In Ventura County, Calif., the Alfredo Plascencia-led Lazer Media is a Hispanic media leader, with two of its four stations in the Top 5, according to Nielsen Audio ratings. Up the 101 Freeway in Santa Barbara, one of the five Lazer audio brands — its flagship Regional Mexican “Radio Lazer” offering — can be heard.
Soon, another Lazer brand will serve Spanish-language radio consumers from Isla Vista to Carpinteria, thanks to a deal that’s just been submitted to the FCC for regulatory approval.
With Kathleen Victory of Fletcher Heald & Hildreth as its legal counsel, Lazer Licenses LLC has agreed to acquire Class D KZSB-AM 1290, once the station tied to the now-defunct daily Santa Barbara News-Press, and its FM translator, K245DD at 96.9 MHz in the city of Santa Barbara.
The seller is Santa Barbara Broadcasting, which has been airing a hyperlocal English-language Talk format on KZSB. This programming will not remain on KZSB or K245DD upon closing.
A $210,000 purchase price was agreed upon, with a 10% deposit made by Lazer. It is being held by the broker in this transaction, The Exline Company, as escrow agent.
Exline, representing the seller, is receiving $10,500 for its role as a broker.
What will Lazer do with the AM and FM translator, which is poised to become siblings to “Radio Lazer” home KZER-AM 1250 and FM translator K293CK?
It is highly likely that Regional Mexican Classic Hits will arrive, with “La Mejor Network” placed on KZSB and K245DD. At present, it can be heard on Class A KLJR-FM 96.7 in Oxnard, presenting a signal-adjacency solution to covering all of Ventura County and the city of Santa Barbara. Meanwhile, “La Mejor” can be heard on KSMY-FM 106.7 in Lompoc, a signal covering an area of northern Santa Barbara County including the Santa Ynez Wine Trail, Santa Maria and Vandenberg Air Force Base. Additionally, the KSMY signal covers the “Five Cities” region of southern San Luis Obispo County.
Thus, adding Santa Barbara fills a gap for “La Mejor” in reaching hundreds of thousands of potential listeners across the vast majority of the DMA.
— With reporting from RBR+TVBR in Los Osos, Calif.
