L-A Radio: KFWB 980 AM Sold, Will Drop Sports

1/7 6AM Update:  The sale price for KFWB is $8M and according to the FCC filing is being purchased by Universal Media Access KFWB-AM LLC headed by Charles W. Banta of Buffalo NY.

Banta is the President at Mercury Capital Partners which he founded in 2000. In 1994, Mr. Banta became the President and Founder of Mercury Radio Communications and acquired radio stations in Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Earlier he served as Group Head of Greater Media’s Radio Division where, he oversaw 16 radio stations in Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Central New Jersey, and Boston. Banta has been actively involved as an operator or owner in the media business for more than 28 years.

Original Posting...

KFWB 980 AM The Beast, radio home of the Clippers, will end operations as an all-sports station in mid-February after the station’s asset trust sold the business to a group that runs foreign-language programming, according to several sources.

The sale will likely result in the Clippers, on KFWB since 2009, having to quickly find a new flagship for their games. Neither KLAC 570 AM, home to the Dodgers and UCLA sports, nor KSPN-710 AM, home to the Lakers and USC sports, seem like a likely landing spot.

The Kings currently have their NHL games on KABC 790 AM), while the Angels are on their team-owned KLAA 830 AM, along with the NHL’s Ducks.

KFWB has also been home to Westwood One NFL broadcasts.

KFWB 980 AM (5 Kw) Red=Local Coverage

The LA Daily News reports the staff at “980 The Beast,” which has been operating as a sports station since September 2014, were told of the sale at a meeting Tuesday at 10 a.m., according to a source at the station.

Of the three main all-sports format stations in L.A., 980-AM has made steady improvements but has not been able to make up much ground in the ratings to ESPN-owned 710 and iHeartMedia’s 570, which the Dodgers have an ownership stake in.

The 5,000-watt station, which launched in 1925 and made its mark in all-news for decades, eventually went to all-sports to accommodate a syndication expansion of Jim Rome’s mid-morning show, which came when he joined CBS Sports in 2012.

Station on-air personalities include Fred Roggin, Jeanne Zelasko, Bill Plaschke, Chris Myers, Wes Clements and Sam Farber. The station was also the radio home for MLS Galaxy broadcasts.

Since November 2011, CBS Radio put KFWB into a trust managed by Diane Sutter, President and CEO of ShootingStar Broadcasting. The business move was needed since CBS Corporation owned and operated two TV stations and two radio stations in the L.A. market.

There were no other specifics given about the group buying station, only that the sale was to be facilitated by a private equity firm.