Journal Broadcast Group adds two local radio stations

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by Paul Schreiber|ret||ret||tab|

SBJ Reporter|ret||ret||tab|

pschreiber@sbj.net|ret||ret||tab|

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Milwaukee-based Journal Broadcast Group acquired two more Springfield FM radio stations per FCC finalization on Nov. 26. The publicly held Journal bought KHTO and KZRQ for about $5 million from Las Vegas-based Citadel Broadcast Corp, said Mary Alice Tierney, spokesperson for Journal.|ret||ret||tab|

Both stations have 25,000 watts of power, said Rex Hansen, vice president and general manager of Springfield operations for Journal since 2000. KHTO-FM is licensed to Mt. Vernon and KZRQ-FM is licensed to Ash Grove, he added.|ret||ret||tab|

Though Journal's stations may have licenses in cities outside of Springfield and transmitters in areas where they're not licensed, all of the firm's local operations are conducted from 2330 W. Grand, except for KZRQ's studio at 322 E. Walnut.|ret||ret||tab|

"We are programming active rock on KZRQ, and on KSGF-FM we are simulcasting the news talk programming on KSGF-AM," Tierney said.|ret||ret||tab|

KZRQ, which was formerly 104.1 FM, will continue its rock format on 106.7. KHTO was at 106.7 FM but no longer exists, having been replaced by KSGF-FM at 104.1.|ret||ret||tab|

According to Hansen, the fate of KHTO aka "The End" was hinted at by its name. "It was a positioning statement that they (the station's former owners) came up with that we thought was perhaps indicative of where the station was going when they started it." |ret||ret||tab|

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Expanded offerings|ret||ret||tab|

The purchase increases Journal holdings to five stations in the Springfield area, Hansen said. Other stations Journal owns in Springfield's 20-station market are country music station KTTS-FM at 94.7, contemporary hit station KSPW-FM at 96.5 and news-talk station KSGF-AM at 1260, he added. |ret||ret||tab|

Journal owns no other media outlets in Missouri, said Hansen, who would not disclose local operating revenues for the five stations under his direction.|ret||ret||tab|

"We have four diverse products that really appeal to different segments of the marketplace, so we feel that we're serving the listeners and also the advertisers in the marketplace with the different choices," Hansen said. There are about 250,000 potential listeners in Springfield's metropolitan statistical area, which includes Greene, Christian and Webster counties, he added.|ret||ret||tab|

Journal now owns 38 radio stations in eight states, Tierney said. It also owns six television stations in 11 states, one daily newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and 90 weekly newspapers and shoppers in eight states, she added. |ret||ret||tab|

According to Journal's Nov. 19 quarterly report, it has $245.3 million in 2003 third-quarter operating revenue. This was produced in five areas: $96.8 million from publishing, $47.1 from broadcasting, $45.6 million from telecommunications, $25.7 million from printing services and $30.1 million from other sources. |ret||ret||tab|

Journal's total operating revenue for the first nine months of 2003 was $604.9 million, Tierney said.|ret||ret||tab|

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Acquisition history|ret||ret||tab|

Journal's acquisition was part of an arrangement dating from Sept. 8, when Citadel bought KHTO and KZRQ, along with nine others in Iowa and Louisiana, for $133 million from Wilks Broadcasting, a New York-based private equity firm. At that time Citadel announced, it had entered into a transaction to sell the two Springfield stations to Journal, according to a Citadel news release. |ret||ret||tab|

"We had acquired those stations as part of an 11-station deal, and I don't believe it was ever our intention to operate those two stations," said Kim Willcox, executive assistant with Citadel. Following the purchase, "immediately they were operated under a local marketing agreement with the (Journal) people buying the stations. So they've been operating the stations, essentially, from the beginning."|ret||ret||tab|

There's no plan to add any personnel to the roughly 40-person staff Journal has in place locally, he added.|ret||ret||tab|

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