• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

LA AM for sale

F

Frequency1

I see on a brokers list that there is an AM station for sale in LA. No idea who it is?

California
AM Station
Code 1403
Ad Headline California, Los Angeles AM - Direct Metro Coverage, 13M+ Population
Market Rank Mkt 1-50
Asking Price $ 33,000,000.00
More Stations? Stand Alone
Seller Financing? Consider Seller Financing
Will Seller LMA? Do Not Disclose
 
It could be any of these.

KABC-AM 790 (Cumulus)
KLAA-AM 830 (LA Angels)
KNX-AM 1070 (Audacy)
KRDC-AM 1110 (Disney)
KMPC-AM 1540 (P&Y Broadcasting)
KBLA-AM 1580 (Multicultural Radio Broadcasting)
 
Frequency1 said:
It could be any of these.

KABC-AM 790 (Cumulus)
KLAA-AM 830 (LA Angels)
KNX-AM 1070 (Audacy)
KRDC-AM 1110 (Disney)
KMPC-AM 1540 (P&Y Broadcasting)
KBLA-AM 1580 (Multicultural Radio Broadcasting)
Click to expand...
It could be any of those except KNX. Audacy might ditch it someday, but now's too soon.

And I think Cumulus and Disney know better regarding the value of their properties and Multicultural knows that $7 million was a stretch for KBLA.

I don't know anything about P&Y, but $33 mil for that signal?

That leads me to Artie, who always thinks big and doesn't really live in the broadcast world. I can absolutely see him asking $33 million for KLAA.
 
michael hagerty said:
It could be any of those except KNX. Audacy might ditch it someday, but now's too soon.

And I think Cumulus and Disney know better regarding the value of their properties and Multicultural knows that $7 million was a stretch for KBLA.

I don't know anything about P&Y, but $33 mil for that signal?

That leads me to Artie, who always thinks big and doesn't really live in the broadcast world. I can absolutely see him asking $33 million for KLAA.
Click to expand...
KLAA is a good bet. Arte is selling the Angels, and presumably thinks the approaching $3 billion he will get for the team will not suffice, so is likely looking to sell the radio station separately so to pocket even more green. If KLAA 830 is sold, and it's not to the new owner of the team, it could put the Angels into radio limbo... as the Oakland A's have recent experience dealing with.

POV regarding KLAA - as a co-owned station with the team, and who's call letters literally represent the team, I am surprised how little Angels coverage they have. They team coverage is minimilist in comparison to what KLAC does for the Dodgers, and they pale in comparison to what KMPC used to do for the Angels, when that station was co-owned with the team.
 
david said:
KLAA is a good bet. Arte is selling the Angels, and presumably thinks the approaching $3 billion he will get for the team will not suffice, so is likely looking to sell the radio station separately so to pocket even more green. If KLAA 830 is sold, and it's not to the new owner of the team, it could put the Angels into radio limbo... as the Oakland A's have recent experience dealing with.

POV regarding KLAA - as a co-owned station with the team, and who's call letters literally represent the team, I am surprised how little Angels coverage they have. They team coverage is minimilist in comparison to what KLAC does for the Dodgers, and they pale in comparison to what KMPC used to do for the Angels, when that station was co-owned with the team.
Click to expand...
That's what I was implying when I posted about my observations on KLAA last summer, and after Moreno announced he was looking into selling the team.

Best case, but unlikely scenario: New Angels owner also takes on KLAA. Radio rights remain intact and Roger Lodge keeps The Sports Lodge open throughout 2023 (he tweeted before the holiday break that the program would continue into the new year).

Worst case, most likely scenario: Team and station sold separately. Angels and KLAA split because of financial reasons. Angels will search hard for a new flagship but may be forced to go to streaming only, if not in '23 definitely come '24. New owners of AM 830 ditch the sports format altogether.
 
RadioGuy1864 said:
For anyone not familar with the LA market reading this, KLOS is a legendary FM station.
Click to expand...
Which has little to no impact on the valuation of a station. Sale prices come from one of two things, current revenue and number of people in their pop count along with supply and demand in a market. What a station was in 1977 or 1993 is mostly irrelevant.

Also most of the big groups do not list their stations with a broker that utilizes a site like RadioTVDeals. You'll never see an iHeart, Audacy, Cumulus, or others on there.
 
lanceventa said:
Which has little to no impact on the valuation of a station. Sale prices come from one of two things, current revenue and number of people in their pop count along with supply and demand in a market. What a station was in 1977 or 1993 is mostly irrelevant.
Click to expand...
But I think that RadioGuy was looking at the historical perspective, not something that would determine present value. And KLOS was (past tense) a very important player during a fairly long era of LA radio. But, like the decades-long dominance of KMPC, that fact has a zero-zilch-nada-nothing effect on present day valuation
lanceventa said:
Also most of the big groups do not list their stations with a broker that utilizes a site like RadioTVDeals. You'll never see an iHeart, Audacy, Cumulus, or others on there.
Click to expand...
Having been involved with deals ranging from New York City to Lake City (FL), I'll add to this well stated perspective that a lot of station deals are never listed. Instead, people within the industry will discuss opportunities with friends, contacts and the like.

An example of that kind of deal-making would be where a group has smallish clusters in several markets, and another group has the same in two or more markets where the other also operates. They do a set of trades, where one group gets a larger cluster in one city while leaving the other and both end up with more efficient clusters.

And then there are groups like EMF that "prospect" for available stations that help them fill their goal of multiple station coverage of the whole country. They look for symptoms, such as aging single station owners, heirs of deceased owners and other situations that make a station a prospect for purchase and they initiate contacts with a "we'd value a chance to discuss sale options with you".
 
My take is that RadioGuy was thinking that a stand-alone AM isn't going to go for what KLOS (a stand-alone FM with some brand equity in the market) went for when it sold, which he thought was around the same figure that's being asked for this mystery AM.

And he's right.

For that matter, KLOS wouldn't sell today for what it sold for last time.
 
michael hagerty said:
For that matter, KLOS wouldn't sell today for what it sold for last time.
Click to expand...
How many stations - in any market - can honestly say that?

*That* is a problem that's real. Economics 101.
 
kwthom said:
How many stations - in any market - can honestly say that?

*That* is a problem that's real. Economics 101.
Click to expand...
Actually, quite a few. KROQ sold to Infinity in 1985 for $45 million. Doubt you could get that for it as a stand-alone today, much less what that sale price is adjusted for inflation ($122 million).

Meruelo (which bought KLOS) also paid $82.75 million for KPWR in 2017. Think they could get anywhere near that now?

This is why I think the $33 million AM is KLAA. Artie doesn't know radio. He looked at what he thought were comps (probably KPWR), and figured his AM is worth a little less than half of a stand-alone FM. But neither are.
 
Last edited:
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom