June 28, 2011
Why else would Randy Michaels pick FM Talk expert Walter Sabo as his COO as was announced yesterday? No doubt Sabo has the skills and experience to run a company, however he is also a huge fan and mega-promoter of FM Talk. This could also be a sign that Randy Michaels may have many more than just a few FM News or Talk stations in mind. Perhaps his entire Merlin business model is built on the FM spoken word premise.
There is no doubt that Michaels plans to have more than three stations as time goes by. It?s a stated goal in all his press releases that the plan is to grow. Sabo loves to go after a younger audience with talk on the FM dial. Perhaps the Michaels Sabo plan is to blanket the country with more and more news or talk stations that target a younger demo by using FM as the platform.
With Greg Janoff, formerly of 1010 WINS (New York) being added last week, and now Sabo, all signs are pointing toward some sort of flip to an FM News or Talk station. The speculation is that Merlin will flip WLUP in Chicago and keep Q101 alternative. In New York with Steve Swenson no longer running 1010 WINS and NEWSRADIO 880 perhaps Michaels sees a weakness .
Walter has unparalleled experience and a true passion for this industry, making him a perfect fit to lead Merlin Media's operations. He has founded two businesses of his own in Sabo Media and Hitviews, and that core competency will be hugely valuable to us," said Randy Michaels, CEO of Merlin Media. "Success requires building brands that are unique, desirable and difficult to duplicate. Walter has the vision, intelligence, leadership skills, and experience to move Merlin beyond current convention and to take advantage of emerging media opportunities. It also means attracting special, talented people, and Walter knows how to do that."
"We are attracting the best marketing and performing talent in all phases of the entertainment industry to build Merlin's compelling assets," said Sabo. "No other mass media company has our ability to innovate and then captivate a significant share of audience and revenue."
Sabo founded the New York-based Sabo Media in 1984, where he consulted content in all media, most recently at Sirius XM Satellite. Sabo began his tenure there pre-launch, continuing for eight and a half years consulting on all programming initiatives. In this capacity, he organized and staffed the programming department, initiated attractive subscriber channels and participated in the aggressive recruitment of Howard Stern. Today, Sirius grosses over $3 billion annually. Sabo Media specializes in profitable content solutions for firms such as: Group W, RKO Radio, Newhouse Communications, Viking Publishing, Press Broadcasting, Greater Media, AMC Movie Theatres, Standard Broadcasting of Canada, The CHUM Group, Clear Channel Communications, Gannett, Infinity, Dow Jones, and many others
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