The second half of the Wilks deal has been filed with the FCC as Lotus will pay $1.2 million for AAA 100.1 KTHX Dayton NV and 95.9 K240CA Carson City.
Lotus will simultaneously divest Sports “NBC Sports 1060” KFOY Sparks to Lazer Broadcasting for $50,000. KFOY will be Lazer’s first property in the Reno market.
Original Report 4/26: Wilks Broadcast Group has completed the sell-off of their broadcast properties as their three stations in Reno will be split between two buyers.
Locally based Evans Broadcast Company, run by Jerry Evans, will acquire Country “92.1 The Wolf” KWFP Sparks and Classic Rock “100.9 The Bandit” KURK Sparks/105.1 K286AG Carson City for $750,000. Lotus Broadcasting will acquire AAA “100.1 The X” KTHX Dayton in a deal not yet filed with the FCC.
Both deals include LMA’s that will take effect on Sunday, May 1. KURK and KWFP will join an Evans cluster that includes Conservative Talk “99.1 FM Talk” KKFT Gardnerville-Minden and Classic Country “102.5 Cowboy Country” 1300 KCMY/102.5 K273AF Carson City.
KTHX becomes a seventh station in a Lotus cluster that already includes Sports “ESPN 94.5” KUUB Sun Valley, Active Rock “Rock 104.5” KDOT Reno, Classic Rock 105.7 KOZZ-FM Reno, Sports “Fox Sports 630” KPLY Reno, Sports “NBC Sports 1060” KFOY Sparks, and Spanish Sports “ESPN Deportes 1450” KHIT Reno.
$750k for two FMs (not even mentioning the translator) comes out about $375k per full power FM station. Reno market is more than 400,000 people, this comes out to less than $1/per person. Great price… not too long ago stations were valued at $3/per person. Is this the new normal?
92.1 and 100.9 are not full market signals. 92.1 is a Class C3 with a tower four miles north of downtown Reno and 100.9 is a Class A with a tower 11 miles south of downtown Reno. 100.1 is a Class C1 broadcasting from Mount Scott between Reno and Carson City. Many of the Reno FMs are full Class C or C1 stations broadcasting from either Slide Mountain or Mount Scott, which gets coverage into Carson City and the Lake Tahoe area in addition to Reno. I’ve never been to Reno, but I would bet 92.1 and 100.9 don’t make it to Carson City or Lake Tahoe
92.1 and 100.9 are both city-grade into Carson City. They are deep fringe to Truckee, Tahoe City, and South Lake Tahoe. [The maps on Radio-Locator made that easy to figure out.]