Orange Radio Station Selling For $37.5M; Likely Going Spanish
By DARRELL SATZMAN
Orange’s KPLS-AM (830) talk radio station is being bought, and its future is looking decidedly espa & #324;ol.
Los Angeles-based startup Radiovisa Corp. struck a deal to buy KPLS in late August as part of its play for a piece of the growing Spanish-language radio market.
Radiovisa is backed by New York-based Quetzal JPMorgan Partners LP, a private equity firm funded by media heavyweights Clear Channel Communications Inc., Viacom Inc., Tribune Co. and News Corp.
Radiovisa, led by Stephen Lehman, founder of Clear Channel’s Premiere Radio Networks Inc., plans to create programs for syndication and acquire other stations.
The KPLS buy is awaiting Federal Communications Commission approval. Radiovisa is buying the station from San Diego-based Catholic Radio Network, a defunct religious broadcaster, for $37.5 million.
Last week, Radiovisa said it struck a deal to act as the U.S. syndicator for news and sports briefs produced by Mexico’s Notisistema.
Radiovisa officials declined to comment on the fate of KPLS, now an English-language talk station that’s also home to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim games. But it is likely to be converted to Spanish-language talk as an outlet for Radiovisa’s programs.
KPLS has a 50,000-watt signal that extends northward as far as Santa Barbara and as far south as San Diego.
Formed in December, Radiovisa produces two shows,morning program “Gerardo por la Ma & #324;ana” and evening show “En Privado”,both at its Sherman Oaks studio. The two air in a handful of markets, including Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Chief Operating Officer Ray De La Garza said the company plans to announce a complete slate of 24-hour programming later this year.
“We will do exactly what we did at Premiere but on the Spanish side,” said De La Garza, a former senior vice president for programming at Premiere. “Wherever there are Mexicans we plan to program. There is an opportunity because there is no real Spanish network that provides programming to other stations.”
So far, Radiovisa has yet to market its lineup to industry heavyweights like Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., whose acquisition by Los Angeles-based Univision Communications Inc. is pending FCC approval, and Florida’s Spanish Broadcasting System Inc., which together own more than 100 Spanish radio stations.
Among English-language stations, syndicated talk has become the rule rather than the exception with the rise of personalities such as Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Those widely syndicated hosts belong to the Premiere network, which Lehman started in 1987 before selling it a decade later to Jacor Communications for $190 million.
Jacor was acquired by Clear Channel two years later for $6.5 billion.
Obtaining wide syndication in the increasingly consolidated radio world is no easy task, said Jim Kalmenson, president of KWKW-AM (1330), one of two stations in the Los Angeles market airing Spanish-language talk. KWKW is one of 40 stations owned by Lotus Broadcasting Corp.
“It’s extremely difficult to break in because owners are leery of allowing a third party to sell their ad inventory,” Kalmenson said. “The prevailing way of doing things in Spanish is to (produce) it yourself.”
Still, with Lehman at the helm and major media backing, Radiovisa is hardly an outsider. De La Garza said Radiovisa intends to pursue other stations, but declined to say if the company was negotiating any deals.
The other Spanish-language talk station in the market is Miami-based Radio Unica Communication Corp.’s KBLA-AM (1580). Radio Unica also syndicates some programming.
KBLA General Manager Bill Jenkins declined to comment on Radiovisa.
“There’s a lot to be gained by having another competitor,” said Kalmenson, whose station had revenue of more than $11 million in 2002, tops among Spanish-language stations in the market. “It’s lonely being the only one out there proclaiming the benefits to advertisers of a (Spanish) talk format.”
Satzman is a staff writer with the Los Angeles Business Journal.
