There are few radio industry luminaries who have captured the attention of all as Randy Michaels has since the 1980s. From the launch of “The Power Pig” at WFLZ-FM in Tampa to building Clear Channel Communications, the foundation of today’s iHeartRadio, Michaels rose to fame before shifting gears and, among other things, acquired a collection of radio stations in some of America’s tiniest locales.
One of these cities is Hays, Kansas. That is where Michaels is selling an FM that recently went silent, following the end of an LMA with Monte and Doris Miller‘s Rocking M Media.
The station is KRMR-FM 105.7 in Hays, a small city along I-70 situated between Colorado and Topeka, Kansas.
It is licensed for 20.5kw at 2,589 feet from a tower just north of town.
Until Dec. 2, 2019, KRMR had been simulcasting Rocking M’s KNNS-AM 1510, a Class D daytimer with a tower south of Hays, in Larned, Kansas.
The LMA’s expiration came to light in November, when RBR+TVBR reported on the latest developments regarding Rocking M, and reported Miller family disputes and infighting. This led to the splitting up of Rocking M’s Salina, Kansas cluster with the transfer control of four stations to Christopher Miller, a son of Monte and Doris Miller.
Christopher Miller on March 11, 2019, was terminated via e-mail from his role as President, as was the company’s Digital/Social Media Manager, Cale Miller. Cale is the son of Christopher Miller and grandson of Monte Miller.
With the end of the LMA, and Rocking M’s use of KRMR, Michaels — whose legal name is Benjamin Homel — was left with no local operator to run the facility. As such, on Dec. 3, 2019, a request for silent STA was filed with the FCC due to the lack of an alternative programming source.
Now, KRMR is poised to come back to life as a noncommercial non-secular facility operated by Divine Mercy Radio.
That’s the entity that owns and operates KVDM-FM 88.1 in Hays, in addition to a co-channel facility in Great Bend, Kansas and KJDM-FM in Lindsborg, Kansas.
Divine Mercy Radio is paying $52,000 for KRMR; a 10% deposit is being held by the Dennis Kelly IOLTA Trust Account at PNC Bank in Washington, D.C. Kelly is legal counsel to Divine Mercy Radio; Radioactive LLC’s legal counsel is Melissa J. Repp.
As such, Divine Mercy Radio will have a non-comm duopoly in Hays following the transfer of control of KRMR. A Form 302 application changing KRMR’s status to noncommercial operations is forthcoming.
The original construction permit for KRMR was obtained via competitive bidding in FM Auction No. 37
