Salem Communications is now the proud owner of an FM station in Columbus OH, and the Radio Training Network has picked one up in St. Petersburg FL. The sellers were Radio One and Family Stations, respectively.
The Salem acquisition was WTOH-FM – WJKR-FM at the time the deal was filed with the FCC last November. The 98.9 MHz Class A pairs up with WRFD-AM and sold for $4M cash. According to broker Mark Jorgenson, it has already installed a Conservative Talk format and goes by the moniker 989 The Answer.
The WJKR call letters by contract remained the property of Radio One.
In St. Petersburg, WFTI-FM has been added to the portfolio of Radio Training Network for $2.5M cash.
The station is a Class A on 91.7 MHz with 3 kW @ 282’, serving St. Petersburg but not putting much of a signal into the Tampa portion of the market. According to its contract, the seller also retained rights to the calls, but a check of the FCC database indicates that no change has as yet taken place.
Elliot Evers of Media Venture Partners represented Family Stations in the deal, and Mark Jorgenson of Jorgenson Broadcast Brokerage represented Radio Training Network.
They note that RTN “…is a non-commercial Christian broadcaster that owns and operates stations in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Missouri.” The deal adds to the group’s collection of stations and translators serving Florida’s Gulf Coast.
