As Pandora recently re-organized its management to widen its focus, the company is also unsure it wants to remain a broadcast radio licensee.
The company has told the FCC it’s thinking about whether to hold onto or spin KXMZ(FM), Rapid City, South Dakota.
The company started the $600,000 purchase process from Connoisseur Media for the station in 2003; it finally won approval last May. The aim was to lower its ASCAP music licensing fees and pay lower broadcast rates.
“Pandora currently is reevaluating its broadcast strategy,” writes Wilkinson Barker Knauer attorney David Oxenford in a letter to the commission on Pandora’s behalf. The company is seeking the agency’s permission not to have to cover this issue in its upcoming shareholder meeting in June.
The only reason Pandora bought this little station in Rapid City SD was to claim that they’re a radio broadcaster and not a streamer (hah) to try to get their overall royalty rates lower. It took way, way over a couple of years to from deciding to buy the station until the deal closed, and since their little ploy didn’t work, they don’t need the station, and probably really don’t want it.
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