Five months after officially hanging out the "for sale" sign (4/21/05 RBR #79), Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff Company and its investment bankers at UBS will accept bids today for all of the company's assets, including the two parts of Susquehanna Media - - radio and cable TV. On the radio side, Susquehanna has primo properties in big markets that are expected to draw hefty price tags. RBR/TVBR last month raised its estimate for the radio sale, projecting that it is likely to bring a total of 1.5-2 billion bucks (8/24/05 RBR #166). The cable TV systems don't have the same cache, since they aren't in any big markets. Our estimate all along has been that they'll bring over 600 million.

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Here's another look at what's on the auction block

CALLS	Format	Revenue-Station 2004
San Francisco (#4)
KNBR-AM	Sports	30,000,000
KFOG-FM	AAA	25,300,000
KSAN-FM	Clsc Rock	10,200,000
KTCT-AM	Sports	3,000,000
Dallas-Ft. Worth (#5)
KPLX-FM	Country	26,800,000
KTCK-AM	Sprts/Talk	23,000,000
KLIF-AM	Talk	6,100,000
KTDK-FM	Sprts/Talk	0
KKLF-AM	Sprts/Talk	0
KDBN-FM	Clsc Rock	6,000,000
Houston (#7)
KRBE-FM	CHR	22,000,000
Atlanta (#11)
WNNX-FM	Altve/NwRck	16,000,000
WWWQ-FM	CHR	10,000,000
Cincinnati (#27)
WRRM-FM	AC/SftRk	10,000,000
WMOJ-FM	R&B Oldies	7,800,000
WYGY-FM	Country	4,000,000
Kansas City (#29)
KCMO-AM	Talk	2,400,000
KCMO-FM	Oldies	5,700,000
KCJK-FM	80&90/ClHts	3,700,000
KCFX-FM	Clsc Rock	10,000,000
KFFG-FM	AOR	900,000
Indianapolis (#41)
WJJK-FM	Adult Hits	6,000,000
WFMS-FM	Country	15,000,000
WISG-FM	ChrsContemp	1,800,000
York (#103)
WSOX-FM	Oldies	3,300,000
WSBA-AM	News/Talk	2,400,000
WGLD-AM	Chrst/Talk	0
WARM-FM	AC	5,500,000
Source: BIAfn Media Access Pro

Cable TV: Systems serving 230,000 customers in York, PA; Williamsport, PA; Brunswick, ME; Rankin County, MS; Olney, IL; Duquoin, IL; Shelbyville, IN; Lawrenceburg, IN; and Carmel, NY.

RBR observation:
Who's expected to bid? Although we'd originally tabbed Cox Radio and Entercom as the best fits, since they could use a stock buy to cut the tax bill for Susquehanna's founding Appell family, both insisted they wouldn't overpay and seem to have been left on the sidelines as the price tag moved higher. That pretty much eliminates the possibility of a public company buying all of Susquehanna Media for stock and then spinning off the cable TV systems (which Cox Radio could have done to Cox Communications). The buzz lately has been about a buyout by Susquehanna Media's current and former management (including current CEO David Kennedy and predecessor Peter Brubaker) with venture capital backing, a radio bid by Farid Suleman's Citadel Broadcasting with Forstmann Little putting in more cash to increase its investment in radio, and a bid for the radio group by Cumulus Media CEO Lew Dickey with some new venture capital backing. But don't forget that aggressive bidding for individual stations could force a breakup of the radio group. Viacom's Infinity, in particular, is very interested in those Houston and Atlanta stations, although FCC limits won't let it buy the entire radio group. Our previous analysis of who can and cannot acquire the Susquehanna Radio stations in each market still stands (4/26/05 RBR #82). As for the cable TV side, there's no obvious buyer, but any MSO with existing operations near one or more of the Susquehanna systems is likely to bid to add a few more subs to a hub.