NRG Media continues to divest its portfolio as the company has agreed to sell ten stations and two translators in Rhinelander and Wausau Wisconsin to Midwest Communications’ WRIG Inc. for $2.5 million.
Midwest will enter Rhinelander WI with the addition of NRG Media’s six station cluster of AC “95.9 The Island” WMQA Minocqua, “Hodag Country 97.3” WHDG Rhinelander, Variety Hits “100.1 Jack-FM” WRHN Rhinelander, Classic Rock “Rock 105.3” WRLO Antigo, Sports “1240/101.3 The Game” WOBT/W267AF Rhinelander, and Soft Oldies “1570 The Lake” WLKD/105.7 W289CT Minoqua.
The company will significantly expand in Wausau with the acquisitions of CHR “Hot 96.7” WHTQ Whiting, Classic Rock 103.3 WGLX Wisconsin Rapids, Country “Y106.5” WYTE Marshfield, and Variety Hits “Big Cheese 107.9” WBCV Wausau to join its current five station cluster of Rock “94.7/102.9 The Beast” WOZZ/W275AC, CHR 95.5 WIFC, Country 101.9 WDEZ, Sports “93.9 The Game” 1390 WRIG/93.9 W230BU, and News/Talk 550 WSAU/95.1 W236CO and 99.9 WSAU-FM.
Waivers will be required to exceed the ownership cap as the deal will give Midwest ten stations out of 29 licensed to the the Wausau/Stevens Point market. The current limit for the market is six stations overall and four on one band. As part of its waiver request, Midwest states, “To combat this siphoning of advertising to digital media, radio station groups must be able to consolidate to take advantage of economies of scale to compete in this media marketplace. They cannot be expected to serve the public at the same level as in the past in the face of declining revenues. Only by increasing scale can they maintain their service to the public. As noted in the Borrell Report, currently no radio station cluster in the market controls more than a 2% share of all local advertising—with all radio stations combined getting less than 6% of advertising revenue in the market.18 The proposed common ownership of the WRIG and NRG Stations thus does not pose any threat of marketplace dominance—it is necessary to simply stake out a noticeable position in the intensely competitive local media marketplace.” They also argue that WBCV, WRIG, WSAU-FM, and WOZZ only cover portions of the market, other stations including Mid-West Family Broadcasting Country 104.5 WAXX Eau Claire have significant listenership in Wausau, and increase format visibility by allowing them to put WRIG’s programming on a full-power FM.
NRG Media CEO Mary Quass said, “We are proud of the great broadcasters in Wisconsin that we have proudly worked with and are happy they will continue serving Wisconsin with WRIG, Inc.”
Midwest President Peter Tanz said, “Mary and her entire team have built an outstanding community service organization in Wisconsin. For over a century, the Wright family has proudly called Central Wisconsin home. We are honored to add NRG’s Wisconsin stations to our home market.”
With its pending sales in Central Nebraska and Omaha, NRG Media retains its clusters in Cedar Rapids IA, Lincoln NE, and Ottawa IL.
Kalil & Co. served as broker for the deal.
