In May 2013, Bruce Mittman and Jim Leven (pictured) agreed to acquire a group of radio stations in the Twin Tiers region of Western New York and extreme North-Central Pennsylvania.
Just shy of six years later, their company, Community Broadcasters, left the region.
Now, the company is exiting a region of Upstate New York roughly an hour to the south of Canada’s national capital.
In an asset purchase agreement finalized Nov. 1 and now posted on the FCC’s database, Community Broadcasters is agreeing to sell the following stations to SCORE Advertising for $350,000:
- WSLB-AM 1400 in Ogdensburg, a 1kw Class C affiliate of ESPN Radio
- Class A WQTK-FM 92.7 in Ogdensburg, a News/Talk station offering Montreal Canadiens hockey coverage
- Class A WLFK-FM 95.3 “The Wolf” in Gouverneur, N.Y., a Country station
While SCORE is getting the station’s intellectual property and licenses, Bruice [sic] Sermonis II is obtaining the 2315 Knox Street real estate associated with the stations.
A $10,000 escrow deposit has been made; $100,000 payment is cash is due at closing. The remainder will be represented via a Promissory Note, at a rate of 4.5%.
With the sale of the Ogdensburg, N.Y., trio, Leven and Mittman’s holdings in the Empire State are reduced to its five properties in its home market of Watertown, N.Y., due south of Ogdensburg on I-81 en route to Syracuse.
On April 1, Community Broadcasters completed the sale of its Elmira-Corning, N.Y. and Olean, N.Y. stations to 7 Mountains Media — a $3.9 million deal. Community Broadcasters purchased the Olean and Corning-Elmira stations, plus a now-defunct AM, from Barry Drake-led Backyard Broadcasting for $3.6 million in a deal brokered by Kalil & Co.
The Ogdensburg stations have been under Community ownership since its 2006 founding.
Community’s other stations are located in South Carolina and in Florida. In June 2016, it paid $5.9 million for four radio stations in the Destin-Ft. Walton Beach market from Apex Broadcasting.
