If you’re not wholly familiar with Bonten Media Group and its primarily sub-No. 100 DMAs, such as Eureka-Arcata, Calif., radio industry veterans will likely recognize the name of its Chairman and CEO.
That would be Randy Bongarten, a longtime figure at both Emmis Communications and the former NBC Radio.
Bongarten formed Bonten Media in November 2006, as a partnership between Bongarten and Diamond Castle Holdings LLC.
Bonten acquired its first television stations on May 31, 2007 — a 14-station deal with Bluestone Television. Early deals were to include the $209 million acquisition of CBS affiliate WTVF-5 in Nashville from Landmark Television, announced in July 2008. However, the deal never happened: With the “Great Recession” wreaking havoc on Wall Street and in the U.S. housing and lending markets, key financial backer Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy.
The Esteem JSA dates to Jan. 1, 2008.
Before becoming a TV station owner, Bongarten served for six years as President of Emmis’ former Television Division. He exited in 2006, as the company aggressively dismantled its TV division.
Prior to joining Emmis, Bongarten was perhaps best-known as the President of NBC Radio — in an era when Howard Stern was the notorious and wildly popular afternoon drive air personality at the former WNBC-660 in New York.
In fact, it was Bongarten who notified Stern on Sept. 30, 1985 that his program had been cancelled, due to “conceptual differences.”
From 1973-1983, Bongarten held various positions with the former GE Broadcasting, which later became the NBC Radio division.
In the mid-1990s, Bongarten also served as President of GAF Broadcasting, which converted Classical WNCN-FM 104.3 in New York to Active Rock as WAXQ “Q104.3” in December 1993. The station is now owned by iHeartRadio and is a Classic Rocker.
At Bonten, Bongarten has maintained a philosophy of building and maintaining strong local news products and brands.
However, in Humboldt County, Calif., the Eureka-Arcata stations owned by Bonten have long been tied to the Redding, Calif., market, with weather forecasts and master control handled from Redding. This is a change from the early 2000s, when KRCR’s newscasts were rebroadcast on KAEF.
In its biggest markets — namely the Tri-Cities, Tenn./Va. area and Greenville-New Bern, N.C., Bonten has indeed invested heavily in local news.
That’s likely one of the key reasons why Sinclair sees the company as a perfect fit, amid rumors that it’s looking to acquire part — or all — of Tribune Media’s TV assets.
ANOTHER LINK TO RADIO
Bongarten is not the only link Bonten Media has to the radio industry.
Scott Moody serves as COO and CFO, and has held stints as VP/Business Development and Treasurer for CBS Radio.
He’s also been at NBC Universal, serving as CFO for Digital Media and VP/CFO for Business Development.
Moody added COO duties in April 2016.
It is not yet known if Bonten’s leadership team will join Sinclair following the closing of its $240 million purchase of Bonten, and Cunningham Broadcasting Corp.’s purchase of the membership interest of Esteem Broadcasting, which was announced Friday morning.
All but one of the Cunningham stations are operated by Sinclair via local marketing agreements (LMAs).
This story was updated at 1:20pm ET to reflect the current production of newscasts by KAEF in Eureka, Calif.
