With Tuesday’s flip of a switch that returned the FCC’s LMS to service after more than six weeks of dormancy, counsel representing Bonneville International Corp. and Connoisseur Media have submitted paperwork with the Commission seeking its regulatory approval of the sale of the LDS Church-affiliated media company’s assets in the San Francisco Bay Area to the company led by Jeffrey Warshaw.
With David O’Connor of Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP representing Bonneville and David Oxenford serving as Connoisseur Media’s legal representative, the deal seeks the FCC’s signing of a local radio rule waiver in order to prevent a necessary divestment under current ownership rules.
View the Local Radio Rule Waiver request in full here.
That’s been filed because Connoisseur Media, through its Alpha Media merger, owns Country KBAY-FM “Bay Country 94.5” in Gilroy and Hot AC KEZR “Mix 106.5” in San Jose — plus three San Francisco-Oakland market properties. Those are comprised of KBAY simulcast partner KKDV-FM 92.1 in Walnut Creek, and Adult Contemporary pair KUIC-FM 95.3 in Vacaville and KKIQ-FM 101.7 in Livermore.
With this deal, Connoisseur will pay $10 million to add KOIT-FM, KMVQ-FM and KBLX-FM in the San Francisco market along with their numerous FM boosters, and KUFX “98.5 K-Fox” in the San Jose market to its station roster.
A $1 million escrow deposit has been made. Serving as Bonneville’s broker of record is Kalil & Co.
In the waiver, Connoisseur states that its revenue percentage in San Francisco-Oakland would rise to 15.3%, from 2.2%. However, this is less than the market revenue seen by both Audacy Inc. and iHeartMedia, it says.
