Last week only five transactions went through the virtual portals of The Portals, the FCC’s SW Washington home – and failed to total as much as $1M between them. And if there is a rebound to normal trading activity in the cards, it isn’t super-ball style.
Entertainment Media Trust cut the biggest deal last week, a $450K agreement that will bring it a 4th AM station in the St. Louis market. There was a $350K family affair in the Rochester NY area involving Donald B. Crawford Sr. and Jr., a low-grade $140K Educational Media Foundation pickup in Kentucky, and two CP deals, one of which was a donated non-commercial station-to-be.
There are many groups out there that would love to exchange broadcast assets for cash, but with financial sources still on the sidelines, the pool of potential buyers is not large, even if some stations are going for stocking-stuffer prices.
RBR-TVBR observation: The upcoming holiday weeks tied to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years take a few trading days off the table. On the other hand, some activity may be hastened to beat the end of the year. But the pace figures to remain sluggish and, we suspect, blockbuster free.
