Entercomm Sells Rochester stations

[Element9]

Entercom did the dirty work by cutting Dee from the morning show on Warm.  On a previous post in another thread I asked, "Who's going to pay her that kind of money?"  Upon re-reading the post, the question could have been posed in a more gracious way.  Apologies.

From what I've read here and elsewhere, Stephens is a small group that does whatever needs to be done in order to make a station or cluster turn a profit.  Dee's release from Warm is the first step to their Rochester market plan.  I could be very off base here, but don't expect Stephens to light it up in Rochester.  If the $15 million sale price is accurate, Stephens got a good deal on a market leading AC and two step-child Class A's which are likely to be run as cheaply as possible.

What's Stephens' background?  Small to small-medium markets.  The company sounds like bottom feeders (I say that in a positive way) in that it buys distressed or non-glamorous properties at a reasonable price.  This is very much like what happens on Wall Street.  Buy low, sell high.

It's a good bet that Fickle and/or Zone will see a format change with even more voice tracking.  If they cast off Dee, what becomes of the two person morning show on Fickle?  Sorry for those there that read the board. I sincerely hope you folks hang on, but given what happened at Warm, well... who knows.

Contradicting the "run on the cheap" theory, Stephens actually could research the market and find that there's a hole for Classic Hits-Oldies or even the format that Bob1370 often advocates, Hispanic.  However, flipping The Zone to 60s-70s Oldies may harm do more harm to Warm and research could show that Fickle, as it's presently programmed, does more harm to Warm than any other format in the cluster.  In this case, the Zone format may be safer than the Fickle format.  

Sports isn't a viable format on a 6 kW FM because it's well-covered by WHTK and 50kW flame throwin' WHAM, which now has the Bills.  It may be that with all the pray for pay religious flotsam already out there, Stephens won't take that (self) righteous path.  It could flip one of those short FM's Country (a fool's mission) and try to be a thorn in WBEE's assets, but not likely given there could be a covenant not to directly compete with Entercom.  

Stephens is in a Catch 22 situation with these newly acquired Rochester properties. More than likely, more cuts are on the horizon once Stephens gets the keys to the car.  One thing's certain. Entercom and (for the time being) Clear Channel have the signals and the power.  

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[bobn]

Entercom did NOT fire Dee, the Stephens people decided NOT to hire her.  The decision was Stephens Media not Entercom's.  Read the story on the front page of the board.

[kentuckymedia]

WZNE is the red-headed step child here.  WFKL doesnt have the greatest ratings, but its sellable, and thats the most important thing for this company.

I guess the reason I posted the option to go News/Talk/Sports FM is they could run it pretty inexpensive.  They will have to pay for some rights, but for the most part...could syndie the hell out of the station.  And it would probably do better then where it is right now.

WHAM is vulnerable because of its owner, thats the only reason.  Until CC gets their heads out of the sand, their stations are completely vulnerable.

[MikeSmithWNYR]

I see in the last book WRMM went from 5th to 2nd with a big jump - 6.1 to 9.5 12+

[Element9]

Entercom did NOT fire Dee, the Stephens people decided NOT to hire her.  The decision was Stephens Media not Entercom's.  Read the story on the front page of the board.

The original quote from Entercom RVP Mike Doyle in the  D & C "She's technically an Entercom employee... however, we don't have a radio station to put her on" prompted my sarcastic observation.

Stephens technically didn't fire Dee because (according to Doyle) she's (still) technically an Entercom employee, but they "don't have a place for her."  That would seem to justify my contention that Entercom wasn't treating her all too well.  She's in radio limbo.  Not fired, but not hired.  Not quite Dante's Seven Circles of Hell, but certainly not at all pleasant.

[Element9]

BTW, that would be nine circles. How could I forget that number?

[x13thfloorrand]

Does anyone think they have a future owning some Buffalo "properties", namely either current Entercomm.... or as the french say "La Competition" at the artist formerly known as "CBS Radio"?

There was talk peppered around the board that Regents was shedding money like dogs in the summer and rumored to put the stations back on market. Did that ever gain traction?

[kentuckymedia]

The latest I heard about Regent is they want to get out of Fort Collins, Lafayette, Saint Cloud, El Paso, Peoria, Flint, Bloomington and Evansville.

Their hope is to then hold onto Grand Rapids, Buffalo and Albany.  They want to pay down this debt.  Then maybe they will make a run after Clear Channel Toledo.

[Yeziknoradio]

Does anyone think they have a future owning some Buffalo "properties"

Oh sure, absolutely! If Regent is willing to sell, why not buy Jack?
 
They could change Fickle to Jack, perhaps...or just change Jack to Fickle (if there are any fees involved in keeping the Jack name, this saves money, respectfully.)

Cookie cutter logic is always an option from a business point of view.
If they were to buy Entercom stations in Buffalo instead, I'm sure there'd be a Froggy 107.7 in the cards.

[ThePickleReport]

Their hope is to then hold onto Grand Rapids, Buffalo and Albany.  They want to pay down this debt.  Then maybe they will make a run after Clear Channel Toledo.

There was a quote in one of the official Radio-Info stories that said that there was some interest in many of Regent's markets EXCEPT the Buffalo cluster. Like it or not Regent is likely stuck with that.