NERW 10/9/17: WBAI’s $2.4 Million Problem

In this week’s issue… Judge deals WBAI a blow – Rochester en espanol – Broadway in Pittsburgh – More FM power in Toronto? – Hockey on the Radio

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada

*If the troubled Pacifica Foundation thought it was going to get some sympathy in court for the rent shortfall that now has NEW YORK‘s WBAI (99.5) some $1.8 million in the hole, it’s in for what looks like an ongoing series of rude awakenings.

As our sister site RadioInsight reported on Wednesday, Judge Gerald Lebovits hit Pacifica with a summary judgment for its unpaid rent, which continues to accumulate as Pacifica insists that it has an oral agreement to pay $12,000 a month instead of the amount in the written lease, which escalates from $45,000 to $53,000 a month over the lease term.

The judgment also awards ESRT its legal fees, which brings the bill now due to Pacifica up to at least $2.4 million, according to the network’s press releases.

WBAI is trying to raise money to help pay the judgment against it, but it’s continuing to treat its contractual obligation more like a political football, too; on the air Wednesday afternoon, GM Berthold Reimers made the astonishing claim that as a “publicly licensed operation,” WBAI shouldn’t have to pay rent at all – and neither should any other broadcaster!

Where does this dispute go next? Why hasn’t the Empire State Building kicked WBAI off its antenna yet? Exclusive insight for subscribers continues… (and if you’re not yet subscribing, why not give us a try?)

*Let’s start with the obvious: the rhetoric coming from Reimers over WBAI’s airwaves is silly and ultimately unproductive, and it’s also unique, so far, to WBAI. There’s no other noncommercial broadcaster we know of that’s making any similar claim of entitlement to free or even discounted rent on a commercially-operated tower site. Nor is there anything we’ve seen so far that would suggest (as Reimers does) that WBAI is being overcharged compared to other broadcasters that have leases with Empire.

The fact is, operating a master antenna site 1400 feet above midtown Manhattan is an expensive proposition. The FM stations that share the master antenna at Empire (we count 16 of them right now) all have to share the burden of maintaining a complex combiner system, keeping what’s now an almost 30 year old master antenna operating flawlessly, and planning for the next generation of antenna and combiner that will eventually be installed at Empire. That includes not only commercial stations for which a half-million dollars a year is relative pocket change compared to their annual revenues in market #1, but also the noncommercial operators over at WNYC-FM (93.9) and WQXR (105.9), who’ve never complained (at least publicly) about the cost of rent at Empire.

Reimers’ statements last week seemed to suggest that “political pressure” would somehow be brought to bear on Empire to reduce WBAI’s rent, but that’s unlikely, too, at least based on the few politicians who turned out the last time WBAI rallied for this particular cause in front of City Hall.

*At the same time, WBAI isn’t going to be evicted, and here’s why: as best we can tell, the Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT) is far and away the biggest creditor that would have a claim on Pacifica’s assets if the dispute ends up in bankruptcy court. Over the last few years, WBAI has downsized the rest of its operation into near-invisibility, leaving behind its relatively expensive leased studio space in lower Manhattan for a much smaller building in Brooklyn and reducing its paid staff to a bare minimum. The rent at Empire is the one thing WBAI can’t reduce, though, and the longer the bills remain unpaid, the bigger a claim ESRT would eventually have against a possible liquidation of WBAI’s assets.

At the same time, there’s really only one big asset left to WBAI, and that’s the commercial-band class B signal in the heart of the market. We’ll explore the current value of that asset in a moment, but in the meantime, consider this: the signal has value in no small part because it continues to operate from the top of Empire. If it’s moved or downgraded – and in particular if it ceases to operate from Empire – that value gets diminished very quickly, leaving ESRT with less potential of recovering what it’s owed through a Pacifica liquidation. (Now, perhaps, does the strategy of keeping WBAI where it is begin to make more sense?)

So: if a bankruptcy finally forces Pacifica’s hand and WBAI goes up for sale, what’s the current best guess of what the signal is worth and who might be buying? We’ve looked before at the Family Stations sale of 94.7 in Newark almost exactly five years ago, when station valuations were still in a tailspin. That deal gave Family $40 million (plus 106.3 up in Mount Kisco) for WFME’s existing class B signal from First Mountain over in New Jersey – plus additional payments from Cumulus of $8.5 million or $10 million if 94.7 could be moved to Manhattan within five years as either a B1 or a full class B signal. That standard, then, might set the stick value of a class B in Manhattan (like WBAI’s 99.5) at just over $50 million, at least as of 2012.

(And pay close attention: with that five-year clock just about to run out, does Cumulus have any plans in the works to move 94.7, now WNSH, across the river to Manhattan once there won’t be any penalty payment to Family?)

Then there’s another 2012 sale, Merlin’s WEMP (101.9), which went to CBS Radio for $75 million to become WFAN-FM. Was CBS willing to pay a little extra because it already had a revenue stream (from WFAN’s AM presence at 660) to install at 99.5?

Another data point for valuing WBAI comes from Los Angeles, a market barely smaller in population than New York, where EMF just paid Entercom a little over $57 million for class B KSWD (100.3) and two small class A signals in the San Diego and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton markets.

With a price tag somewhere in the $50-75 million range, then, who’d be looking at buying 99.5 if it comes down to that?

EMF, of course, is an obvious contender for so many reasons: it has cash (and access to financing) that so many commercial operators now lack, it has a strong motivation to upgrade its New York presence beyond its current Westchester rimshot, WKLV (96.7 Port Chester), and it doesn’t need to pursue the cluster strategy that is the lifeblood of the commercial side of the industry these days.

Cumulus is the other “obvious” contender, since it’s operating a relatively small cluster of just one AM (WABC 770) and three FMs (WPLJ 95.5, WNSH and little WNBM 103.9 Bronxville). Could it muster the money it would need to put up at a bankruptcy sale, though, especially if it turns into a bidding war with other, deeper pockets?

There’s Entercom, for instance, which has never had a reason to get into New York City with just a single FM – until now, that is. Once it completes its acquisition of CBS Radio’s three AMs and four FMs, that cluster will gain the headroom to add a fifth FM, something it couldn’t do when it was combined with CBS-owned WCBS-TV (Channel 2). Would it be worth it to Entercom to get the FM facility it would need to begin migrating AM stalwarts WCBS (880) or WINS (1010) over to the FM dial once it takes over?

Then there’s Emmis, which has been busy divesting non-core assets as it focuses on making its remaining clusters as strong as possible. It took in more than $82 million by selling KPWR in Los Angeles earlier this year, most of which went to creditors – but could it be a bidder to add 99.5 to a New York cluster that now includes WQHT (Hot 97), WBLS (107.5), WEPN-FM (98.7, on a long-term lease to ESPN) and WLIB (1190)? It’s worth noting that WLIB has been for sale for a while now as one of those non-core assets, and that under saner circumstances, it would make massive financial sense for Emmis to do a deal in which Pacifica gets 1190 and cash (probably in the $40-45 million range) in exchange for 99.5. Such a deal could keep WBAI going for decades on the AM dial – but Pacifica’s political inertia has long made a sensible deal like that impossible internally.

The same is true of New York Public Radio, which has long sought a better signal for its classical WQXR (105.9), a short-spaced B1 from Empire that lacks the reach into the suburbs that it could get if it ended up on 99.5. While a cash-plus-105.9 deal for 99.5 would strengthen WBAI immeasurably (and give it more than enough money to pay Empire’s lease rates for years to come for 105.9), it’s once again a political impossibility – and while the WNYC folks could surely raise the millions for such a deal, could they do it quickly enough to make a successful bid in a bankruptcy auction?

There are longer shots, too, most notably the Meruelo group that bought KPWR from Emmis in Los Angeles. Rumors continue to swirl about a deal between Meruelo and SBS that would bring Meruelo to New York as the new owner of SBS’ two Spanish-language FMs, WPAT-FM (93.1) and WSKQ (97.9). Could Meruelo afford to add a third FM to that mix to even further solidify its position against Univision and its two FMs?

*Before any of those broadcasters can even start thinking about bids, though, WBAI would have to get to auction – and the road that leads there will first have to wend its way through appeals of Lebovits’ decision, not to mention the possibility that Pacifica finds enough fundraising pull to pay off the default judgment, keep WBAI at Empire and stave off bankruptcy. As always, we’ll be watching closely and helping to cut through the noise to tell you what’s really going on with this fascinating case.

*Upstate, the former Time Warner Cable systems now doing business as Spectrum have quietly pulled back from doing local sports. The former “Time Warner Sports Channel,” later “Spectrum Sports,” went dark on systems from Albany to Buffalo over the last few weeks, ending local coverage of a wide range of high school, college and pro sports across the region.

While Spectrum’s local cable news channels have begun carrying a Friday night high school football game of the week, the end of Spectrum Sports means plenty of other teams will be scrambling for new coverage options. That includes Syracuse University, which had a huge presence for years on the former Time Warner systems in the region, as well as professional teams such as the Syracuse Chiefs, Rochester Red Wings, Buffalo Bisons, Rochester Knighthawks lacrosse and others.

And it leaves uncertainty for many upstate viewers about carriage of the New York Mets’ two dozen or so games that are shifted in New York City from flagship SNY (partially owned by Spectrum) to WPIX-TV. Spectrum had been carrying those games on its sports channel in markets where no local broadcast TV outlet picked them up, and there’s no word yet on where they’ll be seen in 2018.

*The end of the Mets season also marked the end of another stab at Mets radio carriage in the Rochester market, where hometown hero Josh Lewin still has a following for his play-by-play. For the last two seasons, the Mets were heard in Rochester on “The Team,” Genesee Media’s CBS Sports Radio affiliate, but the Team ended when the Mets’ season did – and now its most recent broadcast homes, WRSB (1590 Brockport) and translator W248BH (97.5) are about to relaunch as the market’s first full-time commercial Spanish-language station.

When “Mi 97.5” debuts next Monday on WRSB (conveniently now standing for “We’re Rochester’s Spanish Broadcaster”!), it will feature a mix of Spanish-language hits and news and talk with a heavy focus on Puerto Rico. William Santiago of Uno Communications, a local Spanish-language marketing firm, will serve as general manager, bringing radio experience that includes many years as host of “Dimension Latina” on WITR (89.7 Henrietta) and other noncommercial stations around town.

With the prospect of a significant exodus of Puerto Ricans to the mainland, expanding the sizable Puerto Rican community that already exists on the north side of Rochester, we’d think Genesee is poised for significant success with the new WRSB, which nestles up right against WEPL-LP (97.1), the market’s incumbent Spanish broadcaster. (It’s run by community group IBERO, which put it on the air two years ago; there’s also now a Spanish religious LPFM, WARI-LP 98.5, in the city.)

*Moving east, the death almost two years ago of John Tesiero, Jr. has finally prompted a transfer of control of the radio stations he owned in the Mohawk Valley. Tesiero’s Cranesville Block Co. had long owned WCSS (1490 Amsterdam) and had more recently added WIZR (930 Johnstown) and WKAJ (1120 Little Falls), the latter after a battle five years ago to salvage a construction permit that wasn’t built out on time. (You can read more about that if you scroll down to our NERW history section…)

Tesiero’s will gives IZ Communications (licensee of WCSS) to a trust for the benefit of his wife, Elizabeth, to be controlled by two of his three children. All three children get equal shares of Tesiero’s 84% interest in WIZR and WKAJ, and one of those children, Joseph Tesiero, already owned the fourth license in the Cranesville group, WYVS (96.5 Speculator).

(And speaking of WKAJ, it reportedly flipped a few weeks ago from oldies to “Outlaw Country.”)

*Albany was the venue this past weekend for this year’s Grassroots Radio Conference, the LPFM convention hosted this year by Grand Street Community Arts’ WCAA-LP (107.3 Albany). We weren’t able to make it over that way, but we’d love to hear (and share) reports from any readers who did attend, and we’ll try to share some stories from the event on our Top of the Tower podcast soon, too.

*On TV, Watertown is getting a 5 PM newscast next year, when CBS affiliate WWNY-TV (Channel 7) will launch “First at 5,” anchored by John Moore. (As the only local TV news outlet in the market, WWNY’s been largely immune from the pressure other stations have faced to keep adding more newscasts in more time slots.)

*And we remember Kris Earl Phillips, whose “town to town, up and down the dial” radio adventures brought him through NERW-land several times in the 1970s and 80s. In 1972, he came from Florida up to Lowell, Mass. to work at WLLH (1400), then got recruited away a few months later to do overnights for part of 1973 at Boston’s WRKO (680).

A decade or so later, Phillips was part of the startup team at WRKT (100.9 North East) as Rick Rambaldo’s “Rocket 101” took the Erie market by storm with Phillips in the PD chair. After a few more stops, Phillips ended up in NEW JERSEY working for Steve Kingston at WHTZ (Z100) as research director. More recently, he’d returned to his native Florida, doing voiceover and research work. Phillips died Tuesday in Daytona Beach, at 66.

*Our MASSACHUSETTS coverage begins with a preview of “Hockey on the Radio” (which continues later in this week’s column): in Boston, the Bruins waited until just before the puck dropped for the season to name a replacement play-by-play voice after Dave Goucher’s departure to Las Vegas’ new Golden Knights.

Judd Sirott, formerly of the Chicago Blackhawks, had been one of the voices brought in for tryouts during the preseason, and as of last Wednesday he’s the permanent Voice of the Spoked B, occupying the WBZ-FM (98.5 the Sports Hub) booth alongside analyst Bob Beers. Sirott is, among other things, the nephew of Chicago broadcast icon Bob Sirott, and his new job in Boston is a big step up over his previous work as pre-game/post-game/intermission host for the Blackhawks on WGN (720).

*In Springfield, there’s a (sort of) new “Morning Edition” host at New England Public Radio (WFCR 88.5 and sister stations). Carrie Healy has been doing the wakeup shift on an interim basis for several months, but last week she got the permanent nod for the gig. NEPR also named Heather Brandon as its new Digital News Editor.

*There’s a new PD for Cumulus in RHODE ISLAND, where Neil Larrimore takes over programming duties at WPRO (630 Providence)/WEAN (99.7 Wakefield-Peace Dale). Larrimore arrives from Arizona, where he’d programmed talk KFYI (550) and sports KGME (910) in Phoenix; he replaces Tony Mascaro, who left the Salty Brine Broadcast Center back in August.

The new Catholic station in northern Rhode Island wants for a site change and power increase: WSJQ (91.5 Pascoag) has been granted an increase from 8.6 kW/19 m DA to 10.5 kW/12 m DA from a site slightly closer to Woonsocket, putting a little more signal north into southern Worcester County, Massachusetts and south into western Rhode Island, but still without quite reaching Providence.

*Radio People on the Move in CONNECTICUT (and beyond): in Hartford, Holden moves from afternoons to mornings at Full Power Radio’s WMRQ (104.1 Waterbury) as former morning man/assistant PD David Fisch leaves the group. (It’s been 25 years, incidentally, since what’s now Full Power Radio began with the launch of owner John Fuller’s first station, WJJF 1180 in Hope Valley, R.I. – congratulations, John!)

*Bill “Broadway” Bertsinger, meanwhile, has found a new radio home in western PENNSYLVANIA. Four months after exiting iHeart’s WWYZ (92.5 Waterbury) in the Hartford market, Broadway launches today as the new host of “Broadway’s Backyard” on CBS Radio’s WDSY (107.9 Pittsburgh). Y108 also lost its prior morning show back in June, when Ally Butler and Andy Davis left the country station.

While we’re in Pittsburgh, a tip of the radio cap to Deanna Garcia, who left public WESA (90.5) last week for a new job in PR for the Pittsburgh Foundation. (Much earlier in her career, she’d worked here in Rochester alongside your editor at WXXI…)

*In Johnstown, we salute Marty Radovanic of WJAC-TV (Channel 6), who anchored his final newscast at the NBC affiliate on Friday night at 6. Radovanic started as a staff announcer at WJAC in 1974, back when such creatures still roamed the earth; he moved into the newsroom in 1977 to cover Johnstown’s flooding and never left, anchoring memorable moments including the crash of Flight 93 on September 11, 2001.

*In Philadelphia, veteran sports talker Mike Missanelli has lost his TV gig on WPVI (Channel 6)’s “Sports Sunday” after he spoke out on his WPEN-FM (97.5 the Fanatic) radio show about ESPN’s use of a female broadcaster, Beth Mowins, on its NFL broadcasts last Monday. Missanelli said the use of Mowins “felt unnatural,” and that was enough for WPVI (which shares ownership with ESPN) to drop him from its panel; Missanelli said it was a “harsh result” but accepted blame for a poor choice of words.

*One of the newer stations in CANADA‘s biggest markets wants more power. CIND (88.1 Toronto) has been hamstrung from its start by co- and adjacent-channel stations that have limited its reach into Toronto’s northern and western suburbs, but it tells the CRTC that the move of CHES in Erin, Ontario from 88.1 to 91.7 has opened up a hole that would allow “Indie 88” to go from its present 2.1 kW average/4 kW max DA/281 m to 4.7 kW average/13 kW max DA/290 m.

The transmitter site would stay at First Canadian Place in downtown Toronto, but the directional pattern would expand considerably to the east and west, bringing about half of the total Toronto market population inside Indie’s 70 dBu coverage. Indie’s owners, Barrie-based Rock 95 Broadcasting, tell the CRTC that the move would add about a million dollars a year to CIND’s revenue, making it possible for the station to become profitable for the first time.

Up north, the CBC continues to file for modifications to its FM signals as it removes old TV antennas from its towers and puts up new directional FM antennas. In Owen Sound, Radio One outlet CBCB (98.7) would go from 100 kW/212 m ND to 39 kW average/100 kW max DA/210.6 m from a new antenna, while Radio Two outlet CBL-FM-4 (97.1) would go from 17.5 kW/212 m ND to 7.9 kW average/20.2 kW max DA/210.6 m from the same antenna. A similar application at CBON-25 (97.1 Timmins), the Ici Premiere outlet up there, just received CRTC approval last week.

*Back to Hockey on the Radio: while the Bruins and WBZ-FM have named their new play-by-play voice, there’s at least a hint of continued uncertainty over how those rights will play out going forward – we still don’t know how Entercom will divest the signals it needs to unload in Boston as part of its CBS Radio acquisition, so there’s always a possibility that the Bruins (and even more valuably, the Patriots) could stay with Entercom even if WBZ-FM were to be unloaded to a new owner. As always – stay tuned! (Bruins TV rights stay with NESN, of course.)

Down the road in the tri-state area, the New Jersey Devils have extended their radio deal with CBS Radio’s WFAN (660/101.9), and they’re bringing back Glenn “Chico” Resch as analyst alongside Matt Laughlin on play-by-play. The Devils will also webcast on WFAN.com and the “One Jersey Network.” While the Devils get priority on WFAN, the station will also carry a limited schedule of New York Islanders games when there’s no conflict; games that don’t get on WFAN will be heard on WNYM (970 Hackensack), and out east “LI News Radio” WRCN (103.9 Riverhead) is carrying the team, too, along with longtime flagship WRHU (88.7) at Hofstra University. All three New York-area teams have their TV broadcasts on various versions of MSG Network, as usual.

The New York Rangers, via rights holder MSG, have their radio call back on WEPN-FM (98.7) for another season; down the Turnpike, the Philadelphia Flyers‘ deal with Beasley continues to split games between flagship WPEN-FM (97.5 Burlington NJ) and WMMR (93.3) when the Sixers take priority over on “the Fanatic.” The real story in Philly, though, is the rebranding of Comcast’s sports networks: CSN Philadelphia is now “NBC Sports Philadelphia,” while The Comcast Network becomes “NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus.” (And we should note that while no NHL hockey is involved, CSN New England is now NBC Sports New England, too.)

Heading west, the Pittsburgh Penguins defend their back-to-back Stanley Cups in the same radio spot they’ve called home for a while now, iHeart’s WXDX (105.9 the X), where they also program an all-Pens channel on HD2. On TV, the former “ROOT Sports Pittsburgh” is now “AT&T SportsNet.” Up the road in western New York, the Buffalo Sabres muddle along on flagship WGR (550), with TV games on yet another regional permutation of MSG Network.

North of the border, it’s another season of split radio coverage for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have half their games on Rogers’ Sportsnet 590 the FAN (CJCL) and the other half on Bell’s TSN Radio 1050 (CHUM). The Ottawa Senators stay put on TSN 1200 (CFGO) in English and Unique FM 94.5 (CJFO) in French, and the Montreal Canadiens remain fixtures on Cogeco’s CHMP (98.5) in French and Bell’s TSN 690 (CKGM) in English, with a huge province-wide French network.

And on TV? There’s not a soul alive who can make any sense at this point of the Canadian NHL TV landscape, where Rogers has the national rights to hockey and splits coverage up among its regional Sportsnet channels and over-the-air City TV signals, plus “Hockey Night in Canada” Saturday games that Rogers produces to air on CBC-TV. Steve Faguy makes a brave attempt to explain (and improve) it all over on his website this week.

*Down the ladder one rung at the AHL level, there’s some realignment this year: the Senators are no longer in Binghamton but now in Belleville, Ontario, where the arena won’t be ready until November and there doesn’t appear to be a radio partnership yet. The former Albany Devils are now in Binghamton, where they’ve promoted Rob Lippolis to be their new radio voice on WINR (680/96.9). (He’d been in Omaha and Corpus Christi before coming home to the Southern Tier last year to handle media relations for the Sens’ last year in town.)

Also new to the region is the Laval Rocket in suburban Montreal; they’re being heard on “WKND 91.9” (CKLX) in French and in English on TSN 690 (CKGM), at least for 11 games when the Habs aren’t playing there.

As for the teams that aren’t going anywhere: in New England, the Providence Bruins and Bridgeport Sound Tigers remain online-only with their games, while the Hartford Wolf Pack remain on iHeart’s WPOP (1410) and the Springfield Thunderbirds are in their second season with iHeart’s WHYN (560). In upstate New York, the Utica Comets and the Syracuse Crunch are both with Galaxy, on WKLL (94.9 K-Rock) for Utica and “ESPN Syracuse” (WTLA 1200/97.7 and WSGO 1440/100.1) for Syracuse. The Rochester Amerks (sigh…) are on Entercom’s WROC (950/95.7). And in Pennsylvania, the Hershey Bears remain on WQIC (100.1 Lebanon) and its network of signals across central Pennsylvania, while the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are on Entercom’s WILK-FM (103.1)/WILK (980) and their network of signals. In the Lehigh Valley, the Phantoms are on iHeart’s WSAN (1470), with some games also on WAEB (790). And as usual, the Toronto Marlies are pretty much streaming-only.

We’ll continue next week with a look at the ECHL!

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