEI-FM.  Even if they deny it, they have to be salivating at the idea.  Unlike the proposed deal with Nassau, they'd have the whole signal to themselves.  If there's an issue with the ownership cap, they could always jettison 97.7 but if my math is right, there isn't one. 

The 99.5 signal would put WEEI on loud and clear in Boston's northern and northwestern suburbs - where a decent percentage of WEEI's high-income audience lives.  Places where 850 doesn't do well - especially at night.  And, it also gets WEEI into southern NH with a great signal - another hotbed of Boston sports fans that cannot get 850 well.   By the way, southern NH (especially the parts in the Boston DMA) has an income level that is higher than most of Massachusetts and, unlike the Bay State, is actually growing in population.  A great area in which to get a strong WEEI signal. 

No other sports radio franchise has the ability to be a success in this market.  Fox Sports Net or ESPN are pale poseurs when compared with what WEEI has become.   

[Laurence Glavin]

Raccoon, I think that another sale of WCRB would represent the last gasp of classical on standard (analogue) FM.  There's just no way that anyone would spend that kind of money and keep classical on what amounts to a rimshot signal.  There just isn't enough money in it, going forward. 

The demos skew older and, even though the listenership is very high-income, older demos seem to be death in the advertising community.  I don't like it either, but that's how it is.  Any buyer would almost certainly flip the format to something else and relegate the classical format to an HD channel (thus keeping the agreement).  I think that's it. 

Another blunder by Nassau, who doesn't appear to be able to make a go of things when they cannot put one of their insipid McFormats (i.e. Frank, Wolf, Hawk, etc.) on a station. 

When I've listened to KING-FM, Seattle on the internets, I have heard spots for local advertisers that seem to be of reasonably high quality...but KING-FM is a REAL classical music station.  Like any person of intelligence and good taste, I never actually LISTEN to WCRB except for the Boston Symphony broadcasts in town and at Tanglewood, but the playlist is there for all to see at wcrb.com.  Do you think "upscale" listeners are there for the "Skater's Waltz" or "Warsaw Concerto" nearly every day?  As soon as Nassau stated they were going to follow in Mario Mazza's footsteps, it was only a matter of time before they failed.

[raccoonradio]

Dan S. on boston-radio-interest mentioned the idea of Entercom buying 99.5 and moving WAAF there (and
they could poss. move classical, then, to 107.3). There are all kinds of possibilities, including Entercom
themselves putting a WEEI simulcast on 99.5 (I was talking earlier about someone else poss. buying the
station and putting ESPN there, but why not Entercom?)
99.5 could even be a kind of "WEEI-2": overnights, for example, you would have Fox Sports on WEEI
but ESPN on 99.5. Sporting events could be bumped to 99.5, so you wouldn't have B.C. sports
or the Revolution being bumped to WRKO.

[encarta95]

The 99.5 signal would put WEEI on loud and clear in Boston's northern and northwestern suburbs - where a decent percentage of WEEI's high-income audience lives.  Places where 850 doesn't do well - especially at night.  And, it also gets WEEI into southern NH with a great signal - another hotbed of Boston sports fans that cannot get 850 well.   By the way, southern NH (especially the parts in the Boston DMA) has an income level that is higher than most of Massachusetts and, unlike the Bay State, is actually growing in population.  A great area in which to get a strong WEEI signal. 

No other sports radio franchise has the ability to be a success in this market.  Fox Sports Net or ESPN are pale poseurs when compared with what WEEI has become.

I also think Entercom buying 99.5 is pretty likely. The big disappointment here is to see a signal that is able to sustain itself, like 97.7 WILD, become half of yet another Entercom-operated Boston-area simulcast. Boston really doesn't have a lot of signals to call its own, and while I know WEEI is the one AM service that would benefit greatly from an FM dial position, it would a shame to see the company take two broadcast services off the air in two years.

(but, if in the swap 97.7 were to drop 'AAF and pick up WCRB's "waiting room music" listeners with smooth jazz, now we're talkin'!)

[BRNout]

Dan S. on boston-radio-interest mentioned the idea of Entercom buying 99.5 and moving WAAF there (and
they could poss. move classical, then, to 107.3). There are all kinds of possibilities, including Entercom
themselves putting a WEEI simulcast on 99.5 (I was talking earlier about someone else poss. buying the
station and putting ESPN there, but why not Entercom?)
99.5 could even be a kind of "WEEI-2": overnights, for example, you would have Fox Sports on WEEI
but ESPN on 99.5. Sporting events could be bumped to 99.5, so you wouldn't have B.C. sports
or the Revolution being bumped to WRKO.

But Raccoon, why can't Entercom simply simulcast 850's offerings on 99.5?  No need to step on ESPN's toes here.  Multiple game nights aside, where such flexibility would be useful, let's not mess with success.  And, remember that this would be a different situation that what happened with 103.7 in Rhode Island.  You may recall that another station (was it WPRO or WSKO?) initially had the rights to the Red Sox in Providence, so the games were pre-empted on 103.7 for that season - allowing the existing contract to run out. 

However, whatever sporting events Entercom has the rights to in Boston could be placed on 99.5 with far less effort.  It's an in-market station.  Even the Red Sox (simulcast with WRKO or not) could end up on 99.5 pretty quickly.  Certainly those Wednesday night games could be there as soon as a deal is wrapped up.  In fact, I would imagine that this possibility would be very attractive for all parties involved.  The 'Sox are already on FM signals in many parts of Maine, in RI and in Western MA.  Why not Boston?  Simulcast the games on AM for the folks on the South Shore who don't get 99.5 as well.  Or, use that wasteful 97.7 signal as a fill in.  Makes more sense than having WAAF there (yes, I'd like to see it with something different too - but it ain't happening).  They'd kill with that combo of 99.5/97.7.  Much more complimentary.

Truly a great opportunity for Entercom as WEEI's programming in New England is quite unique as a raving success story.  No other sports radio franchise in the nation has the same relative level of appeal.  An FM simulcast is the obvious next step and dovetails nicely with 103.7 Providence and 105.5 Springfield.

Let's see what happens......

[raccoonradio]

Red Sox on 99.5 or other WEEI offerings would be fine for me at work (N. Reading; 99.5 stick is in N. Andover)

It was WPRO who had the Sox.

>>Why not Boston?
Indeed