PORTLAND, ORE. — The future of a long-time talker serving this corner of the Pacific Northwest is now securely in the hands of conservative and Christian-leaning radio station owner Salem Media Group.
Thanks to a swap consummated April 26 and officially filed with the FCC on Tuesday (5/15), it will now own a station it has been operating in Portland since March via an LMA.
On Oct. 24, 2017, RBR+TVBR reported that locally based media company Pamplin Media Group was selling its two AMs in the market — Class B KPAM-AM 860, licensed to the eastern suburb of Troutdale, Ore., and Class B KKOV-AM “Sunny 1550,” licensed to nearby Vancouver, Wash. — for $1.2 million.
The buyer was Intelli LLC — a California limited liability company based in San Jose known for its multicultural radio stations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and in Atlanta.
As expected, KKOV in early April adopted a Vietnamese format, putting an end to MOR-formatted “Sunny 1550.”
For KPAM, the keys were given to Salem Media Group, which began operating KPAM via an LMA with Intelli. This saw a rebranding of KPAM to “The Answer,” used across all of Salem’s conservative talk stations.
Now, the LMA is gone, and KPAM will officially join Salem’s station group in Portland, Ore., comprised of Christian Talk & Teaching siblings (but not simulcast partners) KPDQ-AM & FM, Christian AC KFIS-FM 104.1 “The Fish,” Regional Mexican KRYP-FM 93.1 “El Rey,” and Talk KDZR-AM 1640.
To make the deal happen, Salem is trading to Intelli LLC its KKOL-AM 1300 in Bainbridge Island, Wash., serving the Seattle-Tacoma market as the “Inspiration Station.”
There is no further consideration in this swap.
Intelli LLC is led by San Jose, Calif.-based Tron Dinh Do.
