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LBI Media exits bankruptcy, gets new leadership

Something not directly stated by this article (but hinted) is that HPS Investment Partners, LLC now owns 100% of LBI Media. Not only have the namesakes of the company exited the building, but they aren't even stakeholders anymore.

Not sure what the future holds for the company. But my guess is they sell all the radio operations. Only the TV Network is directly mentioned in the press release, which could be a signal of where they are headed.

The last time two eastern rimshots were simultaneously put in the market, they each fetched ~5 Million from different buyers. That's not a lot considering where we were over a decade ago.
 
Yeah but remember cumulus sold those for pennies on the dollar. 98.5 and 107.9 are on a new tower which is owned by the company.. I'm sure they'll fetch more than 5 million a piece.. as a former LBI employee, this doesn't surprise me at all
 
ContinuousWave said:
Yeah but remember cumulus sold those for pennies on the dollar. 98.5 and 107.9 are on a new tower which is owned by the company.. I'm sure they'll fetch more than 5 million a piece.. as a former LBI employee, this doesn't surprise me at all
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If you are referring to the sale of the Cumulus stations in NYC, DC, Atlanta and several smaller markets, they got current market valuations. EMF, in fact, was the only entity willing to step up and offer a good price for the facilities.

There was no "fire sale" at Cumulus. Following the exit from bankruptcy, they identified a number of under-performing markets where they had stand-alones or the cluster was too small to be highly successful. They let it be known that in most of the top 20 to 25 markets, the single stations and small groups were on the market, and took the best offers for the ones they have sold so far. The ones where the offer has been too low have not been sold.

A good example of valuations is KLLI in LA, sold in 2012 for $85 million and then resold in 2019 for $35 million. And if you go back to the year 2000, you have a much lesser facility, KXOL, going for $250 million. The extracted price of the Radio One deal had an LA station valued at $400 million in the same period.

In other words, today's prices are as little as 8% to 10% of the 1996-2002 valuations.
 
DavidEduardo said:


If you are referring to the sale of the Cumulus stations in NYC, DC, Atlanta and several smaller markets, they got current market valuations. EMF, in fact, was the only entity willing to step up and offer a good price for the facilities.
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The reference was to the sale of KHJK and KFNC. Didn’t New Waco originally sell the license for 103.7 to Cumulus for $35 million? And it was later sold to EMF for only $5M. Am I remembering all that correctly?

There was no "fire sale" at Cumulus. Following the exit from bankruptcy, they identified a number of under-performing markets where they had stand-alones or the cluster was too small to be highly successful. They let it be known that in most of the top 20 to 25 markets, the single stations and small groups were on the market, and took the best offers for the ones they have sold so far. The ones where the offer has been too low have not been sold.
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Wonder if there were any decent bids for KRBE if it was indeed offered for sale? Seems that speculation has quieted a bit.

In other words, today's prices are as little as 8% to 10% of the 1996-2002 valuations.
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One big example of a valuation drop would be if KROI gets sold. Radio One bought it for $72.5 million in 2004. Could it really fetch only $5-7 million today? Ouch. Michael Stude (KRTS owner) was a genius for selling at the top of the market.
 
Yep, New Wavo sold then 103.5 to Cumulus for $35 million...then spent another 5+million building the new 2000ft tower site, which Ike flooded and all the gear had to be replaced, then sold it to EMF for a paultry 5 million..97.5 was cheaper since Cumulus already owned it in Beaumont. Just added new TX site and 2000ft tower...which wasn't cheap..the access road alone cost 1million to build..then sold it to Gow for 5mill...dirt cheap
 
Mrtejano said:
So Maybe now they will move 103.3 antenna closer?
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I do not believe that they are able to move any closer than the CP they have now will permit.

The issue is whether the upgrade, which will cost several million (see ContinuousWave's post on the cost of the 103.5 site with a similar tower), will produce enough additional revenue potential to be useful.

There is another problem: the new site in the CP is within a short distance of the coast and is for a 2,000 foot high tower... the same height as the Senior Road FM stick. It may be impossible to get insurance now for such a structure right on the coast... and if possible, the cost may be way too high. Insurance companies are taking into account the stronger and more frequent hurricane possibilities now.
 
DavidEduardo said:
The issue is whether the upgrade, which will cost several million (see ContinuousWave's post on the cost of the 103.5 site with a similar tower), will produce enough additional revenue potential to be useful.
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I think we can forget about the CP ever being built. It has been talked about for almost 20 years.

The current KJOJ 103.3 facility doesn't add anything to Houston metro area coverage for La Raza. I could see the stick going on the cheap to a religious broadcaster that wants to reach areas between Houston and Victoria, without actually covering either of those cities. Similar fate likely for KNTE 101.7.

BTW, KVST was only on 103.5 for its first year or two of operation in the early 90's, before moving to 103.7 and a different tower. That facility was on the air for a dozen years or so before being sold and upgraded to a Class C eastern rimshot.
 
Thread bump to note that LBI Media (Liberman) has changed its name to Estrella Media: https://radioinsight.com/headlines/184065/spanish-operator-lbi-media-rebrands-as-estrella-media/

New people in charge, so we’ll see what changes they make. It will still be a Hispanic targeted broadcaster, but I would think they would want to avoid doing the same things that drove the company into bankruptcy. Wonder if radio still fits into their long term plans, or whether they will concentrate on the TV side.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Thread bump to note that LBI Media (Liberman) has changed its name to Estrella Media: https://radioinsight.com/headlines/184065/spanish-operator-lbi-media-rebrands-as-estrella-media/

New people in charge, so we’ll see what changes they make. It will still be a Hispanic targeted broadcaster, but I would think they would want to avoid doing the same things that drove the company into bankruptcy. Wonder if radio still fits into their long term plans, or whether they will concentrate on the TV side.
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The thing they did was pay too much for facilities before the "perfect storm" of the recession, PPM and smartphones.

They were making money on operations. But what they made did not even come close to covering the debt service.

This situation was surprisingly similar to what happened to Cumulus. Too much debt and a monstrous decline in the revenue available for radio.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Thread bump to note that LBI Media (Liberman) has changed its name to Estrella Media: https://radioinsight.com/headlines/184065/spanish-operator-lbi-media-rebrands-as-estrella-media/

New people in charge, so we’ll see what changes they make. It will still be a Hispanic targeted broadcaster, but I would think they would want to avoid doing the same things that drove the company into bankruptcy. Wonder if radio still fits into their long term plans, or whether they will concentrate on the TV side.
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Does Estrella Media still carry risqué programming? I remember LBI got in trouble with some advocacy groups a few years ago because a lot of their programming was seen as "indecent" to a bunch of subgroups. Iirc, they recently settled with the FCC a couple of years ago. From my understanding, it was informal Mexican chatter about stuff that is taboo in Mexican culture that got them in trouble. It was entertaining stuff, to say the least, according to some Spanish speaking folks I knew at the time.

Shock value is what got Estrella TV it's start (all the way back to it's La Raza TV days). I can't imagine the new leadership going too far away that, unless they want to take the network in a direction that more resembles Telemundo/Univision.
 
BamaTX said:
Shock value is what got Estrella TV it's start (all the way back to it's La Raza TV days). I can't imagine the new leadership going too far away that, unless they want to take the network in a direction that more resembles Telemundo/Univision.
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As the programming moved away from LBI's radio morning show with pictures, it has become a bit more mainstream. The difference is that it is fundamentally 100% core Mexican. Mexican language, expressions, and talent.

Even TV in Mexico is not as Mexican because the big TV operators depend on international syndication for much of their income on prime time programming. They avoided Mexican slang and terminology in favor of "international Spanish" and they used talent that looked a lot more like it came from Madrid than from Michoacan. But Estrella, even a bit less controversial, is more Mexican than the Grito de Dolores.
 
New Change in programming, La Raza 98.5 and 103.3 has moved El Show de Don Cheto to a new time from 8 am to 1 pm.

The show was airing at Night in the early morning hours like from 1 am to 5 am.
 
Mrtejano said:
New Change in programming, La Raza 98.5 and 103.3 has moved El Show de Don Cheto to a new time from 8 am to 1 pm.
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That means it is running live in parallel with the LA station.
 
old school radio said:
David, How much money does LBI/Estrella Broadcasting do on the radio side per month? Mostly it would be La Raza and El Norte.
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It's not common to gauge radio revenue based on the month, because each month can be so different.

Annually, KTJM is around $7 million, KQQK is about $3.5 million. That compares to KLOL's $13 million and KLTN's $17 million.
 
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How would another Mexican Regional station do in the market of Houston? Something more music driven like KLOL with no big on air personalitys. Knowing Raul Brindis is married to Univision and probably locked down to a good contract. If someone had a signal covering better than KQQK and KTJM? If you look at the landscape of the Martek is Only Que Buena,La raza and El Norte.
 
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