KDB-FM is a hybrid operation – it’s owned and operated by a non-profit organization, but one of its income streams is based on the sale of traditional advertising. But it’s been running in the red and it’s going on the block.
According to the Santa Barbara Independent, it costs $900K to operate the station annually, and the sale of advertising brings in about $400K of that and has been enjoying modest increases of late. Still, the station has accumulated $400K worth of red ink over the past three years, and rather than make up the shortfall, licensee Santa Barbara Foundation has decided to sell it.
The Foundation’s core mission is to support the arts in Santa Barbara, and it wants to invest its resources in that mission rather than in the effort to keep the station afloat, plus it looks forward to using the proceeds from the sale for the same purpose.
Noncommercial station brokerage Public Radio Capital has been retained to shop the station.
If a buyer can be found that will leave the Classical format intact, a discount will be applied to the sales price. Otherwise, SBF will expect full value for the station, which it acquired in 2003.
That acquisition was a stock deal with Pacific Broadcasting Company, which was couched as a “bargain sale to charity.” It included provisions for calculating an appraised value and a selling value, with the difference being treated as a tax deductible contribution by the seller. A complex formula determined exactly how much the Foundation was to pay to Pacific, with the provision that the amount should not exceed $3,284.694.28.
The station is a Class B on 93.7 MHz with 12.5 kW @ 869’. Its primary contour hugs the coast, reaching past Oxnard to the south and not quite to Lompoc to the north.
