Scott Hennen not only used to own WZFG-AM in the Fargo-Moorhead market – he was also a conservative talker on the station. But his co-investors ousted him from a leadership role and ended his airshift on the station last year. Now he’s engineered the ultimate response – he’s planning to buy back the station.
According to reports, Hennen will soon file to buy the station from Great Plains Intergrated Marketing Inc., and says his own program – currently syndicated in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota, but not in Fargo – could be back on the air as early as 5/1.
WZFG “The Flag” is licensed to Dilworth MN and covers Fargo with a Class B 1100 kHz that boasts 50 kW-D and 440 W-N (it fires off a signal in the middle of those two ranges during critical hours).
Hennen was the lead executive when the station was bought under licensee name SMAHH Communications Inc. under terms of a contract dated 10/18/07. The application noted that he was employed as GM of crosstown WDAY at the time, a position he planned to exit upon FCC approval of the WZFG acquisition.
Hennen’s plans were noted in an article in The Forum. It notes that he was removed from his leadership role with GPIM in September 2010, and his show was removed from the station’s lineup in May 2011.
Terms of the current deal were not mentioned. SMAHH paid $720K cash for it back in the 2007 deal.
RBR-TVBR observation: The “Oh yeah, you can’t do that to me” response doesn’t get any stronger than this – although in all fairness, we must point out that the people who were involved in the ousting of Hennen are making the response possible by agreeing to sell to him.
