Educational Media Foundation‘s quest to have a presence in nearly every U.S. radio market has been one of Radio’s big headlines of the last five years.
Now, EMF is ensuring its presence in two key Midwest locales.
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An asset purchase agreement just filed with the FCC indicates that the parent of the popular KLOVE and Air 1 noncommercial Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) and Worship Music networks is purchasing three FM stations that have been longtime KLOVE affiliates.
Two of the stations serve cities in Ohio. The third covers the Lexington-Fayette, Ky., market.
The seller? Vernon R. Baldwin Inc., which is pocketing $7,107,000 from the sale of the following properties:
- Class A WVRB-FM 95.3 in Wilmore, Ky., covering Lexington and its surrounding communities
- Class A WNLT-FM 104.3 in Delhi Heights, Ohio, serving the Cincinnati market
- Class A WKLN-FM 102.3 in Wilmington, Ohio, a small city to the northeast of Cincinnati and southeast of Dayton
It’s hardly a surprise that EMF would be buying the stations.
WNLT and WVRB have been operated by EMF via a network affiliation agreement inked on Dec. 20, 2000. WKLN entered into a similar arrangement on June 18, 2003.
To grab full control of the three FMs, EMF paid Baldwin a $160,000 deposit. The remainder will be held in a Promissory Note that sees EMF pay Baldwin Inc. $68,319.75 every month, with 3% interest per year. The term of the note is 90 months.
EMF’s execution of a Promissory Note is an eye-opener, suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted listener contributions as expenses associated with its growing array of networked stations remains static or has perhaps increased.
The APA also notes that Baldwin, led by Marcella Baldwin as President, is a beneficiary of a Paycheck Protection Program SBA loan, to assist through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Serving as Ms. Baldwin’s legal counsel is F. Reid Avett of Womble Bond Dickinson. EMF’s legal counsel, once again, is Paige Fronabarger of Wilkinson Barker Knauer.
