Re: Vikings upset Karmazin

[Shawn Mamros <mamros@MIT.EDU>]

>WBCN changed hands most recently maybe three years ago. I thought it was
>that same deal that brought WZLX to Infinity. The acquiring company had to
>assign values to each acquired property, because it acquired several
>stations at the same time as a package. [...]

According to the Boston Radio Archives page on WBCN, the timeline goes
like this:

1979 - WBCN acquired by Hemisphere Broadcasting.  Hemisphere either changed
its name or otherwise morphed into Infinity sometime well before 1990 -
there was no transfer of ownership associated with that change.

1993 - Infinity acquires Cook Inlet, WZLX's owner.  WBCN is not affected
by this change, other than to have a longtime competitor become a co-owned
station.

1996 - CBS (that is to say, the post-Westinghouse acquisition version of
CBS) purchases Infinity.  This deal did technically change WBCN's ownership,
so it would've required a price tag to be put on the station, even though
it was part of a package deal.

-Shawn Mamros
E-mail to: mamros@mit.edu