Radio One goes super in Charlotte

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Radio OneA third FM is headed into the Radio One Charlotte NC portfolio in a deal that also includes a non-essential AM station.


The key station of interest to Radio One is WNOW-FM Gaffney SC. It’s a Class C1 station on 105.3 MHz with 51 kW @ 1,296’ and provides decent coverage of the Charlotte market.

Included in the deal is WZZQ-FM and FM translator W282AX, both of which are also licensed to Gaffney. And we kid you not – the AM and translator are officially designated as “non-essential assets’ in the contract.

The price for the entire set is $7.75M, with $250K of that attributable to the non-essentials. Fowler Broadcast Communications has expressed an interest in buying them, and if that happens or if Radio One agrees to actively work to sell them, the price of WNOW will be reduced by that same $250K.

WZZQ is a 1 kW daytimer on 1500 kHz which is not part of the Charlotte market. It’s contour is southwest of Charlotte outpost Gastonia and is actually closer to Spartanburg SC than Charlotte, although it doesn’t get into Spartanburg either.

WNOW has been in an LMA with Davidson Media since 9/10/09. Davidson has been running a Mexican format on the station. It will terminate and Radio One will start a new LMA 9/4/12.

An unusual feature of the Radio One LMA is that it calls for a term of 18 months, with a monthly fee of $50K plus expenses. Radio One is required to make all 18 $50K payments, even if the deal closes before the LMA runs out.

Radio One’s two stations in the market are Urban AC WQNC-FM 92.7 and Gospel WPZS-FM 100.9. Both are Class A stations with contours tightly focused on the Charlotte urbanized area.