Jim Loftus, who served as President/CEO of WBEB-FM in Philadelphia from 2015 through its sale by Jerry Lee to what is today Audacy Corp., since Nov. 1, 2018 has served as the Chief Operations Officer for Seven Mountains Media.
In addition to that role, Loftus is a licensee. And, through that company he’s just agreed to a facilities swap with Matthew Lightner.
In a transaction finalized on Friday (3/10), Loftus’ JFLIV LLC and Covenant Communications is parting ways with WRSC-FM 95.3 in Bellefonte, Pa., which serves State College, Pa.
In exchange, Lightner and his Lightner Communications are handing to Loftus WPHB-AM 1260 in Philipsburg, Pa., due west of State College, and FM translator W282CV at 104.3 MHz in State College, home to Penn State.
Additionally, Lightner will pay Loftus $100,000, with equal interest-free payments of $1,000 to be made over 100 weeks satisfying the terms of a Promissory Note Lightner is executing.
Ahead of regulatory approval of the transaction, LMA agreements are already in place. This sees Lightner already in control of WRSC, which is airing a News/Talk format. WPHB and W282CV are airing Seven Mountains’ “Bigfoot Legends” Country Gold format.
WPHB was acquired by Lightner in May 2021 for $77,500 from Robert Lowe‘s Twilight Broadcasting. Low in January 2020 purchased WPHB for $95,000 from Magnum Broadcasting, headed by Michael Stapleford.
Loftus is based in the State College, Pa., market, which is centrally located to the Seven Mountains footprint. Seven Mountains markets include Dubois, State College, Lewistown, Huntingdon, Selinsgrove, Bloomsburg, Wellsboro/Mansfield and Sayre, Pa., a part of the Elmira-Corning, N.Y. market.
Loftus’ resume includes a decade spent as a VP/GM of CBS Radio’s WOGL and WYSP in Philadelphia and as GSM for the company’s former six-station cluster. For nine years, Loftus was COO of Times-Shamrock Communications’ radio division, overseeing stations in five states. Before that, Loftus served as VP/Market Manager for Susquehanna Radio’s Scranton-Wilkes Barre station group, joining the stations in late 1992. Until then, he served as Director of Sales for WUSL-FM “Power 99.” He’s also worked at legendary Top 40 WFIL-AM in Philadelphia.
