Radio and Television Transactions

The University of North Dakota has opted to sell its big Class C2 NPR affiliate in Grand Forks, N.D.; a Class A also licensed to the city, and an FM translator covering a town in Minnesota. Who's the buyer? An entity already quite familiar with the three FM facilities.

No, Paul Brenner and Jeff Smulyan aren't adding a new dimension to the TagStation LLC-owned NextRadio smartphone app. It turns out that there's a Next Radio LLC out there, and this Florida-based entity has just acquired a Class A FM in Texas. It's the top item of business in TRANSACTIONS TODAY for September 12, 2018.

Ted Tucker is a principal in six different licensees of radio stations across the Mountain West. Among these entities is Cochise Media Licenses, which in May 2017 entered into Consent Decrees with the FCC to resolve a matter involving the failure to operate stations in Arizona for more than a handful of days over a period of several years. Now, another entity led by Tucker is a buyer.

Anderson University, Inc. and Educational Media Foundation have agreed on the sale of radio station WQME(FM) in Anderson, Indiana, for $725,000. The agreement date was August 27, 2018.

To the southeast of Washington, D.C. is Maryland's Eastern Shore, and the Salisbury-Ocean City, Md., market. It is here that a Class A FM is trading hands. The party buying it? It's led by a communications law attorney who is also a minority partner in one Maryland entity and a majority partner in a holding company comprised of three stations spread across the U.S.

A Class C3 Country station serving listeners to the south of greater Roanoke, Va., is trading hands. The buyer has no other radio, TV or newspaper holdings, but the name of the entity certainly rings a bell. Rest assured that this entity has little to do with TBS or CNN.

In early April, a Minnesota-based nonprofit corporation tied to a private evangelical Christian college agreed to acquire an AM-FM combo in a small Iowa town northeast of Council Bluffs. Now, the school has decided to sell the stations, and it's our top topic of discussion in TRANSACTIONS TODAY for Sept. 5, 2018. Also today: A Northern Illinois FM sale is complete.

In the lone deal up for discussion in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY, an FM translator with a full city-grade signal serving an area of the Florida Panhandle is being traded from one trust to another trust.

No, we're not talking about Spanish Broadcasting System's heritage regional Mexican station serving Southern California. Rather, we're referring to a pair of TV stations that are being acquired by an entity connected to the President of El Dorado Broadcasters in a deal brokered by Kalil & Co.

August has ended with a whimper for RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY, with just two deals involving Low Power TV stations to discuss. One is in Arizona. The other is in one of America's most popular destinations for outdoor enthusiasts.

Ravi Cherukuri has made a name for himself in North Texas and in other areas with a large South Asian population as a purveyor of radio stations offering a variety of religious and secular music and talk programming in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi languages. Now, one of the bigger AM stations he's been using will become a wholly owned entity for his operation targeting South Asians. 

HC2 Station Group, Inc., Max Media X LLC, and CMCG Puerto Rico LLC have agreed on the sale of two television stations in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

Colon Johnston of Yazoo City, MS, (“Johnston”) and ZOO-Bel Broadcasting, LLC, a Yazoo City, MS, limited liability company (“Licensee,” and collectively with Johnston, “Seller”), and New South Radio Inc. (“Buyer”) of North Meridian, MS, have agreed on the sale of radio broadcast station WBYP(FM), Belzoni, Mississippi (FCC ID 28117) for $200,000.

Windy City Broadcasting LLC (“Seller”), and Future Vision Entertainment (“Buyer”), an Urban format broadcaster based in Chicago, have agreed on the sale of two FM radio co-channel translators, W236BG and W236CF, located atop Willis Tower and in the Elmwood Park neighborhood.

The lone deal of the day for TRANSACTIONS TODAY takes place in Florida over one of the state's Christian AM stations.