Radio’s deal market held onto its slow yet steady pace last month. BIA Advisory Services says 40 stations sales worth a combined $11.6 million were filing during April at the Federal Communications Commission. That is a slowdown from March when 60 station sales worth $25 million were filed.
The April results bring radio’s year-to-date sales volume to 161 station sales. They are valued at nearly $68 million, according to BIA’s tally.
Brokers say what happens in the months to come remains dependent on the Federal Communications Commission, and how far it is willing to go on relaxing radio ownership limits. An early indicator could come in how the Media Bureau approaches a growing number of waiver requests that are being put in its hands by buyers.
April’s biggest sale — Connoisseur Media’s $5.75 million deal to buy four stations from NRG Media in Lincoln, NE — is one of them. Connoisseur will require an FCC waiver to keep all of the stations since it already owns five stations in the Lincoln market.
The FCC also got a waiver request for a much smaller April deal. Steve Seline’s Walnut Radio has a $40,000 agreement to pick up an AM in the Omaha, NE market from SummitMedia. But it will require a waiver to the subcap rules to complete the transaction.
“While the radio industry is still looking for formal guidance on the ownership caps from the FCC, I am seeing groups — myself included — moving forward with deals that require waivers of the cap rules,” says Bob Heymman, Managing Director of Media Service Group’s Chicago office. “It seems these are being granted so what we have now is a de facto revision as we wait for formal rulemaking.”
Radio isn’t unique. BIA says there were no television station deals filed in April. The TV industry has had 37 station sales filed so far this year, however, worth nearly $78 million.
The focus of what is happening will be a topic of conversation this week at the Media Financial Management Financial Leaders Forum in San Antonio. Heymman will be joined in a panel titled “Let’s Make a Deal… or Not!” by Tim Pecaro, founder of the Washington-based media financial firm of Bond & Pecaro; and FCC attorney Seth Williams, Co-Managing Member of the Washington, DC Law Firm of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth. MFM says the panel will feature an up-to-date discussion of transaction values, dealmaking, and the FCC’s current outlook on market concentration as the panel will try to answer the question of whether we are on the cusp of another wave of ownership concentration and what it might look like this time. Details HERE.