Mixed stocks and the one deal that ruled them all

There wasn’t a whole lot going on in the station trading market last week in terms of deals filed with the FCC. A lot of licenses will change hands as a result of one company’s ongoing acquisition of LPTV CPs. Otherwise, a huge portion of total value was attributable to just one transaction. On the stock side, TV was up nicely while radio was on the wrong side of flat.

Hubbard deal dominates trading for the week
To say that station trading was slow during the week of November 10-14 is most definitely an understatement. We refer to deals actually accepted by the FCC for filing.

In all, 13 deals were filed involving 51 stations for a total value of $9,082,510. A scant $150,000 of that will be paid via seller paper, according to documents filed with the transfer applications.

88% of the total value traded was from Hubbard Broadcasting in the form of its acquisition of 16 small-market radio stations in Minnesota from companies owned and operated by Louis H. Buron. That deal was good for $8,000,000 cash. Brokers: Larry Patrick and Susan Patrick of Patrick.

In all, 8 AMs and 12 FMs changed hands for a total of $8,900,010. All but two of the stations are in unrated territory.

All of the television stations were LPTVs, and most were CPs, part of the ongoing acquisition operation underway by DTV America Corporation. The total of 31 stations brought in only $182,500 in total payments to the sellers.

Stock markets favored the TV side
During the week of November 10-14, the TVBR TV Index grew 4% while the RBR Radio Index was suffering a relatively mild slide of 0.7%.
Radio was home to stock market mood swings – it rewarded Cumulus with a hefty 11.25% gain, while pummeling Radio One with a 13.36% loss.

All of the television stocks in the TVBR index posted gains, led by Gray, which gained at a healthy 7.8% clip.

Here are the results for the week