Future of 890/1200/1400/1430

[Dan.Strassberg]

I just posted the following on the radio-info.com Boston board:

The possibility of 1200 fipping to ESPN certainly raises a bunch of
questions: Is ESPN working this deal directly with Clear Channel
(owners of WKOX) or are they working through Waller Sutton (owners of
WAMG/WLLH)? If ESPN is working though Waller Sutton, why are they
doing so? Especially if Waller Sutton is still involved, wouldn't
there be a good chance of WAMG/WLLH flipping to the Spanish ESPN (I
think it's called ESPN Deportes)? If 890/1400 were to pick up ESPN
Deportes, that would leave Rumba only on WXKS (AM). Is that puny
signal enough to make the format worth CCU's while to continue
producing in Boston? (I could be wrong about this, but I believe that
Rumba for Boston originates locally; that is, CCU does not distribute
it by satellite from a central location--San Antonio, for instance.)
If a Boston Rumba on 1430 only doesn't make economic sense for CCU,
then wouldn't ESPN Deportes on 1430 make more sense? Some food for
thought here. I guess we'll have answers in due course, but I'd like
to know now.

And here's one more: If 1430 becomes orphaned, is this the time for
Principle (1230/1300) to make its move to buy 1430? Principle does not
appear to have run out of money and CCU needs all the $$$ it can get.
I have been predicting that Principle would buy 1430 ever since the
group first appeared in Boston a few years ago. If there wasn't such
bad blood between Principle and Multicutural (1360/1470), I could also
see Principle picking up 1470 from Multicultural. A 1430/1470
simulcast would make A LOT of sense. Between the two stations, you
would have a fairly decent full-market AM signal (adjacent dial
positions and not a whole lot of coverage overlap day or night).

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367