Another AM Mouse has exited the maze, and it will give a group with a collection of Chicago AM stations something it currently does not have – an outlet that actually serves the better part of the market. Broker: William B. Schutz (seller); Kozacko Media Services (buyer)
The station is WRDZ-AM La Grange IL.
The seller is Radio Disney Chicago LLC, Sean Cocchia signed off on the contract.
The buyer is Polnet Communications Ltd., headed by Walter Kotaba.
The price is $3,450,000 cash.
To the surprise of nobody, virtually none of the Radio Disney stations have been able to hold the price Disney paid for them, and WRDZ is no exception.
According to the late lamented RBR Source Guide and Directory, Disney acquired WRDZ, along with day-timer WDDZ-AM Zion, from Lotus back in 1998, for $20M. Almost all of that value can be attributed to WRDZ.
In fact, WDDZ found its way to Polnet some time ago. Disney sold it to Multicultural Broadcasting per a 5/9/02 contract for $70,000, and Polnet picked it up per an 11/10/05 contract for $23,000.
WRDZ-AM is a Class B on 1300 kHz with 4.5 kW-D, 4 kW-N, DA2. It has very decent coverage of the center of the Chicago market.
Polnet owns four other AMs in the vicinity:
WEEF 1430 Deerfield IL, serving the north side.
WKTA 1330 Evanston IL, also oriented to the north side.
WNVR 1030 Vernon Hills IL, serving from the center to the north side of the market, but not when it gets dark.
WPJX 1500 Zion IL. It’s located well to the north, with a small contour that crosses into Wisconsin during the day and shrinks to just 2 Watts at night.
