Station trading during the week of 12/22 through 12/26 was completely dominated by a single blockbuster transaction – in fact, it’s a transaction that dominates all December trading filed at the FCC this year. Meanwhile, stocks were mixed.
Entercoms’s hot rod Lincoln
At $105,000,000, the four large market/fifteen station deal between Entercom and Lincoln Financial Media was a blockbuster under any definition. Because of overlap in Denver Entercom will spin one of them (already placed in trust). Meanwhile, part of the compensation package is in stock, leaving LFM with a last handhold in the radio biz.
Four other radio deals involved nine stations and were worth a bit more than $2,600,000 in total.
On the TV side, ION Media donated seven mostly large market LPTV stations to Marcus Lamb’s Word of God Fellowship.
Here’s a look at the top deals for the week:
$105,000,000. Four AMs and 11 FMs in Denver, Atlanta, San Diego and Miami from Lincoln Financial Media to Entercom. Entercom placed one of the Denver FMs into trust with Media Venture Partners broker Elliot Evers to stay within the local cap and to seek a buyer.
$1,600,000: WEZV-FM, WYEZ-FM and WGTN-FM Myrtle Beach from Fidelity Broadcasting Corporation to Compass Radio Group. Broker: George Reed, Media Services Group (seller)
$450,000: A two-AM two FM cluster in Plainview TX (north of Lubbock) was sold by is Rhattigan Broadcasting to High Plains Radio Network LLC, headed by Monte Spearman and Gentry Todd Spearman. Broker: Patrick Communications (seller)
$311,000: WSTP-AM in Salisbury NC, listed as Charlotte station but located between there and Greensboro. Sold by Rowan Media Inc. to WSAT-AM owner 2B Productions
Television gets the better of the week
Only one television company was in the red on the TVBR TV Index, a claim that could not be made on the radio side, where quite a few companies stumbled, most notably the biggest — iHeart – which barely was able to contain its loss to single-digit.
Saga led all radio comers with a 4.67% gain, while multimedia Entravision (listed on the TV chart) beat all comers period with a gain of 4.96%.
