BONNEVILLE SPINS FOUR MARKETS

[discjockeyjohn64]

DMC, a for-profit arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will sell stations in St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C., to Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. Under terms of the purchase agreement, Minneapolis-based Hubbard will acquire the stations for $505 million. (Blurb from Church owned Deseret News, in today's edition)

Everyone will now speculate as to if Phoenix will be spun. I, for one, highly doubt they will let go of any of their Western US radio properties. This will just help them maximize their existing station portfolio, and perhaps have more resources to beef up the newsroom of KTAR in Phoenix, KIRO in Seattle, and KSL in Salt Lake City.

Bonneville has exited markets before, and reentered them, including Phoenix. They may just work with the core cluster for awhile before branching out to other markets years down the road.

 

[KOHS]

Here is a link to the article: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/...sell-17-of-its-Bonneville-radio-stations.html

 

[johndavis]

Everyone will now speculate as to if Phoenix will be spun. I, for one, highly doubt they will let go of any of their Western US radio properties. This will just help them maximize their existing station portfolio, and perhaps have more resources to beef up the newsroom of KTAR in Phoenix, KIRO in Seattle, and KSL in Salt Lake City.

Bonneville has exited markets before, and reentered them, including Phoenix. They may just work with the core cluster for awhile before branching out to other markets years down the road.

In broadcasting, everything is for sale if someone offers the right price. Bonneville's debt service (or lack thereof) means they can afford to wait for the price they want. So yes, they could be spun. But so could anyone else... Sandusky, CBS, Clear Channel. Every station has a price. All you need is a sucker buyer.

Considering Bruce Reese is going with the group of stations to Hubbard, I would not be surprised if Bonneville sells everything other than KSL.

 

[radioguy39nj]

DMC, a for-profit arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will sell stations in St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C., to Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. Under terms of the purchase agreement, Minneapolis-based Hubbard will acquire the stations for $505 million. (Blurb from Church owned Deseret News, in today's edition)

Everyone will now speculate as to if Phoenix will be spun. I, for one, highly doubt they will let go of any of their Western US radio properties. This will just help them maximize their existing station portfolio, and perhaps have more resources to beef up the newsroom of KTAR in Phoenix, KIRO in Seattle, and KSL in Salt Lake City.

Bonneville has exited markets before, and reentered them, including Phoenix. They may just work with the core cluster for awhile before branching out to other markets years down the road.

Makes sense that B'ville would retain their Western radio properties. Phoenix, Seattle and Salt Lake City are relatively close to one another. B'ville owns news and news/talk outlets in those markets. The only Western market not mentioned is Los Angeles. Might B'ville spin off KSWD?

It was once rumored B'ville would acquire Citadel's stations. Then it was CBS Phoenix. With all the cash that B'ville came into, might they again be looking into CBS Phoenix? ???