KROC, other stations get new owner

Source: Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.存倉Sept. 04--KROC and its five sister radio stations in Rochester have been acquired by a 3-year-old company that specializes in stations serving small- and midsized markets.Radio giant Cumulus Media is spinning off 71 stations to Greenwich, Conn.-based Townsquare Media. Those stations include the six stations of Cumulus Rochester -- KROC-AM, KROC-FM, Y105, Z Rock 107.7 FM, KOLM 1520 AM sports radio and Quick Country 96.5.When the deal closes in mid-November, they will be known as Townsquare Rochester.KROC General Manager Shannon Knoepke said it's a new opportunity for the stations, and she's optimistic about it."One of their goals is being live and local," Knoepke said. "It gets back to the heart and soul of radio."Knoepke expects business as usual after the sale is finalized, probably in mid-September, with no layoffs or changes to the stations' formats. The stations are housed at122 Fourth St. S.W."I always say, it's a new company who the paychecks are going to be from," she said.Townsquare will own 312 radio stations in 66 markets after this deal, making it the third largest owner of radio stations in the United States."What they hang their hat on is their claim to be local media in small to middle markets," Knoepke said.Details of the deal are:Atlanta-based Cumulus Media acquired Dial Global for $260 million, which will be merged into Cumulus Media Networks under the combined Westwood One banner.To finance its acquisition of Dial, Cumulus is selling 68 of its stations to Townsquare Media,which also is acquiring Peak Broadcasting stations. In addition to the Rochester stations, Townsquare is picking up several other stations in the region, including ones in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Faribault-Owatonna; the Quad-Cities in Iowa and Illinois; Dubuque, Iowa; and Waterloo, Iowa.Townsquare is paying an aggregate $281 million for the acquisitions, $238 million of which is going to Cumulus.If all the transactions are approved, which the comp迷你倉nies said they expect by the end of the year, Cumulus will be left with 460 stations in the United States and Townsquare with 312. CBS Radio has 126 stations, but most are in larger markets and have greater revenue.The deal that could help Cumulus in its competition against Clear Channel Communications, long the industry's dominant player, is Dial Global, a syndicator of sports, talk and music programming to thousands of stations.It would beef up Cumulus' syndication business with programs from the National Football League, the Olympics and NASCAR, as well as news and entertainment. It represents talk shows such as "Loveline" for advertising. Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks division dominates the market with major talk hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity."Cumulus wants to raise its profile in larger markets to better compete with CBS and Clear Channel, and Townsquare gets a lot bigger out of this in smaller markets," said Tom Taylor, who writes a newsletter on the radio industry.Developing and branding content has become critical for radio broadcasters as they face competition from satellite and digital services such as Pandora. Those services are starting to become common features in new cars, radio's traditional stronghold."Players like Pandora are pushing into the car, so having other content that's differentiated from music is a good place for them to be," said James M. Marsh, a media analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in New York.Townsquare Chairman/CEO Steven Price said the new stations are "market-leading brands with strong competitive positions in their respective small- and midsized markets.""We are excited by the opportunity to deploy our differentiated local-media strategy across a broader footprint in order to better serve our communities and our advertising clients."The New York Times contributed to this article.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 Post-Bulletin Visit the Post-Bulletin at .postbulletin.com Distributed by MCT Information Services自存倉