CBS Selling off 50 Stations

[David Tomm]

I'm not sure how much Buckley could acquire, if they wanted to.  They  
own 3 AM's around the state along with WDRC AM&FM.  With Hartford  
being an underradioed market, they probably would have to sell off  
the out of town AMs (mostly graveyarders) to buy even two of the FM's  
for sale.  That won't be easy.  Historically, Buckley doesn't buy and  
sell a lot of properties so I don't know if they would even have an  
interest in beefing up their portfolio there.

At this point I think WCCC and WTMI are the only stations Marlin  
owns.  They sold off their Miami cluster several years back.  If  
anything, they've been rumored to be sellers, not buyers, but they  
seem to be content with their current combo.  Considering their size,  
the CBS stations are probably too rich for their blood.  WURH has  
been on the block for awhile now and I think they would have bought  
it by now if they wanted it, especially since it's currently  
competing with WCCC.

Dave Tomm
"Mike Thomas"

On Aug 3, 2008, at 8:32 AM, Alan Tolz wrote:

> Re: Hartford, why wouldn't Buckley or Marlin, who each own stand  
> alone FM's make a play for either some or all of the CBS stations  
> and WURH?

> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Tomm"  
> <nostaticatall@charter.net>
> Subject: Re: CBS Selling off 50 Stations
>
>
>> It won't affect Boston, but Hartford will surely be sold.  They   
>> currently have four stations in the Insurance City, and all of  
>> them  are in the Top 5 12+.  They include news/talk WTIC,  
>> Mainstream AC  WRCH, Hot AC WTIC-FM and Rhythmic WZMX.  With the  
>> national radio  market being saturated with unsold stations, most  
>> radio groups  bottoming out on stock price and the lending crunch,  
>> I can't CBS  getting top dollar for these properties, even though  
>> they are the  most successful in the state.
>>
>> Some group could land a bargain there, if they can get the  
>> financing together.  I doubt that Citadel will be a player and  
>> Clear Channel  has stations there already.  That cluster may be  
>> too much for a  smaller group like Regent or Nassau to finance in  
>> this economy.  This  would be a great market for Entercom or  
>> Greater Media to enter.  Cox  has stations in New Haven and on  
>> Long Island, so adding Hartford  would seem to make sense for them  
>> as well.
>>
>> Those four signals aren't the only ones on the block right now.  
>> Alternative WURH, currently owned by Clear Channel, has to be  
>> spun  off as part of the company going private and is currently in  
>> a  trust.  That's a signal I could easily see a Univision or SBS  
>> picking  up and taking Spanish.  It will be interesting to see who  
>> buys these  all stations and if it means a lot of changes in the  
>> market going  forward.
>>