Radio and Television Transactions

There's no getting around this bruising bit of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence-owned media research group Kagan: U.S. broadcast station mergers and acquisitions volume reached $189.6 million in Q3 2017. This is the lowest quarterly deal volume of the year. But, the previous two quarters were skewed by two billion-dollar deals.

In an update to a television station sale originally reported Sept. 26 by RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY, a Savannah-market station is trading hands. It is now known that two translator stations are included in the deal — and the buyer is getting the properties thanks to a top bid in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court auction precipitated by the seller's Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In the final days of August, the parent company of a home shopping channel agreed to sell its full-power digital TV station serving Boston. At the same time, a channel-sharing agreement (CSA) was forged by the buyer to allow a company that collected millions in the recently concluded FCC incentive auction to use one-third of this digital station's spectrum. The asset purchase agreement and CSA recitals have finally found their way to the FCC via a Form 314 filing made today, with Media Venture Partners serving as the exclusive broker.

It's not often that Educational Media Foundation decides to sell a radio station, given its ravenous appetite for expansion opportunities for its Christian Contemporary Music KLOVE and Air1 noncommercial formats. Yet, EMF is selling a Class A in the Lafayette, Ind., market, and the buyer is howlingly happy about the deal.

The trading of Channel Sharing Arrangements secured by companies that shed their broadcast TV stations in the FCC's recently concluded incentive auction just may be the next big boost for media brokers eager to buy and sell, and collect their commissions. The latest "CSA" to be dealt involves an affiliate of The CW that fetched $105,731,122 and is now dealing its post-auction channel sharing to Hearst Television.

A Class A FM straddling the North Dakota-Minnesota border and its Class C AM sibling have been sold to a "13G" local buyer. But, the buyer and the seller aren't exactly unfamiliar with one another: They are both members of the Ingstad family. It's the lead deal in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY.

A Class D AM in Rapid City, South Dakota, with an FM translator is being sold. At the same time, an unbuilt AM that is scheduled to get an FM translator through the FCC's just-completed Auction 99 is trading hands in Southern Utah. We've also got a price on a Big D TV deal that RBR+TVBR first reported Sept. 28.

A Class C FM that's reducing power in order to move closer to the Phoenix area is being sold along with its Class C AM sister and an FM translator serving a picturesque region of Arizona some 90 minutes north of the Valley of the Sun. The buyer is a new FCC licensee, but is no stranger to radio station ownership: It controls the regional Mexican noncomm network tied to the Cesar Chavez Foundation. The seller was represented by Kalil & Co. of Tucson.

The town of Muleshoe, Tex., with a population of 5,100, largely relies on FM radio stations from Clovis, N. Mex., some 35 minutes to the west, in a different time zone. That's about to change, as a new FM station has been authorized for the community. This future station is trading hands, and it's our featured deal in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY.

RBR+TVBR has confirmed that a close partner of Sinclair Broadcast Group has agreed to purchase an unaffiliated UHF station in Dallas that failed to fetch any bids in the FCC's recent Spectrum Auction. The seller of this station now exits TV ownership for good, after previously selling all of its stations to the company now known as TEGNA. Kalil & Co. represented the seller in this TV deal.

Not only is this Class C2 featuring a Adult Alternative format shifting to a new owner, but so is a Class C1 sibling that always goes a "Mile" with its Classic Hits presentation. Meanwhile, there's another radio deal worth noting on a busy Thursday, and broker Mark Jorgenson is behind this South Carolina noncomm trade.

Entercom late Monday announced that it's selling a suburban San Diego FM, an FM serving the Wilkes Barre-Scranton market, and "100.3 The Sound" in L.A. to Educational Media Foundation. We now know what EMF is paying for the three stations. Also in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY: A Savannah, Ga., TV station trades hands in a deal brokered by Hadden & Associates.

In an announcement released following the Closing Bell on Wall Street Tuesday (9/26) and minutes after the distribution of RBR+TVBR's afternoon news headlines, Entercom Communications announced that it has agreed to sell KSWD-FM 100.3 "The Sound" in Los Angeles -- in addition to KSOQ-FM 92.1 in the San Diego market and WGGI-FM 95.9 in the Scranton-Wilkes Barre market -- to Educational Media Foundation. This transaction marks the first required divestitures related to Entercom’s pending merger with CBS Radio.

RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY on Friday and on Monday featured a series of station donations made by Cochise Media Licenses as a result of a pair of May 2017 Consent Decrees with the FCC for failing to operate the stations for more than a handful of days over a period of several years. Three more donations were filed with the FCC today.

Cochise Media Licenses is shedding more stations as a result of a pair of May 2017 Consent Decrees with the FCC for failing to keep the lights on at a group of stations scattered across the Mountain West. Also in TRANSACTIONS TODAY: A big NPR member station in Central Florida will soon be getting a boost in a big retirement city and its surrounding communities to the northwest of the Mouse House.