WSB-AM is the flagship of Cox Radio – the radio arm of the Atlanta Georgia newspaper company Cox Medis – the publisher of the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper. Newspapers are in more trouble than radio. Cox is now a privately held company.
WSB fairly recently added an FM Simulcast. There are two things that I’ve noticed. The first is Neal Boortz no longer does the syndicated show from WSB. He’s moved to Florida after Royal’s untimely death.
One big warning sign I’ve learned to pay attention to is when the station schedule isn’t being maintained. This generally means money problems and/or management isn’t paying attention. The WSB schedule hasn’t been updated since June and stll shows Allen Hunt, who left his show back in the Spring
One of the FoxNewsChanel web pages still has Beck listed in the television line up.
I live in WSB’s broadcast area. They’re doing a lot of local TV advertising for 750-AM and 95.5 FM. I don’t know why the broadcast schedule on the website is not being maintained. Perhaps they restored the site from backups recently and overwrote newer files with old data.
Tom Taylor’s newsletter this morning contains a story that Cox is cutting costs in its Connecticut cluster, which is kind of a one-off for Cox – which is mostly in the SouthEast US. I think I read they bought the stations when Buckley acquired WOR-AM, but don’t hold me to that.
Radio is a side business for Cox – which is primarily a newspaper company. The Newspaper business is not doing very well. Cox had been a public company for a while, but bought back its stock following the enforcement of Sarbaines-Oxley (the protections for accurate accounting and responsible fiduciary responsibilities by management doesn’t apply to privately owned companies).
There are few major station owners that haven’t gone through “restructuring” or bankruptcy. Add in a family of newspapers with declining circulation and I doubt the Christmas bonus at Cox will be very big any time soon.