Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Fuzzy Radio Math
Saturday
July 14, 2004
Sometimes the radio world provides fuzzy math. Consider this:
In May 2004, Susquehanna Radio offered $60 million cash AND the 105.7 frequency to the city of the Dallas (as the new home of WRR) in exchange for the more powerful 101.1 frequency. After a public uproar, the proposal was voted down, despite the city being in a budget crisis.
Fast forward to July 2004, where 91.7 KVTT, a 100,000 watt blowtorch station
was sold for $16.5 million by the Research Educational Foundation to Covenant Educational Media.
Now riddle me this: couldn't Susquehanna have purchased 91.7, offered WRR $25 million to move to the still strong (but non-commercial) signal, and ensured that classical music would retain a home in Dallas for years to come (and in a non-commercial form at that)? By my math, that'd be $41.5 million. Let's say it cost $17 million to outbid Convenant Education Media, that's still $42 million, or $18 million LESS than what they wanted to do in May, PLUS they'd keep the 105.7 signal. Now I don't know what WRR bills in a given year, but they average about a 2.3 in the 12+ Arbitrons. But you can't tell me that a $25 million cash payment right here, right now wouldn't be worth it to the station to preserve its format and to keep classical music alive in Dallas for decades to come.
Congratulations are in order for my former co-worker Heather Van Nest, who is the new evening anchor at Channel 10 in Tampa. She's a great talent (and a good person), and I'm very happy for her. Her and Reggie should make a good team.
I finally did it -- I launched my own Fantasy Football website. FFLKing.com is its name, and it's modeled after my DraftKing.com website. With fantasy football interest running from June-December, and NFL Draft interest hitting from January-April, I should be better balanced as far as some of the seasonal trends go with that.
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