Mountainplex Media will have to turn over only one of those rectangular green pieces of paper with the engraving of George Washington on it in exchange for WMTD-AM in Hinton WV. But before it gets to that point, there are provisions for a greater amount of money to be exchanged between Mountainplex and the seller.
In fact, the buyer, headed by Kenneth H. Allman, has been investing cash into the eventual acquisition of the station ever since an LMA kicked off 4/1/10.
Another odd feature to this deal is the name of the seller – contrary to what one might believe at first glance, there is nothing geographical about the name Southern Communications Corporation. In fact, it refers to the principal owner, R. Shane Southern.
Here’s where the money for the station comes into play. According to the LMA contract, Mountainplex paid $6K at the time of the agreement, added a monthly payment of $3K from 4/1/10 through 3/31/11, and was scheduled to pay $14K upon exercise of the option to acquire the station.
Southern retains an interest in several stations, including at least four in the nearby Beckley WV market.
WMTD-AM is to the east of Beckley, and it gets a fringe signal into the town, but its 1 kW primary signal fails to make it there during the day. At night, when it powers down to 13 W, it doesn’t get there at all. It’s a Class D on 1380 kHz.
