OAKLAND, CALIF. — Alfredo Plascencia has built an empire of regional Mexican radio stations across the Golden State through his Oxnard-based Lazer Communications.
At present, privately held Lazer is the licensee of some 40 radio stations across California and in Reno, Nevada. Its largest market is Riverside-San Bernardino … for now.
Lazer is entering the San Francisco Bay Area.
In a transaction that sees Mapleton Communications officially exit radio station ownership, silent Class B KSFN-AM 1510, licensed to Piedmont, Calif., and serving the San Francisco-Oakland market is being sold to Lazer.
The purchase price is $200,000, with $10,000 already placed in escrow.
Serving as legal counsel for Mapleton is Mark Denbo of Smithwick & Belendiuk; legal counsel for Lazer is Kathleen Victory of Fletcher Heald & Hildreth.
With a four-tower array in West Oakland, KSFN is licensed for 8kw during daylight hours and 2,400 watts at night.
Since 1992, it has had a host of call letters and became KSFN in August 2010. Before falling silent under an STA, it was operated via a time brokerage agreement with Pacific Media International and aired Mandarin-language programming provided by West Covina-based EDI Media.
From 1983 until 1993, the facility was owned by the late Art Astor.
He sold it to his nemesis, Saul Levine and his Mt. Wilson FM Broadcasters.
In 2005, Levine cashed out, earning $5.1 million from Mapleton, which used the AM to simucast successful Americana-formatted KPIG-FM 107.5 in Santa Cruz, Calif.
This ultimately proved successful, and a multi-million ill-fated buy, given the sale price of the AM today.
The failure of the KPIG simulcast only made financial troubles at Mapleton even worse.
The company was founded in 2001 by Adam Nathanson, whose father earned a fortune in the mid-1990s from his sale of a 47% stake in Falcon Cable to TCI — one year before Charter Communications paid $3.6 billion for the MVPD.
By July 2006, the younger Nathanson’s Mapleton was one of the fastest-growing radio operators in the West. As it gobbled up stations, it agreed to form an equity partnership with Lazard Alternative Investments.
With 25 stations in Northern California and in Medford, Ore., and 10 in Chico and Redding, Calif., on the way, Mapleton continued its growth spree — just as the nation’s economy was set to enter its biggest downturn since the Great Depression.
By July 2009, with the “great recession” crippling the economy, a debt-laden Mapleton handed Lazard, through its Corporate Partners II, a 90% stake in the company.
In a July 23, 2009 interview with the Mail Tribune of Medford, Media Services Group co-founder and Director George Reed explained, “It’s pretty much simple math. When the economy softened, it affected the top lines in the radio business. Coupled with the credit markets completely drying up, there was no credit available and no way to refinance debt. Obviously, the big prices paid for stations have come down and then you find yourself in a difficult situation with your lender.”
By 2011, Nathanson pivoted away from radio, yielding control to Shea. That led Nathanson to become President/CEO of Mapleton Investments LLC, which has “an active and diversified real estate portfolio” and invests “in a broad range of global investments including equity managers, fixed income, private equity and direct investments.” Today, he’s also a Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles on the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions, appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Meanwhile, Mapleton Communications began to reevaluate its radio stations under Shea’s leadership. In October 2014, a sale of its San Luis Obispo, Calif., stations to Buckley Broadcasting was struck.
Then came a May 2019 deal with Amador Bustos that few noted would be the beginning of the end for Mapleton. On July 1, family-run Tulsa-based Stephens Media Group revealed that it is acquiring 37 radio stations from Mapleton.
The Stephens transaction closed on October 9.
