Arcadia Election Day For Tomas Martinez: Sell

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BOCA RATON, FLA. — Draw a line straight west of this home of such companies as Vertical Bridge, Sun Broadcast Group and RBR+TVBR publisher Streamline Publishing, and you’ll find the bucolic farm town of Arcadia.


Here, a Miami Hispanic radio veteran in 2014 acquired one of two FM radio stations serving agricultural inland Florida. Now, he’s selling one of those stations to — of all entities — a school known for training the doctors, dentists and pharmacists of tomorrow.

A July 31 agreement filed with the FCC on Monday (8/5) shows that Tomás Martinez and his Solmart Media is agreeing to sell WZZS-FM 106.9, licensed to Zolfo Springs, Fla., to Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The school operates Erie, Pa.-based Mercyhurst College and WMCE-FM, a noncommercial Oldies station with a mission to preserve the format’s presence in the city once known for WJET-AM in the early days of Top 40 radio.

It also entered the Sunshine State in August 2018, when it purchased WSRQ-AM 1220 and its two FM translators in Sarasota, Fla. — W295BH at 106.9 MHz and W240DP at 95.9 MHz in Venice, to the south of Sarasota and famed Siesta Key, from Florida Talk Radio.

Now, the 106.9 MHz translator best heard in Bradenton and central Sarasota will soon have no interference from WZZS, as the signals will soon share WSRQ’s Oldies programming.

Class A WZZS has a signal that stretches from the immediate east of Sarasota to Sebring, and north to Highway 60 and the cities of Bartow and Lake Wales.

A $10,000 deposit has been made to Fletcher Heald & Hildreth, serving as escrow agent. Frank Montero of FHH is the legal counsel representing Martinez and Solmart.

The purchase price is $279,000.

Serving as the broker in this transaction is Doyle Hadden of Hadden & Associates.

The buyer’s legal counsel is David O’Connor of Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP.