iHeartMedia has filed to take Hot Talk 101.7 WCZR Vero Beach, FL out of the Aloha Stations Trust.
WCZR, which simulcasts 94.3 WZZR Riviera Beach/West Palm Beach, had been in the divestiture trust since 2008 when then Clear Channel was taken private and lost some of its grandfathered caps allowing ownership of more stations in certain markets.
Stating in the application that the divestiture of an unspecified station in the Fort Pierce/Stuart/Vero Beach allows iHeart to fit WCZR under the six station ownership limit in the market. The only recent divestiture was the 2013 sale of 94.7 WPHR Gifford from the Aloha Trust to R&S Radio in 2013. iHeart also owns Country “Wave 92.7” WAVW, Classic Hits 103.7 WQOL, AC “Kool 105.5” WOLL (targeting the adjacent West Palm Beach market), and Talk 1370 WZTA in the market.
Following the return of WCZR, the Aloha Stations Trust will still contain 16 stations in 11 markets.
Theater of My Mind
Can you explain this trust? I understand that iHM had to put stations into it in markets where it made acquisitions that put it above the ownership cap, ostensibly as a short-term holding area while negotiating to sell them to other owners. But it’s been 7 years, is there no time limit on this?. Who gets the money being made by those stations in the trust during that time? And how does it create real market competition if those stations sit in iHM’s trust for so long instead of being sold to real competitors? I thought that was the whole point of the ownership caps, after all.