Virginia noncom group building from the ground up

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It is very possible to buy your way to group ownership status, but that is not the way Holy Family Communications is going about it. It already has two CPs in the state of Virginia in its portfolio, and now it is acquiring a third, which happens to be an allocation awarded to a competing bidder in a settlement agreement.


The new acquisition is an FM CP licensed to Shenandoah VA. The seller is Familia Dei, headed by William I. Sabates.

According to the contract, the buyer and seller had both applied for the same allocation, and came to a settlement agreement 7/21/11 that gave Familia the CP and Holy Family a right-of-first-refusal to buy it if Familia became a seller. Familia was officially awarded the CP 11/11/11, and now the right-of-first-refusal is being exercised.

Holy Family will be getting the CP, for a Class A on 107.1 with 2 kW @ 577’, for $16.5K cash.
When built, it will be in unrated territory, but not too far from the buyer’s other holdings.

WHFW-FM CP is licensed to the small Arbitron-rated community of Winchester VA. It’s set up to be a Class A on 89.7 MHz with 185 W @ 174’.

WHFO-FM CP Orange VA is located in unrated territory that just about splits the difference between Fredericksburg to the east and Charlottesville to the west. It’s also a Class A, on 88.7 MHz with 1.4 kW @ 46’.