John and Linda Hammond in January 2019 signed off on a license sale and purchase agreement that was designed to place a Class B AM with a 50kw daytime signal and 1,900 watts at night in the hands of one Bao Ngo.
Four years later, the change in ownership is close to the finish line.
On Jan. 29, 2019, the Hammonds effectively transferred a radio station it had obtained just under two years earlier to Bao’s Viet Media LLC.
A change in call letters from KBXD-AM to KNGO-AM was done at the facility licensed to Dallas, at 1480 kHz, in May 2019.
This allowed Bao to assume control of the station and begin simulcasting Vietnamese-language KGOW-AM 1560 in Houston.
A $1.1 million purchase price was struck, and a $550,000 non-refundable deposit was made. Pre-closing and post-closing monthly payments were agreed to in the transaction, which saw Sandi Bergman serve as the broker.
On Thursday (4/13), paperwork reflecting the sale was filed with the FCC by Dan J. Alpert, Hammond’s legal counsel. He explained to RBR+TVBR that FCC rules allow a filing at any time, so long that no more than 80% of the payments are made.
That’s what happened here, with Bao reaching the conclusion of his monthly payment agreement, thus signaling that the deal will close without any fear of a deal unwind.
KBXD was acquired by the Hammonds in June 2017, with its acquisition from broker Mark Jorgenson for $600,000. KBXD is a former James Crystal Enterprises station, and the station was sold by ACM JOE IV B LLC — an entity set up following the March 2015 bankruptcy auction conducted in conjunction with James Crystal’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
KNGO is the eighth set of call letters used by the AM station since 1989, when it changed from Easy Listening KMEZ to all-Business News as KBDN. From 1958 until 1982, it was Country KBOX-AM, and was Dallas’ top Country station between 1966 and 1972. Before the eight years before that, it was a Top 40 competitor to Gordon McLendon-owned KLIF-AM 1190.
