For many years, a Class B non-commercial FM with a tower in a suburban portion of Arlington, Va., has served the National Capital Region with Christian Contemporary Music.
In July 2007, the board of trustees at the university in charge of this high-powered station considered a sale — to American Public Media. Talk of a format change led several boosters to lobby the school against a sale. It worked: Discussions ceased two months later.
Eleven years later, the facility is getting a new owner. Should CCM fans be concerned?
No. The station known as “Washington’s Gateway to Service,” WGTS-FM 91.9 in Takoma Park, Md., is being dealt to an entity whose “educational objectives” include religious instruction and moral teaching, and family development and child-rearing through Christian theology.
The buyer of WGTS is Atlantic Gateway Communications, and it is purchasing WGTS from Columbia Union College Broadcasting and its parent, Washington Adventist University.
It’s a $12 million deal for WGTS, which puts a signal over the entire Washington, D.C., market and can be heard in much of the Baltimore market.
A $1 million cash payment has already been made to the school by AGC.
There is also a $1 million payment tied to a loan forgiveness pledge tied to Promissory Notes dated July 19, 2010 and June 30, 2016.
Following those payments, AGC is entering into a $10 million promissory note payable in monthly installments for the next thirty years.
There is no broker associated with this transaction.
