Many times selling a station takes a very long time. It is not unusual for a station to go a couple of years before a sale happens. Obviously the exceptions are when a station is approached about selling. In that instance, the group knows what they want and has their ducks in a row before they begin.
Typically groups have to line up things financially including the first couple of years of operational expenses, plan building awareness, find the right people to man it, have engineering firms determine the true value of the equipment, determine the potential within the market and much more. Naturally it all begins with hiring a broker to find the buyer.
One might think a station would sell quickly, but in reality, there is a chance, especially when the owners are older, the facility is older or the market has dramatically changed, that the station will go dark and turn in its license before it can be sold. In a major market that is virtually never the case. I knew a fellow that started his station in the 1950s, added an FM in the late 1960s and sold in the 1990s. He commanded $300,000 (1x yearly gross sales) for the AM/FM combo (and the FM had a 60 dbu in a rated market of over 750,000). That buyer wound up passing on and his family held the stations trying to sell them. Bleeding money, they sold the AM for $25,000 and a group that realized the FM was not just a small town station but actually reached a metro of 750,000, managed to pick up the FM for $150,000. Both sales happened at the point the family was going to take the stations dark. The stations had been up for sale for about 8 years as the owner knew his health was failing. A year after he passed they sold, finally. The land alone was worth over 50% of the price. It wasn't that this was what the stations were worth but that the owners had to stop the bleeding now.
I doubt KUHA will try another format. It is a stripped down operation of primarily satellite delivered classical music...as cheap as you can get, with a group that already provides support (at least some if not all of the expenses). To switch formats would be throwing away all that support, hiring staff and increasing expenses in hopes of maybe reaching breakeven in a couple of years. While KKXT and KUTX survive, ratings are, from what I have seen, are not that impressive in share and cume and suffer fairly low TSLs, making me suspect neither could survive without a strong sister station to pick up any slack. With that said, both stations can easily be called new and have yet to show their full potential. It is said it takes much longer to build up a non-commercial FM than a commercial FM. In fact, many even suggest going two years before the first on air fundraiser for this reason. Switching formats would be a sure fire way to increase expenses are make sure more money rolls out the door.
If I was KUHF, I'd drop the contract on the satellite service at the renewal date and voice track using their classical library. By voice tracking, I mean a generic intro/outro on each work versus doing a daily show. That would save over the monthly satellite fee for the service which would be around $3,000 a month, I suspect. That might not sound like much, but saving a nickel and dime here or there can add up and be the difference between red and black ink.
And I feel confident the selling price will be a fraction of what they paid. Sellers always want more than they can get and buyers want to pay less than it is worth.
