Sale of Ohio stations

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contracteng
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Sale of Ohio stations

Post by contracteng »

from radioandrecords.com

Multistate Deals
PRICE: $138 million
TERMS: Asset sale
BUYER: Wilks Broadcast Group, headed by CEO Jeffrey Wilks. Phone: 770-772-4077. It owns 11 other stations. This represents its entry into this market.
SELLER: CBS Radio, headed by Chairman/CEO Joel Hollander. Phone: 212-846-3939.
BROKER: Michael J. Bergner of Bergner & Co.
COMMENT: CBS Radio's 4 stations in Kansas City, MO-KS, and 3 stations in Columbus, OH, to Wilks Broadcast Group for $138 million. The stations included in the deal are: KFKF-FM/Kansas City, MO, KBEQ-FM, KCKC-FM, KMXV-FM/Kansas City, MO, WAZU-FM/Circleville, OH, WLVQ-FM/Columbus, OH, and WHOK-FM/Lancaster, OH.


Ohio
WAZU-FM/Circleville, WLVQ-FM/Columbus and WHOK-FM/Lancaster (Columbus)
FREQUENCY: 107.1 MHz; 96.3 MHz; 95.5 MHz
POWER: 3kw at 328 feet; 18kw at 751 feet; 21kw at 761 feet
FORMAT: Rock; AOR/ClRck; Country
t
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Hoosier Daddy
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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Ooh, this is a big deal!

Legendary Rocker QFM96 is sold.

Country Legends K95 is sold.

New Rock 107.1 WAZOO is sold.

Damn.

8O
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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

UPDATE & SCUTTLEBUTT From radio-info.com's Columbus board:
theRIAA wrote:This is bad. Really bad.

Wilks is widely known in some circles as quite possibly the WORST small group in radio.

At risk of being attacked for sounding too biased or disgruntled...do your research. Check out the aftermath in places like Des Moines, and the current debacles in Fresno and Reno. If you are super savvy, do some digging to find all the lawsuits that are pending against them.

Based on what I know of this group, the idea that they can even operate stations in a market of any reasonable size is laughable. If you are in the cluster, I am very sorry. I know that this is a scary and uncertain time for you all. I feel for you. But, get your T&R's ready now. You'll want to be gone before they even take over.

Seriously. Reference this post a year from now, and tell me I am wrong.
and
JH wrote:In Des Moines and other markets, Wilks cut the staff as much as possible, automated almost everything, got the bottom line to look as good as possible, then dumped the stations.
and
GABigley1 wrote:Found this bit of history on the Wilks Broadcasting Des Moines Cluster:

http://www.geocities.com/iowamedia/arch3-4-2001.htm

Iowa Media Resource Page April 10, 2001

Here is a recap of recent events at Wilks Broadcasting Des Moines. Jack O'Brien has been chosen to oversee the cluster. There was a shake-up at KHKI as Morning man Jim Franklin is out, as is Angella Lynne middays. JC Walker moves from afternoons to mornings, Program Director Savannah Jones takes over middays. Jim Olson goes from nights to afternoon drive. Jack Emerson was let go after 20 years with KGGO in what can only be described as a cost cutting move. Rumor has it that there will be more cuts.....

http://us.geocities.com/iowamedia/arch5-6-2001.htm

Iowa Media Resource Page June 22, 2001

The sale of the Barnstable cluster to Wilks Broadcasting is final and with it both Mark Hendrix the KGGO and KRKQ Program Director and Beverlee Brannigan the PD of and KJJY and KHKI are out. Operations Manager Jack O'Brien is reportedly handling programming of the Country stations on an interim basis. Is Wilks finished handing out pink slips?.....

http://www.geocities.com/iowamedia/arch7-8-2001.htm

Iowa Media Resource Page

NEWS ARCHIVES August 29, 2001

The continuous downsizing of the workforce at Wilks Broadcasting in Des Moines continues. KHKI morning man and Music Director J.C. Walker, KJJY midday jock Ashley Hart, and three sales people are gone. Replacing Walker in mornings at The Hawk is Big John McCoy, who Wilks fired from KJJY a few weeks ago. Marc Hansen's Des Moines Register column has documented this soap opera in recent months.....One of the people fired from Wilks, Jim Franklin formerly of KHKI is now doing mornings at WPKR Appleton-Green Bay-Oshkosh, WI.....

Des Moines Register, The (IA) - August 28, 2001

Staff cuts at radio stations produce `a soap opera'
By MARC HANSEN

They could make a sitcom out of what's happening at KGGO, KJJY, KHKI and the other Des Moines radio stations owned by Wilks Broadcasting.Trouble is, the 30-plus employees who either walked away or were pushed overboard during the past six months aren't laughing.To them, the carnage is about as funny as three hours of dead air. This isn't WKRP in Cincinnati. This is no TV show.
and
Kent wrote:I have to agree that it's bad. I feel badly for my friends at CBS in Kansas City. Some of the people in Kansas City seem more optimistic than others. The sad thing is that Wilks could really be a great broadcaster if it wanted to. It's getting a great staff in both Columbus and Kansas City, and the Fresno and Lubbock staffs are quite good given the market sizes. However, judging from its past actions, it's likely to make cuts that make Lowry Mays and Lew Dickey look like Mr. Rogers.
and
Cbus dave wrote:I'm guessing this is the end of Wags and Elliott. In an article awhile back they seemed to imply it was probably time to hang it up after an ownership change. If Wilks has historically slashed budgets by cutting salaries, I would think that would make them prime targets? It's too bad, they have been a Columbus staple.
and
radiorep wrote:Rumor has it that Wilks will be signing an LMA and sending it to the Justice Dept. Typically, those allow the buyer to take over operation of the stations in 4-6 weeks. The people from Wilks were in Columbus on Wednesday October 11.
The rumor mill doesn't sound good. I'd hate to see QFM96 destroyed.

:(
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Post by Dr. Whiplash »

I hear that the knifes are about to be unsheathed. Truly sickening.
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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

This is what happens when you deregulate radio.

:evil:
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Post by Arp2 »

Hoosier Daddy wrote:This is what happens when you deregulate radio.

:evil:
Noooooooooooooooo......... :roll:

...and, besides, nothing has happened. You can't have "this is what happens" when nothing has happened.
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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Arp2 wrote:
Hoosier Daddy wrote:This is what happens when you deregulate radio. :evil:
Noooooooooooooooo.........
Says you.
...and, besides, nothing has happened. You can't have "this is what happens" when nothing has happened.
OK. We'll wait and see.

I honestly hope you're right.

:wink:
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Post by Big Media »

Arp2 wrote:
Hoosier Daddy wrote:This is what happens when you deregulate radio.

:evil:
Noooooooooooooooo......... :roll:

...and, besides, nothing has happened. You can't have "this is what happens" when nothing has happened.
This is what happens when a company buys a company. The fact that these are radio stations should have nothing to do with it. If I went to Columbus and purchased 10 McDonald's restaurants, the first thing I would do is see where we can operate more efficiently by sharing resources with the other 10 McDonald's restaurants I own in Topeka and thus increase the value and profits of my business. Why can't the same apply to radio stations?
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Post by Arp2 »

Hoosier Daddy wrote:
Arp2 wrote:
Hoosier Daddy wrote:This is what happens when you deregulate radio. :evil:
Noooooooooooooooo.........
Says you.
Says business and technology. You're seeing the convergence of business practices in a new regulatory environment and industry changes that come from advances in technology, not just the former.

Had technology improved long before deregulation occurred, you still would have seen automation and the importing of talent. There's no rule that voicetrackers have to work for the same company, you know.

Had deregulation occurred long before the technology improved, humans still would have been there to the same degree that they were in that time. Dereg alone did not change that.

And you seem to be conveniently leaving out of your thinking the current advertising environment.

Without dereg, bankrupt broadcasting companies would literally be littering the land today.

If you really want to be angry about something, learn about Google. Google has the potential of making all local media -- print, radio, and TV -- obsolete. And Google's already deciding what you will and will not see through it.

You know all those kooky, internet-spread accusations about media you and the leftists have been making? They're about 80% false about media but about 100% true about Google, and you guys aren't even noticing or thinking about that yet! Fear Google. Google is, at this stage, the baby Big Brother. Strike that -- it's like an adolescent already. Fear Google.
...and, besides, nothing has happened. You can't have "this is what happens" when nothing has happened.
OK. We'll wait and see.

I honestly hope you're right.
I'm already right. What could be not right about "you can't have 'this is what happens' when nothing has happened?" I didn't make any prediction.

But I, too, would think it best if there were no changes made that were not rooted in the market.
"I don't know the same things you don't know."

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Post by Lester »

Arp2 wrote:Had technology improved long before deregulation occurred, you still would have seen automation and the importing of talent. There's no rule that voicetrackers have to work for the same company, you know.
I got my start in radio partially due to my ability to program the automation system that was there to replace me.

WELK... by 1986, Mid-days were already "automated", with voicetracking, via reel-to-reel from TM Century. Stopsets were opened by rotating liners off of a cart deck... and the whole thing served up by a Schaffer 903. (When I moved to afternoons, overnights, middays and nights were automated.)

WVAH (?) in Clarksburg was similarly run... They even had a Schaffer, but it may have been a 901.
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Post by lastone »

WELK... by 1986, Mid-days were already "automated", with voicetracking, via reel-to-reel from TM Century. Stopsets were opened by rotating liners off of a cart deck... and the whole thing served up by a Schaffer 903.
Well let's see. That is just after WXCC replaced it's 903 with a worse...ah...new one. I wonder if WELK got the that old one. It used the instacarts (that never worked right) instead of the gocarts and a tele-type interface. Main controler had a gas tube readout that sat on an expensive white round table.

We went to look at Clarksburg's in 77 and I believe it was a 903. The XCC one came from XIT Charleston.

On WKRP the "big guy" has a dream and finds himself in a room empty but for a round table and on the table is a box with a screen. The box talks and he asks where he is. The box replys "this is radio of the future".

Thirty years later there is this box with a screen and it talks................. :cry:
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Post by Dave Loudin »

WVHF was the original call for the Clarksburg station.
Aircheck? You'd make a great board op.
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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

<<<BUMP>>>

UPDATE from radio-info.com
The bloodletting has begun. Yesterday, (Friday December 1) the day of the company Christmas party, at least 7 people were let go. They include Officer Al, whose been with the station for over 25 years, Kim Taylor, K95.5 News Director, Program Director Dave Cooper, Assistant Promotions Director, a station engineer, plus numerous sales people and parttime air talent. Wilks plans to have only a sales force of 6 people. Valeria Brooks is still technically with CBS Radio, so she's safe (for now). I felt for her yesterday. Apparently the owners sent her a list of the people to fire. She fought to wait until the end of the year. Cold hearted bastards. I'm sure the cuts are not complete. The posts regarding this company when the sale was announced were right on the money. I've been in this business for over 27 years and I have never seen anything like this. Wilks spoke so highly of heritage stations and how nothing would change. Guess everything changes at some point. Sad day for one of the few heritage stations in the country.
:(
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