In May 2013, a small operator led by Bruce Mittman and Jim Leven agreed to acquire a group of radio stations in the Twin Tiers region of Western New York and extreme North-Central Pennsylvania.
Just shy of six years later, their company, Community Broadcasters, is now officially out of the Twin Tiers.
Go to the corporate website for the owner of a group of radio stations across central Pennsylvania, and you’ll see this statement: We were just minding our own business when the call came in … Communities that we cared about were crying out for good quality radio. Kristin Cantrell (pictured, below left) and her leadership team responded – from the capital of Kentucky.
The story of Seven Mountains Media is just one of several great stories appearing in the RBR+TVBR Spring 2019 NAB Show edition, available from Sunday in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center and by PDF distributed to all RBR+TVBR subscribers.
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According to Boca Raton, Fla.-based broker Michael J. Bergner of Bergner & Co., Community Broadcasters has completed its $3.9 million sale of its Olean and Elmira-Corning, N.Y., stations to Seven Mountains Media.
That’s the company led by Kristin Cantrell, the daughter of Kirby Confer, of Forever Media and Keymarket.
Now in the Seven Mountains family are the following stations:
CORNING-ELMIRA, N.Y.
- CHR/Pop Class B WNKI-FM 106.1 “Wink 106”
- Rock Class A WNGZ-FM “Wingz 104.9”, licensed to Mountour Falls, N.Y.
- Country Class A WPGI-FM 100.9, in Horseheads, N.Y.
- News/Talk Class B WWLZ-AM 820, in Horseheads, N.Y.
- Classic Country Class C WRCE-AM 1490 in Watkins Glen, N.Y. and FM translator W267CJ at 101.3 MHz in Horseheads, N.Y.
OLEAN, N.Y.
* Country Class B WPIG-FM 95.7
* WHDL-AM 1450, which uses W296DB to broadcast as CHR/Pop “Hot 107.1,” mirrored after co-owned Wink 106
Bergner represented Seven Mountains, while George Reed of Media Services Group represented Community Broadcasters; its legal counsel is Frank Montero of Fletcher Heald & Hildreth.
The top-of-the-hour identification on WNKI already reflects the new ownership.
Seven Mountains is a Kentucky-based radio broadcasting company that has emerged as a leading small and medium-sized market leader across the Keystone State. In October, it lured the radio chairman of the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters and former leader of WBEB-FM in Philadelphia following its sale from Jerry Lee to Entercom, Jim Loftus, as COO.
Seven Mountains markets include Dubois, State College, Lewistown, Huntingdon, Selinsgrove, Bloomsburg, Wellsboro/Mansfield and Sayre, Pa.
Community Broadcasters purchased the Olean and Corning-Elmira stations, plus a now-defunct AM, from Barry Drake-led Backyard Broadcasting for $3.6 million in a deal brokered by Kalil & Co.
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