Radio and Television Transactions

Here's a translator swap that's certainly going to attract a lot of attention. Educational Media Foundation is giving up a translator in a big South Florida city to Family Radio. In exchange, EMF is getting a facility that could bring Air1 to Western Pennsylvania's biggest population center. For Family, listeners to a major NPR member station may soon become irked at their upgrade plan.

Sometimes, the best buyer for a radio station owner looking to sell a property can be found from within. That's exactly what's just transpired in Nashville, where a longtime presence at a Class D AM has emerged as the new owner for a station with a rich history in Music City.

On June 8, RBR+TVBR reported on the sale of two Orlando stations by Bruce Maduri's Genesis Communications, in a deal brokered by Kalil & Co. The buyer is a non-secular operator of religious stations, and its deal to buy the AMs has just closed.

To the east of Erie and to the south of Buffalo is one of America's great diary lands. If you consume Kraft Foods or Welch's products, much of what they produce is from the area surrounding Jamestown, N.Y. Now, an Ohio player is going not "cross country," but a few hours' east to make a transaction that involves a Lakeland, Fla., operator. It also involves the second-largest licensee of radio stations in the U.S.

Of all of the potential buyers for the 19 remaining radio stations that The E.W. Scripps Company sought a buyer for, this one may have caught market observers off-guard. Scripps​​ has reached an agreement to sell its last group of radio properties, located in four markets, to the Carl Parmer-led SummitMedia.

A "hometown" Class C3 facility in the Land of 10,000 Lakes is being sold, and the buyer is another entity based in the state of Minnesota. This deal includes a consulting fee and a promissory note, giving the owner possession of his second radio station. The other property is a small AM adjacent to the Twin Cities.

Some 45 miles northwest of Abilene, Tex., sits the broadcast tower for an unbuilt Class A FM station serving the town of Roby. The owner of this station has just invested in a Class A FM serving a small town FCC Chairman Ajit Pai may be familiar with: It's 66 miles to the east of Wichita and two hours' drive west of his stomping grounds of Pittsburg, Kansas.

Doug and Mary Martin have not only been busy arranging the sales of several radio stations in Tucson, but have also been working with broker Kalil & Co. on the sale of a broadcast tower. That transaction has just closed, for an undisclosed price.

There's a small town in rural Texas, to the southwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, best known for the Billy The Kid Museum. Now, it will be the home of a brand-new radio station that Chisholm Trail Communications will be charged with signing on the air, thanks to this deal.

"With Jesus Nothing's Impossible." That's the motto and inspiration for the call letters of a Class B AM currently simulcasting the Gospel programming of a Class A FM serving a picturesque portion of the Carolinas. It's just been sold, and the owner is a Chicago-based non-secular broadcaster known for its "moody" take on inspirational audio content.

At first glance, the buyer of a Class D AM station with a pair of FM translators serving a city on Florida's suncoast might seem a bit odd. It's the parent of a school known for training the doctors, dentists and pharmacists of tomorrow. But, it already owns a radio station in Erie, Pa. Now, the school is adding a second property in a locale full of snowbirds from the Midwest.

A small market radio group serving North central and Northwestern Wisconsin has just gotten a little bit bigger. It is adding two FM stations serving the communities surrounding the town of Rhinelander, in a move it hopes will provide added "Results." Why? It already owns an AM/FM combo here.

As has been widely rumored, Lotus Communications has acquired Scripps' radio stations in the Tucson and Boise, Idaho markets. What hasn't been known was the price the company led by Jim Kalmenson would pay. All has now been revealed, and Kalil & Co. is the exclusive broker for this transaction.

As RBR+TVBR reported in November 2017, the future of the AM and FM stations in Upstate New York owned by a fiscally challenged owner and operator who sought Special Temporary Authority to keep an FM and an AM silent began to come to fruition. Among the stations being traded was a Class C2 FM licensed to Saranac Lake, N.Y. The new owners have closed on their purchase.

It's been a foregone conclusion that Bonneville International Corp. would be acquiring the eight radio stations it is already operating via a Local Marketing Agreement with Entercom Communications in two Northern California markets. Entercom pulled the trigger on the sale of the eight stations​ in these cities late Friday.