He’s known across the U.S. for his longtime role as the host of the syndicated early-prime TV game show Wheel of Fortune. But, in broadcast circles, he’s also known as the licensee of an AM radio station that has served Maryland’s state capital since 1949.
Now, Pat Sajak is selling the station’s license, while listing the land where this property’s studios and towers lie for a bit more than he’s collecting for the 72-year-old broadcast facility.
Sajak Broadcasting Corp. is agreeing to sell WNAV-AM 1430 in Annapolis, Md., a Class B with 5kw during daylight hours and 1kw at night.
The buyer is BMSC Media, an entity that is 76% controlled by former WIAD-FM in Washington, D.C., Program Director Chris Roth and 24% controlled by Francis Brady.
Importantly, the WNAV broadcast tower and office/studio building are not included in this transaction, valued at $1,000. Neither is Sajak’s arrangement with Hope Christian Church of Marlton, the licensee of FM translator W260BM, which WNAV has used for “FM revitalization.”
That means it is up to BMSC to negotiate a new lease of the FM translator, or find another one. It is also BMSC’s job to relocate WNAV, and Sajak has pledged up to $100,000 to help finance that move, the asset purchase agreement submitted for FCC approval reads.
Signing off on the sale for Sajak is VP/GM Stephen Hopp, whose time at WNAV dates to 1974.
As far as the land sale goes, it is listed for $2.6 million. However, there is a memorandum of understanding in place for a third party to purchase the property noted in the APA. The land at 236 Admiral Drive in Annapolis, Md., totals 7.48 acres and can be subdivided into a minimum of 25 lots.
Sajak acquired WNAV in April 1998 from Jake Einstein‘s Encore Broadcasting of Maryland in an asset sale valued at $2.2 million, including a $1 million cash payment. In a December 1998 Radio & Records interview, Sajak recalled how he started his career at a 250-watt Spanish-language radio station as a news reader who didn’t speak Spanish.
Asked about the WNAV purchase, Sajak replied, “Even though you have these huge conglomerates buying all these stations, there still are orphans out there that get lost in the shuffle … With all due respect, how can you sit in a corporate office in Houston
with 26 stations around the country and all you get is bottom-line reports? I don’t remember that as being what radio is supposed to be.”
Sajak became interested in buying a radio station in the mid-1990s, when he found himself looking for a business activity in his spare time. Half of the year is spent in Culver City, where Wheel of Fortune is taped, while the other half is spent in an upscale waterfront community near Annapolis.
