TX Radio: Mike Huckabee Group To Buy Four Tyler Stations

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is part of a group buying four radio stations in the Tyler, Texas market - the radio group once owned by the Waller family. That includes KFRO 95.3 FM / KLJT  102.3 FM The Breeze,  which abruptly shut down last August after the death of William Dudley Waller, reports the Tyler Morning Telegraph.

“We are very happy a wonderful group of people has entered into a contract with Waller Media LLC,” she said. “The new company will be East Texas Results Media LLC. It’s Michael D. Huckabee, Paul Coates and Libby Coates. They are all from Arkansas, where Dudley Waller, my dad, was from.”

The acquisition was first reported in InsideFortSmith.com, which said, “Paperwork was filed with the FCC on Monday for Huckabee’s East Texas Results Radio LLC to purchase four radio stations in the Tyler, Texas market. The former broadcaster-turned-preacher-turned-politician is a 49 percent owner in the company, partnering with longtime Arkansas broadcaster Paul Coates, who has owned and operated a number of radio stations across the state including nearby stations in Ozark.”

The deal is reportedly worth about $1.2 million.

KLJT 102.3 FM (50 Kw)

“Huckabee is no stranger to the radio business, having started out as a young broadcaster at his hometown station in Hope,” that news site says. “Following his two terms as governor of Arkansas, he would go on to host The Huckabee Report which took the place of ABC Radio’s Paul Harvey and a syndicated talk show that aired opposite of Rush Limbaugh.”

Huckabee served as governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was first elected as lieutenant governor, but when then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker was convicted of fraud during the Whitewater investigations, Huckabee became governor.

Huckabee ran for president twice, in 2008 and in 2016. When he ended his campaign in the Republican primary, he backed Donald Trump.