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KKMR sold to EMF, to go Air 1

Sammi Brie

Sammi Brie

I'd link the post, but it's from...the competitor.

So KKMR 106.5 has been sold to the Educational Media Foundation to bring *another* Air 1 service to the Valley (did we really need more Air 1?). EMF paid $500,000 to nab the station.

...I have to ask, why?
 
Raymie said:
I'd link the post, but it's from...the competitor.

So KKMR 106.5 has been sold to the Educational Media Foundation to bring *another* Air 1 service to the Valley (did we really need more Air 1?). EMF paid $500,000 to nab the station.

...I have to ask, why?
Click to expand...

KKMR is basically a Pinal County station, covering Casa Grand and neighboring towns. It barely gets to the SE corner of the PHX market. So, for EMF, its a fill for the Pinal area.
 
KKMR Upgrade

DavidEduardo said:


KKMR is basically a Pinal County station, covering Casa Grand and neighboring towns. It barely gets to the SE corner of the PHX market. So, for EMF, its a fill for the Pinal area.
Click to expand...

David - EMF is doing some odd stuff. They applied to move 105.5 which covers very valuable growing Southeast part of the metro to a hole licensed to Avondale. To me, this seriously devalues it and their audience for "K-Love" is generally White and Hispanic EP

To move it an area where it will cover a large number of Hispanic SP makes me wonder what they are really up to.

Then they buy KKMR, which had a decent APP or CP to cover portions of the east side.

Something smells here ...
 
radioresearcher said:
David - EMF is doing some odd stuff. They applied to move 105.5 which covers very valuable growing Southeast part of the metro to a hole licensed to Avondale. To me, this seriously devalues it and their audience for "K-Love" is generally White and Hispanic EP

To move it an area where it will cover a large number of Hispanic SP makes me wonder what they are really up to.

Then they buy KKMR, which had a decent APP or CP to cover portions of the east side.

Something smells here ...
Click to expand...

uh, does it have to do with CCF? EMF did a swap with them in Visalia to resolve "commercial" matters. hmmmmmm.....
 
DavidEduardo said:


KKMR is basically a Pinal County station, covering Casa Grand and neighboring towns. It barely gets to the SE corner of the PHX market. So, for EMF, its a fill for the Pinal area.
Click to expand...

Yeah, now I'm looking at the signal contour.

The KLVA app is bizarre. It proposes an ERP change to 800 watts, probably because the HAAT is 941 meters. The move decreases coverage of Pinal County and areas east of Val Vista Road but will offer serious signal improvement on the west and north sides of town.

There's also that string of COL changes. I really do not get it. I was one of the first to suspect a CCF-related move back in March. There are a lot of noncom players in the same boat here.
 
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If EMF can package KLVA & KKMR (both on the commercial side of the FM band) and swap for shared frequency 88~Three (non-comm), that might entice CCF to do the deal. KLVA is movin' north, and EMF will probably engineer a similar move for KKMR as part of the deal. The Media Hut hunch is once EMF gets a foot in the door at 88~Three, they'll buy out Family Station's KPHF half. Then 88~Three becomes all religious, all the time and Family Stations walks away with a large check. 8~Sixty probably remains with CCF and seeks a translator. CCF gets up to 4 signals in the market that can all air commercials legally!
 
I'm surprised to see Univision cutting back on radio station ownership. They recently sold their 103.1 signal in Chicago to Polish National Alliance for $5.5 million. Univision announced today that they will sell their entire Albuquerque cluster to American General Media. Considering most of the markets Univision operates in contain an iHeartMedia presence and that Thomas H Lee has private equity interests in both iHeartMedia and Univision, I honestly think these deals make sense.
 
This has nothing to do with THLP and its interest in iHeart. Pairing back stations that were non-critical to Univision's bottom line was an operation that was underway before THLP ever got involved.

Univision struck a deal to sell out of Albuquerque in 2008, but the Great Recession killed the deal. Centennial Broadcasting was to buy it for $24 million. I doubt AGM is paying anywhere near that, but Univision obviously found a deal that made enough sense for it. Remember, radio sales in Albuquerque is about 80% local direct, and that market had the most stations per capita 20 years ago. I'm pretty sure it still does, though Salt Lake City has seen some move-ins since then. Univision also sold its TV station (KLUZ) to Entravision a number of years ago. It may still own the Televisa affiliate there, but Entravision manages it as well. Univision had a smaller market cluster without a TV companion in a market that doesn't get much agency business and has a majority English-dominant Hispanic population.

The Chicago station in question is being sold because its simulcast partner is upgrading, and Univision doesn't need it anymore.

KKMR puts, at best, a weak signal into metro Phoenix and probably isn't needed anymore either.

El Paso was also sold recently, and it's another market that doesn't have a ton of agency buys with no Univision O&O on the TV side.

Don't be surprised if some of Univision's other smaller market stations go, especially where there's no O&O on the TV side. I expect to see the Rio Grande Valley get spun soon, too.
 
miketheradioguy said:
I'm surprised to see Univision cutting back on radio station ownership. They recently sold their 103.1 signal in Chicago to Polish National Alliance for $5.5 million. Univision announced today that they will sell their entire Albuquerque cluster to American General Media. Considering most of the markets Univision operates in contain an iHeartMedia presence and that Thomas H Lee has private equity interests in both iHeartMedia and Univision, I honestly think these deals make sense.
Click to expand...

As Kent has mentioned, one of the simulcast Class A FMs was significantly upgraded and the other one does not make sense as a stand-alone targeting Hispanics. In other words, it was no longer needed by the cluster.

The Pinal County FM was not core to the Phoenix market operations.

Albuquerque has a hard time supporting any Spanish language radio as less than 20% of market Hispanics are Spanish dominant. The Univision stations even include a Classic Rock station... not core assets.

Obviously, all very logical strategic moves.
 
DrAkbar said:
uh, does it have to do with CCF? EMF did a swap with them in Visalia to resolve "commercial" matters. hmmmmmm.....
Click to expand...

if this refers to the UFW station 90.5 Porterville being swapped for 106.3 Kingsburg that - though it was reported as a deal maybe a year ago - as of yet STILL hasn't happened. I wonder why not.
 
Kent said:
El Paso was also sold recently, and it's another market that doesn't have a ton of agency buys with no Univision O&O on the TV side.
Click to expand...

Inexplicably, the buyer was Grupo Radio Centro. I still can't figure out why they wanted to buy more radio stations given how much of an unmitigated disaster KXOS has been, the Mexican radio auction (where they opted not to pay for three of the five stations they won, though that process certainly had its issues), and then their AM consolidation in Mexico City.

The idea of KKMR being improved (or potentially moved in where KLVA is now) might be part of all this shuffling, especially seeing as the station is missing the biggest growth areas in Pinal County over the last 10-15 years (San Tan Valley and Maricopa).
 
Kent said:
This has nothing to do with THLP and its interest in iHeart. Pairing back stations that were non-critical to Univision's bottom line was an operation that was underway before THLP ever got involved.

Univision struck a deal to sell out of Albuquerque in 2008, but the Great Recession killed the deal. Centennial Broadcasting was to buy it for $24 million. I doubt AGM is paying anywhere near that, but Univision obviously found a deal that made enough sense for it. Remember, radio sales in Albuquerque is about 80% local direct, and that market had the most stations per capita 20 years ago. I'm pretty sure it still does, though Salt Lake City has seen some move-ins since then. Univision also sold its TV station (KLUZ) to Entravision a number of years ago. It may still own the Televisa affiliate there, but Entravision manages it as well. Univision had a smaller market cluster without a TV companion in a market that doesn't get much agency business and has a majority English-dominant Hispanic population.

The Chicago station in question is being sold because its simulcast partner is upgrading, and Univision doesn't need it anymore.

KKMR puts, at best, a weak signal into metro Phoenix and probably isn't needed anymore either.

El Paso was also sold recently, and it's another market that doesn't have a ton of agency buys with no Univision O&O on the TV side.

Don't be surprised if some of Univision's other smaller market stations go, especially where there's no O&O on the TV side. I expect to see the Rio Grande Valley get spun soon, too.
Click to expand...

I wasn't saying that Thomas H Lee Partners should eliminate the self-competition it has between iHeartMedia and Univision because like you said before, Univision and iHeartMedia have been healthy in-format competitors in several markets for many years.

What I really meant by the deals made sense was that the sale of Univision's Albuquerque stations involved American General Media planning to spin 95.5 KHFM to a non-profit organization about a month ago before they announced the deal with Univision, because they will need to spin off stations anyway. The sales of the Phoenix and Chicago stations also made sense because they believed the simulcast partners were no longer necessary.
 
miketheradioguy said:
I wasn't saying that Thomas H Lee Partners should eliminate the self-competition it has between iHeartMedia and Univision because like you said before, Univision and iHeartMedia have been healthy in-format competitors in several markets for many years.
Click to expand...

The lead investor in the company used to be Haim Saban; now it is Mexico's Televisa which the FCC has cleared last year to take a 49% ownership position; it previously owned the FCC's 25% maximum. Followeing Saban's next largest share, the ownership group includes Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Madison Dearborn Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Thomas H Lee Partners does not even get a seat on the board of directors.

http://investors.univision.net/corporate-governance/board-of-directors/default.aspx


What I really meant by the deals made sense was that the sale of Univision's Albuquerque stations involved American General Media planning to spin 95.5 KHFM to a non-profit organization about a month ago before they announced the deal with Univision, because they will need to spin off stations anyway. The sales of the Phoenix and Chicago stations also made sense because they believed the simulcast partners were no longer necessary.
Click to expand...

In the case of Chicago, a huge upgrade in one half of the WVIV/WVIX simulcast totally eliminated the need for the other signal; it could not have been re-positioned as a stand-alone under that company.

No Phoenix station was sold. What was spun off was a Casa Grande / Coolidge station that is not in the Phonenix market.
 
Ah, the KUFW sale. Looks like Gerawan has some issues with CCF on advertising and KNAI even shows up... According to the petition, CCF "falsely certified in the Assignment Application that it is not a party to a pending broadcast application in which character issues have been raised."
 
DavidEduardo said:


The lead investor in the company used to be Haim Saban; now it is Mexico's Televisa which the FCC has cleared last year to take a 49% ownership position; it previously owned the FCC's 25% maximum. Followeing Saban's next largest share, the ownership group includes Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Madison Dearborn Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Thomas H Lee Partners does not even get a seat on the board of directors.

http://investors.univision.net/corporate-governance/board-of-directors/default.aspx
Click to expand...


In the case of Chicago, a huge upgrade in one half of the WVIV/WVIX simulcast totally eliminated the need for the other signal; it could not have been re-positioned as a stand-alone under that company. [/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]

No Phoenix station was sold. What was spun off was a Casa Grande / Coolidge station that is not in the Phonenix market.

Thankfully Thomas H Lee Partners isn't part of the board of directors, although Univision has been looking to file for an IPO to reduce its debt.

Right, I meant to say a Phoenix rimshot station was being sold.
 
miketheradioguy said:
Right, I meant to say a Phoenix rimshot station was being sold.
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Not even that. The KKMR 60 dbu contour does not even come close to touching Maricopa County (The Phoenix MSA is just one county). It's a non-metro Pinal County signal that does not cover any part of any rated market.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Not even that. The KKMR 60 dbu contour does not even come close to touching Maricopa County (The Phoenix MSA is just one county). It's a non-metro Pinal County signal that does not cover any part of any rated market.
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The Phoenix MSA, believe it or not, does actually include Pinal County and has since the 1990 census (though at the time, Apache Junction was the only part of Pinal County that really qualified). Arbitron's 2012 market definition, on the other hand...does not.

The areas of highest Phoenix influence in Pinal County, however, are not in the signal contour of KKMR (Maricopa to the west, and AJ, Florence and San Tan Valley to the northeast).

Had the Class C2 application approved after a decade in 2010 been built with the relocation to SR 387 and I-10, the 60 dBu contour of the station would have included Chandler, Gilbert, QC and San Tan Valley. We'd be talking a station that could actually be called a rimshot.
 
Raymie said:
The Phoenix MSA, believe it or not, does actually include Pinal County and has since the 1990 census (though at the time, Apache Junction was the only part of Pinal County that really qualified). Arbitron's 2012 market definition, on the other hand...does not.
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Unfortunately, the Nielsen market definitions and the Census Bureau / OMB definitions both use the "MSA" acronym. But Nielsen's means "Metro Survey Area" and for Phoenix, that is Maricopa County only.

Since this is a radio board, I use the Nielsen definition of markets as it is what the industry looks at and uses.

Check the latest Nielsen map of US MSAs here. http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Arbitron-Market_Maps.htm

2016 is the latest map.

Also, here is the market map from Nielsen:

PHX MAp.jpg
 
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DavidEduardo said:


Unfortunately, the Nielsen market definitions and the Census Bureau / OMB definitions both use the "MSA" acronym. But Nielsen's means "Metro Survey Area" and for Phoenix, that is Maricopa County only.

Since this is a radio board, I use the Nielsen definition of markets as it is what the industry looks at and uses.

Check the latest Nielsen map of US MSAs here. http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Arbitron-Market_Maps.htm

2016 is the latest map.

Also, here is the market map from Nielsen:

View attachment 1025
Click to expand...

I was referring to the Metropolitan Statistical Area, so yeah. Had no idea the acronym had a similar but different meaning in radio. It's high time Nielsen puts Pinal County in the Phoenix survey area.
 
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