{"id":9935,"date":"2011-09-15T15:36:45","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T19:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=9935"},"modified":"2011-09-15T15:39:04","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T19:39:04","slug":"changes-at-wtmp-a-%e2%80%98business-decision%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=9935","title":{"rendered":"Changes At WTMP A \u2018Business Decision\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BY TAMECA JOHNSON<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Freelance Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <strong><em>Florida Sentinel<\/em><\/strong> has learned the motive behind the drastic change in WTMP\u2019s format.\u00a0 According to the station\u2019s current management, it was a matter of dollars and cents.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott Savage<\/strong> of Savage Media, is the court-appointed receiver who operates WTMP.\u00a0 He has been given authority by the courts to try to sell the station.\u00a0 <strong>Savage<\/strong> says he spent three years looking for a buyer, but came up empty handed. His job, he says, is to maximize the assets of the station and he was convinced the numbers showed the historic urban format of WTMP was not generating profits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe format change was really a business decision,\u201d he says. \u201cWTMP just wasn\u2019t profitable in the format that it was. There are three or four FM competitors that dominate the [Tampa] market and the revenue generated [by those stations] left WTMP in a difficult situation with the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, <strong>James Ransom<\/strong>, spokesperson for Tampa Organization of Black Affairs (TOBA) disagrees.\u00a0 \u201cI am surprised at hearing comments that the station was not profitable.\u00a0 The financial documentation reviewed by the investment group pursuing the purchase of WTMP a few years ago found that the station was profitable when it was managed by the previous owners.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ransom<\/strong> is convinced all\u00a0 parties involved are making progress and want to assure the community that process is well \u201cunderway and active.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, TOBA is still accepting letters of interest from potential investors. Letters should be mailed to the <strong>TOBA \u2013 Economic Development Committee, P. O. Box 3485, Tampa, Florida 33601.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY TAMECA JOHNSON Freelance Writer The Florida Sentinel has learned the motive behind the drastic change in WTMP\u2019s format.\u00a0 According to the station\u2019s current management, it was a matter of dollars and cents. Scott Savage of Savage Media, is the court-appointed receiver who operates WTMP.\u00a0 He has been given authority by the courts to try [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}