Re: Vikings upset Karmazin

[dan.Strassberg@att.net]

Years and years ago (I have no idea when--the 70s, 
maybe), Cox acquired KFI, arguably the best AM facility 
in the US. There were still Class IA clear-channel 
stations at the time and KFI was one. Moreover, KFI is 
on 640 kHz, the lowest frequency of any such station in 
the US. If I recall, the selling price was $110 million, 
which I believe was the highest price ever paid up to 
that time for any US radio station. In the interim, 
station prices (on average) went down, and more recently 
_way_ up. However, I'm not sure that AM station prices 
are as high as they were when Cox acquired KFI. So I 
find it hard (albeit not impossible) to believe that WBZ 
would fetch more than $199 million in today's market. If 
you told me $80 million, I'd say that it sounded 
reasonable.

One way to get a rough idea of WBZ's current market 
value is to look at recent station sales. I believe that 
_very_ recently (within the past few months) Cox sold 
KFI. I have no idea of the price, but I don't think it 
was anywhere near $200 million. If you know or can find 
the most recent KFI price, considering the relative 
sizes of the LA and Boston markets, it should serve as a 
(very high) upper limit on the value of WBZ.
 
> 
> WBCN is surely the highest valued FM station in town, but WBZ-AM
> is probably the highest valued station overall.
>