A Twin-Win – CBS and Beasley swap in Philly, Miami, Tampa and Charlotte.

You’ve been watching this story progressively unfold in this NOW Newsletter every day this week, starting with Monday’s story, “What if CBS doesn't sell some smaller markets outright, but swaps instead?” By Tuesday, we were zeroing in on CBS and Beasley (“to swap in multiple markets” like Philly, Tampa and Charlotte?). Finally, yesterday morning we learned that Miami was part of the mix, to make things balance out for both sides. Swapping rather than selling offers valuable tax advantages. Also - by swapping away its two Philadelphia FMs, Beasley removes an element of risk should strong-billing country WXTU (92.5) ever be attacked. (There’s speculation that iHeart has considered that, given its aggressive country moves in Boston and Pittsburgh.) Fighting off a rival for WXTU would put a real dent in Beasley’s revenues. Down in Miami, its rhythmic “Power 96” WPOW already has two new challengers – and that’s another station that Beasley is swapping out of, thus reducing its potential volatility. CBS didn’t have any radio stations in Miami, where it owns both WFOR-TV and WBFS-TV. This innovative swap fixes that, and sets it up to get even bigger in Miami, because it will still have the cap-room. (Just blue sky here – would Lincoln Financial Media be open to an approach from CBS? Intriguingly, they’re both in San Diego, if somebody wanted to swap.) But we’ve been speculating all week, so let’s get down to the facts as they were announced –

Southwest Florida-based Beasley says the new stations are “geographically complementary” to its existing group. Plus, North Carolina-educated George Beasley probably likes the idea of being a big player in Charlotte. His friend Don Curtis is a heavy hitter in Raleigh, so this is kind of like bragging rights for George. Plus, Beasley already has extensive radio interests in eastern North Carolina. The Charlotte cluster it’s acquiring is country WSOC (103.7), urban “Power 98” WPEG, urban AC “V101.9” WBAV, AC “K104.7” WKQC, top 40 “Kiss 95.1” WNKS, plus all-sports “Fan” WFNZ (610) and CBS Sports Radio Net affiliate WBCN on expanded-band 1660. The Charlotte Observer estimates the cluster mops up about 40% of total radio market revenue. Down in Tampa, the CBS cluster is country WQYK (99.5), classic hits “Q105” WRBQ, Spanish contemporary “92.5 Maxima” WYUU, rhythmic “Wild 94.1” WLLD, plus the sports properties of “98.7 the Fan” WHFS-FM and CBS Sports Radio Net-linked WHFS (1010). One of the many questions about this deal is whether Beasley has agreed to keep airing the CBS Sports Radio Network content in Charlotte and Tampa – and also in Philadelphia on WIP (610), as you’ll see in a moment. Sometimes buyers make those commitments, and CBS needs the clearances, though the ratings have been weak. Beasley ends up owning 53 stations in 12 markets, up from 44 stations in 11 markets. Its estimated weekly listenership would rise from 7.1 million to 7.7 million. Broker Michael Bergner worked with Beasley on the transaction.

Beasley makes CBS stronger in Philly, and ushers it into Miami radio ownership.

In Philadelphia, CBS takes country WXTU (92.5) and rhythmic “Wired 96.5” WRDW-FM, adding them to its existing radio group of classic hits WOGL (98.1), sports WIP-FM (94.1), all-news KYW (1060) and talk/sports WPHT (1210). That should make CBS the #1 group with 25-54 adults and it also helps them out with female demos. As you’ve read, CBS sends WIP-AM (610) to Beasley because of the FCC local-market cap, and that’s just fine with Beasley. It already operates two profitable below-the-radar AMs there, brokered-talk WWDB (860) and Christian teaching WTMR (800). Note that Beasley’s keeping AC WJBR, Wilmington, Delaware (99.5), just south of Philadelphia. That probably wouldn’t fit under the FCC cap, given the signal overlaps. In Miami, CBS will take Beasley’s country “Kiss 99.9” WKIS and rhythmic “Power 96” WPOW, along with sports WQAM (560). As CBS Radio President Dan Mason tells his staffers, “we are attaining stations that appropriately align with our programming expertise in popular music and sports.” Something he doesn’t say – Beasley gets to try fixing Tampa’s all-sports “98.7 the Fan” WHFS-FM (a 0.6 share with 6+ AQH). There’s already chatter about installing Bubba the Love Sponge there or somewhere else in the new Beasley cluster. Beasley uses Bubba down in Ft. Myers on its “96 K-Rock” WRXK. Read the CBS release on the deal here. CBS stock trades on its strength in TV and syndication, not radio. The “CBS” stock slipped about 1% (47 cents) to $52.34 yesterday, but that probably had nothing to do with this swap. The Beasley version of the deal is here. Beasley stock (“BBGI”) picked up 1.5%, up 8 cents to $5.41 a share.

At least that’s the immediate word to the staffs. CBS Radio President Dan Mason says until the official ownership change, “we will continue to operate under our current organizational structure.” No doubt some folks at Philly’s all-news KYW/1060 harbor fantasies of taking over “Wired 96.5” WRDW-FM one of these days, but that’s not in the immediate future. Mason does predict a year-end closing, and since deals typically take about three months for FCC approval, that makes sense. It’s also tidy bookkeeping, to start out the New Year with the ownership changes done. Want to have some fun, speculating about what’s next for CBS? Go ahead, but there may not be more deals in the pipeline -

Station swaps are like a playground teeter-totter.

CBS just showed it’s open to an advantageous swap, but don’t hold your breath waiting for more. One dealmaker, watching yesterday’s transaction, tells this NOW Newsletter “These things are just incredibly hard to get done.” Two key phrases - #1, “Willing buyer and willing seller.” And #2, “relative valuation.” The second is probably harder, because even if both sides agree on what they pile on either side of the teeter-totter as stuff they’re willing to trade – they then have to agree on what it’s worth, piece by piece. As one group head says, “It always comes down to, My baby’s pretty, but your baby’s ugly.” We don’t know how long CBS and Beasley negotiated, but it had to have been many months. Just to open the door to speculation about possible swaps - Other markets that CBS might see as swappable include San Diego (just two FMs, no TV stations), Riverside (just four radio stations), Sacramento (five radio stations, two TV outlets), Cleveland (four music FMs, no TV stations), Las Vegas (six radio stations, no TV), Orlando (three radio stations, no TV), and Palm Springs (one radio station). The complete list of CBS TV stations is here. You can match ’em up with the CBS Radio markets here.

It keeps setting new 52-week lows on solid volume, and you wonder if that’s because of fears about the third quarter operating results to be reported in a couple of weeks. The “CMLS” stock has been slipping in recent days, and yesterday it was off another 25 cents to $3.58 a share. That’s a one-day divot of 6.5%, and at one point it sank to $3.51. How’s the search going for a new radio head? Cumulus wants to retire its current Co-COO structure to create a new EVP/Radio spot, and this NOW Newsletter hears the executive search firm Spencer Stuart is casting a very wide net, looking for talent from outside the radio business. We do know that Co-COO Jon Pinch will be taking over the Atlanta cluster and not retiring outright. While his cohort John Dickey will be switching to a new job overseeing content and programming across the entire group. Surely they’re all hoping the stock stops its slide.

It was inevitable – “the iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina.”

iHeart’s next territory to conquer, having pulled off its fourth annual broad-spectrum event in Las Vegas and scheduling a first country version, is Latin music. The initial iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina is in Los Angeles, November 22, at the Forum. You’ll note that iHeart doesn’t actually operate any Spanish-language stations in the L.A. market, but that’s not stopping them from beginning a “four-week nationwide promotion to give thousands of Latin music fans across the country the opportunity to win a trip to Los Angeles” for the gala. That’s using the template of the iHeartRadio Music Festival, as does the lineup of national sponsors who help pay the bills – Ford, Pepsi and State Farm. The November 22 event featuring Ricky Martin, Roberto Tapia, Alejandra Guzman, Prince Royce and more will be broadcast live on many iHeart stations, and not just the ones in Spanish. Some top 40, rhythmic and dance stations will clear the event. And of course it’s on iHeartRadio. iHeart’s President of Entertainment Enterprises John Sykes explains that “Latin music has shown incredible growth” on the platform. More about plans for the inaugural Fiesta Latina here.

True, Nielsen’s update to its annual “Music 360” series reports that “radio is the top platform for music consumption.” But radio better get used to sharing with other mediums. Nielsen says that “59% of music listeners use a combination of over-the-air AM/FM or online radio streams to tune in to their favorite artists and bands, each week.” Second-most-popular is computers – but “the effect of smartphones on music is growing.” Not only are Americans listening, 39% of smartphone owners bought music on their device this year, up from 34% last year. Breaking out some other findings, 48% of Americans who say they’re music listeners spent time with their own music libraries every week. 41% use on-demand services such as Spotify, YouTube or Vevo. 36% are using streaming services like Pandora or iTunes Radio (which aren’t “on-demand” and are thus in a different category). One thing’s for sure – Americans like their music. As Nielsen puts it, “75% of respondents said they actively chose to listen to music, even ahead of watching TV at 73%.” All told, “93% of the country’s population listens to music, spending more than 25 hours each week” that way. Read the Nielsen Music 360 topline report and graph here.

Today is “College Radio Day,” encouraging tune-in on the left-side of the dial…

There are some very well-done radio stations there and always, there’s interesting audio content that you may not normally pay attention to. Officially, “The aim of College Radio Day is to raise a greater, international awareness of the many college and high school radio stations by encouraging people who would not normally listen to college radio to do so on this day…college radio is one of the last remaining bastions of creative radio programming, free from the constrictions of having to be commercially viable, and a place where those involved in its programming believe passionately in its mission.” The organizers believe that “College radio is the only free live medium brave enough to play unsigned, local, and independent artists on a regular basis.” This story’s headline is “left-side of the dial,” but some college stations also operate outside the “reserved” band for non-coms, which is 91.9 and below. They’re worth checking out. As College Radio Day says, “Put simply, college radio is an important part of the media landscape because of its unique and fearless programming.” And radio could use more of that attitude, couldn’t it? And perhaps some of the talent and ideas from college radio.

Now the Turtles stalk Pandora for licensing bucks, having at least temporarily won a favorable decision from a federal judge in California based on California state law. Now Turtles founders Flo & Eddie aim at Pandora, says the New York Times - this time in federal court in L.A., for a possible class action. This all centers on who owns the rights to pre-1972 music, and who should be paying whom. Flo & Eddie are trying to wring at least $25 million out of Pandora. There’s a proposed bill in Congress called the Respect Act which would help artists with recorded music from before February 1972 – but it’s going nowhere fast.

Mike Lupica, legendary New York sportswriter/book author/radio host, is back on the air for a new 1-3pm weekday show on ESPN-run/Emmis-owned “ESPN 98.7” WEPN-FM. Lupica started Monday, with a noon-1pm lead-in from Ryan Ruocco and Dave Rothenberg. Ryan’s coming back after his lunchtime sandwich to contribute to the 3-7pm Michael Kay Show. The station’s local in early mornings from 4-6am with Robin Lundberg, then it joins the national ESPN lineup for Mike & Mike and Colin Cowherd. The revised schedule gives New York veteran Bill Daughtry four full hours on Saturday morning, from 8am to noon. WEPN-FM also carries the NFL Jets, NBA Knicks and NHL Rangers.

Sports USA re-ups with AdLarge Media for ad-repping its NCAA football games. Their contract extension takes them into 2015, and covers inventory for 20 contests, including the Saturday College Football Game of the Week, plus some Thursday night games and bowl games. AdLarge co-founder/CEO Gary Schonfeld says “three million passionate fans tune in Sports USA’s coverage of NCAA games every week.” On the Sports USA side, Bob Moore says it’s been “a winning partnership” with AdLarge.

Chicago’s Robert Feder takes his blog behind the Chicago Tribune paywall, though non-subscribers can access as many as five stories a month at no charge. Feder (“FEE-der”) covered Chicago media for many years at the Sun-Times, and he just observed the one-year anniversary of a unique arrangement with the Tribune Media Group where they handle the marketing, advertising and technical stuff for his blog (“Chicago media served fresh daily since 1980”). While Feder has absolute control of his editorial content. The blog joins the “digitalPLUS” tier of Tribune Media, so subscribing to that tier not only gets access to his content, but other premium material from Tribune. Feder explains it, including future access via Twitter and Facebook, here.

Day 4 Nielsen PPMs for September –

Austin – It’s Bob’s world – everybody else gets to look up at the perennial #1 station, and wish they too had 8-share shares and 9-shares. This time, Emmis-run variety hits “Bob” KBPA is #1 by 2.7 shares (age 6+ AQH), going from a July-book 9.0 to an August-book 9.4 and now a September survey 8.6 share. If you guessed that Bob is also the market leader in weekly cume, you’d be guessing right. Bob’s got an estimated 493,500 friends tuning in every week. Back to the AQH shares – iHeart’s two country stations are next, meaning KVET-FM (6.0-5.5-6.9) and KASE (7.5-6.9-6.8). This is the first time since Fall 2009 that KVET-FM has topped KASE, perhaps because of Texas college football. Fourth place goes to iHeart top 40 “Kiss” KHFI, 5.1-5.6-5.3. In fifth place there’s another iHeart station, rhythmic “Beat” KPEZ, 4.2-5.0-5.3. Austin’s leading talk-based station is Emmis-managed talk KLBJ, 3.8-4.2-4.1. Univision’s Spanish variety (“Mas Variedad”) KLJA is up again, 3.1-2.3-3.2. (Just six months ago it rated a 1.1 share.) This is a busy market for HD Radio-fed translators, like Entercom’s urban AC “96.3 RnB” KKMJ HD3 (2.8-2.8-2.7), Genuine Austin Radio’s Spanish Christian KTXX HD3 (1.9-2.1-1.7) and its regional Mexican sibling KTXX HD2 (1.6-1.3-1.4). But iHeart’s custom “103.1 iHeart Austin” KVET HD2 is stuck in the mud, 0.2-0.1-0.2. All shares in this section are age 6+. Nielsen’s survey month of September ran August 14 to September 10.

Milwaukee – No cool-down for iHeart’s country WMIL, 10.5-11.9-11.6. Second place goes to Brewers baseball flagship WTMJ, the news/talker owned by Journal Broadcast Group and holding 9.2-8.9-8.7. Third is iHeart’s “Oldies 95.7” WRIT, 7.1-7.0-6.9. Talk sister WISN pops up to fifth place, 4.6-4.8-5.4. But sister top 40 “97.3 Now” WRNW has a soft book, 3.1-3.2-2.7. Two news/talk non-coms together would combine for a 4.6 share, if you mashed together U. of Wisconsin-owned WUWM (2.4-2.8-2.5) and Wisconsin Public Radio’s WHAD (1.4-1.8-2.1). In sports, there’s Entercom’s WSSP (re-branded just this week), 1.0-1.1-1.2 and iHeart’s WOKY, 0.1-0.1-0.2. But no listing for Good Karma’s “ESPN Milwaukee” WAUK or Spanish-language sports WRRD, because they don’t subscribe to the Nielsens here. Also because of the “subscriber-only policy,” no glimpse of Saga stations such as rock “102.9 the Hog” WHQG. MiIwaukee’s cume champ is the oldies station, WRIT, with a weekly reach of 477,400.

Indianapolis – Pretty status quo, in the city that hosted last month’s NAB/RAB Radio Show. #1 again is Emmis’ AC WYXB (7.2-7.0-7.2). That’s the first time it’s been #1 since June 2011 – if you exclude the December and Holiday books, that is. #2 is Entercom’s top 40 WZPL (7.3-6.1-6.7) followed by Cumulus-owned classic hits WJJK (7.6-6.6-6.6). Then you’ve got the two country FMs, and this time Emmis’ “Hank” WLHK (6.5-7.1-6.4) is the winner by a guitar string over Cumulus’ WFMS (5.7-6.4-6.3). Emmis has the leading talk-based station, WIBC (5.3-5.1-5.6). All-sports sister WIBC FM2 (an HD Radio-fed translator) goes 1.2-1.4-1.5. While full-power AM sister sports “Fan” WFNI is steady, 1.6-2.2-2.2. Lower down in the standings, you find iHeart’s all-sports WNDE (0.4-0.4-0.6) and sister WXNT (0.2-0.2-0.1). AC “B105.7” WYXB leads in weekly cume at 407,800.

Raleigh – No magical double digits this time for Curtis Media’s still-reigning #1, country WQDR (11.1-11.4-9.4). Second place goes to Capitol Broadcasting’s AC “Mix” WRAL, 7.8-7.5-7.2. Third place is a tie between Radio One’s urban WQOK, 5.3-6.1-6.6, and North Carolina Public Radio’s non-com news/talk WUNC, 7.2-6.8-6.6. Fifth place goes to Curtis’ variety hits “Radio 96.1” WBBB (6.2-6.3-6.5), due o its best PPM share yet. A continued upward stairstep move for iHeart’s country “B93.9” WNCB, 4.2-4.4-4.8. iHeart’s alternative “95X,” HD/translator-combo WDCG HD2, shows 2.7-2.7-2.4. It’s tied with talk sister WTKK (2.4-2.7-2.4). The big AC, “Mix” WRAL, owns the cume lead at 487,300.

Norfolk – A near-doubling, month-to-month, for iHeart’s top 40 “Now 105” WNOH, 2.1-2.4-4.6. That’s the biggest topline for the frequency since March 2012, when it was WVMA. It now ranks #6, below Entercom’s #1 urban AC WVKL (12.5-11.2-11.1), iHeart’s urban WOWI (7.6-8.5-8.2), Max Media’s country “Eagle” WGH-FM (6.3-7.3-7.2), classic hits sibling “Wave” WVBW (4.9-5.0-5.4) and Entercom’s hot AC “Point” WPTE (4.9-5.3-4.8). Here’s an oddity – not a single talk-based station is listed in the book. Sinclair Telecable’s no longer a subscriber for stations like talk WNIS. Tidewater’s cume leader is urban AC WVKL at 362,200.

Providence – Last month, Hall Communications’ country WCTK topped the market for the first time since the diary book of Spring 2008, and it almost made it two in a row. Cumulus top 40 WPRO-FM is first, 9.8-8.6-9.0 and WCTK’s right there, 8.9-9.1-8.9. Third place is iHeart’s classic hits “B101” WWBB, 8.3-8.2-7.9. Cumulus talker WPRO sets a recent high, 5.0-4.9-5.2. Top 40 WPRO-FM also has the highest cume at 503,600.

Nashville – The NFL Titans are helping Cumulus’ all-sports “104.5 the Zone” WGFX roar, 4.5-6.3-6.6. It now ranks fourth, very nearly tying for third place. Up on top, Midwest just closed on AC “Mix 92.9” WJXA and the station seems to have shaken off a recent slight slump and holds position, 9.4-11.1-11.0. iHeart’s got the next two stations, with top 40 “River” WRVW (8.0-7.7-8.0) and urban “Beat” WUBT (7.8-7.0-6.7). Then comes “The Zone”, followed by iHeart’s classic rock WNRQ (6.4-6.3-5.7) and Midwest’s variety hits “Jack” WCJK (6.3-5.9-5.3). Wondering where the country stations are? They start now, because two of them are tied with Jack. Those are Cumulus-owned “Nash” WKDF (5.0-5.0-5.3) and sister “Nash Icon” WSM-FM (5.0-4.3-5.3). Despite having the largest cume of any of the country FMs, iHeart’s “Big 98” WSIX falls in share, 6.3-5.2-4.7. The Music City’s leading talk station is Nashville Public Radio’s news/talk non-com WPLN-FM (3.4-3.2-3.7). Cumulus talker WWTN is stable (2.8-3.2-3.0). iHeart’s talk WLAC adds a bit (1.9-1.7-2.0). AC “Mix” attracts the biggest cume at 496,100.

Greensboro – Here’s an odd thing – there’s not a single listed station in the North Carolina Triad rankings in the 3-share range. Plenty above and below, but none between 3.0 and 3.9. The 3-share zone is relatively unpopulated in some other markets, too. On top are four stations owned by Entercom - urban AC WQMG (9.5-10.0-11.1), country “Wolf” WPAW (8.2-9.3-9.0), variety hits “Simon” WSMW (8.6-8.3-8.5), and rhythmic WJMH (7.9-7.7-8.2). Then comes the Wolf’s main competitor, iHeart’s country WTQR (8.3-7.7-6.8). iHeart’s talk WPTI is the leading talk-based station, steering a steady 2.6-2.6-2.4. “Simon,” Entercom’s home-grown variety hits station, pulls the largest cume at 424,600.

West Palm Beach – Last month iHeart’s classic hits “Kool” WOLL and Digity’s hot AC WRMF were tied at the very top. This time there’s plenty of separation between them, with Kool soaring 7.4-8.0-8.9 and WRMF down 7.1-8.0-7.4. Third place belongs to iHeart’s classic rock “Gater” WKGR, 5.6-4.7-5.3. Hot AC WRMF kills in cume with 390,700 – 130,000 more than second-place Kool. So Kool’s converting the cume and keeping its listeners around longer.

Jacksonville – Renda’s AC WEJZ knocks on the 10-share level, up 8.9-8.4-9.8. That’s more than three shares better than Cox-owned top 40 WAPE, 7.3-6.4-6.5. Third is Renda’s “Gator Country” WGNE, 5.5-6.2-6.1, just a gator’s jaw-snap away from Cox-owned classic hits “Eagle” WJGL, 6.8-6.3-6.0. Cox uses the HD2 signal of the Eagle to feed a translator doing an urban format, which continues to perform exceptionally well, 3.7-3.4-3.5. Cox has the leading talk-based station – WOKV-AM/FM, 4.9-5.1-5.1. The dominant AC, WEJZ, leads in cume at 424,100.

Memphis – Too soon to see the country battle that just erupted between Cumulus’ “Kix 106” WGKX (7.4-8.0-7.7) and Entercom’s new “Wolf” WKQK. In its last months as a classic hits station, WKQK went 3.5-3.5-3.3, and now it’s focused on “Kix.” At the top of the order is iHeart’s urban AC KJMS (9.2-9.0-9.4). There’s a tie for second between gospel sister “Hallelujah” WHAL-FM (8.2-8.2-8.1) and Cumulus urban AC “Soul classics” WRBO (7.6-8.1-8.1). Fourth place goes to iHeart’s urban “K97” WHRK, 7.9-8.0-7.8. Further down, Entercom’s AC “River” WRVR drifts 5.3-4.9-4.3. Urban “K97” corrals the largest cume at an estimated 325,200 Memphians.

Hartford – “Kiss 95.7,” iHeart’s CHR WKSS, improves to fourth place, 7.1-6.7-7.5. In the pack ahead of it are two CBS stations (AC WRCH, 8.9-9.6-9.0, and hot AC WTIC-FM, 8.1-8.1-8.7). And then iHeart’s country WWYZ, 7.5-7.5-8.1. If listeners to CBS Radio’s news/talk WTIC were bothered by the corruption trial involving former afternoon host (and former Connecticut governor) John Rowland, it doesn’t show. WTIC is steady, 7.1-6.9-7.0. Kiss really does have a nice book, claiming the cume lead with 373,300 listeners.

That’s all-she-wrote for the 48 Nielsen PPM markets for September…
But don’t go into Ratings Withdrawal – Monday afternoon, we get New Orleans, Monmouth-Ocean, Oklahoma City, Louisville, Baton Rouge and Puerto Rico. In other words, the vanguard of the Summer quarterly books from the diary-rated markets. You’ll be seeing those starting next Tuesday morning.

Take 2 – from yesterday’s Portland, Oregon numbers, #2-ranked classic hits KLTH is owned by iHeart, not Entercom. While we’re at it - from yesterday’s “On the Block” story about a four-signal sale around Lake Texoma on the Texas-Oklahoma border, the correct frequency of KSEO Durant is 750, not 730.

Founder Harold Camping once added a Bismarck FM to his Family Stations group, and now the Oakland-based Family Stations is selling Class A non-com KBFR (91.7) to North Dakota-based Real Presence – a specialist in Catholic radio. Real Presence owns stations like Catholic-talk KWTL (1370) in its home base of Grand Forks, and has outposts in Moorhead, Mandan and Richardton. Bismarck’s KBFR becomes its fifth station in a deal worth $50,000 cash. Real Presence is waiting to sign on a new FM in Tioga, North Dakota (KZTW at 104.1), and it has translators in Williston and Minot. As for Family - though it’s sold off or traded down in some markets, the cupboard is far from bare, as you can see from the FCC filing here. It still has stations in Baltimore, Buffalo and Milwaukee. Harold Camping erroneously predicted the end of the world several times – but it’s far from the end for his radio/TV group.

That’s a Whale off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida - Steve Kingston and his Cortona Media closes on his $700,000 sale of hot AC WYRE-FM in St. Augustine, Florida (105.5) - and the buyer can’t wait to switch formats to “quality rock from the ’70s to now/105.5 the Whale.” That’s reported by Radio Insight here. The new ownership group is led by Charlottesville-based David Mitchell. David has 55% of “Air St. Augustine” and his minority partners are Joe Reilly, former New York State Broadcasters Association chief and now station owner around Albany. And former KLUV Dallas PD “Peter Z,” Peter Zolnowski. Steve Kingston (Steve Kushner) is a veteran major-market programmer and longtime station owner. Steve continues to hold a 52% stake in Annapolis-area adult alternative WRNR-FM Grasonville, Maryland at 103.1. Broker on the sale of WYRE-FM, the new “Whale” – Eddie Esserman of Media Services Group.

More about this week’s $105.5 million closing in Kansas City, where Wicks Group-backed Jeff Wilks signed the papers to transfer four FMs to the Frischling family’s Steel City Media. The stations are top 40 “Mix 93.3” KMXV and AC “KC102.1” KCKC, plus country FMs KFKF (94.1) and “104.3” KBEQ. Golenbock, Eiseman, Assor, Bell & Peskoe served as legal advisor to seller Wilks. Mark Denbo of Smith & Belendiuk did the legal chores for buyer Steel City Media. Broker was Michael Bergner. If you’re tracking Wilks, it still owns radio clusters in Denver, Columbus, Fresno, Reno and Lubbock, for a total of 16 stations.

In Iowa (Algona, Boone, Humboldt and Webster City), NRG Media sells six stations plus a translator to Riverfront Broadcasting. These folks have done business before, and this time out, Carolyn and Doyle Becker land six full-power stations – AC KLGA Algona, a C3 at 92.7. The country/ag-talk duo of KLGZ Algona at 1600 (1,000 watts daytime/500 watts at night) and a translator at 98.5. News/talk KWBG Boone at 1590 (1,000 watts day/500 watts at night). AC “97.7 the Bolt” KHBT, a Class A in Humboldt. And two stations licensed to Webster City - AC “Q95.7” KQWC-FM, a C3 and oldies “Kruse 1570” KQWC with 232 watts daytime/137 watts at night. The deal comes as NRG CEO Mary Quass awaits FCC Approval to close on the Woodward stations in Waterloo, Iowa (August 25 NOW Newsletter).

Bob Iger won’t be leaving Disney any time soon, after all. His present current has him phasing out of the CEO job and remaining as Chairman. But it appears that Disney’s not ready for him to leave (shades of Michael Eisner’s long tenure), and CNBC reports they’ve re-done Iger’s deal so he’d keep both posts through mid-2018. It was Iger who pushed the button to start selling off the ABC Radio assets when he took over the top job at the Walt Disney Company. Disney may’ve sold all its general-market radio stations and is in the laborious process of selling all but one of its remaining Radio Disney O&Os. But it keeps a hand in radio via ESPN Audio and its major-market O&Os, plus its renewed support of ABC News Radio, as it prepares to leave the shelter of Westwood One at year-end.

Donna Hall, Ben Reed and Dan Lawrie all move around the game-board for Cox Media Group, in a coordinated series of changes from Executive VP of Radio Kim Guthrie. The chain starts with new Atlanta market manager Donna Hall, who’s repatriated to radio. She went on the Cox payroll in 1987 at the Dayton Daily News, then transferred to radio two years later in sales, and more recently has been Senior VP of Marketing & Client Solutions for the only Cox market where there’s a conjoined/TV/newspaper structure – what the company calls CMG Ohio. Donna’s most recently been Group VP with Cox Media, the media sales unit of parent Cox Communications. Now she’s running an important radio group – talk WSB/WSBB (750/95.5), AC “B98.5” WSB-FM, classic hits “River” WSRV (97.1), urban AC “Kiss 104.1” WALR and alternative “X107.1” WTSH. Those stations have all been under the wing of onetime RVP Ben Reed, but he’s now headed out to San Antonio as the new steward of stations such as country “Y100” KCYY and classic hits KONO-FM (101.1). That moves Dan Lawrie from the VP/GM slot in San Antonio up to Tulsa and the four-station group that includes country “K95.5” KWEN. Dan won’t need to Google the roads in Tulsa, because he was the VP/GM there from 2003 through 2010. Kim Guthrie is CMG’s Executive VP of Radio. There are not many radio groups where the group head and the leader of that company’s largest market are both women.

Saturday football tailgating - at the station - A don't-use-my-name jock who says "I still enjoy the business, dammit," recalls an early gig - "I was famous for staging my own tailgate parties at the studio, while I was running the board on Saturday afternoon Penn State games. We were all big fans of Joe Pa [coach Joe Paterno], and we celebrated his victories in grand fashion, along with some friends who would drop by. That began with me stopping by the state liquor store for a little Bailey’s Irish Cream. One time, according to the GM, I missed 16 of 20 commercial breaks during the broadcast, and no, he wasn’t happy about it. But he liked me, I guess. There's nothing worse than a game ending - and you don't know the final score." Got your own memory of radio and sports? Email “You Can’t Make This Up” – Tom@RTK-Media.com.

Enjoy your own football weekend...or whatever your favorite form of recreation is. If you’d like to reach our audience with your advertising or marketing message, contact Kristy Scott. She’s at Kristy@RTK-media.com or phone 818-591-6815. See you first thing Monday morning, anytime after 4am Eastern time, with the next Tom Taylor NOW Newsletter. Tom