There are plenty of days when there is little news to report which then gets balanced by days like today when you get flooded with big stories that have the potential to have repercussions for many months and years forward.
Starting with Entercom’s purchase into Charlotte via the mandated Greater Media divestitures and WFNZ, you have to first start with noting how much was paid compared to what Greater Media acquired WBT AM/FM and WLNK in 2007. Entercom will pay less than a quarter of the $100 million Greater Media forked down for one less station nine years ago. The debt taken on just before the economic collapse eventually led to Beasley acquiring the company.
With Entercom bulking up lately on sports play-by-play rights and Beasley shying away from the format (Selling WQAM Miami and blowing up “98.7 The Fan” Tampa in the 2014 CBS deal) the addition of WFNZ to the former Greater Media cluster makes sense. Entercom will now have the rights to both major sports franchises in the Charlotte market with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers on WBT and the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets on WFNZ.
Don Imus has been a fixture in New York morning radio for over four decades. But when your station is down to a 1.3 share is keeping the status quo with a 76 year old really the best thing for the future? If anything the new deal with Cumulus makes two major points clear.
- There is no future for Conservative Talk. Cumulus and WABC are going to go down with the ship rather than attempt to resuscitate the dying patient.
- The talent pool is so diluted that WABC believes that there is nobody they can put on AM drive in New York to change the destiny of the station.
Meanwhile iHeartMedia has a Woody future in mornings for its Alternative Rockers. From the time Jeff ‘Woody’ Fife brought his Woody Show to “Alt 98.7” KYSR Los Angeles it was expected syndication would follow. That finally came to fruition with his return to St. Louis, but many more markets will follow. Has iHeart finally found a male oriented program to lead its Alternative and Rock stations just as the likes of Elvis Duran, Ryan Seacrest, and others have done at CHR and Hot AC and The Breakfast Club and Big Boy are at Urban and Rhythmic CHR.
How many jobs are enough for Ebro Darden? The WQHT New York morning host and Beats 1 evening host will team with his WQHT partner Laura Stylez for an early afternoon slot at Alpha Media’s “We 96.3” KWEE Portland. Is this an early roll-out for eventual syndication elsewhere? That’s what we’ve been told off the record, but no confirmations yet. And does the absence of fellow WQHT morning host Peter Rosenberg portend anything for his future at the station?
WBT also has University of North Carolina sports, a major drawing card in a state where college basketball is dominant.
Re: Ebro/Stylez @ KWEE Portland without Rosenberg: perhaps Rosenberg’s late afternoon gig (4-7 PM ET/1-4 PM PT) at ESPN Radio 98.7 (WEPN New York) precludes him from joining his morning co-hosts (as the Portland show airs at the same time – although I’m sure some voice-tracking could be in effect).