[written July 31, 2015]
Brief history: Hubbard was a relatively small privately owned broadcaster until the Mormon church decided it wanted to unload all of its radio stations East of the Mississippi River (held by the for profit Bonneville International). The golden prize of that deal was WTOP, the all news radio station in Washington DC, which is both a cash cow and has significant influence on Congress and the people disbursing money. That deal happened In 2011. Old Father Hubbard Is 82
There are lingering rumors of some deal for CBS Radio to exit the radio business, but the All News AM stations are a substantial obstacle (WCBS & WINS in New York, WWJ in Detroit, WBBM in Chicago, WNEW in Washington DC, WBZ in Boston, KRLD in DFW, and KYW in Philadelphia)
Partly because they own TV stations, CBS All News Radio has been very successful – but times are changing. “Traffic and Weather on the 8s” can’t compete with in car navigation built into entertainment systems, third party hardware or Smart Phone apps.
In the past couple weeks, CBS has been doing irrational cost cutting. With Sumner Redstone losing control and the power struggle underway, someone in power seems to want to unload the all news stations, but there are two problems with that. The biggest problem is the two companies most likely to be interested – iHeart and Cumulus – can’t operate any more stations in the major markets. The second problem is that all news stations are expensive to staff and difficult to run. Creating a credible all news station takes a decade and respecting the reporters. Listeners will tune out very fast if you do a poor job – see TRN’s all news network.
Hubbard has done well since taking over WTOP. They are believed to have had revenue of $63 million last year – in Comparison, WCBS-AM had $49 million and WINS had $41 million Source BIA/Kelsey