Re: NorthEast Radio Watch 8/13: Entercom Enters Boston

["Douglas J. Broda" <dougbroda@mindspring.com>]

At 10:30 AM 8/14/98 -0400, Scott D Fybush wrote:

>*We'll start the rest of this week's news in NEW YORK with the sale of
>Albany's second public TV outlet.  Sinclair has agreed to pay $23
>million for WMHQ (Channel 45), with the station returning to
>commercial operation once the sale closes (it began its life in the
>80s as commercial independent WUSV before being sold to WMHT), either
>as a UPN or WB affiliate.

It will be very interesting to see which network Sinclair chooses for 45.

On the one hand, the WB is doing better than UPN in the ratings by far
right now. Recent adds/changes nationwide would strongly suggest Sinclair
would go WB with 45.

On the other hand, we have a situation where we get WB and UPN stations by
cable now -- WB via WPIX/NYC; UPN via WSBK/Boston. Cable operators (or
operator, as Time Warner has 95% of the market) will seriously consider
dropping whichever one duplicates 45's prime-time, because of Syndex. But
if we lose WPIX, we lose lots of Yankees games... and this is Yankees
country, much as this Mets fan despises that. (WSBK would have been easier
to lose by far even when they had the BoSox.) Dropping WPIX would cause
serious feedback against TimeWarner, which they, of course, would deflect
to/blame on Sinclair, saying "we can't afford to carry a station when we
have to black out most of their prime time."

Also, we have a growing and seriously underserved Black community, and
that's where UPN is strongest in its demos.

Wait and see on the choice. :)
- ----------------------------------------------------------------
Douglas J. Broda
Broda and Burnett
Attorneys at Law
80 Ferry Street
Troy, New York 12180
(518) 272-0580
dougbroda@mindspring.com
Coming soon: http://familylaw.hypermart.net

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