Radio and Television Transactions

It's another quiet day for media deals, as thousands of baseball fans in the Nation's Capital prepare to cheer on the Washington Nationals this evening in Game One of the 2019 World Series. With baseball fever across D.C., TRANSACTIONS TODAY has just a handful of STA requests and deal closings to report.

It's another quiet day for TRANSACTIONS TODAY, with two STAs and a change in a station's licensee to report. In the latter situation, estate planning is shifting ownership of a Class C AM outside of Richmond, Va., from one entity to another.

Alfredo Plascencia has built an empire of regional Mexican radio stations across the Golden State through his Oxnard-based Lazer Communications. At present, privately held Lazer is the licensee of 18 stations, with the Inland Empire its biggest market ... until now.

In mid-May, the company founded and led by Amador Bustos agreed to purchase an FM serving Moses Lake, Wash., a Latino agricultural workers’ hub. The station won’t be changing its language of service, and his company has just closed on the acquisition, brokered by Kalil & Co.

Carolyn Becker-led Riverfront Broadcasting at the end of 2018 engaged in a transaction that gave it full ownership of two FMs and an AM in Iowa. Now, Riverfront is parting ways with one of those FMs, in a deal involving a husband and wife ownership team.

Go west of Clemson, S.C., and you'll find a broadcast tower in the town of Seneca home to SummitMedia's WHZT-FM and, additionally, a silent 25kw FM licensed to Georgia-Carolina Radio Company. This FM is trading hands, with the assignee set to bring the station back to life as a noncomm.

An indie and alternative rock station using VHF Channel 6, with a low-power signal, to cover the city of Redding, Ca., has been sold. It's a "Hella" deal. Really.

Since 1997, Jamie McKibbin has been an ubiquitous presence at a group of Michigan radio stations to the west of Ann Arbor. Now, McKibbin, who has been GM of the stations and hosts a popular weekly outdoors show, is becoming the stations' owner. We now know how much he's paying for them.

Until now, listeners to nationally distributed CCM network WAY-FM in Portland, Ore., relied on a Class C1 facility emanating from a tower due east of the metro, toward Hood River. A co-channel FM translator in Forest Park went dark. That problem has just ended, thanks in part to Kalil & Co.

On April 25, former NYSBA leader Joe Reilly agreed to sell an AM station and its FM translator to a newly formed partnership tied to Border Media and a couple who own stations in the Plattsburgh area. Reilly is now selling this partnership another AM/translator offering.

At 92.3 MHz on the dial, a Class C2 FM serving the Lake Livingston area to the north of the Houston metropolitan area had been pumping out Classic Rock tunes as “The Eagle.” That changed in early June, thanks to a pair of transactions, one of which has just closed. As a result, the KSBJ empire has grown again.

The city of Williamsport, Pa., known across the globe as the birthplace of Little League Baseball, is home to a group of stations once owned by Barry Drake's Backyard Broadcasting. They were sold a few years ago to a new company using a slightly different name. They've just been sold again -- to a third entity to use the "Backyard" name.

Paradis Broadcasting of Alexandria, Inc.and Leighton Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Leighton Broadcasting have agreed on the sale of radio stations and FM translators KXRA-AM, KXRA-FM, KXRZ-FM, K262AT and K289CL.

Among the many pioneers of Hispanic radio broadcasting in the U.S. is George Arroyo, President of Q Broadcasting Corp. He operates such Spanish-language radio stations as WAMA-AM & WTIS-AM in Tampa, and two AMs serving the Orlando market. Now, Q is adding a third AM in Central Florida.

To the southwest of the Rose City, a Class B AM serving Yamhill County, Ore., is "redefining AM radio" with syndicated morning hosts Bob & Sheri and a mix of local programs across the day. Now, it is being purchased by an Indiana-based individual.