John Lynch will be running a cluster of radio stations in San Diego, not via an LMA, but as CEO of LMA, as in Local Media of America. He’ll be doubling his local station group from three to six (all licensed across the border in Mexico), and is looking for more stations to buy in San Diego and elsewhere.
Private equity firm Thoma Bravo is providing the financial backing for the group, and Lynch is in the market with three stations doing business as The Broadcast Company of the Americas. It runs XX Sports Radio XEPRS-AM, the Walrus XHPRS-FM, and San Diego 1700 XEPE-AM.
The new stations are coming from Finest City Broadcasting. They include Magic 92.5, XHRM-FM, Z-90 XHTZ-FM, and 91X XETRA-FM.
Terms of the buy were not disclosed. LMA acquired FCB’s debt earlier and is now getting the company and its assets in a foreclosure arrangement.
“The Finest City Broadcasting stations, coupled with BCA’s leading stations, create a powerful cluster of broadcasters in the San Diego market and provide a tremendous growth opportunity for LMA,” said Lynch. “With a focus on creating local media platforms led by radio broadcasting, our group of stations is highly attractive to advertisers. With Thoma Bravo’s support, we look forward to examining future investment opportunities in the San Diego area and across the nation.”
“Thoma Bravo is excited to partner with media industry veteran John Lynch through LMA,” added Carl Thoma, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo. “John Lynch’s expertise coupled with Thoma Bravo’s proven investment model of building industry-leading companies through operational best practices and strategic acquisitions positions LMA well for further expansion.”
For Lynch, it marks a return to XETRA, which he started up under the umbrella of his Noble Broadcasting Group. After Telecom 1996, Noble fed into Jacor which eventually fed into Clear Channel.
RBR-TVBR observation: First there was Larry Wilson in Portland, now we have John Lynch in San Diego. Knowledgeable radio professionals back into the biz and on the acquisition trail! It’s what we’ve been calling for and waiting for. If we get one more, can we call it a trend?
RBR-TVBR note: If you didn’t know John Lynch many many moons ago was drafted out of college to be a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers but then it happened – a knee injury ended his career a few weeks into his first season. Hey, John was a Steeler, RBR-TVBR publisher is from the Steel City, worked at KQV in Pgh, and is and always will be a Steeler fan and a fan of John Lynch.
