By Jackson Weaver, with additional reporting by Adam R Jacobson
kIRKLAND, WASH. — On September 10, Lotus Communications, the privately held media company run by the Kalmenson family from Los Angeles, officially closed on its acquisition of the lone radio stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Today, those stations’ continued link to Sinclair has led to widespread challenges for the three audio brands, as a crippling cybersecurity incident at the stations’ former owner has led to severe disruption for Lotus in Seattle-Tacoma.
As of 8:15am Pacific, KOMO-AM 1000 & KOMO-FM 97.7, the all-News stations serving the Pacific Northwest, is acknowledging “technical issues” on the air. There are localized weather segments and traffic reports, and commercial breaks can be heard. Audio streaming was not up and running, however, as of 9am. Furthermore, substantial blocks of air time saw the radio stations simulcasting KOMO-4’s coverage of Good Morning America. This continued through 10:45am Pacific.
The situation at Talk sibling KVI-AM and Hot Adult Contemporary KPLZ-FM “Star 101.5” appears to be equally challenging. Streaming is down for both stations.
And, KPLZ’s ability to present programming as normal has been severely hampered.
Mediabase 24/7 monitoring software shows KPLZ not airing any songs between 2am-6am Pacific on Monday. At various points since Sunday, imaging audio is absent; “dead air” and skipping songs has also caused problems. As such, a simplistic backup music library appears to be on the air; local monitoring of KPLZ suggests there are no live personalities able to broadcast.
While Lotus controls the three radio brands, paying $18,058,604 for the two FMs and two AMs serving Seattle-Tacoma, they remain housed within “KOMO Plaza” in Seattle. The three long-standing radio brands once served as flagship properties for the now-defunct Fisher Communications.
Lotus President Jim Kalmenson was unavailable for comment on Monday morning.
