The three company deal has been filed with the FCC.

Seven Mountains will pay $1.8 million for Sound Communications’ eleven stations and five translators across the Southern Tier of New York State. Seven Mountains will then trade four of their existing stations, and three stations and one translator from Sound to Family Life Ministries for 107.7 WCIG Dallas/Scranton PA and five translators in New York.

The licenses included in the deals are as follows:

From Sound Communications To Seven Mountains Media: 92.7 WENI-FM South Waverly PA, 98.3 WQRS Salamanca NY, 98.7 WGMM Corning, 101.5 WMXO Olean, 105.3 WKPQ Hornell, 1230 WENY Elmira, 1360 WOEN Olean, 1450 WENI Corning, 96.3 W242CT Olean, 103.3 W277DG Corning, 106.7 W294BU Corning, and 106.9 W295BY Elmira.

From Sound Communications To Family Life Ministries: 101.9 WZKZ Alfred, 97.7 WENY-FM Big Flats, 1590 WGGO Salamanca, and 100.5 W263CZ Olean.

From Seven Mountains Media To Family Life Ministries: 820 WMTT Horseheads, 96.7 WUDE Portville (to be moved to Bradford PA), 104.9 WPHD Montour Falls and 100.9 WMTT-FM Horseheads NY (to be moved to 101.1 Enfield/Ithaca).

From Family Life Ministries To Seven Mountains Media: 107.7 WCIG Dallas PA, 104.1 W281BA Corning NY, 102.5 W273BI Watkins Glen NY, 102.9 W275DD Elmira NY, 100.1 W266BN Olean NY, and 103.9 W280EB Alfred NY.

Original Report 2/5: A multi-company deal involving three companies and multiple markets in upstate New York and Pennsylvania has been agreed to.

The bulk of the deal will see Seven Mountains Media acquire Sound Communication’s ten stations in the Elmira and Olean markets. In order to prevent issues with the ownership cap in those markets, five stations will be swapped to Family Life Ministries in exchange for 107.7 WCIG Dallas/Scranton PA.

This will be the third Elmira NY cluster acquired by Seven Mountains Media in the past two years. The company bought Community Broadcasters seven stations in Elmira and Olean for $3.9 million in January 2019. They added three stations and twelve translators in a $2 million deal with George Hawras and Kevin Fitzgerald in December 2019. That led a simultaneous five station format flip last July.

As part of the deal, Seven Mountains Media will add Country “Kickin’ Country 105.3” WKPQ Hornell, Classic Hits “Gem 98.7” WGMM Corning, AC “Magic 92.7/97.7” 92.7 WENI-FM South Waverly PA, Conservative Talk “The Patriot” 1230 WENY/106.9 W295BY Elmira and 1450 WENI/103.3 W277DG Corning in the Elmira market.

In Olean, Seven Mountains will acquire Country “101.9 The Ride” 1360 WOEN/96.3 W242CT Olean, Rock “98 Rocks” 98.3 WQRS Salamanca, Hot AC “Mix 101.5” WMXO Olean, and 100.5 W263CZ Olean.

Moving to Family Life will be Sound’s 97.7 WENY-FM Big Flats/Corning (currently simulcasting 92.7 WENI-FM), Conservative Talk “The Patriot” 1590 WGGO Salamanca, and 101.9 WZKZ Alfred (currently part of “The Ride“). Seven Mountains will also send their Classic Hits “Cool 104.9” WPHD Montour Falls/Elmira, Classic Rock “101 The Met” 100.9 WMTT-FM Horseheads and recently acquired Silent 96.7 WUDE Portville NY. Family Life intends to relocate 100.9 WMTT-FM to 101.1 in Enfield NY where it will serve the Ithaca market and 96.7 WUDE down to Bradford PA. The group will replace the 107.7 signal in Scranton with 103.9 W280CV Scranton (which it is purchasing as part of a multi-station deal announced in January with Family Radio).

The new acquisitions for Seven Mountains Media will join the remaining holdings.

In Elmira the company will retain:

• The “Bigfoot Country” trimulcast heard on 94.7 WQBF Tioga PA, 96.1 WCBF Elmira, 97.1 WOBF Canaseraga/Hornell and 95.1 W236AK Corning.
• Classic Rock “101 The Met” on 820 WMTT/101.3 W267CJ Horseheads/93.1 W226AP Hornell/95.7 W239BK Bath NY/97.9 W250BI Mansfield PA.
• The additional “Cool” frequencies of 95.1 W236CP Hornell, 103.3 W277DW Elmira and 107.9 W300DH Corning
• Rock Wingz 93” on 1490 WNGZ Watkins Glen (formerly Classic Country WRCE), 93.1 W226BA Elmira, and 93.5 W228DN Corning.
• Classic Hip Hop “Jamz 101.7” W269BK Horseheads/WCBF-HD3.
• CHR “Wink 106” WNKI Corning, 95.7 W239BQ Elmira NY and 107.9 W300BX Wellsboro PA.

In Olean the company owns:

• Country “95.7 The Big Pig” WPIG-FM Olean
• Classic Hits “107.1 Big Oly” 1450 WOLY/107.1 W296DB Olean
• It also has translators 98.7 W254BQ Olean, 99.1 W256BS Olean and 104.9 W285ES Olean NY that it acquired as part of its purchase of WUDE in October

The Sound Communications stations were to be included in parent Waypoint Media’s sale to Standard Media. The deal had been announced in November 2019, but never closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The is potentially additional divestitures coming to keep Seven Mountains under the ownership cap in Elmira and Olean. For more on what this deal will mean in each market see Scott Fybush’s Northeast Radio Watch report.

Seven Mountains Media has agreed to acquire the Sound Communications radio stations in Elmira, Corning, Hornell, and Olean , in New York’s Twin tiers region. This multi-market three-way transaction includes a divestiture/swap with Family Life Ministries for stations in Elmira, Corning and Olean and welcomes Seven Mountains Media into the Wilkes-Barre /Scranton market.

Acquiring from Sound Communications are WKPQ-FM / Hornell NY, WENI- AM / Corning NY, WENY-FM/ South Waverly PA, WENY-AM/ Elmira NY, WGMM-FM/ Corning NY, WMXO-FM/ Olean NY , WQRS-FM / Salamanca NY, and WOEN-AM/ Olean.

Divesting to Family Life Ministries are WGGO-AM/Salamanca NY, WZKZ-FM/ Alfred NY, WENY-FM/ Big Flats NY, WMTT-FM/ Horseheads NY, WMTT-AM Horseheads NY, WPHD-FM/ Montoursville Falls NY and WUDE-FM / Portville NY.

In this transaction, 7MM will acquire WCIG-FM 107.7/ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton from Family Life Ministries. Seven Mountains Media is owned by CEO Kristin Cantrell.The exclusive broker in this transaction was Michael J Bergner of Bergner & Co.