Family Affair: Seven Mountains Media To Acquire Forever

Seven Mountains Media will acquire 34 radio stations from Forever Media, including stations in Johnstown, Altoona, and State College, the company’s owner said on Thursday.

Although no money will exchange hands, the deal is valued at about $17.4 million. Seven Mountains will assume Forever Media’s debt.  According to an FCC filing, Kristin Cantrell’s Seven Mountains Media is picking up 46 Pennsylvania stations from her father Kerby Confer’s Forever Media.

“We plan to serve more local radio – more, more, more, nothing less,” Seven Mountains Media owner and CEO Kristin Cantrell said.

The Johnstown Democrat reports Cantrell lives in Kentucky, but previously lived in Johnstown and worked in the Johnstown and Altoona markets from 2003 to 2007.

Seven Mountains Media’s Pennsylvania headquarters is in State College. The company also has stations in New York, she said.

“The partners of Forever Media, as a course of succession planning, decided they wanted to split the company, and so we are buying the markets including Johnstown, and Forever Media is keeping stations in Pittsburgh, York, Wilmington, Delaware, and Maryland, too,” Cantrell said. “Forever Media kept fewer markets, but bigger markets. We took markets contiguous with our existing footprint.”

Listeners may be hearing programs on different signal configurations, but there won’t be any immediate changes, she said.

“We hope to close the deal by the end of the year, pending FCC approval,” she said.

She said current employees of Forever Media at the stations to be acquired by Seven Mountains will have the opportunity to continue in their jobs.

According to InsideRadio,  here is what Seven Mountains Media is acquiring:

• State College, PA: classic hits “Happy 103.1” WAPY, country “Big Froggy 101.1” WFGE, AC “Majic 93.7” WMAJ, classic rock “99.5 The Bus “ WBUS, “News Radio 1390” WRSC, sports “ESPN Radio 1450” WQWK, and two State College, PA-licensed translators: W279DK at 103.7 FM and W227DV at 93.3 FM.
• Altoona, PA: AC WALY (103.9), hot AC “Hot 100” WWOT, oldies “Toona 1430” WTNA, talk “Big 1290” WFBG, country “Froggy 98.1” WFGY, rock “Rocky 104.9” WRKY-FM, and two Altoona, PA-licensed translators including W259DG at 99.7 FM and W283DI at 104.5 FM.
• Johnstown, PA: AC “Key 96.5” WKYE, country “Froggy 95.5” WFGI, rhythmic CHR “Hot 92.1” WJHT, rock “Rocky 99.1” WRKW, contemporary Christian “K-Love” WLKH (97.7), oldies “Cool 101.7” WCCL, news-talk WNTI/WNTJ (990/1490), and three FM translators including the Johnstown, PA licensed W230BK at 93.9 FM and W238CX at 95.5 FM and the Somerset, PA-licensed W278CR at 103.5 FM.
• Meadville, PA: country “Froggy 101.3” WGYY, classic rock “Rocky 94.3” WRQI, hot AC “Majic 104.5” WXMJ, news-talk WTIV/WMGW (1230/1490) and two FM translators: the Meadville, PA-licensed W264DK at 100.7 FM and the Titusville, PA-licensed W287DC at 105.3 FM.
• Franklin, PA: country “Froggy 98.5” WGYI, classic rock “Rocky 107.7” WRQW, hot AC “Majic 99.3” WHMJ, news-talk WFRA (1450), and the Franklin, PA-licensed translator W251CL at TK FM.
• New Castle, PA: classic country “Willie 95.1” WYLE, classic hits WUZZ (1280), and “News Talk Radio 1200” WKST, and two New Castle, PA-licensed translators including W250CW at 97.9 FM and W248DJ at 97.5 FM.
• Lebanon, PA: country “Froggy Valley 100.1” WFVY and talk “Wilbur 1270” WLBR.