A 1kw Class D AM with all of nine watts of power after dark and its companion FM translator have been sold, paperwork filed with the FCC for regulatory approval confirms. Once the deal closes, Pluria Marshall Jr. will become the former owner of the “Voice of Northwest Indiana.”
It’s a transaction some 11 years in the making.
For those closely following WLTH-AM 1370, a Gary, Ind.-based station offering daytime talk shows and music spanning the genres of R&B, Soul, Jazz, Blues and Gospel, it already has a new owner: Marion Williams.
Since 1997, Williams has led WLTH, and in 2013 he became an owner — at least that’s what was originally planned. As RBR+TVBR reported in October 2013, Marshall planned to sell WLTH-AM for $300,000 to an entity that was 85% controlled by Williams and 15% held by Earl Smith. The FCC in March 2014 granted the transfer of control applications. But, it appears the deal was never consummated.
Now, Williams is finally poised to become the WLTH owner, and is getting W244EA, the FM translator rebroadcasting the AM — free of any LMAs or Time Brokerage Agreements.
An asset purchase agreement was finalized on Tuesday (9/3). It shows that a $25,000 purchase price is being agreed to, and the full amount of the transaction is being paid at closing.
With WLTH, Williams adds to a roster of properties comprised of two AMs in Michigan, and AMs in Indiana, Mississippi, and Georgia. He also owns FM translators in Mississippi and Michigan.
Marshall was last in the news some 4 1/2 years ago, after he filed a lawsuit against Nexstar Media Group, on the grounds that the company engaged in active efforts “to undermine” three stations he acquired from the nation’s No. 1 licensee of over-the-air television channels. That legal challenge came in April 2019. One year later, with the COVID-19 pandemic at its worst, Marshall Broadcasting declared bankruptcy. The stations acquired by Nexstar were sold to its closely held variable interest partner Mission Broadcasting at a $9.5 million loss from the original purchase price.
At WLTH, Williams is joined in the executive office by Chief Operating Officer Greg Easton, and Station Manager Natalie Ammons.
