Re: John Garabedian

["supersport@eb101.com" <supersport@cybercom.net>]

I remember WGTF (Garabedian's Terrific Forties), as it was playing
stnadards and big bands.  Eventually, it was sold and became "Oldies  96" a
great listtle oldies station for quite a while.  Today, it is "The Rose"

At 03:06 AM 5/28/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>
>> 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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