The Buzzard (KBZU) to be sold

[JM_pstar]

According to Radio & Records, Citadel has placed KBZU in a trust and the station will be sold to a third party. More info can be found here: http://www.radioandrecords.com/Newsroom/2006_03_03/citadelplaces.asp

Could this mean the emergence of another radio player in Albuquerque? Will The Buzzard flip formats whenever it's sold?

-JM

<P ID="signature">______________
16-year-old radio geek.</P>

 

[Kent]

> Could this mean the emergence of another radio player in
> Albuquerque? Will The Buzzard flip formats whenever it's
> sold?

If you read the actual FCC filing, it's not necessarily being sold. It's only being sold if Citadel is determined to be a new company due to the substantial change in stock ownership due to the ABC deal. That being said, I'm still not sure you're going to see a sale take place. The HBC/Univision merger, I believe, already established the 45 station count necessary to make ownership of 5 FM's legal. They were supposed to divest one station in Albuquerque because it had 43 stations at the time of the merger, but they haven't done so in almost 2 years. KVLK and KQLV have signed on/moved-in since the merger was filed.

 

[Ed_Walker]

The KBZU deal has everything to do with the ABC deal.

With the deal, ABC shareholders will have a substantial interest in Citadel - and with the deal an additional station in the market comes into play: Radio Disney at 1240. This might place them "over the limit" in terms of local ownership - at least as far as the ABC stockholders are concerned.

I do wonder why they choose to dispose of a full power FM to keep under the limit rather than one of the AMs they have in the market.

 

[Kent]

> The KBZU deal has everything to do with the ABC deal.

Absolutely! Citadel is trying to make sure this deal happens as smoothly and as quickly as possible.

> With the deal, ABC shareholders will have a substantial
> interest in Citadel - and with the deal an additional
> station in the market comes into play: Radio Disney at
> 1240. This might place them "over the limit" in terms of
> local ownership - at least as far as the ABC stockholders
> are concerned.

From what I've heard, Radio Disney is not a major concern, though other stations could be added to the trust if necessary just as easily as existing stations could be taken out. The real concern is that, with current ownership stake going from 100% to 48% and Disney shareholders' ownership going to 52%, the FCC may view Citadel as a new company that has to play by the new ownership rules, which use Arbitron market definitions to count the number of stations per market. Under contour overlap rules, there was no question Albuquerque had more than 45 stations. There may be under Arbitron definitions, though, like I said, I believe the 45 station precedent has already been set with the HBC/Univision merger. Citadel might also be able to get 45 stations into the market before everything becomes final. If I were them, I'd have my lawyers check and see if the KDSK 92.7 upgrade would qualify as another Albuquerque station since it will put a citygrade signal over roughly 40% of the market and a grade B signal over almost the entire market after it raises power and moves its tower further east. If it would make KDSK qualify, Citadel might call them and ask if they could help them speed up their upgrade. If it didn't qualify and I were Citadel, I might call them and try to play "Let's Make a Deal" and get 92.7 for 96.3.

> I do wonder why they choose to dispose of a full power FM to
> keep under the limit rather than one of the AMs they have in
> the market.

Because they may not have a choice. If Albuquerque is held to have 44 stations instead of 45, one FM must be divested because they have 5. In markets with, I believe, 30-44 stations, only four stations can be in the same band with a total station count of 7.