Breaking: CBS Radio Buys 101.9-FM From Merlin

UPDATE Monday 1:30pm:  Merlin Media has announced it is selling WRXP/New York to CBS Radio. CBS has confirmed. The selling price is said to be $75-million and CBS plans to simulcast sportstalker WFAN under an LMA soon.

It was just over a year the station  was acquired from Emmis and mere months after it flipped from News/Talk back to a Rock format.

And it was just last week Randy Michaels insisted the Merlin stations were not for sale!

So which Merlin stations are next: Chicago or Philly?

The sale comes after Merlin fumbled an attempt to create an all-news format station in NYC. In July, the company changed the radio's format and cut most of the news staff. Merlin also reformatted one of its Chicago stations at the same time.

Earlier Posting....

WRXP Rocks PPMs In NYC

The inexpensive rock format that Merlin Media put on 101.9 FM after its very expensive all-news experiment failed has quadrupled ratings at the station.

David Hinkley at nydailynews.com writes Arbitron ratings for September give alt-rock WRXP 2.1% of the total audience, up from 0.6% when it was all-news WEMP two months earlier.

Among its target audience of 18- to 34-year-olds, it has 3.4% of the audience, up from 0.5%.

It’s hardly surprising a rock music format that features artists like the Foo Fighters, Franz Ferdinand, Modest Mouse, Junkie and the Kings of Leon would outdraw a fledgling all-news format.

No other broadcast station in New York focuses on new rock, though WAXQ (104.3 FM) does very well with classic rock.

Read More Here.