New owners taking the broadcasting plunge
Yesterday we looked at the latest on the TV side (8/14/06 RBR #157). There's been even more activity on the radio side. One of the biggest buyers in recent times has been Peter Davidson, who, if our internal search engine did not fail us, filed his first contract with the FCC 1/8/04 and has been accumulating frequent buyer miles ever since. Davidson Media Group has been content to buy mostly on the AM side, and although it has yet to make a move further west than Iowa and Oklahoma, it's otherwise geographically diverse.
A big part of the Davidson m.o. is to get into the Hispanic radio business in markets that have not yet hit the radar screen at the bigger Hispanic broadcast companies.
They're doing that throughout the Carolinas, in Virginia's two biggest markets, in Indianapolis, Des Moines, Louisville, Kansas City, Providence and Springfield MA, among other places. And its using various Religious formats in places like Detroit, Raleigh, Nashville, Louisville, Richmond, Greenville SC and the NC-SC shore.
However, the biggest recent buy from a newer radio group came from Joe Schwartz and his Cherry Creek Radio. It recently paid $33.4M to take the small-market radio stations off the hands of Fisher Broadcasting, adding mostly Montana and Washington stations to a group scattered throughout the small-market west (not to mention an outpost just about as far east as one can get, on Long Island NY).
One of the more intriguing new groups on the scene is Armada Media Corp. How many new entrants into the broadcasting business can boast the former governor of Wisconsin as their nominal head? Tommy Thompson is the ex-gov in the lineup, along with Jim Coursolle, Chris Bernier, John R. Larson, John Lynch and Terry Shockley, has announced a $9.25M acquisition of a six-station cluster in Aberdeen SD and an $8.5M deal to get seven more stations in two markets along the Wisconsin-Upper Peninsula Michigan border. It has also had some unusual press, for a new small-market group. We can't remember the last time a broadcaster was getting ink for staying out of a race for the US Senate, but that's exactly what happened with Thompson. He decided not to headline the Republican electoral ticket as the candidate to take on Herb Kohl (D-WI). The group has also gotten some bad ink because of one final name on the ownership roster. Nicholas Hurtgen is under indictment in an influence-peddling scheme involving the construction of an Illinois hospital. Before the group can get around to closing its pending acquisitions, it'll have to get around from watchdog groups which are trying to block the deals.
Another group has just made a move which will take it into a fourth market, and when you take as a given that is based in the eastern half of the country, it's quite geographically diverse. The company is Archway Broadcasting Group, headed by Gordon Herzog and Kathy Stinehour.
It just announced an $8.15M deal to acquire an intact five station superduopoly (three AMs, two FMs) in the Decatur IL Arbitron market. The seller is NextMedia, which has been trimming its portfolio of late. That will fit in alongside its three FMs in the Little Rock area, a five-FM cluster in the sprawling Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville NC market, and a one-AM, three-FM cluster in the Columbus GA area.
Todd P. Robinson has been on the move as well, building a very interesting collection of stations. He has KZID-FM Orofino ID, in unrated territory east of Lewiston and Clarkston WA. There are a pair of California FMs: KTKE-FM Truckee, just north of Lake Tahoe and west of Reno NV, and KHRN-FM Huron, west of the Visalia-Tulare Arbitron market. He has a 50% stake in the latter. In the midwest, he has WUSP-FM Nekoosa WI, just south of Stevens Point, which is the southern extremity of the Wausau-Stevens Point market.
Add to that KZLZ-FM, coming in a $4.75M deal with Hispanic specialist Entravision Communications. This will mark Robinson's largest market. The station is licensed to Kearny AZ and serves Tucson.
Robinson has also been very active in the mountainous area just off the eastern seaboard. Last year, he spent 1.3M to get an AM-FM combo in Covington VA and another just to the west in White Sulphur Springs/Lewisburg WV. Now, for another 400K, he's making Covington the centerpiece of a triple combo daisy chain, betting another AM-FM combo in Clifton Forge VA.
RBR observation:
What's interesting about the four radio groups we've looked at is any one of them is capable of striking anywhere. But it is not surprising that they are finding opportunity in smaller rather than large markets. After Telecom 1996 passed, the buying and selling spree that followed began
at the top and worked its way down. In the large markets, the inventory of stations is pretty much picked through. Expanding radio groups are succeeding by thinking small.
Tomorrow: One on One: David Kennedy
After a long career that took him to the CEO position at Susquehanna Media, David Kennedy is now wrapping up loose ends after selling off the company's radio and cable assets for the founding family. What's next for this well-known radio veteran? Inquiring minds want to know.
