Seven Mountains Media is now officially the owner of an AM/FM combo in that “little bitty piece of Pennsylvania” that can call itself a part of the vast New York DMA.
The deal marks the exit from this Pocono Mountains community by Connoisseur Media, led by Jeff Warshaw.
Seven Mountains, led by Kristen Cantrell, on Thursday (10/31) closed on its $1.1 million acquisition of WSBG-FM 93.5 and Class D WVPO-AM 840, along with silent FM translator W276DG at 103.1 MHz, in Stroudsburg, Pa.
Officially, it is Seven Mountains’ “Southern Belle LLC” that is the designated assignee of the stations. It made to Connoisseur $1 million cash payment; a $50,000 escrow payment was made August 2. On Oct. 31, 2020, the remaining $100,000 will be paid in cash.
With a signal reaching much of the Allentown-Easton-Bethlehem market but focused on the sprawling communities of northern New Jersey and the “itty-bitty piece o’ Pennsylvania” made famous by WHTZ-FM “Z100” in the 1980s as a listening area embedded in the New York market, WSBG has a rich history of serving the Stroudsburg region.
The station began operations in 1964 as WVPO-FM, and in 1983 split from the AM with a Top 40 format heavy on gold titles. As the years progressed, WSBG even took the moniker “Power 93.5.”
Keystone Broadcasters sold WVPO & WSBG to Nassau Broadcasting in 1994. In May 2003, Connoisseur grabbed them — along with seven other Nassau stations — for $38.7 million.
The asset purchase agreements also includes details regarding the completion of the process with GTP Towers I LLC “to bifurcate” the existing license agreement between the company and Connoisseur dated Dec. 28, 2017, covering both WSBG-FM and WWYY-FM, sold in April to Cumulus Media. Two separate agreements are forthcoming.
Serving as the exclusive broker in this transaction is Boca Raton, Fla.-based broker Michael J. Bergner of Bergner & Co.
Acting as the legal counsel for Connoisseur in this transaction is David Oxenford of Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP; the legal counsel for Seven Mountains is Allen G. Moskowitz.
The remaining Connoisseur properties are all located in New York and in Connecticut.
