A Class D AM with an FM translator serving a Missouri city known as the headquarters of the News-Press & Gazette Co. is being sold.
No, NPG isn’t the buyer. It’s an Eagle that’s set to fly high with this Classic Hits facility.
On May 7, an asset purchase agreement was signed that will transfer Orama Inc.’s KGNM-AM and FM translator K273BF in St. Joseph, Mo., to Eagle Communications.
It’s paying $160,000 for the facilities.
A $100,000 escrow deposit has been made to Field Abstract & Title LLC, serving as escrow agent.
Eagle is a Hays, Kan.-based broadcast company led by Kurt David.
An LMA is already in place.
With KGNM, Eagle will have ownership of four radio stations in St. Joseph, as it already owns KESJ-AM, KFEQ-AM and KKJO-FM. As such, Eagle would own every local AM station; other stations audible on the AM dial serve the Kansas City market, or Topeka, Kan.
The three AMs have FM translators serving St. Joseph, while KKJO is a highly regarded Top 40 station with a 100kw signal audible in Kansas City — and is the lone commercial FM that is locally based.
While this deal effectively gives Eagle a monopoly in St. Joseph, NPG famously operates the local newspaper and every TV network affiliate except that of ABC in the market. That’s not to say NPG didn’t want the ABC affiliate, KQTV-2.
The Third Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals’ Sept. 23, 2019, decision to vacate and remand the FCC’s cross-ownership rules effectively led to the nix of an April 2019 deal that would have seen Heartland Media sell KQTV-2 to News-Press & Gazette Company for $13,650,000.
