It’s not often that an FM translator can command a sizable sum of money. But, given the right signal contour, market size, and billing potential, sometimes there’s an outsized price that’s agreed upon.
That appears to be the case in Houston, where a 250-watt FM signal that doesn’t even reach downtown or eastern communities such as Pasadena is being spun for more than $1 million.
The deal also puts a stamp on contemporary Indian music in an important multicultural metropolis.
The facility being spun is K254BZ, at 98.7 MHz in Houston — sort of.
With 190 watts under a construction permit, the translator covers Mission Bend, Stafford and Sugar Land, roughly 18 miles to the southwest of Houston’s downtown core.
It’s a small portion of a rapidly expanding metropolitan area, undaunted by catastrophic flooding.
That’s because K254BZ has a major first-adjacency issue with LBI Media-owned KTJM-FM 98.5 “La Raza,” a Port Arthur, Tex. 100kw Class C with city-grade coverage to downtown Houston that can even be heard in Mission Bend.
Despite the limitations, K254BZ has been embraced as the new home of Houston’s Hottest Indian Bollywood Radio. That would be Masala Radio, led by CEO Sandhya Thakkar.
It’s served Houston since 1993, and most recently used KTEK-AM in Houston as its “broadcast home.”
As noted by RadioDiscussions.com members in the market who commented on the translator purchase, Masala Radio brokered the 4pm-8:30pm weekday slot on KTEK from Salem Media Group. When KTEK’s sale by Salem to Relevant Radio closed, it lost its broadcast home.
Now, with K254BZ, it can broadcast 24/7, running off of an HD signal of Cox Media Group’s KGLK-FM 107.5 “The Eagle,” coming in from the south in Lake Jackson, Tex.
The price for Thakkar and Masala Radio is a head turner. It is acquiring K254BZ for $1.15 million from the Maria Guel-led Hispanic Family Christian Network Inc.
A $57,500 downpayment has been made to HFCN by Thakkar and Masala Radio, using the licensee name Music Masala Inc. The remainder is due in cash at closing.
A format change on the translator transpired over the Thanksgiving Day holiday.
Serving as the buyer’s legal counsel is Davina Sashkin of Fletcher Heald & Hildreth.
How much of a payday is it for Guel and HFCN? It agreed to purchase K254BZ in January 2016 from Community Public Radio for $85,000.
The reaction on RadioDiscussions from one market observer?
However, Thakkar may have the last laugh. A Rice University review of the latest U.S. Census data, conducted in September 2016, showed that the Asian population saw 5.7% annual growth in the Houston DMA and is the fastest-growing group in the metropolitan area.
“Though they still represent the smallest major racial and ethnic group in the metropolitan area, their overall numbers grew more between 2014 and 2015 than the area’s black population, which added roughly 24,400 people,” said Leah Binkovitz, of Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.
Where do they reside? Smack dab in the middle of the signal contour of K254BZ.
FROM HMONG TO HINDU
Few can argue with the assessment that Houston is vastly different from 30 years ago, when 93Q’s Saturday night modern music-filled dance parties from Club 6400 defined the market and led KRBE to mimic the then-Top 40 station.
But, the rise of the Asian population, the majority of which are foreign-born, is something few — aside from some astute multicultural marketing executives — may have forseen.
Today, the largest concentration of Hmong (from southern China, Vietnam and Laos) in the U.S. is within the Houston metro.
Now, The Indian population has surged.
To help ensure that Houston’s populace is properly accounted for, multicultural advertising agency López Negrete Communications has been contracted by the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure that the hard to count are counted for Census 2020. This includes those whose preferred languages are Hindu and Urdu, an agency spokesperson says.
López Negrete’s Chief Marketing Officer and Managing Director, Julio Arrietta, is leading the effort on behalf of the agency.
As shown in the map above, Houston’s Asian community has seen its growth outside of the city limits. The population of Sugar Land, as of 2015, was 37.5% Asian.
Welcome to the Fort Bend County of today.
“In Fort Bend County, where the population of Asian-Americans has risen even more rapidly than in Harris County, only 14.5% of Asian-Americans are of Vietnamese backgrounds,” Binkovitz finds. “Instead, Indian-Americans represent 37% of the Asian-American population there, according to 2014 estimates, the most recent numbers available.”
Perhaps even more startling is this 2015 statistic: Fort Bend County had become the wealthiest county in Texas, with a median household income of $95,389 and a median family income of $105,944.
A 2013 Kinder Institute report on the Asian population in Houston noted that Indian immigrants came largely through legislation that allowed them to qualify as “professionals of exceptional ability.”
This explains why some 36% of Indian-Americans in the DMA earn more than $75,000 annually.
Binkovitz concludes, “As with the nation, they have had and will continue to shape the Houston area’s cultural and political landscape.”
This explains why Masala Radio is now one of five FM signals targeting South Asians full-time in Houston.
At 95.1 MHz is “Sangeet Radio,” the “No. 1 Desi Hit Music Station,” using KBRZ-AM as its originating station for an FM translator with a similar signal contour to the one Masala Radio just acquired.
Then, there is “Radio Dabang,” using K258BZ at 99.5 MHz. It uses the exact same facility as Masala Radio, and is billed as “Houston’s Real Bollywood Station.”
Meanwhile, another South Asian service using an HD signal tied to KGLK is “HUM FM Radio.” Offering “Bollywood Hits and More,” it uses K291CE at 106.1 MHz from downtown Houston, putting a limited signal over the heart of the South Asian community.
Lastly, there is a small FM translator at 97.3 MHz serving an area where the Katy Freeway meets Kirkwood.
While 93Q and KRBE were at war some 30 years ago, a new on-air battle has begun in Houston. This time, it’s about Bollywood supremacy, and Masala Radio is in it to win it.
