Radio and Television Transactions

In Hollywood, Fla., sits a little-known broadcast TV station owner that, until now, has owned 20 LPTV facilities across Washington, South Dakota, Oregon, North Dakota, and Colorado, and in the city of Marquette, Mich. The company that has just purchased these stations is very widely known: It's the Philip Falcone-led HC2 Station Group.

A Class D facility with a complex signal that covers the Atlanta market during daylight hours but barely reaches the northwest corner of the metro after dark is trading hands. At present, this station is branded as "The Talk of the Town." That's going to change, and its 14-year PD — along with 15 part-time and full-time staffers — will soon be out of jobs.

In late January, a Chicago-based operator agreed to purchase a Class B AM with 4 towers serving a large portion of Michigan from a religious broadcaster. The deal has now closed, and it's the start of what this company hopes will be a series of transactions that will allow it become a player in markets No. 100-200.

Educational Media Foundation is snapping up another radio station, just days after announcing that it is entering a big college town in the Lone Star State. In a deal consummated March 26 and filed with the FCC on Monday, EMF is grabbing a Class C2 facility serving the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But, this deal is hardly a surprise — one of its two noncomm Contemporary Christian Music networks has been on this facility since Christmas Eve 2015.

The owner-and-operator of a Hispanic radio company serving population centers across the Golden State and the Reno, Nevada area is adding another two properties to its stable of stations. The latest additions serve a portion of Southern California's High Desert region — and a busy corridor between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

When Rose City residents want an escape to the beach, they take U.S. 26 west to towns including Cannon Beach, Seaside and Gearhart, Ore. The latter community is home to a Class C3 FM that covers most of the Oregon Coast north of Rockaway Beach, and north to Ocean Park, Wash. This station has just been sold, and it is our top deal in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY.

The Bryan-College Station, Tex., region is known across the U.S. by sports fans as the hub of Aggie Nation, as College Station is the home of Texas A&M University. Until now, it's also been the home of a Class C3 FM branded as "The Wolf," offering "real Classic Rock" via provider Westwood One. RBR+TVBR has confirmed that this facility has just been sold. While houses of the holy are important to the buyer, it's assured that there will be no Led Zeppelin on this station once the deal closes. 

Just shy of five years ago, a Kansas-based broadcasting company entered into a FM translator rebroadcast and option agreement that allowed it to acquire the 250-watt facility giving some "AM revitalization" to a News/Talk station with FOX News branding. This company is now exercising its right to purchase the translator. Also in TRANSACTIONS TODAY: Connoisseur's Constitution State divestments are complete.

A newly formed company serving a market that's home to Purdue University is now the owner of one of the nation's newest ABC affiliates. It's a formality, really: This company signed on the station in July 2017, and it has been owned by an affiliated operation. Now, Bill Christian and Mike Reed are simply making a bookkeeping change with the FCC.

Cumulus Media is placing four stations in a newly formed trust to be overseen by the MVP Capital broker, who is also overseeing Entercom's divestitures and a trust created 11 years ago for Citadel Broadcasting. The new Cumulus divestments are directly tied to its Chapter 11 reorganization petition in a New York federal bankruptcy court.

Starcom Mediavest Group is among the largest media networks in the world and a part of France’s Publicis Groupe. In a small town in Minnesota, StarCom LLC has served as the owner and operator of an AM/FM combo and an FM translator giving some "revitalization" to a station branded as "your dependable neighbor." The StarCom in Minnesota has just sold its radio stations. It's crystal-clear who the owner is.

More than two years after a deal was struck that would have transferred a full-power MyNetwork TV affiliate in Arkansas' state capital and its low-power simulcast serving the market to an affiliate of The Pollack Companies, the transaction has finally closed.

"Semana Santa" and Spring Break for many public school systems across the U.S. may have something to do with it. Or, the atmosphere for spring transactions simply means sporadic bursts and busts are to expected for radio and TV deals. Today's edition of TRANSACTIONS TODAY from RBR+TVBR features just two deals, and both involve FM translators.

The town of Heber City, Utah, abuts all of the major cities in the Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo market, and it is home to a Class C AM and its companion FM translator. These facilities have just been sold, and it is the lone deal in the weekend edition of TRANSACTIONS TODAY from RBR+TVBR.

A Class D AM to the northeast of the Dallas-Fort Worth area that has been serving the market's large South Asian population as part of the "FunAsia" network of stations is trading hands.