Tuesday, November 24, 2009

New station comp in our "What's it Worth?" series


Last month, I profiled the ten most meaningful radio transactions (with sale prices of $5 million or more) in 2009, in an attempt to focus in on current station values. (See http://georgereedradiotv.blogspot.com/2009/10/whats-it-worth.html).


Today, I add one more to the list, Bill Saurer's Principle Broadcasting's purchase from the Aloha Station Trust of KCNL in San Jose):


Market: San Jose

Sale Announced: 11/09

Calls: KCNL

Buyer: Principle Broadcasting

Seller: Aloha Station Trust

Market Rank: 35

Price: $5,000,000

Pop Count: 2,032,316 (BIA)

Cost per Pop: $2.46


Comments:


This sale represents the lowest cost-per-pop for the year; it should be a good purchase for Principle. So does that mean that station values continue to fall? I don't think so. I maintain that the "market" is 6x to 8x BCF for cash flowing stations, and $2.50 to $3.50 per pop for FM sticks. Trading discussions continue to pick up, and a number of sellers are now willing to provide seller financing. That bodes well for a pickup in trading activity in first quarter of 2010.

3 comments:

  1. What do you believe stick value is for an AM?

    Dick Oppenheimer

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dick,

    AM costs per pop are all over the map (and there aren't that many comps due to the slow trading environment). That said, I pulled AM only sales in rated markets, year to date for 2009, in BIA. There are 55 reported transactions. The average cost per pop, using the 2.0 mVm countour was $1.26.

    I hope that helps!

    George

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dick,

    CORRECTION!! I just caught a typo. The cost per pop was $.80, not $1.26!!

    ReplyDelete