Re: John Garabedian

[LJNF40D@prodigy.com (BUMP MARTIN)]

> At 02:43 AM 5/27/97 +0000, you wrote:
> >On Mon, 26 May 1997, Dan Strassberg wrote:
> >
> >> The history behind how Garbedian finally got the CP for WGTR is
interesting.
> >
> >After all that, what I'd really be interested in knowing is how and
why
> >Gerabedian lost or sold WGTR.

I don't know that Garabedian is into 'hard' rock. or what.  But here's
the story I was told....

Those who knew John knoiw that he'd been talking about putting up that
station forever!  He always was dealing with coverage maps, etc.  

John owned the station with family members....father, sister, brother-in
- -law, etc.  

Daytime stations always were battling uphill....and the idea of
'MetroWest' as being a cohesive community was something that was 'made-
up' by the "MetroWest Chamber of Commerce"

Many stations DID sign on in the last 25 years....but many of them were
not a sales success.  Especially if they were not part of the
communities history....and especially if the was no real 'community'
being served.

When WGTR did poorly financially, some of the family members would pour
in some money and in effect 'buy' more and more of the station.  There
came a time when some of the family members owned MORE than 51% (a magic
number!) of the place...WGTR went thru a bad time financially...and some
of the family members wanted to sell the joint and recoup their cash.  

Basically they forced a sale.  John retained the rights to the TV
station Construction permit....that became V66...and sold for a
gazillion dollars...And a CP for a station on Nantucket...(?)  WGTF(?)
Which he later sold the paper...and made some more serious money...

I don't know how well his production/syndication company is doing now...
But he's made a lot of money off of the above deals...considering none
of them was ever considered a 'success'...

BTW...I *too* would like to hear more about his 'MEX days...and the
situation at RKO that let him has some success programming 1510AM...

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