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"Local" radio in financial trouble


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#1 johnfwd

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Posted 06 December 2017 - 07:56 AM

Here's a link to a FWBP article on the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of an Atlanta-based media group, including our "local" WBAP radio station.

 

http://www.fortworth...896066c26a.html

 

I put this in the politics thread because I rue the day when WBAP switched from country-western music to an all-talk (mostly conservative) political opinion format.  I haven't listened to it for a long time so I don't know if it still has an all-talk format.  The sarcastic view of locality is borne out by the fact that WBAP and the other media are owned by an out-of-state company.  Of course that has been a trend for a long time.



#2 JBB

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Posted 06 December 2017 - 11:03 AM

Cumulus also owns The Ticket, which I've always heard is one of the most financially successful stations in the country - local shows for more than 15 hours a day on weekdays.  I believe WBAP is local for 6 hours a day or so.  I grew up listening to WBAP with my dad in their heyday in '80s.  I might have been the only 12 year old in the world that fell asleep at night listening to Bill Mack's trucking show.



#3 Dylan

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Posted 06 December 2017 - 09:31 PM

Wow! This is really, really big news. Cumulus owns literally hundreds of stations throughout the country.


-Dylan


#4 Austin55

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Posted 06 December 2017 - 09:36 PM

Cumulus also owns The Ticket

 

They've been joking about the demise of Cumulus for months now. Good solid self-aware humor there.



#5 JBB

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Posted 06 December 2017 - 10:32 PM

They've been joking about their poor financial outlook for years.  They used to play a warning siren drop any time someone brought it up.  



#6 youngalum

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Posted 07 December 2017 - 12:23 PM

My family was in the radio/tv business for over 40 years in the Ark-La-Tex region, Oklahoma and Mississippi.  To say that local radio and local TV is dying is an understatement, especially in smaller markets.  I'm glad my family sold everything in the 90's when hedge funds thought buying up coast to coast stations was a good idea.

 

No one is making $ anymore.  Really the only stations, both radio and TV, that make any $ are Spanish language and sports talk radio.  The Ticket is one of the most successful sports talk radio stations in the country and makes a ton of money for its parent company.


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#7 AndyN

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Posted 07 December 2017 - 04:12 PM

I generally gave up on WBAP when they moved their studio to Victory Plaza in Dallas. The fact that they no longer play the national ABC news at the top of the hour didn't help either.


Www.fortwortharchitecture.com

#8 johnfwd

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Posted 08 December 2017 - 07:17 AM

This may be straying off the topic a bit, but I'm offfended by a former "Fort Worth local" radio station (i.e., WBAP) moving to Dallas.  It doesn't violate FCC rules on the geographical market allotment of broadcast media in this case because the FCC considers Dallas-Fort Worth as one market.  This divorcing Fort Worth, however, means that our city doesn't really have much media to focus mostly on us.

 

Regarding politics, I haven't been listening to all-talk show radio lately,  Does anyone have a thought as to whether the political talk-show format (a la Rush Limbaugh) is ebbing?



#9 youngalum

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Posted 08 December 2017 - 11:41 AM

AM talk radio is dying a quicker death, FM not as much, but its fate is still not debatable.  The whole talk radio format is loosing audience numbers and stations across the land as people can get informed faster on their smart phones and Facebook pages (HA!!!) in less time than listening to multiple segments of talk radio.  This includes satellite radio too.






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