By Rob Dumke
A Class D AM radio station licensed to serve a city just west of State College, Pa., is being sold.
The seller? A licensee that in January 2020 purchased this property. He’s now selling it for a slight loss.
The station is WPHB-AM 1260 in Phillipsburg, Pa.
It is being sold by Twilight Broadcasting, led by Robert Lowe.
He’s earning $77,500 from the sale of the property to Lightner Communications LLC, owned by Matthew Lightner.
Back in January of last year, pre-pandemic, “Bob” Lowe purchased WPHB for $95,000 from Magnum Broadcasting, headed by Michael Stapleford.
In 2019 Twilight gained notice for its purchase of radio stations in locales across Pennsylvania. This includes deals involving Connoisseur Media and Jeff Andrulonis, as well as a forlorn AM that had been left for dead by its bankrupt newspaper publishing parent.
On June 20, 2019, Twilight effectively became the white knight that saved WEEU-AM from eternal darkness. The Reading Eagle Company sold WEEU for an undisclosed price, thanks to an auction held for interested parties conducted by the company’s bankruptcy trustee.
The Eagle Company was acquired by MediaNews Group for a minimum bid of $5 million, following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing. However, MediaNews did not want the radio station. Its very existence was threatened.
Twilight also owns WKQW-AM & FM and FM translator W281CA in Oil City, Pa., to the southeast of Erie, and in November 2019 agreed to purchase WXMT-FM 106.3 in Smethport, Pa., and its booster serving the community of Bradford, Pa., from Andrulonis’ Colonial Media + Entertainment for $90,000.
This followed a September 2019 deal that saw Class B WBYN-AM 1160, licensed to Lehighton, Pa., go to Twilight from Connoisseur for $50,000.
— Archival reporting by Adam R Jacobson
