So far in 2013, two out of 59 radio deals have accounted for over 75% of all value – they are the two sales by Cox to two different buyers. Not only did dealing slump in March, the amount of actual cash changing hands was utterly eclipsed by the seller paper involved in the deals.
There were three other deals during March, involving a total of eight stations, which did not involve an exchange of any type of currency.
In all, $7,448,438 was spent on stations during the month, in almost all cases in markets ranked below the top 100 or in areas beyond the reach of either Arbitron or Eastlan.
Of that trading value, more than 70% was accounted for via promissory notes — $5,281,000 in all.
The $2M deal sending KANR-FM Belle Plaine KS, in the Wichita market, from Daniel D. Smith to Air Capital Media Group was all it took to earn top deal of the month. And as a sign of the way things went during the month or March, the compensation package included $1.6M in seller paper.
January dealing involved 21 deals for 27 stations for a total value of $11,541,200. There were an additional 13 deals involving 13 stations in the donation, reel-in or other no-cash catagories. Seller paper totaled only $491,300.
February is when the two Cox deals were filed, and those agreements fueled a $117,186,775 trading month. Cox and trading partners SummitMedia and Connoissery accounted for all by about $11M of that total. There were an additional four deals for six stations with no dollar value attached, and $350,000 worth of seller paper.
For the first quarter of 2013, a total of $136,176,413 has been spent on radio stations.
In all, 79 deals for 124 stations were filed with the FCC during the quarter.
