Emmis Communications Corporation today announced results for its second fiscal quarter ending August 31, 2017.
Emmis' radio net revenues for the second fiscal quarter were $41.8 million, compared to $46.0 million in the prior year. The company cites the sale of our Terre Haute radio stations in January 2017 and KPWR-FM in Los Angeles in August 2017. Had those two stations been included in this earnings report, Emmis says revenue would have been up 2%. Emmis' New York, Austin and St. Louis clusters gained market share in the quarter.
The sale of KPWR closed on August 1, 2017. Net proceeds of $73.6 million were used to reduce credit facility term loans outstanding by nearly one-half. The balance of term loans outstanding as of quarter-end was $74.4 million.
Jeff Smulyan
"There were bright spots this quarter, especially in New York, as our second quarter results were buoyed by record-setting ticket sales for Hot 97's marquee event, Summer Jam, and Hot 97 has been the #1 rated station in the 18-34 demo for each of the last three months," said Jeff Smulyan, CEO & Chairman of the Board of Emmis.
"Rapid progress continues on multiple fronts with NextRadio. Streaming versions for Android and Apple devices launched in July, making the NextRadio app available on every smartphone," Smulyan continued. "Usage has jumped sharply following this product enhancement. We recently introduced the revamped Dial Report, which provides unique data insights and attribution measurement for radio users. In August, NextRadio announced an agreement with LG for FM-enablement across North and South America. Look for other major announcements on this front in the coming months.
"And in the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, Federal Communications Chairman Ajit Pai and other industry leaders have publicly called upon Apple to activate the FM chips inside iPhones. Apple is the only major device manufacturer yet to do so. We remain optimistic they will see the public safety necessity of this step," Smulyan concluded.
San Antonio’s Fourth Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a court ruling in favor of iHeartMedia Inc. after company debt holders tried to push the company into bankruptcy.
According to The San Antonio Express-News, court affirmed a May 2016 court ruling by Bexar County State District Judge Cathleen Stryker that blocked debt holders from filing default notices against the giant radio and billboard company.
In December 2015, iHM made an inter-company transfer of $516 million worth of stock in its billboard unit, Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc., to another unit.
In March 2016, iHeartMedia filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a group of debtholders from issuing default notices. The debtholders, mainly hedge funds, said the transfer violated contract terms of the debt because the transfer did not meet a profit-seeking requirement.
“After reviewing the four corners in the indentures, we conclude that the pertinent language in the indentures is not ambiguous,” the appellate judges wrote in the court’s opinion, adding that seeking a profit was not required for a transfer of assets.
“We’re pleased with the court’s decision,” an iHeartMedia spokeswoman said in an email Wednesday.
iHeartMedia still faces daunting debt problems. Total company debt, as of June 30, stood at nearly $20.4 billion, the company said.
Much of iHeartMedia’s debt stems from 2008 when 70 percent of the company, then called Clear Channel Communications, was sold to two Boston-based private equity firms, Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners. About 30 percent of the company remains publicly traded.
The company, which owns about 850 U.S. radio stations, has warned several times this year it might not be able to meet debt payments in 2018.
Colossal changes are in store up and down Boston’s radio dial come the new year as five Hub stations brace for new ownership and possible format flips under the mega-merger of radio behemoths CBS and Entercom.
Company brass has been tight-lipped about who’s buying — or trading — the five Hub stations, including storied news station WBZ 1030 AM, legendary talker WRKO 680 AM and the popular WBZ 98.5 FM The Sports Hub.
Radio execs plan to finalize the deal by year’s end and they had to shed some stations to comply with FCC regulations. Two other Boston stations being ditched are classic rock station WZLX 100.7 FM and WKAF 97.7 FM.
According to Jessica Helsam at the Boston Herald, one scenario has Comcast making a play for WBZ radio as a boon to NBC Boston (Channel 10), which debuted earlier this year and has been struggling in the ratings. WBZ-TV (Ch. 4) and its sister radio station have been broadcast partners for years.
Comcast may also be interested in 98.5 The Sports Hub. The sports station’s morning-drive duo Fred Toucher and Rich Shertenlieb and afternoon-drive’s Michael Felger and Tony Massarotti are simulcast on NBC Sports Boston.
But last night, an NBC Sports Boston spokeswoman sought to dampen speculation, saying in an email, “We have no current plans to buy The Sports Hub. We’re always looking to expand our reach and deliver the best sports content to NBC Sports Boston consumers, across all platforms.”
Then there’s the Educational Media Foundation, a nonprofit organization that owns Christian music radio stations. Last month, EMF bought three of Entercom’s FM stations in Los Angeles, San Diego and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and may have its eye on WKAF.
Hubbard Radio, which owns an all-news station in Washington, D.C., could also be eyeing WBZ.
D.J. Hodge has been promoted to iHeartMedia's Cincinnati market president over WLW 700 AM, WEBN 102.7 FM and four other stations, filling the void from the lay-off of Chuck Fredrick in May.
Hodge had been senior vice president of sales since April 2013. He joined iHeartMedia from Learfield Sports, where he was general manager for Xavier University programs. Before that, he was a colleague of mine as the lead territory manager at the Enquirer.
iHeartMedia operates news/sports WLW 700 AM, talk WKRC 550 AM, ESPN Sports WCKY 1530 AM, Fox Sports WSAI 1360 AM, rock WEBN 102.7 FM , Top40 WKFS Kiss107.1 FM and Alternative "The Project" on Translators 100.7 and 106.3 FM.
The impact of several of these events from a radio perspective is quite evident when examining listening trends in Texas, Florida and around the continental U.S. Nielsen’s portable people meter (PPM) September survey—which stretched from Aug. 17 until Sept. 13—tracked listener preference in the top 48 radio markets in America.
It reveals a distinct spike in listening to News/Talk stations during this period, as weather dominated the busy news cycle, according to Nielsen.
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma arrived during the September survey: Harvey made landfall in Texas on Aug. 25 and 26 during the second week of the survey, directly or indirectly affecting four of Nielsen’s PPM markets in the state (Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Dallas). Irma followed just two weeks later with landfall in Florida on Sept. 10 before moving on to affect five different markets in the sunshine state (Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville).
While each storm was unique, we saw a common thread across all of the affected markets—audience tune-in to local news radio stations surged during the week each hurricane arrived.
Regardless of evacuations, flooding, power outages or disruption from the storms, the reach of local news radio stations spiked the week that each storm made landfall. The following graphics combine all of the news-formatted radio stations (All News, News/Talk and Spanish News/Talk, both commercial and non-commercial) in each market and compare the specific hurricane week to the four weeks prior.
Before President Trump said that N.F.L. owners should fire players who kneel during the national anthem, Democrats and Republicans held relatively similar views about the league. About 60 percent said they viewed it favorably, while about 20 percent said they viewed it unfavorably, according to daily online surveys conducted by Morning Consult, a polling, media and technology company.
Since Mr. Trump’s remarks, though, many of his supporters have changed their attitudes.
The NY Times reports Trump voters are now much more likely to say that they view the N.F.L. negatively, reflecting a sharp change around Sept. 23, when Mr. Trump criticized the players at a speech in Alabama. The views of Hillary Clinton voters have not changed appreciably over the last few weeks.
Some of the difference may be a result of our collective filter bubbles, which make Americans more likely to engage with and share articles that reinforce their views.
Both Democrats and Republicans were more likely to report seeing negative news about the N.F.L. around the time of Mr. Trump’s remarks in Alabama and the protests that followed. But Trump voters were much more likely to do so, while respondents who said they voted for Mrs. Clinton were more mixed in the coverage they reported seeing.
One possibility is that the two groups are not reading the same kinds of articles, avoiding those they disagree with. Another is that people are simply taking different attitudes away from the same articles, tweets and Facebook posts.
The head of NBC News responded to Ronan Farrow’s claim that the network passed on his Harvey Weinstein bombshell saying Farrow’s reporting at the time was “not the story” that he eventually published in the New Yorker, according to a NYPost story.
“The stunning story, the incredible story that we all read yesterday, was not the story that we were looking at when we made our judgment several months ago,” NBC News Chief Noah Oppenheim told staff on Wednesday, according to sources.
“The notion that we would try to cover for a powerful person is deeply offensive to all of us.”
Oppenheim said Farrow “greatly expended the scope” of the story and did “a ton more extraordinary work” once he took it to another venue.
During an appearance on MSNBC Tuesday night Farrow told Rachel Maddow that his story was “reportable” when he presented it to NBC, where he works as a contributor.
“I walked into the door at the New Yorker with an explosively reportable piece that should have been public earlier,” Farrow told Rachel Maddow on his MSNBC show.
Farrow’s story detailed a dozen instance of Weinstein’s alleged sexual assaults on women over several decades — including three alleged rapes. The story also contained a two-minute audio taped by a 22-year-old woman working with the NYPD after she filed a complaint at her local precinct.
When asked why the story did not run on NBC, Farrow responded she would have to ask NBC execs.
Employees at La Raza 97.9 KLAX-FM and Mega 96.3 KXOL-FM in Los Angeles were intimidated, threatened and fired for seeking union representation, and efforts to negotiate a contract after winning an election were blocked by Spanish Broadcasting Systems (SBS) for over a year, violating fair labor practices, according to multiple charges filed by SAG-AFTRA before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
After a review of six charges, the NLRB agreed and issued a formal complaint against SBS. As part of the remedy, the NLRB is seeking an order requiring the broadcaster reinstate the terminated employees with back pay, plus interest and any other consequential damages, such as out-of-pocket medical expenses they may have incurred after being fired for allegedly trying to unionize. It also wants SBS to reimburse the union its bargaining costs and expenses associated with the media company’s “illegal bad faith bargaining.”
According to Forbes, the complaint, which consolidated all the charges, lists a series of labor violations that SBS committed, including: meaningless “surface” bargaining, delaying and canceling meetings, failing to send anyone with authority to the meetings, refusing to discuss economics, interrogating employees and threatening them with reprisals if they supported unionization, interfering and coercing employees, and unlawfully terminating eight employees in retaliation for their union activities, without providing SAG-AFTRA with notice and an opportunity to bargain.
SBS has until October 19 to file a response to the complaint. A trial date in the case has been set for December 11.
SBS denies any wrongdoing. Richard D. Lara, General Counsel for SBS issued a very brief statement following the ruling: “SBS continues to deny these allegations as being false, baseless, and inflammatory. No further comment at this time since the matter is in litigation.”
A new study released by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) confirms what many have long believed: college students don’t respect the First Amendment.
According to the survey, which FIRE calls “the most comprehensive survey on students’ attitudes about free speech to date,” a majority of college students self-censor during classroom discussions and support the disinvitation of controversial speakers, while a plurality even believe that hate speech is not constitutionally protected.
CampusReformreports FIRE, with the help of nonpartisan research firm YouGov, surveyed 1,250 undergraduates between May 25 and June 8, finding that 48 percent of respondents think that hate speech should not be protected by the First Amendment, including 13 percent who associate hate speech with violence, while only 46 percent recognize that it is.
Meanwhile, 56 percent of those surveyed support disinviting certain speakers, with Democratic students responding affirmatively 19 percentage points more often than their Republican peers.
Notably, FIRE found that students who identified as “very liberal” were 14 percentage points more likely to express feeling comfortable sharing their opinions in class than were conservative respondents, though 54 percent of all students admitted to self-censoring in class at some point throughout their college careers, and 29 percent said they have even self-censored on campus outside of the classroom.
Longtime WDEL/WSTW Production Director Damien Buck died Tuesday, October 9, 2017, after a long illness, according to the WDEL 1150 AM / 101.7 FM.
He was 58.
Buck began working for Delmarva Broadcasting Company in 1987, in an impressive career that spanned three decades. Co-workers said he'll be sorely missed by the Delmarva Broadcasting family and listeners.
"Damien worked for 30 years at WDEL and WSTW, helping our customers come up with great commercials and many, many people here are familiar with his voice," said General Manager Mike Reath. "It's a voice that everyone in town would recognize. He was a creative genius."
Buck, who ran his own production company, "Buck Productions," did voice work for Disney, and his voice was featured all over the Disney Channel when it launched in the 1990s, Reath said.
➦In 1937..."Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons" debuted on the NBC Blue network, where the series continued until 1947 then moved to CBS. Bennett Kilpack was the first actor to play Mr. Keen. Phil Clarke stepped into the role late in the run. The series continued on the air until April 19, 1955.
➦In 1944...What would come to be known as the "Columbus Day Riot" takes place in New York City, when 35,000 hysterical teenage girls crowd the Paramount Theatre for a chance to see the return of crooner Frank Sinatra. The crowd of teen "bobbysoxer" girls halt traffic in Times Square, refuse to leave between shows to the extent of fainting from hunger, and ruin several seats in the theater when several urinate there rather than take a chance on going to the bathroom.
➦In 1950…After a 15-year run on radio, "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show" made its television debut on CBS, where the series continued through September of 1958.
➦In 1955...Chrysler introduces the world's first in-car sound systems -- vinyl record players, complete with an assortment of classical records, mounted under the dashboard.
➦In 1968...The Hot 100..The count had reached three for weeks at #1 for "Hey Jude" by the Beatles. Jeannie C. Riley was a distant second with "Harper Valley P.T.A." and "Fire" from the Crazy World of Arthur Brown was third. O.C. Smith remained at 4 with "Little Green Apples". The rest of the Top 10: "Girl Watcher" from the O'Kaysions, the Grass Roots had their biggest song move from 17 to 6--"Midnight Confessions", the Vogues climbed into the Top 10 with "My Special Angel", the Bee Gees were at 8 with "I've Gotta' Get a Message To You", Gary Puckett from Twin Falls, Idaho & the Union Gap moved from 25-9 with "Over You" and Clarence Carter dropped with "Slip Away".
➦In 1969...the "Paul is Dead" hoax began when Tom Zarski, a student at Eastern Michigan University, calls WKNR in Detroit, MI, and informs DJ Russ Gibb on air of the rumor that Paul McCartney died in a car crash, perhaps as long ago as 1966. Zarski tells Gibb that by playing a section of the band's "Revolution 9" backwards, a clue emerges: the phrase "Turn me on, dead man." Gibb proceeds to do just that. Listeners are stunned.
Two days after the WKNR broadcast, The Michigan Daily published a satirical review of Abbey Road by University of Michigan student Fred LaBour under the headline "McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light". It identified various "clues" to McCartney's death on Beatles album covers, including new clues from the just-released Abbey Road LP. As LaBour had invented many of the clues, he was astonished when the story was picked up by newspapers across the United States.WKNR-FM further fuelled the rumour with a special two-hour program on the subject, "The Beatle Plot", which aired 19 October 1969 (and in the years since on Detroit radio).
In the early morning hours of October 21, 1969, Roby Yonge, a disc jockey at New York radio station WABC, discussed the rumor on the air for over an hour before being pulled off the air for breaking format. At that time of night, WABC's signal covered a wide listening area and could be heard in 38 states and at times, other countries.
Later that day, the Beatles' press office issued statements denying the rumour which were widely reported by national and international media.
Various 'clues' were used to suggest the following story: three years previously (on November 9, 1966), McCartney, after an argument during a Beatles' recording session, had angrily driven off in his car. He had crashed it and died as a result. To spare the public from grief, the Beatles replaced him with "William Campbell", the winner of a McCartney look-alike contest.
➦In 1991...The Hot 100.."Emotions" became Mariah Carey's fifth consecutive #1 song to begin her career. "Good Vibrations" from Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch was #2. Natural Selection's "Do Anything", Color Me Badd with "I Adore Mi Amor" and Karyn White's "Romantic" trailed.
The rest of the Top 10: "Something To Talk About" by Bonnie Raitt at #6, Extreme's follow-up to "More Than Words"--"Hole Hearted" was #7, Firehouse slowed things down with "Love of a Lifetime", Boyz II Men were on their way down with "Motownphilly" and Aaron Neville's remake of the Main Ingredient hit "Everybody Plays the Fool" was at #10.
➦In 1997...Singer/songwriter John Denver died in the crash of a small airplane he was piloting on this day in 1997. He was 53
➦In 2012...Disc jockey (KLIF-Dallas, KILT-Houston, WHK-Cleveland, WXYZ-Detroit, WNEW and WNSW-New York, WICC-Bridgeport, WAVZ-New Haven) Russ "The Weird Beard" Knight died.
President Donald Trump has threatened to shut down NBC and other American networks, saying that they peddle fake news.
"With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!" Mr Trump wrote in a tweet.
With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!
Trump's tweet came in response to a story written by NBC, which said that Mr Trump had sought to increase America's nuclear arsenal tenfold after taking a look at a briefing slide that showed stead reduction of the US nuclear arsenal since the 1960s. The story cited three officials who were reportedly in the room when Mr Trump made the comments.
Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a "tenfold" increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!
The President has regularly targeted news networks critical of him since January, when he gave a press conference as President-elect and shouted down a CNN reporter as "fake news". The term - which Mr Trump says he invented but had been used frequently before to describe the proliferation of stories written by anonymous bloggers to spread lies during the 2016 election - has since become one of his go-to insults when the media publishes critical coverage of the Trump administration.
According to The Independent, it isn't clear that Mr Trump would be able to easily revoke broadcast licenses for any stations owned by the major networks simply because he disagrees with the content they air, however.
Neither NBC or ABC released statement following the tweet, but others in government stepped in to comment on the issue. Democratic Senator Ed markey wrote to FCC chairman Ajit Pai Wednesday, urging him to resist requests from the President to revoke licenses because of coverage.
With fires sweeping through Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, disrupting phone and computer connections in many areas, many residents tried to turn to radio for immediate information on evacuation orders and the spread of flames.
But, according to The Press-Democrat, with several stations knocked off the air when transmitters that proved difficult..
One of five stations owned by Amaturo Sonoma Media Group was off the air, but its talk-news flagship, News/Talk KSRO 1350 AM / 103.5 FM, broadcast continuous news and bulletins, which were carried on its three sister stations still on the air.
That continued for 24 hours, starting early Monday. Morning anchor Pat Kerrigan stayed to work a 12-hour shift.
“We switched all of our FM stations over to KSRO’s coverage,” said the group’s president, Michael O’Shea. “We have five reporter-anchors, and then we put many of our other people on the air. Everybody in the building has on-air experience.”
With official sources busy with the fires and evacuations, getting accurate, detailed information proved difficult, especially in the early hours, leading to some mistakes.
The Mount Barham transmitter failure near Santa Rosa also silenced Latino 95.5 FM (Translator K238AF) but its three sister stations — KRSH 95.9 FM , Exitos, KSXY 101.1 FM — continued to broadcast, said Andre de Channes, morning on-air host at KRSH.
KRCB 90.1 FM’s main transmitter was also down, said B.J. Griffith, an on-air personality with the Rohnert Park-based public broadcasting radio station.
“Our translator at 90.9 serving downtown Santa Rosa is up, with our signal streaming at www.krcb.org and we are updating info on air as we get it,” Griffith said by email.
Getting fire information in Spanish was a particular challenge Monday.
“I woke up in the middle of the night and ran KSRO’s feed in English because we had nothing else,” said Edgar Avila, program director at bilingual Santa station KBBF 89.1 FM. “Later on in the day we had sporadic updates and then I played a Spanish-language national stream. Tuesday morning starting at 6 o’clock, we had volunteers, with three or four people in the studio, ready to give updates.”
El Patron, a Spanish-language station at KRRS 1460 AM, also affected by the transmitter loss, was off the air Monday but began airing information from fire and police officials on Tuesday, said Marco Canseco, who works at the station’s Santa Rosa office.
Entercom Communications Corp. and CBS Corp. are looking to divest some 16 radio stations as part of an ongoing merger.
Divesting a station could refer to a straight sale of the station, swapping one station for another, or some combination thereof. The Federal Communications Commission has to approve such moves. That commission has yet to rule on Entercom and CBS Radio’s plans.
Entercom confirmed that it filed amendments with the FCC on Tuesday as the company’s next step in the merger with CBS Radio.
“The amended FCC filings mark another step forward in the process to complete our combination with CBS Radio and we remain on track to close the transaction later this year,” said Entercom spokeswoman Esther-Mireya Tejeda in an e-mail.
In an internal CBS memo released on Tuesday, the company said 11 radio stations in San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, and Sacramento are being proposed to be divested as part of the merger.
“Today, Entercom and CBS RADIO have taken another important step in finalizing the merger of our two companies,” the memo stated. “A number of regulatory filings were made in connection with the merger transaction.”
In his memo to CBS Radio employees, CEO Andre Fernandez unveiled the final 16 stations that will most likely be moved in order for the CBS/Entercom merger to go through. Eleven of those stations are under the CBS Radio umbrella and five now belong to Entercom. Here is the entire list.
The 11 CBS Radio stations are:
KMVQ-FM/San Francisco
WBZ-AM/Boston
WBZ-FM/Boston
WZLX-FM/Boston
KFNQ-AM/Seattle
KJAQ-FM/Seattle
KZOK-FM/Seattle
KHTK-AM/Sacramento
KNCI-FM/Sacramento
KYMX-FM/Sacramento
KZZO-FM/Sacramento
The 5 Entercom stations are:
KBLX-FM/San Francisco
KOIT-FM/San Francisco
KUFX-FM/San Francisco
WKAF-FM/Boston
WRKO-AM/Boston
In February, the merger between Entercom and CBS Radio was announced. The deal also meant the new entity, which would operate under the Entercom name and would be based in Philadelphia, would have two more stations than the FCC limit for the Boston market.
In February the Entercom chief executive David J. Field said the company would move quickly “to make the required divestures.”
Entercom previously announced an agreement with Educational Media Foundation for the sale of stations in three markets: Los Angeles, San Diego and Wilkes Barre.
Here's the memo Fernandez sent to CBS Radio Employees:
"Dear Colleagues,
Today, Entercom and CBS RADIO have taken another important step in finalizing the merger of our two companies. A number of regulatory filings were made in connection with the merger transaction. As you may recall, a few weeks ago it was widely reported that Entercom proposed to sell three of its stations in Los Angeles, San Diego and Wilkes Barre. The filings made today propose an additional 16 stations be divested across both companies for a total of 19 stations.
The list of stations will be available on the FCC website; however, we think it’s important that you hear from us directly about which CBS RADIO stations may be affected. I say ‘may’ because the divestiture of these stations still requires regulatory approval, which we expect will happen in the coming weeks.
Among the 16 stations that have been proposed to be divested in the filing today, there are 11 CBS RADIO stations across San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, and Sacramento.
Five (5) additional Entercom stations have also been proposed to be divested including: KBLX-FM/San Francisco, KOIT-FM/San Francisco, KUFX-FM/San Francisco, WKAF-FM/Boston, and WRKO-AM/Boston.
The station buyers for these 16 proposed stations have not been announced. We expect to have more information in the coming weeks. In the meantime, our day-to-day operations will not change. We all remain CBS RADIO employees until the merger fully closes which we expect to happen later this year."
The Boston radio industry has been buzzing for months about the impending merger of radio giants CBS and Entercom. Between the two companies, they already own 10 stations in the market, so it was clear from the start that something would have to change.
There is little information but a lot of speculation, and columnist Tom Shattuck with the Boston Herald has heard it from every corner of the radio market:
Will “traffic on the threes” be “gospel on the threes” on AM 1030 very soon?
Will ’RKO be blasting Espanol chat into the airwaves?
What happens to Howie Carr? Dan Rea? Toucher and Rich? Felger and Mazz?
Shattuck has some thoughts starting sports talk.
"The yakkers at 98.5 the Sports Hub will be in fine shape wherever they land. And if you talk to many of the people gloomily roaming the halls at Entercom, they should be thankful they’re going elsewhere.
Meanwhile, their rivals including Kirk Minihane and Gerry Callahan at 93.7 WEEI will further thrive on torching the Hub — especially during morning drive."
According to Shattuck, things get darker on the talk radio side.
"WRKO — the storied home of the masters of talk: the late Jerry Williams, the late David Brudnoy, Avi Nelson, Gene Burns, and now Howie Carr — could flip formats entirely. Entercom has routinely sold stations that have switched to religious programming. The last three stations that spun off as a part of this merger all went to a nonprofit that specializes in contemporary Christian content.
"Alternatively, an iHeart purchase of ’RKO would make sense, as it could feature Rush Limbaugh leading right into Howie. If local greats were complemented with more iHeart personalities like Sean Hannity and a cadre of other national talkers, beleaguered Bay State conservatives could once again find an oasis on the AM dial.
"As far as WBZ, who knows? It’s got a big, honking signal that covers just about the entire continent, but listeners who fretted about the whereabouts of the Lindbergh baby are sadly diminishing and not being replenished by young people.
"AM is just about driving under a permanent bridge, demographically speaking. It would be a shame to lose WBZ, because it’s the last example of a real news radio station, packed with talented broadcasters, many of whom I’ve had the pleasure to work with."
Shattuck concludes:
"More and more Americans are consuming their content online, where big discussions are being had without corporate or government constraints, and listeners are not beaten over the head with the Kars4Kids jingle every five minutes. In the meantime, only the strong will survive on the terrestrial radio dial while it still exists."
