Back Bay Broadcasters Inc. has bought its first out-of-state property in what the small, privately owned radio group hopes will be a series of acquisitions aimed at increasing market share beyond the Providence-metro area.
The April 15 purchase of WKCD-FM (107.7) of Mystic, Conn., comes on the heels of Back Bay’s dramatic turn-around of flagship station WWKX-FM (Hot 106); and solidifies its reputation as a hold-out among Rhode Island’s independent stations – many of which have been swallowed up by out-of-state media giants in recent years.
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Upon purchasing WKCD from Lois and Gary Girard for an undisclosed price, Back Bay renamed the station The Channel and switched formats from contemporary jazz to modern adult contemporary. The station’s 3,000-watt signal is concentrated in southeastern Connecticut, reaching as far north as Westbrook and as far south as Block Island, Rhode Island, and Long Island, New York.
Back Bay’s president and chief operating officer, John Maguire, said the acquisition bodes well for the company’s future. “We hope there’s more to come,” he said. “We plan to enter a couple of markets a year for the next five years.”
And should a big operator attempt to acquire Back Bay before then?
”Every business in the world has a stupid number,” Maguire said, explaining that’s an offer so good one “would have to be stupid” to refuse. However, “that’s certainly not our plan.”
Back Bay owner Peter Ottmar echoed Maguire, who, along with some private investors, is a minority owner in the company.
”You never can tell down the road,” said Ottmar, whose family has operated local radio stations since 1949. The goal for now is to have “a cluster of radio stations that make sense,” “allow you to compete with your competitors” and “take care of the stockholders,” he said.
At the same time, Ottmar isn’t limiting himself to radio.
Ottmar, who is also president of Mercury Print and Mail, a commercial mailing and printing business located on the ground floor of Back Bay’s headquarters, said he’s in the process of creating an umbrella entity, AAA Entertainment L.L.C., under which the printing, radio and any future acquisitions would operate. “We will be looking at other entertainment opportunities” as time goes on, Ottmar said, citing a sports franchise as one possibility.
Bob Macinni, president of Media Service Group Inc. of Providence, a national broker of radio and television stations, facilitated the WKCD sale. He said Back Bay’s strategy is typical of a small chain trying to survive the forces of consolidation.
”Groups that can’t buy anything in the markets that they’re in – because that’s the first order of priority – are going to look at adjacent markets,” Macinni said.
Indeed, the Providence-metro market – which includes Rhode Island and Bristol County, Mass. – has been riding the same wave of consolidation as the rest of the country in recent years. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 made it possible for a corporation to own as many as five FM and four AM stations in one market, with no limit throughout the country. Since then, 11 of Rhode Island’s commercial AM and FM stations have been acquired by three publicly held out-of-state media giants: Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio, Texas; Citadel Communications of Las Vegas; and Atlantic Star Communications of Allentown, Penn. (a subsidiary of Capstar Broadcasting of Austin, Texas.)
Citadel’s entry in Rhode Island – which marked its East Coast debut – perhaps best illustrates that trend. A series of acquisition announcements that began in spring 1997 concluded in November of that year, when Citadel completed the last of six deals. In one package, the company bought two FM stations, WDGE and WDGF, and an Internet provider, Edgenet, all owned by Philip Urso, whose family has been in local radio since 1964.
(Under Citadel, WDGE-FM [99.7 The Edge] became WXEX and kept an alternative format. Meanwhile, disco station WDGF-FM [100.3 The Beat] was renamed WHKK [The Hawk] and assumed a new identity as a rock-and-roll oldies station. In January, The Edge began simulcasting The Hawk.)
The sale of four stations owned by Tele-Media Broadcasting of Bellefonte, Penn., added WPRO-FM, WPRO-AM, WWLI-FM and WLKW-AM to Citadel’s empire composed of stations in mid-size markets. WLKW became WSKO, 790 The Score, replacing nostalgia with all-sports programming.
Back Bay’s growth has been snail-like in comparison. The company acquired 5,000-watt WWKX-FM (Kix 106) from a private estate in September 1990, keeping an urban format. It wasn’t until April 1997 that the station reached full market coverage. That’s when it bought 1150-watt WPJB-FM (102.6) from Full Power Radio of Narragansett Inc., renamed the station WAKX and began simulcasting the same programming.
Back Bay also owns WLKW-AM (550), an easy listening station patterned since November 1997 after the old WLKW-FM. The company acquired the 1,000-watt station in 1995 when the call letters were WPNW and the format was all news and talk.
The selling power that comes with large corporations’ ability to package stations in a single media buy is certainly a threat to small players like Back Bay, said Bonnie Gomes, the company’s vice president and general manager. But it need not sound a death knell.
Since February 1997, when Gomes was hired as regional manager, revenues for Back Bay’s three stations have more than doubled, according to Gomes. Revenues began to increase when the station started availing itself of an existing niche in 12- to 24-year-old listeners, she said. Previously the station had devalued its rates and pursued inappropriate advertisers.
”They were selling in the number 32 market like they were market 150,” Gomes said. As a result, the station was perpetually “under budget and over sold.”
”When we started being honest about who we are” the soft drink, beer and wine makers, used car dealers and night clubs began buying in spades, she said.
During that same period, WWKX’s ratings based on total audience share jumped from the number 9 spot to 5, just below Clear Channel’s WWBB-FM (Bee 101), according to the latest Arbitron ratings. WLKW, with its loyal audience of mostly older listeners, moved from 16 to 10, according to Arbitron.
Another of Back Bay’s goals was to attract the desirable 25- to 34-year-old demographic. In February 1998, the station dropped the Kix 106 name – which Gomes said is associated elsewhere with a country-western format – in favor of Hot 106.
”Hot is a lifestyle,” Gomes said.
Back Bay’s coup d’etat was the addition of syndicated shock jock Howard Stern to the morning drive a month later. The move was risky, given Stern’s often offensive themes and no-holds-barred style. What’s more Stern’s show was typically paired with classic rock not Hot 106-style programming, Gomes said.
Ignoring the naysayers, Back Bay went ahead with Stern and took what Gomes called a “pro-active stance.” In consecutive full-page ads in the Providence Journal it ran a tongue-in-cheek apology followed by an announcement about the inaugural Stern broadcast.
Back Bay’s daring has paid off. In just four rating seasons, WWKX has moved from the 10 during morning drive to 5, according to Arbitron. Within the 18- to 45-year-old demographic it ranked 2.
”With consolidation, one of the things that’s happening are there are opportunities that are perhaps being overlooked” by the corporations, Gomes said. “We’re kind of the little engine that could.”
In April 1998, the station hired program director Jerry McKenna away from RCA Records in New York and charged him with fine-tuning WWKX’s format. The disc jockeys had been playing a mix of dance and pop music with “a lot of hits and misses,” McKenna said. Today listeners hear consistent R&B, hip-hop and rap hits, he said.
”I’d say really everyday was something different,” said over-night DJ Tony Tone, whose real name is Anthony Zoglio. “I think we’re on a straight line now.”
Back Bay’s growth in ratings and size will have the likely effect of making it a target for acquisition, according to Macinni.
”The larger companies aren’t opposed to buying one station at a time,” he said. “But they’d much rather buy groups. So (companies like Back Bay) become more attractive.”
Local radio personality Rona A’hearn is crossing her fingers.
After joining WWKX less than two years ago after her last job at a Clear Channel station, A’hearn said she went from being “another little cog on a big wheel” to having a voice in the company.
Sooner or later, a corporation will make a bid for Back Bay that is too good to refuse, A’hearn predicted.
But that’s not today.
”I love this job. I’m having fun right now,” she said. “We’re lucky right now.”
