Nick Piccone
During CBS’ Investor Day in New York yesterday, CBS chairman and CEO, Les Moonves confirmed some interesting news that could change the landscape of WIP in this market in the not so distant future, saying CBS plans to “sell or spin off its radio assets in the coming year, acknowledging that the business has become slow-growth and a drain on resources that can be better directed to content production and digital endeavors.” This is pretty monumental news because it could spell the end of the CBS affiliation for SportsRadio 94WIP if they were to be sold. More from Variety:
Moonves said CBS would explore a variety of alternatives for the group include a sale, swap or spinoff of the group, just as CBS spun off its outdoor advertising group in 2014. The goal, he said, is to “unlock value for our shareholders,” but he vowed to the crowd of Wall Streeters that “we will be prudent and judicious as we go, as we are in all such endeavors.”
The Eye owns 117 stations in 26 markets, including clusters in such top markets as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
In recent months Moonves has hinted that CBS was leaning toward selling some or all of its stations. CBS took a $484 million write-down on the value of its radio station group in the fourth quarter, citing “the sustained decline in industry projections for the radio advertising marketplace since 2014.”
Cumulus Media, the nation’s second-largest radio station owner behind IHeartMedia, has been mentioned as a potential buyer of the CBS group.
CBS Corp.’s roots in radio stretch back to the mid-1920s, when William S. Paley began his quest to turn a ragtag group of stations into the most powerful network in the country. In 1996 CBS’ holdings expanded dramatically with the acquisition of Mel Karmazin’s Infinity Broadcasting, which brought 44 major-market stations into the fold.
Big news in WIP land. The station has gone through so many changes over the past year and change that another change should feel like just another day. It’s quite possible that if the station is sold, everyone still stays there and the station operates like business as usual.
But there’s no guarantee of anything. With the ascent of podcasts and live streaming, radio numbers are down across the board, so CBS looking to move their radio assets isn’t exactly a surprise.
The WIP Ship is going down. How can people even waste electricity on Mike & Ike let alone listen to them? Josh & Hollis are terrible too as Charles Barkley would say. Angelo gets paid too much to eat his contract but at least we don’t have to hear about Wing Bowl for another 6 months.
You wanna hear something painful,try listening to Ike Reese talk about hockey.
I’m telling it’s more painful than watching 90 year old Betty White in a bikini.
Who doesn’t like a 90-year-old Betty White in a bikini?