Cumulus is whoring its FM signals

[MWmetalhead]

I was floored to hear a Division II collegiate women's basketball game on Blunder 107.3 early Saturday afternoon.

Such events are fortunate to draw 500 attendees. If there are even that many people who tune in on the radio, I'd be surprised.

I wonder if Cumulus agreed to air these GVSU sporting events of minimal appeal in lieu of paying cash rent for usage of the WGVU-TV tower for WLAV?

[TC Talks]

Grand Valley has been buying time on stations since at least the late 80's. West Mi Public Broadcasting owns that tower and they generally have nothing to do with University operations.

[MWmetalhead]

The FCC records state GVSU is both the licensee of the TV station and the owner of the tower.

https://fccinfo.com/CMDProEngine.php?ta ... 6212b6c0ea

https://fccinfo.com/CMDProASRLookup.php ... AMSL=462.3

These sorts of broadcasts used to be relegated to throwaway AM stations in the past.

[TC Talks]

Yes, but I do know tower rental is a revenue line item for WiMiPB. It's a separate entity and the license is held by the trustees not the University. The college once debated charging WMiPB rent for the property in Allendale.

Cumulus now has throw away FM's.

[MWmetalhead]

Maybe that was true once upon a time, but it's not true now. The university is clearly listed as the licensee of WGVU-TV, and it is also clearly listed as the tower owner, in the FCC database.

Are there various cost centers that get debited or credited for internal accounting purposes? Probably.

As an aside, I remember when GVSU football games used to air on 0.0 share-generating "Hot Talk 640."

[Graham Wellington]

I remember reading this release about a year ago in regards to this: https://gvsulakers.com/news/2023/3/23/f ... ement.aspx

Agreed - GVSU women's basketball has WJRW written all over it, and even that may be pushing it.

[MWmetalhead]

The game I heard Saturday was airing on both WTNR and WJRW! LOL

Such garbage programming. This reminds me of how Cumulus is airing high school contests on its pathetic pop music station in Toledo.

[TC Talks]

Maybe that was true once upon a time, but it's not true now. The university is clearly listed as the licensee of WGVU-TV, and it is also clearly listed as the tower owner, in the FCC database.

Huh, they updated it to the downtown studio too.

Do you thing Grand Valley paid Cumulus or vice-versa? This looks like a complete sports package.

[MWmetalhead]

My guess is Cumulus gets to use the WGVU-TV tower rent free and perhaps is receiving some cash, too, in exchange for allowing GVSU to air its crappy sports programming on WLAV, WTNR, WLCS and WJRW.

I'd rather gouge my eyeballs with a sharp object than listen to GLIAC athletics on the radio. (Same statement also applies to the MAC.)

Running the football games on LAV arguably isn't as harmful since many men who might be otherwise be listening to LAV are likely tuned into U-M or MSU football on either radio or TV.

[zzand]

I can't speak to this situation but within my company A university waved a hug amount of money at us for our flagship station to be their flagship station for sports coverage. We send it out to other affiliates and make a lot of money to do so. It may be the same here.

[radionut]

Simple…

Cumulus rents tower space from WGVU.

GVSU Athletics purchases airtime for their sports from Cumulus.

The two are not related.

[The Painted Horse]

Not to beat a very dead horse but this is just one more reminder of the extent that the radio industry is struggling financially. A little money is all it takes for management to be willing to sacrifice the brand. I’d assume they get more money for the airtime than they’d be able to make selling ads during thst time frame. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the position the industry is in. Unfortunately there really is no way out. Truly. These companies are doomed. All they can hope for is to make enough money to pay off their monstrous debt (some worse than others). That’s best case scenario right now. They aren’t making a profit. They’re literally operating to pay off debt, make payroll every two weeks and nothing more. More large scale firings and bankruptcies are a matter of “when”, not “if”. It sucks but it’s the reality of the business in 2024 and beyond.

Tick, tock…

[Feature/writer]

.....then I assume that the sponsors of GVSU football and basketball broadcasts, and their corresponding coach's shows during the week, are secured and billed by the university and not Cumulus? Or is there some revenue sharing arrangement there?

[radionut]

In the past when GVSU had their radio “network” they purchased the air time and aired their commercials.