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Salem sells KLTY, six other CCM stations to EMF

Sammi Brie said:
Will the KLUV calls come back to DFW with it?
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I would think so. EMF didn’t pay Audacy a bunch of money just to keep the call parked on a dinky signal in South Dakota. And if EMF was going to place the call elsewhere other than DFW they would have already done so.
MarkW said:
Would iHM be willing to consider a CCM format for one of its local properties, such as 97.1, featuring some of KLTY's soon to be displaced on-air personalities?
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Strongly doubt it. DFW is already a crowded CCM market with KAWA, KYDA and KCBI in addition to KLTY/KLUV. You also have KJRN and some LPFMs.

Guess this deal puts to bed all the speculation of EMF buying an Audacy stick in DFW. However they may look for some sort of outlet for their newly acquired Radio Nueva Vida (which I suspect is about to be rebranded.). KFZO?

The sale is huge news, but not unexpected. As for the current KLTY staff, I am quite sure they were aware the station was living on borrowed time.

I haven’t double checked this yet, but IIRC the KLUV call on 94.9 would be the 13th call sign for this station, tying it with 1540 on AM.
 
crainbebo said:
Listeners will leave 94.9 in droves. This station has been around for decades. EMF could have bought out KEGL or KZMJ...
I'd be ticked off if my local CCM were to be bought out by a national conglomerate - with the local voices yanked out too. People complain about the commercialization of Christianity - K-LOVE is a prime example.
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When EMF buys a station, it is buying a signal and reach. The current format, any listeners, revenue, whatever with the old station -- be hot AC WPLJ New York, rock WAAF Boston, classic rock KSWD Los Angeles, or an existing local CCM station -- is not what it is buying since it is going to blow up that station and put on its national feed. I don't like it, most people in radio don't like it, but it is reality.

Salem is a for-profit company and KLTY was there to make money off commercials -- it was by definition commercializing Christianity.
 
KCBI could become a winner in this case. 94.9's listeners could be going to KCBI. Alas, they run a lot of Christian teaching programs (David Jeremiah, Focus on the Family, etc.), but they also have blocks of CCM music.

At least KLTY was a local voice. Thank God for KTSY in Boise...another fantastic LOCAL voice of God's worship.
 
It's either this or potentially selling to a broadcaster who would flip the format. It's probably the best option for the listeners who are listening particularly for the music. Maybe a smaller Christian broadcaster, but EMF has more resources.

It's otherwise not a great thing for local radio.

CCM has not always been a big format for Salem. They've always been more into preaching. Early 2000s was when they really started getting into expanding CCM. Good time for it.

KLTY obviously longer than most
 
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Sammi Brie said:
Here comes K-Love. Will the KLUV calls come back to DFW with it? How will CCM listeners react to having the local KLTY dismembered and replaced with national K-Love? Where will the airstaff go?
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Would it mean something to keep the KLTY calls that have a long history of being associated with CCM in DFW?
 
Jay S said:
Would it mean something to keep the KLTY calls that have a long history of being associated with CCM in DFW?
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The call letters are only used for legal ID as EMF brands around the K-Love name. The only use in keeping them is to prevent someone else in the market from taking the familiar calls and using them, i.e. why Star 102.1 is still KDGE, Alt 103.7 is still KVIL.

Presumably, they could move the KLTY calls to KYDA and put the KLUV calls they control on 94.9.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Guess this deal puts to bed all the speculation of EMF buying an Audacy stick in DFW. However they may look for some sort of outlet for their newly acquired Radio Nueva Vida (which I suspect is about to be rebranded.). KFZO?
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That and Hope Media is probably yearning to get another signal in DFW so they could expand Vida Unida. Either way, I think there’s a strong probability of a Spanish language CCM station coming to DFW in the near future.
 
Salem operated a Spanish CCM format on the 102.5 translator as “El Pez” via KLTY-HD2. I don’t know if Salem still owns the translator or if it’s part of the deal. Any chance EMF might use it for Radio Nueva Vida, Boost or even a booster for Air-1?
 
This does nothing to grow income for Salem. Paying off debt is nice. But selling assets is not a viable for a long term operation. And selling these to EMF tells me there very little if any interest from a commercial operator.
 
formerradio said:
This does nothing to grow income for Salem. Paying off debt is nice. But selling assets is not a viable for a long term operation. And selling these to EMF tells me there very little if any interest from a commercial operator.
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Or Salem needed the $ now and could only get EMF to front the purchase immediately. I imagine no other radio group has the financial ability to loan Salem the $72 million EMF did last week as part of the sale agreement.
 
formerradio said:
This does nothing to grow income for Salem. Paying off debt is nice. But selling assets is not a viable for a long term operation. And selling these to EMF tells me there very little if any interest from a commercial operator.
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BoboKnight said:
Or Salem needed the $ now and could only get EMF to front the purchase immediately. I imagine no other radio group has the financial ability to loan Salem the $72 million EMF did last week as part of the sale agreement.
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I agree. The big issue now is getting financing. After a bunch of bankruptcies, who wants to loan money to a radio company? The banks stopped doing it a long time ago. Then you had investment companies and "vulture capitalists." They've all moved on to other things. Audacy took some cash from an investment firm connected to George Soros, and you see what's happening there. Remember how long it took Disney to find a buyer for KESN.

With regards to "long term operation," Salem tipped its hand on that in this release, selling off a chunk of its debt to a Christian investment company that does a lot of work in the digital world. Salem likely sees its future as creating content that will be distributed digitally rather than by AM radio stations. Radio companies need long term strategies that go beyond selling spots on radio stations.
 
TheBigA said:
With regards to "long term operation," Salem tipped its hand on that in this release, selling off a chunk of its debt to a Christian investment company that does a lot of work in the digital world. Salem likely sees its future as creating content that will be distributed digitally rather than by AM radio stations. Radio companies need long term strategies that go beyond selling spots on radio stations.
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Yes, and you can also see Salem recently trying to extract every hidden dollar they can out of their AM assets such as selling/leasing land and reconfiguring AM directionals so some of the valuable real estate underneath can be developed for other uses.
 
formerradio said:
This does nothing to grow income for Salem. Paying off debt is nice. But selling assets is not a viable for a long term operation. And selling these to EMF tells me there very little if any interest from a commercial operator.
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Salem at one time may have thought there was a future for it in contemporary Christian. Clearly the strategy has shifted, and these seven stations were the assets with the most interest from probable buyers. The commercial operators who would have been interested in contemporary Christian stations may not have had the resources to pull this off.
 
Jay S said:
Would it mean something to keep the KLTY calls that have a long history of being associated with CCM in DFW?
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EMF is known to keep "heritage calls" when they get them as part of a sale but I suspect they move KLUV calls to Dallas and park KLTY calls on some random KLove signal.
 
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