One of the nastier things about all this consolidation!

Is that in the large markets when one of the big companies sells an AM station it usually gets sold to a group that is non commerical in order to reduce the total competetion in the market! The two latest examples are 610 AM and now 1260 AM! How conveinent for the big five operators in the bay area! I find it very hard to believe that there wasn't a commerical operator anywhere interested in buying 1260 with $14 million or more to invest. Bonneville just didn't want to sell it to a commerical operator and neither did Entercom! There is just a bunch of big boys back scratching going on!

RadioStarOne said:

I find it very hard to believe that there wasn't a commerical operator anywhere interested in buying 1260 with $14 million or more to invest. Bonneville just didn't want to sell it to a commerical operator and neither did Entercom! There is just a bunch of big boys back scratching going on!

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I agree. $14-million is nothing. Between the equity some of us have in our home$ here in the Bay Area, we could have scraped together that much plus enough to keep it going for a while.

Wait until 910/KNEW or 1400/KVTO come up for sale. Then we'll get 'em...

RadioStarOne said:

Is that in the large markets when one of the big companies sells an AM station it usually gets sold to a group that is non commerical in order to reduce the total competetion in the market! The two latest examples are 610 AM and now 1260 AM! How conveinent for the big five operators in the bay area! I find it very hard to believe that there wasn't a commerical operator anywhere interested in buying 1260 with $14 million or more to invest. Bonneville just didn't want to sell it to a commerical operator and neither did Entercom! There is just a bunch of big boys back scratching going on!

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610 was used to bargain for an FM... the owner already had 106.9, and CBS wanted an FM more than an AM... plus they had to sell something to cut overlap between Sacto and SF, so that is hardly a contrived deal.

1260 got a great price. Probably no commercial broadcaster would put yup that much, since the signal does not come close to covering the MSA... its options were brokered (lots already) and Asian (idelm) so this is no surprise. The conspiracy theory does not work.

Mr. Gleason wrote:

> 1260 got a great price. Probably no commercial broadcaster would put up that much, since the signal does not come close to covering the MSA... its options were brokered (lots already) and Asian (idelm) so this is no surprise.

Besides that, I'm going to venture an incredibly wild guess that IHR did not have to mortgage anything to buy 1260. I'll bet that a certified check for the full amount will be delivered to Bonneville International the day the sale closes.

As far as coverage, I'm sure that IHR wanted to cover their base in San Francisco, the northern Peninsula and in the Eastbay (specifically Oakland, San Leandro and Hayward), where their largest concentration of potential Catholic listeners reside. Since KYA's ... shoot, I mean since 1260's daytime signal isn't that good in the Southbay, I'd put two bucks on IHR grabbing a San Jose AM soon since, again, you go where the audience is.

DJ

There was not any outright plan to sell KOIT-AM to a non-commercial broadcaster. Back in 2005 they had committed to sell it to an out of market commercial broadcaster and then in Janurary 2006 they told them to fish or cut bait. At the time Bonneville was trying to get 17 million for it.

Entercom has no influence on who buys KOIT-AM. The station is owned by Bonneville.

Based soley on the offers the price they would consider was realistically lowered to around 15 million.

Once Bonneville sold their other S.F. stations they were more motivated to sell KOIT-AM and they thought they had it already sold as it was tied up with a buyer that fell through.

Bonneville will be paid in full by wire transfer at closing. Immaculate Heart has bank financing that was contingent on them comming up with a certain amount of millions of paid in capital which now they finally have. They will not own the station free and clear but they will owe the balance of the bank loan.

As a commercail station 1260 khz. would be the most sucessful as a stand alone becasue if it became part of a group it would become the stepchild. None of the groups in San Francisco had any interest.

However there were independent commercail groups pursuing KOIT-AM and for various reasons unrelated to any conspiracy that they dropped out.

As far as the price is concerned it is not a great price, it is the market price based upon the offers they were receiving. If the offers were millions less or millions more then that's they price it would have sold for. There are also many other 75-year incumbrences (free leases) regarding the transmiiter site.

KYA 1260 Khz. would have been a great independent full-service station, a station with personality not limitied to just music or just talk, but now we'll never know.

Please see some of my other posts and reply with your comments.

Newsperson

And here I was hoping that Johnny Holliday would come back...dang. Guess not, now. But he does do, actually, a fine Catholic-based weekly program outside of ABC Radio, so, there's hope, yet ...

Is that in the large markets when one of the big companies sells an AM station it usually gets sold to a group that is non commerical in order to reduce the total competetion in the market! The two latest examples are 610 AM and now 1260 AM! How conveinent for the big five operators in the bay area! I find it very hard to believe that there wasn't a commerical operator anywhere interested in buying 1260 with $14 million or more to invest. Bonneville just didn't want to sell it to a commerical operator and neither did Entercom! There is just a bunch of big boys back scratching going on!
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To RadioStarOne

No one is stratching anyones back.

If you look back to 2005 Infinity Broadcasting took a non-commercial FM (Family Radio 106.9 Mhz) and turned it into commercial. So it goes both ways.

You may have noticed that Infinity (now CBS) and Bonneville were always trying to get a one up on each other. KGO and KCBS are very competitive of each other and closely guard their plans.

There were and are independent commercial operaters that have a strong interest in KOIT-AM except their bank account doesn't match their dreams.

Go to www.fcc.gov, search AM applications, type in KOIT and you will see that Immaculate Heart has until June 1 to finalizing its financing. Nothing comes easy.

Newsperson

Sorry Newsperson! But go tell tales to someone else! Believe what you wanna believe!

newsperson said:

If you look back to 2005 Infinity Broadcasting took a non-commercial FM (Family Radio 106.9 Mhz) and turned it into commercial. So it goes both ways.

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Newsperson,

Your terminology is slightly off. The frequency itself is not "non-commercial." The company that operates the station is incorporated as a not-for-profit.

106.9 when it was owned by Family Radio, and 610 which is currently owned by Family Radio, are not "non-commercial" frequencies.

Just because a station doesn't run ads for Armstrong Painting or Esurance, it isn't specifically a "non-commercial" station. With the exception of the stations in the so-called "educational band" (88 to 92 FM), all AM and FM stations are "commercial."

1260 is a "commercial" frequency. Immaculate Heart Radio is a not-for-profit corporation.

Another example: Berkeley's KPFA (94.1 FM). It is operated by a not-for-profit corporation, but it's on a "commercial" frequency. If Pacifica ever decides to sell the station, they can sell it to anybody, not just a not-for-profit or educational (or religious) outfit.

DJ

"I find it very hard to believe that there wasn't a commerical operator anywhere interested in buying 1260 with $14 million or more to invest. Bonneville just didn't want to sell it to a commerical operator and neither did Entercom! There is just a bunch of big boys back scratching going on!"

You find it hard to believe that no "commercial" operator wanted to buy 1260? A few facts:

1. 1260 is a low power frequency at the high end of the AM dial with poor coverage.

2. Hi fidelity FM stereo became the dominant force for music radio over a quarter century ago.

3. There is a total glut of talk stations in the Bay Area - KGO, KSFO, KTRB, KQKE, KNEW, and now KYCY, not to mention that Salem station I can never think of.

4. Another commercial AM all news station is not viable, given the popularity of commercial free NPR. About 20 years ago, somebody tried that on 1310 AM. Anybody remember KFYI? It was a fiasco then, before NPR became so popular, and it's a worse idea now.

So what format could a commercial broadcaster possibly put on AM 1260 that would make any money? Standards or Oldies? Nostalgia aside, I don't think it would attract any listeners. Foreign language perhaps, but the future for foreign language formats is also on FM.

Why would a company that has left the market care how many commercial stations there are on any band in that market. Bonneville now has no vested interest in the San Francisco market. I don't see how 1260 being used non commercially could possibly effect Bonneville.

DavidSC said:

Why would a company that has left the market care how many commercial stations there are on any band in that market. Bonneville now has no vested interest in the San Francisco market. I don't see how 1260 being used non commercially could possibly effect Bonneville.

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Ah, but you are actually being logical! That kinda deflates the conspiracy theories, doesn't it.