Posts Tagged ‘Cumulus Media’

Lew Dickey keeps Erie

April 13th, 2011 joel

According to RadioInk Magazine, the shakeout from the big Cumulus/Citadel radio merger leaves the four stations in Erie, WXKC, WXTA, WQHZ, and WRIE in the hands of Cumulus Media. Because of FCC rules, Cumulus can’t keep 14 of the stations from the resulting massive broadcast group. From their report:

The paperwork has been filed for the Cumulus-Citadel merger, including an application to assign 14 stations to a divestiture trust since, with the deal, Cumulus will lose grandfathered status in some markets and go over ownership limits in others…The stations will be assigned to Volt Radio, a divestiture trust with Scott Knoblauch as trustee.

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Cumulus buys Citadel, includes four stations in Erie

February 17th, 2011 joel
Classy 100/WXKC

WXKC/Classy 100's parent is sold to Cumulus Media

Nearly half of Erie’s radio stations are about to answer to a new boss. According to a flash report Thursday afternoon on RadioInk.com:

Radio Ink has confirmed that a deal to purchase Citadel, which includes the radio network and the former ABC-Disney properties and Citadel properties with 550 stations in 120 cities and eight of the top 10 markets has been agreed to. The offer, which was accepted is due to be announced at $37 a share ($30 cash).

The transaction valued at 2.4 billion and 1.5 billion in market equity totaling a $4 billion enterprise value.

The magazine was unable to get comment from the major players, but internal communication confirmed the sale.

This puts the nation’s second largest radio owner in charge of four stations licensed in Erie County, including WXKC/Erie (Classy 100), WXTA/Edinboro (Country 98), WQHZ/Erie (Z102.3), and WRIE/Erie (ESPN 1260 The Score). Citadel Broadcasting prided itself as the largest “pure-play” radio operator in America, and recently emerged from bankruptcy protection last summer. As we have reported over several months, Cumulus has had its eye on the group for a takeover, hostile or otherwise.

As of this afternoon, there is no official word of the sale from either party.

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Cumulus spurned as it tries to buy Classy 100 parent

December 6th, 2010 joel
Citadel Broadcasting

Citadel Broadcasting Corporation

The troubled parent company of Classy 100 and Country 98 has rejected two offers for merger with radio heavyweight Cumulus Media, according to a report this morning on the New York Times DealBook blog.

The board of Citadel Broadcasting, America’s number three radio operator and corporate owner of WXKC/WXTA/WQHZ/WRIE in Erie, rejected the offers as bad for the shareholders of the privately-held company:

In a Dec. 6 filing, Citadel revealed it was a takeover target of an unnamed third party. DealBook has learned that the third party was Cumulus Media, according to two people familiar with the offer who were not authorized to talk. In early November, Citadel received “an unsolicited letter from a third party proposing a merger transaction,” the company said in the filing. The board quickly rejected the offer.

A few weeks later on Nov. 29, Cumulus Media, whose chief executive is Lewis W. Dickey Jr., raised the offer. The board rejected the revised bid, saying it was not in the best interest of shareholders, according the filing.

The offers come just months after Citadel worked its way out of bankruptcy protection in June, complete with an attempted massive $110 million stock payout to top executives and board members. Management has since dropped the stock awards.

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Can Erie media survive the global economic crash?

November 25th, 2008 joel

It’s hard to overstate the shot across the bow that the Erie media ship took last week. With the elimination of three positions at Citadel Broadcasting, and the proposed buyout of at least 25 jobs at the Erie Times News, media employment in the Erie DMA is again experiencing significant shrinkage.

The staffing issue is just a symptom of a greater illness plaguing Erie’s (and the nation’s) media outlets. Retail advertising cash is the mother’s milk of media, and retail everywhere is experiencing a major contraction due to the lack of consumer confidence and tight credit. The latter strongly comes into play in the purchase of big ticket items like automobiles, and appliances.

Of course Erie has never been a fast growing retail market, with growth in metro buying power in the low single digits. However, the size of the market, the distance from larger markets, and the economies of consolidation have ensured that there was generally enough advertising cash to go around for everyone.
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The Feed for Friday, November 21st

November 21st, 2008 joel

Editor’s note: Sound off, give a shout out on “Deep Background,” our totally-random open discussion of all things Erie media.

  • It’s a Classy Christmas: WXKC/Classy 100 flipped the switch to all Christmas music today. That means that they’ll be playing the Santa Songs for five weeks, nearly 20% of the broadcast year. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! P&T heard a jazzy version of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” by Tony Bennett driving in the snow this afternoon. WCTL is slated to go all Contemporary Christian Christmas on Black Friday.

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    Press and Tower is a web community for Erie Pennsylvania's producers and consumers of newspapers, radio and television stations, and new media outlets. We connect, celebrate, complain, and communicate about all aspects of media.

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