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Buffalo KEYless

S

SirRoxalot

It looks like Buddy has filed to sell WKEY in Key West to Magnum Broadcasting, the company that was LMAing the signal for the last couple of years. The basic sale price is $250K, with all kinds of stipulations common to this type of sale. Feel free to wade through the legalese here:


Published reports indicate that Radio One purchased WKEY for $301K in October of 2022. The good news? Radio One gets an influx of cash to pay for the two new translators for WUSW. Buddy will hold Magnum's note for the next three years with no interest.
 
Which proves the general rule: Don't buy stations in a resort area. People visiting could not care less about local radio, and the permanent population--usually--is too small to support the number of stations in the market.
 
Resort markets are very tough and barely paying the bills is doing well in many cases. I suspect Buddy was leasing the station at a reasonable profit (nobody leases unless they do). I would imagine if you crunched the numbers Buddy was not in the red on this one but rather the black ink plus a decent payment monthly to take care of the added translators. Lots of deals these days are some form of lease to purchase because the investors are not loaning on radio thanks to the bankruptcies from the big boys (and pleny of little guys you don't hear about).
 
Folks, to update you from the person who really knows, me, it has been leased for 2 years from my trusted friend and fellow keys radio stations owner Mike Stapleford.

For the record, the price of a station does not have anything to do with a p and l or balance sheet. I made some money, got some nice tax breaks, and now I can focus on what WILL be happening in Buffalo.

Don’t buy a station in a resort town is just not a smart thing to say, knowing you know nothing about this particular transaction.

The only expense I had was tower rent and electric. The rest was profit. Radio is now a CASH FLOW business, not an exit strategy business.

I am very happy for Mike, and I still have a great house right in Key West, except now, I can’t just relax and focus on Buffalo
 


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