As the broadcast media industry mourns the passing of Saga Communications founder and President/CEO Ed Christian, many will likely recall the company’s roots in radio. While the company today is a pure-play radio broadcasting operation, for nearly a quarter century it was a broadcast TV station owner.
That’s a legacy of Christian, and involves Morgan Murphy Media.
In June 1994, Saga Communications entered the television market. In a deal valued at $8.55 million, it obtained KOAM-7, the CBS affiliate serving the dual markets of Joplin, Mo. and Pittsburg, Ks. The purchase of the television station came in a year when Saga acquired three radio stations — what are today WJOI-AM and WHQG-FM in Milwaukee, and and WAFX/Norfolk.
The radio stations remain key components of Saga’s AM and FM stable, and by 1997 were key revenue drivers. So was KOAM, which was the No. 1 television station in Nielsen rankings for Pittsburg-Joplin that year.
In 1998, Saga’s interests would take an international turn, with a 50% interest in Finn Medill giving it half-ownership of six radio stations in Reykjavik. Christian happens to be of Icelandic heritage.
Then, another TV station was brought into the mix. In July 1998, Saga signed off on an agreement to acquire KAVU-25, the ABC affiliate in Victoria, Tex., and its LPTV sibling offering Univision network programming to the South Texas market sandwiched between Corpus Christi and Houston.
The $11.875 million deal with the seller, Withers Broadcasting, came because the company, according to local media coverage of the 1998 transaction, did not wish to pay for the conversion of the station to ATSC 1.0. Saga wasn’t shy about spending, and upgraded the station’s broadcast signal and local newscast production.
By May 2017, the dynamics of local television in small television markets had changed dramatically in the nearly two decades since Saga added the South Texas properties. ATSC 3.0 and NEXTGEN TV were on the way. The just-concluded FCC spectrum auction made it clear that smaller broadcast TV operators, or those with a small footprint in TV, would likely become sellers instead of acquisitors.
There was already discussion that Saga would sell its TV assets, given the breadth of its radio industry property roster. That transpired, as Saga opted to reinvest in its core business. For $66.6 million, Saga sold all of its television assets to Madison, Wisc.-based Morgan Murphy Media. That deal also put in motion the transfer of FOX affiliates KFJX-14 in Joplin-Pittsburg and KVCT-19 in Victoria from Surtsey Media — a wholly owned subsidiary of Surtsey Productions, which is housed alongside Saga at its Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., headquarters — to SagamoreHill Midwest. That licensee agreed to enter into operating agreements with subsidiaries of Morgan Murphy.
Speaking at the time, Christian alluded to the post-spectrum auction environment for TV station owners as a chief reason for the sale. “We made a very difficult decision that, with all the changes taking place in the television industry, it was time for us to return to our roots in radio,” he said.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the TV stations were immediately assigned to the purchase of seven FM stations, one AM and four translators owned by Apex Media Corporation for $23 million.
