GKB To Pay $15M for WEPN-AM, KSPN, WMVP

Good Karma Broadcasting will pay a total of $15 million — in multiple installments — to acquire ESPN Radio stations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, according to The Milwaukee Business Journal citing  a recent FCC filing.

Milwaukee-based Good Karma on Dec. 13 announced plans to acquire the stations and anticipates closing the transaction during the first quarter of 2022. The company filed documents the week of Dec. 20 with the Federal Communications Commission that include details of the acquisitions.

The ESPN Radio deals represent an expansion into the nation’s largest media markets for Good Karma, which is led by founder and CEO Craig Karmazubn. Good Karma owns multiple stations in metropolitan Milwaukee, including news-talk-sports WTMJ 620 AM and ESPN Radio station WKTI-94.5 FM as well as Wisconsin stations in Madison, Columbus and Beaver Dam and stations in Cleveland and in metro Palm Beach, Florida.

The transaction involves Good Karma acquiring ESPN 1050 (WEPN-AM) in New York, ESPN 710 (KSPN-AM) in Los Angeles and ESPN 1000 (WMVP-AM) in Chicago from ESPN. Good Karma also will perform ESPN’s obligations under an existing local marketing agreement for 98.7 ESPN (WEPN-FM) in New York.

Craig Karmazin

All three stations will remain ESPN Radio affiliates and continue broadcasting ESPN Network Radio content as well as locally produced programming. Good Karma has been running ESPN 1000 in Chicago since October 2019 under a local marketing agreement.

The FCC filing shows one transaction between Good Karma and ESPN for all three stations. Good Karma already paid $500,000 toward the $15 million total amount and will pay another $500,000 at the closing. After that, Good Karma will make $500,000 payments each quarter for seven years.

A spokeswoman for Good Karma said the company has no comment on the FCC filing and noted the deal will proceed pending FCC approval.

In addition to the transaction involving the three stations, Good Karma and ESPN said Dec. 13 they agreed to extend their ESPN digital sales agreement that began in 2015. The agreement calls for Good Karma Brands to represent display and video inventory on ESPN.com and the ESPN App to local and regional advertisers in 14 media markets.