Radio and Television Transactions

On Oct. 11, RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY told readers of a sale in the Delmarva Peninsula that "really 'SUX." That deal saw owner Seaford Media sell WSUX-AM 1280 in Seaford, Del., and its FM translator. Now, Seaford is a buyer — and it's gaining and FM.

A final agreement has been put into place that will convert a LMA to outright ownership for the entity that's now overseeing a three FM/two AM (plus translators) cluster in a big Ozark resort town that also includes a local online news hub and cable TV offering The Vacation Channel. The company buying the stations is led Paul Coates, and a former presidential candidate who served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas.

A 19-watt translator in the heart of Vineland, N.J. — the Latino hub of Southern New Jersey — has just been acquired by the owner of the leading Spanish-language radio station serving Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley. The move will help bring some "AM revitalization" to Mega-Philadelphia in an area its Class B signal barely scrapes. But, this entire deal is contingent on a whole other agreement that has yet to be finalized.

Educational Media Foundation is at it again: It's purchased yet another FM, and this time it is a silent facility serving a region of inland Southern California sandwiched between Riverside and San Diego. It's our top deal in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY for Oct. 17, 2017.

A full-power VHF station licensed to Del Rio, Texas that fell silent in May 2016 will soon be resuscitated and brought back to life — under new ownership. The facility has just been sold to a pair of individuals very familiar with Spanish-language television, which is a big part of this station's most recent past. Kalil & Co. represented the buyers as the broker in this deal. 

Educational Media Foundation is at it again. The religious non-profit spreading the word through Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) networks KLOVE and Air1 has acquired a big Class C3 noncomm in market No. 129. It's paying more than $1 million to obtain the station, and it is our lead item of business in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY for Oct. 16, 2017.

The sell-off of low-power TV stations by a religious non-commercial broadcaster continued Friday, as a Form 314 filing with the FCC confirms it is shedding 14 more LPTVs in such big markets as St. Louis, Minneapolis, and San Antonio. The divestment follows a $3.2 million deal finalized in March.

In the community of North English, Iowa, to the southwest of Iowa City, is a Class A that's recently fallen on hard times. The station, KMYQ-FM 97.1, went silent on Sept. 27, 2016, as a result of what owner Justin McLuckie perceived to be the "economic infeasibility" relating to the continued operation of KMYQ. Now, Mr. McLuckie is selling the station.

Sorry, we couldn't resist: WSUX is being sold, and so is its FM translator. It's the top deal in TRANSACTIONS TODAY, and we've got all of the details on this deal in the First State for you right here.

Three separate groups have asked the FCC to tweak their respective FM translators, so as to diminish interference from fully licensed co-channel FM stations. One of these owners is The Walt Disney Co. The other is a company that was forced to shut down a controversial translator in the Raleigh-Durham area, which made Lakes Media Network owner Tom Birch very, very happy.

Until 2:45pm Pacific on Tuesday, all was mum regarding the status of the required divestitures from CBS Radio's Reverse Morris Trust-fueled merger with Entercom. That silence was broken in a big way by way of a staff e-mail from CBS Radio President/CEO Andre Fernandez. He spilled the beans that an additional 16 stations are being sold, and he shared exactly what those stations are.

A Class D AM serving the Sheboygan, Wisc., area is being sold by a religious non-profit corporation to a commercially licensed local broadcaster. It's the top deal featured in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY.

Three years ago, American University's NPR member station in Washington, D.C., closed on its acquisition of a station in Virginia that would serve as a simulcast partner, bringing its coverage to an ever-expanding region south of Quantico. Now, the school in Northwest Washington is retreating from the Old Dominion.

In this day and age, having some "AM revitalization" with an FM signal -- especially in this tech savvy region -- is likely a bigger draw for consumers and the companies wishing to build their sales with this audience than a huge kHz signal. That's why an AM in Santa Rosa, in the heart of Sonoma County, is adding a translator 17 miles to the south in a town where actress Winona Ryder grew up.

A Channel-Sharing Agreement for a Class A television station licensed to Miami, Fla., that's going away thanks to the FCC's Incentive Auction has been donated to the entity in control of two large PBS member stations serving South Florida.