Wednesday morning, BIA/Kelsey -- the independent market researcher and advisory firm for media and technology companies, specializing in the local advertising business for those companies -- released information on the top national billing stations for 2016, as well as shared with CRM the top earning stations in the Chicago market. According to these newly released numbers from last year, the winner in Chicago radio once again was WBBM-AM/Newsradio 780 & 105.9 (simulcast on WCFS-FM), as they were able to earn approximately $45 million in advertising revenue -- up from 2015's $43.8 million. WBBM-AM was also ranked as #5 nationally, up from #6 the year before. WTMX-FM/101.9 The Mix was once again the #2 billing station in Chicago. Its 2016 revenue was $32.5 million -- up only slightly from $31.9 million the year before. WGN-AM remains in third place, billing $25.2 million in 2016 -- up from 2015's $24.5 million. That marks the first time in nearly a decade that WGN-AM's annual revenue rose year-over-year instead of shrank, even if it was only a modest rise. Fourth place was a tie between WSCR-AM/670 The Score and WVAZ-FM/V103, each with $24 million.

Tipped off by a BRogue post in the B&B section, I found this article:

http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/88 ... r-crm-more



So, $24 million in billings in 2016, and they're paying $10 million a year to the Cubs for the rights to broadcast games. That leaves $14 million from which they have to pay talent and production salaries (including the pre-/post- and talent salaries for Cubs broadcasts), pay sales people, service equipment, benefits and taxes, etc.

Looks like they're turning a nice profit, but if the billings are as concentrated in Cubs baseball broadcasts as I would think, those 2-shares in the ratings will catch up with them when the Cubs move their IP elsewhere or cease to be amazing.

I was reading on Larz that the thought was breaking even at best even with the 24M.

I was reading on Larz that the thought was breaking even at best even with the 24M.

They did $2M more in revenue last year than they did in 2015.

They paid $10M for the Cubs. The numbers speak for themselves.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... story.html


Despite lower ratings and revenue, WGN has improved its balance sheet since losing the Cubs, according to WGN President Jimmy de Castro.

"We weren't profitable, and we're very profitable now," de Castro said.

In addition to the $10 million rights fees, The Score has to pay the play-by-play team of Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer, along with engineering, marketing and sales expenses

Rosen declined to comment on whether The Score was in the black with the broadcasts. Rod Zimmerman, the former market manager of CBS Radio Chicago who helped engineer the Cubs deal, was ousted in a management shake-up in January. Some industry sources point to the cost of the Cubs broadcast rights as leading to his exit, but Zimmerman stands by the deal as a winner for CBS.

That answers everything, the guy who was the architect for the cubs deal was fired, the next boob in charge refuses to say the station is in the black


Sports radio is a dying industry, even with cheap personal like Goff,Holmes,Grobstein the station can't cope. I'd be interested in to know how much that meathead Mitch Rosen makes.

That sentence pretty much says it all.

So if I'm reading this right, adding the Cubs has resulted in a loss of $8 million from the bottom line?

Holy shit it's no wonder Zimmerman got canned.

It's ironic because Zimmerman was always known as a budget slasher. He never spent to make. The only way he knew how to increase profits was to cut expenses. Then he did this and it got him canned.

There are some funny stories about guys at the station negotiating with him.

It's a logical theory that he may have been a Cubs fan and thus had serious blinders on while getting this deal done.

That's a deal that goes way above Zimmerman.

No, it did not.

So appropriate that Cub broadcasts will lead to a lower salary for Dan

I would say $50MM goes to the head of national radio operations and at least an OK from the CFO of CBS.

$50 Million is a lot...even for a huge corporation like CBS Radio. At the very least, the suits had an idea of what was going on.

The only way the deal makes any sense is if WSCR projected that when the Cubs got good, they could increase billings by at least $10m per year. Maybe that happens in years 2-5, but I doubt it.

Someone else may have signed off on it, but if this deal was Zimmerman's baby, then he was the one to take the fall for it.