While the sale is granted, there's been no filing to consumate the sale, so it looks technically MRA hasn't officially turned over the stations yet. Call sign changes won't happen until after that. Same status with the signals sold to Civic Media. I doubt they are going to keep the WZTI letters on 1290.
-
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
K-Love Acquires B93.3 & FM102.1
- Thread starter lanceventa
- Start date
Does that that mean that it's still owned by MRA?
If a sale is granted wouldn't it be the right thing to actually transfer the station to the buyer --- The new owner.
if they don't will there be legal action and drama?
No one should have to deal with this kind of trouble.
What's the point of a sale and then back peddling.
That's shady sales tactics that should remain on sketchy platforms like Craigslist or Marketplace
I could be wrong but when Civic Media bought a few stations I listen to the call signs didn't change even after the sale.
For example WCFW, WRPN, WAUH, WISS, WRPQ.
For a while, they gave the stations odd names like Oshkosh Air Support (WISS), Buzz of the North (WBZH), The 'Sha (WAUK).
They seemed to revert to just the call letters for each of them sometime last year for some reason. Civic still feels like someone spending their money because they enjoy radio, rather than a viable radio business.
You're misunderstanding how this works and making inappropriate accusations.
Purchasing the license of a radio station is a multi-stage process. Because it's a federally granted license, the FCC has to study the sales contract and confirm that the buyer is qualified to hold a license, that ownership caps aren't being exceeded and that the contract properly conveys control of the license from seller to buyer. That typically takes anywhere from 60 to 120 days, give or take holidays and government shutdowns.
After the FCC has approved the transfer, there's then a window of time (usually specified in the contract and agreed upon by seller and buyer) during which the actual closing of the deal must take place. We're apparently in that window right now for the MRA stations.
This window provides time for the buyer to (if needed) assemble the cash due at closing, put local staff of its own in place to run the stations and all of the other details that need to be nailed down.
In most cases, this goes smoothly, the closing date arrives, the papers are signed (typically virtually nowadays) and the station and its assets change hands.
In many cases, including this one, seller and buyer arrange an LMA so that the buyer can begin operating the station while awaiting FCC approval and closing. The closing, when it happens, just formalizes the deal and ends the LMA and the seller's responsibility for the license.
That's what's happening right now. Until closing and consummation, MRA still owns the stations' licenses, but under an LMA in which K-Love is operating them.
It's rare, but not unknown, for a buyer to end up not consummating a purchase. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including the loss of financing, sudden change in circumstances (death of a buyer), natural disaster, etc.
The FCC, sensibly, always wants to know which party is actually in control of the license and thus who's responsible for license obligations and liable for fines and penalties. That's why buyers and sellers have to file a consummation notice that tells the FCC that a sale that's been approved has now closed and the buyer is now in control of the license.
It's normal for a callsign change to be filed only after consummation has taken place.
There's nothing shady going on here, no legal drama, just a typical slow legal process playing out.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I should add to what @fybush just said: Call letters do not have to change as the result of a sale. Sometimes the seller makes that a condition of the sale, in cases where the calls are also on a station that is not part of a sale; also, the seller may believe the calls are valuable as intellectual property. But it is indeed rare for calls to be changed prior to a sale consummating ... the only times I remember seeing that happen is when there is a LMA to the new owner while FCC approval of the sale is pending.
Like Scott, I have also seen cases where the consummation never took place after FCC approval (one happened here in L.A., about a decade ago) and there was a filing required in order for the Media Bureau to rescind the approval at the licensee's request.
I agree completely that this is a lot of worrying about nothing, and I hope the worriers learn from this and don't overreact when it happens again with different stations.
Like Scott, I have also seen cases where the consummation never took place after FCC approval (one happened here in L.A., about a decade ago) and there was a filing required in order for the Media Bureau to rescind the approval at the licensee's request.
I agree completely that this is a lot of worrying about nothing, and I hope the worriers learn from this and don't overreact when it happens again with different stations.
Sorry if it came off as inappropriate accusations that was not my intentions.
I clearly misunderstood how it worked.
I was not aware that the sale is granted first before the official transfer comes after I thought it was the other way around.
I was not aware of the fact that there were multiple stages involved I thought these multiple stages were done prior to the FCC granting the transfer
We had an extreme example of that here in Houston a couple of years ago when Radio One sold KROI to SBS.
The deal was announced in April 2023, with the station initially transferred into a temporary trust which avoided market cap issues (KROI was a spinoff as part of a larger deal for RO to acquire the local Cox cluster.) The sale from the trust to SBS was approved by the FCC in October 2023.
However SBS didn’t have the money to close the transaction, due to the collapse of another deal involving the sale of their TV assets. So the trust put them on a payment plan which took 14 months to complete. The sale was finally consummated in December 2024, following several “Extension of Consummation” filings.
Interestingly a second spinoff of the bigger RO/Cox deal was KTHT (now KLVH) which went to K-Love. Only took two weeks for that sale to close after FCC approval. Some companies have cash on hand, some don’t.
Sometimes in an ownership transfer call changes are applied for in advance, with an “upon consummation” effective date requested.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Hey, ya know ... life is a constant learning experience, and this was your lesson for this weekend. It says a lot about your personal integrity that you can have that reaction to being corrected.
This is exactly the same as buying a domestic house. You sign the contract, and then you have a window of time to get the cash or financing together, make the physical arrangements for moving, arrange things like utilities and internet, and so on. The only difference is that you can't LMA your new house!
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I thought about that, and technically you could.
You could have a rental agreement with the owner that included a sales option, and -- like some LMAs that convert to ownership -- some or all of the rent could be applied to an eventual purchase.
Absolutely. Civic doesn't need to change WZTI, but if they are going to simulcast WRJN, you would think they will want something that sounds closer to that, even if it's only heard in the legal ID.
Well B93.3 moved to 97.3 FM so 99.1 WMYX still has a direct competitor.
The call letters WLDB are still at 93.3 FM (K-Love)
K-Love filed this morning to swap the calls of WLDB 93.3 and WLVE 105.3.
Please correct me if I'm wrong. Based on what I see the call letters WLDB will move to 105.3 FM and the call letters WLVE will move to 93.3 FM. In other words if my understanding is correct it looks like they are simply swapping the two call signs. Is my understanding correct - please advise and thank you in advanced.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
If you read the linked document, it says right in the header that it is an application for call letters exchange.
If you scroll down to "Call Sign Request" it says exactly what you think it does.
Thanks for confirming - I wasn't sure if I read it properly. It had two sets of call sign requests.
A simple call letter swap is all.