CMG EVP Bill Hendrich thinks he might know the answer to that question, even though he wasn’t in the room when Apollo Global Management executives decided they not only wanted Cox’s TV properties, they wanted all of their radio stations as well. Here’s what Hendrich said about the deal at the Radio Show in Dallas, Tuesday evening.
While the original thinking was that Apollo only wanted to add to its television portfolio when kicking the tires at the Cox Media Group, they eventually purchased the radio division as well. That deal, which was announced in June, is expected to close soon. Speaking on a panel at The Radio Show, Tuesday, Hendrich said, “When pitching the TV stations you could not tell the story without telling the radio story.”
At the time, Cox had a single manager in place in most of the markets in which they owned both TV and radio. That manager was making decisions that would benefit both TV and radio, which made things a lot easier, according to Hendrich. “We were promoting each other and not just during the crappy times.”
He said Apollo must have thought CMG was running a pretty good radio business and that may have helped them decide to purchase the radio division as well.
In August, it was announced that Hendrich would be staying on as EVP of Radio when the Cox deal with Apollo closes.
