Radio and Television Transactions

In mid-May, a Class C3 facility offering “Super Hits of the ’60s and ’70s” in a rural part of Georgia sold for more than a half-million dollars. The format also aired on a Class A simulcast partner, and that facility is now being sold. It's our lone deal up for discussion in the latest edition of TRANSACTIONS TODAY.

Thanks to the 2004 feature film "Napoleon Dynamite," legions of film buffs know all about Preston, Idaho. Today, an AM with an FM translator is trading hands, and it's our featured deal in TRANSACTIONS TODAY for Monday, June 18. Gosh!

Fifteen years ago, Emmis Communications agreed to a partnership with Sinclair Telecable to acquire six radio stations in the Texas state capital for $105 million. This deal gave Emmis a 50.1% controlling interest in the stations, with Sinclair Telecable taking the remaining 49.9%. Now, Sinclair Telecable has invested nearly $1 million in an FM translator with nearly full market coverage. What does Sinclair have in mind? 

The city of Lancaster, Calif., has been the home of a FM translator owned by Vic Michael's Mountain Community Translators. Thanks to a Construction Permit, the translator is trucking west on CA-58 to Bakersfield and taking the 99.7 MHz dial position. It's now taking a new owner.

In a deal brokered by Patrick Communications, a full-powered UHF facility available across all regional DBS and MVPD providers in southern Georgia is trading hands. It marks the buyer's entry into the Peachtree State, as it already owns properties in the Delmarva Peninsula, and in Ohio, Colorado and West Virginia.

"While there are changes going on, some things will stay the same," says the owner of a Class C3 FM serving the Winnemucca, Nevada area, northeast of Reno. What's not expected to change are the station's format, and agricultural and farming reports.  That's good news for listeners to the station: The station has just been sold along with its dark AM sibling, and it is the lone item of business in TRANSACTIONS TODAY for June 14, 2018.

Like the drip-drip-drip of a leaky faucet, the FCC's deal database has offered just a trickle of fresh news of late. Wednesday is no different, with the lone deal involving the sale of a low-power TV station construction permit in Idaho's most populous area. There's also an STA involving Townsquare Media to talk about.

One month ago, RBR+TVBR exclusively reported on the plight of a Reno, Nev., air personality who thought radio station ownership would be fun, and a logical next step in his career. Instead, Chris Pruett ended up with a "big mess." Now, Pruett is selling his stations — and is making a profit on it.

In February 2005, Mae Rodgers launched "an interactive, community-minded Christian radio station sponsoring a series of Gospel shows and events" from a small house in Washington, N.C. There's already been a pause in operations that lasted more than two years. Now, it appears the life of "The Vine" is again in doubt.

Does the name Maria Guel trigger any memories? She's an operator of radio properties in the Lone Star State, and she's just added another facility on the FM dial -- this time to the northeast of downtown Dallas. It's our lone deal as TRANSACTIONS TODAY goes into the weekend with a whimper.

On Monday, TRANSACTIONS TODAY reported on the sale of a radio station serving the Nashville market by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. It turns out we mixed up the call letters of the station Moody is selling with another facility serving Music City. Here's the corrected information on this deal.

The first week in June is upon us, and in just under four weeks the first half of 2018 will have concluded. How's the deal-making marketplace shaping up? Activity is still relatively quiet, and we officially usher in the new month by devoting TRANSACTIONS TODAY to a Michiana FM offering faith-based programming.

Drive two hours east of downtown L.A., and you'll hit the Coachella Valley -- home to such cities as Palm Springs and Indio. This is where a Class B AM has been using an FM translator to offer local listeners a Classic Hits format branded with the translator's MHz frequency. Now, the AM is acquiring a second FM translator in a move to boost its coverage in the shadow of San Gorgonio Mountain.

In late March TRANSACTIONS TODAY reported on the sale of a Chicago-area FM by an operator offering a mix of comedy bits, Polish pop, Euro Top 40, and EDM tunes to Polish-American listeners across the Windy City. That deal has now closed.

It's still very quiet out there in Deal Land. We have one trade to cover in Thursday's TRANSACTIONS TODAY, and it involves two FMs in Texas. The asset purchase agreement was signed six weeks ago, but the Form 314 filing was made with the FCC today.