A new era for Saga Communications has officially begun.
As of today, it’s a radio industry pure-play. And, that seems to be good news for investors, based on its Wednesday activity on Wall Street.
Saga today completed its $23 million acquisition of Apex Media Corp.‘s radio stations in Charleston, S.C., and Hilton Head Island, S.C.
The deal was announced in mid-May, and gives Saga WCKN-FM 92.5, WMXZ-FM 95.9, WAVF-FM 101.7 “Chuck FM,” WXST-FM “Star 99.7,” WSPO-AM 1390, and translators W261DG (used for WSPO as gospel-formatted “Heaven”) andW257BQ “99.3 The Box” in Charleston, S.C.
Down in Hilton Head and the Low Country of South Carolina, which includes Beaufort, Saga is obtaining WVSC-FM 103.1, WLHH-FM 104.9 “The Surf” and WALI-FM 93.7, licensed to Walterboro, S.C. Apex acquired WALI from Premiere Properties in October 2016 for $325,000. Also in the Low Country are translators W256CB and W293BZ.
With that closing, Saga has concurrently completed its $66.6 million sale of CBS affiliate KOAM-7 in the Joplin market, which includes city of license Pittsburg, Kan., and most of its Victoria Television Group, to Morgan Murphy Media.
The Victoria Television Group is comprised of stations representing just about every major broadcast TV network operating in the U.S. The stations being sold directly from Saga to Morgan Murphy are ABC KAVU-25, NBC KMOL-17, CBS KXTS-41, FOX KVCT-19, Univision KUNU-21, and Telemundo KVTX-45.
These stations were not directly impacted by Storm Harvey.
Concurrently, FOX affiliates KFJX-14 in Joplin-Pittsburg, and KVCT-19 in Victoria, are being transferred from Surtsey Media — a wholly owned subsidiary of Surtsey Productions, which is housed alongside Saga at its Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., headquarters — to SagamoreHill Midwest. This entity will enter into operating agreements with subsidiaries of Morgan Murphy.
Commenting on his company’s exit from television ownership, Saga President/CEO Ed Christian said, “It’s a bittersweet time as we complete the sale of our Joplin, Mo., and Victoria, Tex., television stations. We’ve enjoyed owning the stations, and they have been great contributors to our overall performance over the years.”
Christian explained the sale of the TV stations by adding, “With all the changes taking place in the television industry it became time to turn them over to a fine company that plans to continue to grow in the television segment. It has been a great experience for us to serve both communities with terrific television stations that focused heavily on the local markets. Ultimately, we made a very difficult decision that it was time for us to return to our roots in radio.”
That was immediately done with the Apex deal.
“We are pleased to be acquiring radio stations in the Charleston market; and the Hilton Head, Bluffton, and Beaufort, S.C., market,” Christian said. “Both of these markets have recently been recognized as two of the South’s best communities by Southern Living magazine.”
There are both “heritage and developmental radio stations” included in the Apex deal, Christian says, adding that few staff changes are likely with the change in ownership.
“We look forward to working with the existing staff to continue to serve these growing communities with great radio stations,” he says.
Meanwhile, Christian hints that Saga “intends to continue building its business in radio by continuing to identify and acquire radio stations in communities that we believe in.”