Herald: WEEI hopes to retain some Sox presence

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:11:13 -0400, Sean Smyth <ssmyth@suscom.net> said:

> Still refuse to believe this is a donedone deal.

Scott and I were talking about this earlier in the week.  He made the
points that:

1) WEEI-FM and WVEI have done reasonably well without Sox rights (on
WSKO in Providence and WTAG in Worcester).  The new Easthampton signal
will also start life without Sox rights.

2) Fans wanting to have serious, critical discussion of the team and
its management won't find it on a station the team owns, so they will
have to go back to WEEI anyway.

[Conclusion: Entercom wouldn't lose as much as some have suggested,
and as a business decision it may well be that the Sox are asking for
more than Entercom thinks the rights are worth.  Since WBOS doesn't
reach the other WEEI markets, it's also possible that Entercom could
gain the rights in some of the other markets while still losing them
in Boston.]

3) In order to clear the cap, if Greater Media is still serious about
acquiring WCRB, they would have to sell at least 85% of the equity in
whichever station they spin, and would not be permitted to manage it
nor sell more than 15% of the spot time under a JSA.  The sort of
deals rumored to be under consideration do not appear to meet this
standard, which suggests that the Sox deal is independent of the 'CRB
deal -- but whatever happens with the Sox may have an impact on GM's
negotiating position with Charles River.

[Joseph Gallant would say: A very unlikely third possibility, since
Entercom is still under the ownership cap in Boston, would be for them
to go in with the Sox in buying the station from Greater, which would
give GM the cash and cap position to then complete the purchase of
WCRB.  I can't see this happening.]

-GAWollman