Ion Media "Pulling an NBC"?

[Scott Fybush]

CBS is separating the news and talk stations from CBS Corp. as part of the
overall spinoff of CBS Radio.

I assume the logic is that the news stations have more value to a buyer as
part of the overall radio package than they'd have in continued synergy
with the local TV stations if CBS were to keep just that handful of big
AMs.

That actually does seem logically sound to me.  The radio stations have
never been that tightly bound to their TV "sisters," whether it was the
Group W operations like WBZ and KYW or the CBS ones like WCBS and WBBM.

WBZ and KYW are the only all-newsers physically tied to their TVs these
days.  (KCBS is in adjoining but separate space in SF), so there would
actually be considerable expense in relocating the others - KNX, WCCO,
WBBM, WCBS, KDKA - to separate them from their FM sisters and retain them
within CBS.

On May 25, 2017 11:12 PM, "Don" <astelle.donald@gmail.com> wrote:

>> the pending CBS-Entercom "merger" in which CBS plans to
>> dump  all the AM O&Os in major cities

Who said this is the plan?



On Thu, May 25, 2017 at 6:56 PM, Doug Drown <ashboy1951@gmail.com> wrote:

> I agree with you, Scott.  That said, however, in my opinion it makes as
> much sense as the pending CBS-Entercom "merger" in which CBS plans to dump
> all the AM O&Os in major cities where they've developed news-and-talk
> synergies with their TV counterparts (e.g. WBZ).  The logic of that escapes
> me completely.
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 25, 2017 at 5:46 PM, Scott Fybush <scott@fybush.com> wrote:
>
> > No truth to that rumor, from what my sources are telling me.
> >
> > It makes no sense, really. Disney/ABC hasn't lifted a finger to grow its
> > O&O portfolio in more than two decades. Dumping Hearst in Boston would
> > imperil one of the closest network/affiliate relationships in the
> country,
> > with ripple effects I'm Hearst ABC markets around the country.
> >
> > It doesn't make a lick of sense on either end of the "deal."
> >
> > On May 25, 2017 5:13 PM, "Doug Drown" <ashboy1951@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> James Woods, a fellow-participant in the RadioInsight.com message
> boards,
> >> reported today that anonymous word is going 'round regarding a sale of
> >> Ion's WBPX Channel 32 to the ABC Owned Television Stations Group.  One
> of
> >> WBPX's full-power satellites, digital channel 33, is in Concord, NH.  If
> >> all this is true, that would almost certainly place WCVB's and WMUR's
> ABC
> >> affiliations in jeopardy.
> >>
> >> NBC, having firmly established its own station in Boston, won't move
> over
> >> to Channel 5.  One wonders what Hearst would do, especially given that
> it
> >> has cable network joint ownership ties with both NBC and ABC.
> >>
> >> I have my doubts about this story, but I have to say it's interesting.
> >>
> >
>