http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/05/paul_allen_sells_his_two_po rtl.html

Larry Wilson is a passionate radio man, who I first encountered when working with GM John Bayliss at WSAI - Cincinnati circa 73-76. Wilson was at Combined Communications corporate. Bayliss was always very high on him.

Wilson's Citadel was known for their KAT Country stations, patterned after The KAT in Modesto...always a solid #1. Each year he would host his GM's & PD's at his Big Fork, Montana headquarters...where PD's would awaken to gunfire each morning!!!

Unlike Citidel today, which bit off more than they could chew with ABC...with Fareed Sulaman turning them into a "penny stock," you can bet Larry Wilson is ready to show radio "how it should be done."

Another thing, when the price is announced there are very good odds that Larry got a bargain price. Why?

In addition to being an astute broadcaster, look at Paul Allen's track record.
He seems to always buy high and sell low!!!

It will be very interesting to see how two people-heavy stations operate in this awful economy with the added burden of sudden debt service.
But if Robin is right, maybe we're in for some good times. Imagine the idea of a real radio person owning and running real radio stations! A 'fun fact' from a Larry Wilson Google search calls him a 'hands on' guy.

I'd say it's about time for Larry Wilson to cancel "The Game" on 95.5!

Don't know how long the Blazer contract is with Rose City Radio, but they may be leaving soon. They only came over to Rose City Radio because of Allen's ownership.

Read the article, 8 more years.

It would make one think that Paul Allen didn't want to put the Blazer Flagship on another channel as he might be selling the Blazers within 8 years.

Some owners stay with owning teams until they die or for the next generation. Since Paul Allen does not have children and will be in his 60's eight years from now it would make one think that the Blazers are available for the right price.

Once upon a time, Michael O'Brien recounted the operating scenario of a company he was working for as, "Want to make a Million Dollars? First...take 2 Million Dollars...".

Paul Allen became rich as a founding partner of Microsoft. (I believe it was he that found DOS that somebody else wrote, and with Bill Gates bought the rights to it for $50,000...using an entry to the Chairman of IBM via Bill's mother's seat on a charity board with Mr. IBM...to
sign a licensing agreement with IBM to retain ownership of DOS, and collect a royalty on each unit sold.)

Not a bad strategy. However, when it comes to hobby investments, since then...have any been real profit generators?

Paul Allen has the deep pockets to do whatever he wants. The key is keeping him interested in the hobby.

As for selling, because he's approaching retirment age...I doubt that he can even relate to the concept.

What gets me is...Bill Gates & Paul Allen were probably listening to us old KOL & KJR guys while they were growing up.

Bill....Paul....if you'd really like to do something great in broadcasting....grab people by the ears during the "great broadcast famine" of the new millenium...let's talk!!!

Today's Portland Business Journal says that Vulcan/Allen reportedly paid around $42 million for the stations in 2001. That was pretty much the height of the bidding frenzy.

I wonder what they went for in today's market. If that figure comes out it could be quite telling for valuations of other properties in Portland. Wilson called it a "very fair" price.

Darn....I thought CBS Radio will buy KXL/KXTG combo. Since I think KXL is a money maker station.

Radio-Info reports the price was $11 million...

An interesting angle to this - according to R&R, Wilson has financial backing from Portland's 'Endeavour Capital".

I guess you CAN get financing to buy stations even in this time of tight credit.

I would bet on a professional radio owner that monetized his last group for $2 billion. Pretty likely that Endeavoour will sleep a lot better at night with this deal than Forstman Little does with Citadel at 13 cents a share.

E_dawg said-"Since I think KXL is a money maker station."

No radio station is able to service debt since the 90's. $11 million sounds cheap, but that is still above 1993 dollars, and based on the latest book the Blazers may have done well at the gate, but the lack of a local programming for the Blazers (FSN) (being on Comcast only was a bad deal) it rolled over to radio listening being down also.

I won't comment on Blazer management here, but it's been poor since 1978.

So the proper question may be will Lars stay in the building to do his shows? Now that you have a change in ownership they may try to increase the studio fee to Lars' National Show.

So Lars will have to be like Rush, Doctor Laura and others and begin doing his show from home to make more money.

Does anyone know where Rose City ranks in the Miller-Kaplan?

$11 million for a money making AM-FM combo does not bode well for the values the conglomerates have placed on the properties they have on their books. This is why the swap between CBS & Clear Channel worked out well for both - neither had to declare a market value for the stations.

Apply the math across all their holdings and the financial books would self-implode.

Can't believe this KXL history connection with Larry Wilson! He owned for many years KBOZ-AM/FM in Bozeman, Montana.

In 1937 KXL was co-purchased by Montana broadcaster Ed Craney who owned KRBM aka KXLQ Bozeman among others. It was Craney with partner Tom Symons that ultimately pushed the FCC into assigning KXL the new 750kc frequency, making the station in 1941 Oregon's most powerful.

Craney & Symons also built the old 82nd Ave. transmitter site and beefed up KXL news, molding KXL into what Les Smith carried on after his 1955 purchase. If this Montana connection is any indication, we should see great things in the KXL future.

Allen paid around 24 mill-another money losing business deal for him.

The fire sale price reflects more about the declining value of broadcast licenses than Paul Allen's business acumen.

http://gormanmediablog.blogspot.com/2008/10/radio-worth-less-or-worthless.html

http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/77498

It's also interesting that KXL is being purchased by someone with the same name as their longtime chief engineer!

Want to hear something else weird? They're both Larry R. Wilson!
_______________________________________________________

This from R&R:

Oregon

KXTG-FM & KXL -AM/Portland

PRICE: Undisclosed

TERMS: Terms unavailable

BUYER: Alpha Broadcasting Corp., headed by Chairman/CEO Larry Wilson. No phone listed. It owns no other stations. This represents its entry into this market.

SELLER: Rose City Radio Corporation, headed by VP Troy Scheer. Phone: 503-797-XXXX

FREQUENCY: 95.5 MHz; 750 kHz

POWER: 100kw at 1,266 feet; 50kw day/20kw night

FORMAT: Sports; News/Talk/Sports

BROKER: Doug Ferber of DEFcom LLC

COMMENT: Rose City Radio Corp.'s KXL-AM and KXTG-FM/Portland, Ore., to Alpha Broadcasting Corp. for an undisclosed price.

Wilson may not tinker with the programming of the two stations, but I wonder if he'll make any management changes?

Swapping dial positions is not out of the question, sooner or later.

Off the subject.....who will buy these cp's 96.3 KWLZ and 97.9 KNRQ?

Interesting to look at Endeavour Capital's portfolio, and find Citadel Communications listed as one of their investments. And they're financing Citadel's previous founder Larry Wilson with his move back into broadcasting with Alpha Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

I read that it was estimated that Paul Allen paid $50 million in 1998. Selling today for $11 million is terrible news for the highly leveraged radio owner. A 78% reduction in the value of an asset over 10 years is pretty bad.

It also shows how Paul Allen can thank his lucky stars he got lucky with Microsoft because he's been a dismal failure at investing outside of Microsoft.

As Robin has said, Larry Wilson is a class act who has been sitting out for a few years after selling Citadel. He will be an excellent owner in the Portland market, and the fact he was willing to spend 11 mil now for that combo means he believes we've reached the bottom of the economic slide. That's good for all of us.

Microsoft should thank their lucky stars they unloaded Allen before he sank that company.

I'd say it's about time for Larry Wilson to cancel "The Game" on 95.5!


Xpert....
NOT going to happen....

Is "The Game" making enough money, even with the low ratings?

I sure would like to see a current Miller Kaplan. Anybody with access want to chime it?

Let me help you.

KXL-AM & KXTG-FM grossed $ 7.5 million dollars last year.

Larry Wilson and his financing organization bought them for $ 11 million.

Now that is a GREAT deal.

Would someone please find a strong financial partner who would like to team up with an experienced broadcaster with over 40 years experience and direct that person to me.

When the story of the rebirth of Radio is told, it will be this deal that began it. Congratulations Mr. Wilson.

Hal: You're giving me hope. Thank You!

If some of the big Radio companies go bankrupt, it will flood the market with Radio stations for sale at some price.

We'll be right back where we were in 1996, except that we won't see big publicly financed companies and, thank goodness, the Mays boys will be out. But, Randy Michaels might be back in.

If you can, now is the time to get your due diligence about stations done as best you can looking in from outside and your financing lined up so you're ready to buy.

Gross $$ don't mean anything.

Not to say the guy got a bad deal. I think the bad deal is Paul Allen's to claim.

It sounds to me that under the old system, in place before 1996, the sale should have produced about $52 million!

Let's explore some comparisions.

There was a time back in the 1980s when Radio stations were typically priced at two and one half times the yearly gross billing.

Smart buyers these days are looking at doing deals for 6 times cash flow. That would mean that the Portland combo brought down just under 2 million to get to the 11 million price.

Clear Channel paid 10 times cash flow for many of their deals during their expansion.

We know that Mr. Allen paid considerably more than that, and has just taken a serious beating on the deal.

Folks....this is a tremendous deal.