2.19.19 Bee-otches of the Day:The Dickey Brothers

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Names: Lew and John Dickey
Ages: 56, 51
Occupations: founders, Cumulus Media
Last Seen: Atlanta, GA
Bee-otched For: getting their asses wiped
 

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Well, it's official: a radio station named in honor of Frank Zappa will be leaving the airwaves soon.

WPLJ 95.5 New York City - a station currently playing soccer mom pop favorites - is among several stations being sold by Cumulus Media in a deal worth over $100 million. WPLJ, along with six other stations including Washington, D.C.'s WRQX and San Jose's KFFG (which already simulcasts SanFran's KFOG) for $103 million.

WPLJ is being sold to the Educational Media Foundation and is expected to flip to their K-Love network, playing Contemporary Christian music. Last year, Cumulus sold another heritage station - WLUP 97.9 Chicago - to the same company.

WPLJ had been a hot AC formatted station for around 25 years. However, it began its life as WPLJ as a rock station in 1972. Their call sign was derived from Zappa's 1969 remake of a 1950s doo-wop song from The Four Aces called "W-P-L-J", short for wine port and lemon juice. Competition from other rock stations in the market forced WPLJ to flip to Top 40 in 1983 and Hot AC a decade later.

Cumulus is also swapping some of their other stations, including the flagship of their flailing Nash country format, WNSH 94.7, to Entercom. Cumulus has been criticized for rolling out the format on their stations nationwide, including the now-defunct Nash 94.5 here in west Michigan. Now, its flagship will be no more and might even flip formats.

Cumulus, OTOH will be getting a few of Entercom's stations in Indianapolis, including heritage CHR WZPL 99.5.

Friday, Cumulus' stock closed at $15.87, WAY UP from the penny stock it was last year. After the dust is settled, Cumulus will only have one New York City station, WABC. No word if that station will be eventually sold.

Also, no word on if other Cumulus properties will be sold. Here in west Michigan, they recently did some changes to their stations, moving the country format of Nash to what is now Thunder 107.3, moving 107.3's former sports format to AM 1340, displacing syndicated news/talk and creating a new AAA format on 94.5.

It seems that Cumulus is trying to redeem itself from all the damages their founders, the Dickey brothers did to the company over the years. Yep, this is the same two assholes who bought up a bunch of Howard Stern affiliates and dumped him for the awful Lex and Terry show. Hell, in Toledo, Stern's Detroit station I think was tied with his old station there, and there was co-channel interference!

Of course, the Dickeys were also the same assholes who dumped The Dixie Chicks from all their stations because of Natalie Maines' trashing of George W. Bush and also dumped progressive talk in leftist Ann Arbor for shitty money talk.

In the end, the Dickeys were forced out of their own company. Leave it to a woman like Mary Berner  to fix those assholes' problems. I'm still shaking my head as to why after spending a shit ton of money on 94.7 New York (they bought it from the estate of doomsday preacher Harold Camping; 'memba him?) and putting on a format that just simply doesn't fit with New York. After all, CBGBs started as a failed country music club, but found its footing with punk in the mid 70s.

Folks, if you own a failing radio station, for God's sake, do your fucking research. What works in Atlanta won't work in New York. No wonder why Cumulus was a penny stock.

Radio: listeners? Who are they?

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