Cloudy Skies Forecast for KQ, Love 105

Image via WikipediaCitadel Broadcasting, the owners of KQRS, KXXR (93X) and the three Love 105 stations in the Twin Cities, has been sold to Cumulus Media for $1.7 billion.

Should the deal go through, Cumulus will pick up Citadel's radio stations and its syndication division Citadel Media (the former ABC Radio Networks).  Combined with Cumulus' own stations, the new company would have 572 radio stations, which is second only to Clear Channel (they have more than 800).

Those stations include such legendary AM signals as WABC in New York, WLS in Chicago, KABC in Los Angeles, KGO in San Francisco and WJR in Detroit.

Since Citadel bought the ABC radio properties from Disney a few years ago, they've been having financial problems.  Like nearly every other business during the Great Recession, they've been cutting payroll and laid off plenty of staff.  The difference is that Citadel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and they're just now coming out of it.

So what does this mean for the local Citadel stations, which will soon join Cumulus' counterparts in southern Minnesota (including KDHL in Faribault and KROC in Rochester) if the sale goes through?

For KQRS, which is still a very popular classic rock station even though it no longer dominates the market, the future might center on what top-rated morning host Tom Barnard wants to do.  He's flip-flopped on the issue of whether he should leave the station when his contract expires at the end of 2012.  Now that new owners are coming in, Barnard should have a better idea.

Love 105's oldies format is heard on three separate signals (105.1, 105.3 and 105.7) that are individually pretty weak, but has been doing well enough for them to stick around.  Some people who know radio believe Cumulus might try to split them up and put in other formats.  If so, they're making a mistake.

Those same radio people believe that the newly-acquired stations will have their budgets slashed, personnel looking for work, and programming more centrally located.  That's typical of how radio works these days.  Fewer commercials.  More (of the same) music.  More conservative and sports talk.  And your hometown DJ might be doing his airshift from Timbuktu, for all we know.

The cavalier way media companies treats its listeners on what used to be known as the public airwaves has resulted in a revolt of sorts, one that's richly deserved.  Now just about anyone can program their own little radio station on their computer, which they can download onto their mp3 player.

Come to think of it, the deregulation of broadcasting might just be the worst thing ever to happen to the industry.  Sure, they're making tons of money.  But if radio doesn't care about us, why should we care about radio?