Re: Vikings upset Karmazin

["Dan Strassberg" <Dan.Strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

Good question. One would think it would be a station in the largest
market--New York City, but who knows? WINS claims to be the most-listened-to
station in the New York market, but I don't believe it's the top biller. I
think those honors go to WFAN, even though the Fan's ratings aren't as good
as WINS's. For years and years, WGN was the top-billing station in the US,
even though it's in the #2 market. I don't think WGN is the top biller in
Chicago any longer, though--especially since the morning host (who was also
a private pilot) was killed in a flying accident a few months ago.

And then there is the issue of profitability. Even though a station is the
top-biller in the US, high operating expenses may place it far down the list
in profitability. Billings are a matter of public record, because the FCC
collects billings data, but I'm not sure that the FCC keeps data on the
profitability of individial stations. Also, with commonly owned clusters
being the norm today, it's probably impossible to fairly apportion expenses
among the various members of a cluster.

Note that all of the stations I listed above are AMs. There are still some
pretty valuable AMs. But I'd have to guess that even in markets where an AM
is the top biller, an FM has a higher valuation because of the perception
that FM stations will continue to appreciate in value in the future, whereas
AMs will not. Also, I believe that in major markets, the majority of FM
formats are less expensive than AM formats. News and talk tend to be quite
expensive, except where most of the material comes off the bird, and
major-market news and talk stations that get most of the broadcast day off
the satellite are uncommon. Even WRKO, which carries more
satellite-delivered programming than it should, uses local talent for about
half of its broadcast day (Monday thru Friday, anyhow).

--

Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
Phone: 1-617-558-4205, eFax: 1-707-215-6367

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Fitzpatrick <fitzradio@map.com>
To: A. Joseph Ross <lawyer@world.std.com>;
boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Date: Thursday, April 27, 2000 3:11 AM
Subject: RE: Vikings upset Karmazin


>I wonder what the highest valued AM and FM station in the US is these days.
>In TV it sure seems to be KRON in San Francisco after its recent sale.
>WBZ-AM has got to be up there.
>