The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Could Stingray Be Looking To Buy More GTA Stations?

RadioActive · February 10, 2025 7:40 am

A report in the Globe and Mail indicates while Bell seems happy to get out of radio (selling 45 stations last year) and Corus struggles with its radio properties, Stingray is putting together funds to look for new "acquisitions."

The company already owns the very successful Boom 97.3 and New Country 95.3 and runs stations in Sudbury and Ottawa. But otherwise not a lot in Ontario. But as the other companies struggle, could that mean they might be interested in buying others in the province? Some analysts think so.

"Stingray is looking at several “meaningful, larger tuck-in” acquisitions worth up to $100-million, analyst Scott Fletcher at CIBC Capital Markets said in a report on Thursday.

“We expect Stingray will be focused on mergers and acquisitions in the broadcast and cable business,” Mr. Fletcher said. He said Stingray executives are more optimistic about takeover opportunities than they have been in the past because of “more reasonable valuation expectations from potential targets.”

What would Stingray do with say, AM640, if Corus chose to get rid of it? The possibilities are endless and it's one of the better owners. Radio might just benefit from having a corporation that actually cares about the medium being in charge of more of it.

Stay tuned.

Canadian media company Stingray Group raises money for acquisitions

RadioAaron · February 10, 2025 7:58 am

They’d be more likely to buy Q and Edge, and then spin off 93.5.

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 · February 10, 2025 8:54 am

Who do you think would by 93.5?

RadioActive · February 10, 2025 9:16 am

RadioAaron wrote:
They’d be more likely to buy Q and Edge, and then spin off 93.5.

That's assuming Corus would willingly sell both of those relatively still successful FM stations. They might want to hang onto them until the repossession guys are breaking down the door. Plus they already own two FMs in the Toronto market. Do the rules allow them to buy any more?

But there's room for them to have an AM here, if they want to consider that. Given Corus' ongoing issues, 640 seems like the most likely target.

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 · February 10, 2025 10:19 am

RadioActive wrote:
RadioAaron wrote:
They’d be more likely to buy Q and Edge, and then spin off 93.5.
That's assuming Corus would willingly sell both of those relatively still successful FM stations. They might want to hang onto them until the repossession guys are breaking down the door. Plus they already own two FMs in the Toronto market. Do the rules allow them to buy any more?

But there's room for them to have an AM here, if they want to consider that. Given Corus' ongoing issues, 640 seems like the most likely target.

If they by 640, My guess about what they will do is they will make it an GTA version of the VOCM radio network and bring the open line show to the GTA.

RadioAaron · February 10, 2025 10:24 am

RadioActive wrote:
RadioAaron wrote:
They’d be more likely to buy Q and Edge, and then spin off 93.5.
That's assuming Corus would willingly sell both of those relatively still successful FM stations. They might want to hang onto them until the repossession guys are breaking down the door. Plus they already own two FMs in the Toronto market. Do the rules allow them to buy any more?

But there's room for them to have an AM here, if they want to consider that. Given Corus' ongoing issues, 640 seems like the most likely target.

They're all for sale, and a 3rd FM is now allowed.

In light of the above, the Commission finds it appropriate to amend the COP as follows:

for markets with eight commercial radio stations or more operating in a given language, a person may be permitted to own or control as many as four stations, with a maximum of three stations within one frequency band (FM or AM) in that language

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2022/2022-332.htm

They could end up with 640 in this hypothetical situation, but they'd never buy JUST 640; it doesn't fit their portfolio at all, and without Global news or other stations to share content costs with would become more expensive to operate.

Last edited by RadioAaron (February 10, 2025 10:29 am)

paterson1 · February 10, 2025 11:05 am

Nice that Stingray still believes in radio. I am not really sure that they are much different than Corus however. Stingray has also done their share of cutting and consolidating over the years. And Boom 97.3 was already successful when they took over. They more or less continued what the station had already been doing when they officially bought 97.3 in 2014. Stingray does deserve credit since they understood they had a great station and didn't make a lot of needless changes like new owners often do.

Last edited by paterson1 (February 10, 2025 11:10 am)

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 · February 10, 2025 12:01 pm

paterson1 wrote:
Nice that Stingray still believes in radio. I am not really sure that they are much different than Corus however. Stingray has also done their share of cutting and consolidating over the years. And Boom 97.3 was already successful when they took over. They more or less continued what the station had already been doing when they officially bought 97.3 in 2014. Stingray does deserve credit since they understood they had a great station and didn't make a lot of needless changes like new owners often do.

They also continued both CBC's and corus's legacy with max trax and galaxie.
Stingray music is now growing more and more.

torontostan · February 10, 2025 1:43 pm

RadioActive wrote:
640 seems like the most likely target.

Disagree. There's zero future in AM radio. I predict that there won't be a single english AM station in Toronto by the end of the decade. Stingray is better positioned than anyone to acquire an FM in Toronto, as it wouldn't require shedding any assets. As others have noted, they only have 2 stations and 3 FM's are allowed now.

km93 · February 10, 2025 3:47 pm

Wouldn't 95.3 be a good candidate for purchase? They can dump 93.5 and revive "Country 95-3," and cover Southern Ontario right into cottage country or give the GTA a true Soft A/C and do 95-3 The Breeze!

RadioQuiz · February 10, 2025 4:03 pm

Maybe Stingray would purchase someone like the MyFM group to fill in Ontario?

Radiowiz · February 10, 2025 4:35 pm

RadioQuiz wrote:
Maybe Stingray would purchase someone like the MyFM group to fill in Ontario?

Stingray DID try to buy the Welland stations, (Giant 91.7 & the Country station there) but that fell through and never happened.

km93 · February 10, 2025 4:36 pm

RadioQuiz wrote:
Maybe Stingray would purchase someone like the MyFM group to fill in Ontario?

True I could see them looking at Blackburn or Evanov.

Radiowiz · February 10, 2025 4:38 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
They could end up with 640 in this hypothetical situation, but they'd never buy JUST 640; it doesn't fit their portfolio at all, and without Global news or other stations to share content costs with would become more expensive to operate.

Honestly, I thought Quebecor was going to get into the radio game, buying Global TV, and AM 640, along with the FM outlets...Quebecor is the one interested in the TV side of Corus.

torontostan · February 10, 2025 7:08 pm

km93 wrote:
RadioQuiz wrote:
Maybe Stingray would purchase someone like the MyFM group to fill in Ontario?
True I could see them looking at Blackburn or Evanov.

Agreed, I think CIDC is the most likely candidate.

haydenmatthews14 · February 10, 2025 7:25 pm

km93 wrote:
Wouldn't 95.3 be a good candidate for purchase? They can dump 93.5 and revive "Country 95-3," and cover Southern Ontario right into cottage country or give the GTA a true Soft A/C and do 95-3 The Breeze!

But how would 95.3 do against KX 94.7? Or Country 89.1 from Wellend? I mean 94.7's signal is not very good in the Niagara area because of nearby 94.5 WNED-FM from Buffalo NY. But if Stingray did purchase 95.3 then it would do very well and bring back Country 95.3 to life.

RadioAaron · February 10, 2025 7:35 pm

torontostan wrote:
km93 wrote:
RadioQuiz wrote:
Maybe Stingray would purchase someone like the MyFM group to fill in Ontario?
True I could see them looking at Blackburn or Evanov.
Agreed, I think CIDC is the most likely candidate.

They're playing with $500mil here...with big signals across the country on the market.

kevjo · February 10, 2025 9:12 pm

haydenmatthews14 wrote:
km93 wrote:
Wouldn't 95.3 be a good candidate for purchase? They can dump 93.5 and revive "Country 95-3," and cover Southern Ontario right into cottage country or give the GTA a true Soft A/C and do 95-3 The Breeze!
But how would 95.3 do against KX 94.7? Or Country 89.1 from Wellend? I mean 94.7's signal is not very good in the Niagara area because of nearby 94.5 WNED-FM from Buffalo NY. But if Stingray did purchase 95.3 then it would do very well and bring back Country 95.3 to life.

With powerhouse KX94.7 in the market, the country format is not a viable choice. They want a station they can sell in Hamilton. Forget about reaching into Niagara - well covered by Welland and Buffalo.
With the loss of a local A/C when they made the MOVE...there is a true opportunity for that.

haydenmatthews14 · February 10, 2025 9:29 pm

kevjo wrote:
haydenmatthews14 wrote:
km93 wrote:
Wouldn't 95.3 be a good candidate for purchase? They can dump 93.5 and revive "Country 95-3," and cover Southern Ontario right into cottage country or give the GTA a true Soft A/C and do 95-3 The Breeze!
But how would 95.3 do against KX 94.7? Or Country 89.1 from Wellend? I mean 94.7's signal is not very good in the Niagara area because of nearby 94.5 WNED-FM from Buffalo NY. But if Stingray did purchase 95.3 then it would do very well and bring back Country 95.3 to life.
With powerhouse KX94.7 in the market, the country format is not a viable choice. They want a station they can sell in Hamilton. Forget about reaching into Niagara - well covered by Welland and Buffalo.
With the loss of a local A/C when they made the MOVE...there is a true opportunity for that.

Makes sense. Welland and Buffalo Country stations do just fine. There is no need for 95.3 to change back to Country anyway.

RadioAaron · February 10, 2025 9:29 pm

There is no opportunity for sales growth in Hamilton.

Think bigger.

RadioAaron · February 10, 2025 9:31 pm

A lot of underestimation about how huge this is.

paterson1 · February 10, 2025 9:45 pm

I guess with the stations that Bell has closed or sold, Stingray right now would have the most outlets in Canada. They have lots of room to grow in Ontario and with Corus looking to sell stations, even the big ones should be some interesting changes coming.

torontostan · February 10, 2025 11:24 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
A lot of underestimation about how huge this is.

I get that. I'm more curious who gets the scraps. Lets say Stingray drops CFXJ to pickup CILQ & CFNY, who gets CFXJ? Same can be said for Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and others...... both ownership groups already have 2 FM's in each market.

Radiowiz · February 10, 2025 11:26 pm

paterson1 wrote:
I guess with the stations that Bell has closed or sold, Stingray right now would have the most outlets in Canada. They have lots of room to grow in Ontario and with Corus looking to sell stations, even the big ones should be some interesting changes coming.

So, Quebecor is not interested in any AM or FM properties? They only want the TV side of Corus??

Mavridis · February 11, 2025 1:56 am

RadioAaron wrote:
They’d be more likely to buy Q and Edge, and then spin off 93.5.

Think TV. And not from Corus.

RadioAaron · February 11, 2025 6:48 am

Mavridis wrote:
RadioAaron wrote:
They’d be more likely to buy Q and Edge, and then spin off 93.5.
Think TV. And not from Corus.

Well that would definitely tie a couple stories together.

brian451 · February 11, 2025 2:04 pm

If Stingray is going to buy more stations in the GTA I strongly believe they will try to dump a lot of stations in the West. They have tried to sell stations out there previously. In fact I know that there were talks between Stingray and Vista as well as Stingray and Pattison to buy stations but those talks stalled.
As for Corus, I was told that Quebecor was interested in the whole company but they were going to sell off some of the radio stations. They also wanted to purchase a couple more AM stations because the big rumor I had heard was Quebecor was trying to buy TSN and TSN radio and they could do a whole network of sports radio to go with the TV.
A lot of changes are coming. I am here for it. Let's just hope they are decent changes.

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 · February 11, 2025 4:32 pm

95.3 was brot up here yesterday.
I think if stingray was bying it, the would keep the format but rebrand as hot.
We would have the new hot 95.3
But, the HD2 subchannel might change.
What they might do is 1, put the breez format on hd2.
2, Simalcast a stingray music channel if they are alowed.
3, launch the stingray classica format as an hd2 subchannel.
They were testing that on 93.5 hd2 about 2 years a go.

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 · February 11, 2025 4:36 pm

torontostan wrote:
RadioAaron wrote:
A lot of underestimation about how huge this is.
I get that. I'm more curious who gets the scraps. Lets say Stingray drops CFXJ to pickup CILQ & CFNY, who gets CFXJ? Same can be said for Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and others...... both ownership groups already have 2 FM's in each market.

I have a few guesses for CFXJ.
1, CINA radio group, they might swich there format to an ethnic format with mostly arabic.
2, Whiteoaks.
3, CHIN.
Chin was complaining about not bying CKOC and CHAM in a CRTC intervention.
Chin would have daytime programming in english with maybe an AC format and nighttime would be ethnic.

haydenmatthews14 · February 11, 2025 5:58 pm

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:
95.3 was brot up here yesterday.
I think if stingray was bying it, the would keep the format but rebrand as hot.
We would have the new hot 95.3
But, the HD2 subchannel might change.
What they might do is 1, put the breez format on hd2.
2, Simalcast a stingray music channel if they are alowed.
3, launch the stingray classica format as an hd2 subchannel.
They were testing that on 93.5 hd2 about 2 years a go.

I think if Stingray did buy 95.3 from Corus HOT 95.3 would do very well. It would have all radio hosts and shows broadcasting from the Hamilton studios unlike now the morning show is based out of Kitchener, the afternoon drive show the host is doing it from Toronto and the evening show is done from Ottawa. Not sure about HD2 The Breeze format but it would compete against Lite92 from Brantford which is a Soft AC format that can be heard in Hamilton. Now I don't know how they would get the Stingray music feed from their TV channels onto their HD channels but for the HD2 channel I would put the Hit List channel or the All Day Party channels on HD2. It would fit perfectly but we will have to wait and see.