NEBRASKA:
Tracy Broadcasting is selling KBFZ/100.1 (Kimball) to Legacy Communications for $135,000. Here's the asset purchase agreement. At last report, the 6kW station simulcast an Oldies format with Tracy's KOAQ/690 (Terrytown-Scottsbluff). Legacy owns Kimball's other station, KIMB/1260, which has a construction permit to move to Ogallala. (10/31/2006)
WISCONSIN:
Robert Jeffers and Patricia Martinez-Jeffers will sell WBJX/1460 (Racine) to John Torres for $467,500 under a court order. WBJX will remain off the air until the sale is completed. The sale includes the license, transmitter, processor, remote control, and satellite dish and receiver, but not the music library and other assets. (10/30/2006)
NEBRASKA:
KZMC/102.1 (McCook) signed on at 5 p.m. Wednesday (10/25) with a format of mainstream and vintage rock as "Z102.1." Legacy Communications, which owns two other stations in McCook, won the new 100kW station in FCC Auction No. 62 with a $182,000 bid. The other radio group in town, McCook Radio Group, has four stations and construction permits for two new stations. (10/26/2006)
MINNESOTA:
KZGX/1600 (Watertown) has flipped from Spanish-language to Hmong-language programming following the station's sale to Peter Xiong. KZGX has a strong signal in the far western Twin Cities metro. (10/25/2006)
NEBRASKA:
DirecTV has added My Network TV affiliate KOLN-DT2 to its locals package for the Lincoln-Hastings-Kearney market. (10/25/2006)
IOWA/ILLINOIS:
The Quad City Times reports WKBF/1270 (Rock Island) will drop Liberal Talk for Christian Talk at the end of the year, following the station's sale to Quad Cities Media (see below). (10/22/2006)
WISCONSIN:
Barracuda Broadcasting's WMZK/104.1 (Merrill-Wausau) has reverted to its previous slogan, "Z104," dropping "The Blaze." (10/21/2006)
WISCONSIN:
Red Rock Radio is buying WXCE/1260 (Amery) from Lake Country Broadcasting for $325,000. Red Rock owns 16 other radio stations, including Polk County's only other station, WLMX-FM/104.9 (Balsam Lake), and sister companies own TV stations in three markets, detailed here. Lake Country Broadcasting is owned by Robert and Lois Johnson of St. Peter, MN, the former owners of KRBI AM-FM. Here's the asset purchase agreement. WXCE runs a News/Talk format and is 5kW with different day and night directional patterns. (10/20/2006)
IOWA/ILLINOIS:
Brookfield, WI-based Quad Cities Media, LLC, is buying WKBF/1270 (Rock Island) from Van Archer's Mercury Broadcasting for $150,000. Clear Channel currently programs a talk format featuring Air America on WKBF and had also run Mercury's WHTS/98.9, which was sold to the Educational Media Foundation and became WLKU earlier this year. The online application does not list the ownership of Quad Cities Media, but does list Randall R. Melchert as its president. Here's the asset purchase agreement. (10/20/2006)
NEBRASKA:
New station KTUW-DT/16 (Scottsbluff) has applied for a license to cover, meaning it's signed on or will soon. Owner Equity Broadcasting's website says KTUW is using the company's "Retro Television Network" brand. KTUW-DT, which has no analog counterpart, is only broadcasting at 5.2kW for now. (10/16/2006)
MINNESOTA/WISCONSIN:
Some personality changes in the La Crosse area:
SOUTH DAKOTA:
DX-midAMerica reports KSQB/1520 (Sioux Falls) has dropped its Sports format and is rebroadcasting Oldies from sister station "Kool 107.9" (KXQL Flandreau). (10/13/2006)
MICHIGAN/WISCONSIN:
Bay Broadcasting is buying WHRY/1450 (Hurley, WI) and WUPM/106.9 (Ironwood, MI) from Big G Little O, Inc. for $1.25 million. Gerald J. Hackman of Iron River, WI, and John J. Nix of Highbridge, WI, own Bay Broadcasting, which is also the licensee of two Hancock, MI, stations, WMPL/920 and WKMJ/93.5. Hackman also owns 49% of WUPY/101.1 (Ontonogan). Ironwood's other two stations, WJMS/590 and WIMI/99.7, were recently sold to Armada Media. (10/12/2006)
MORE DIRECTV HD LOCALS:
DirecTV has announced plans to add high-definition signals of ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC affiliates in another 25 markets by the end of the year, including Des Moines, Green Bay, and Madison. DirecTV already carries some HD locals in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. With the addition, DirecTV will offer HD feeds of the big four networks in 67 markets accounting for 74 percent of U.S. TV households. (10/12/2006)
NEBRASKA:
Salem's 100.7 "The Bridge" (KGBI Omaha) has applied to move its transmitter from near Springfield to Omaha, changing from 100kW/368m to 100kW/309m. The change would improve KGBI's signal in Omaha but put Lincoln outside of its main coverage area. (10/9/2006)
WISCONSIN:
WFMR/106.9 (Brookfield-Milwaukee) has applied to move its transmitter from Menomonee Falls to Milwaukee, improving its signal to the core of the metro area. The station would remain class A, changing from 6kW/100m to 4.4kW/116m. Saga Communications owns WFMR, which runs a commercial Classical format. (10/4/2006)
MANITOBA:
Corus Entertainment is adding a third station to its Winnipeg group: 99.1 "Cool FM." Corus will pay CanWest MediaWorks about $15 million for CJZZ/99.1 and a station in southern Ontario. Corus also owns CJOB/680 and CJKR "Power 97" in Winnipeg. (10/3/2006)
IOWA:
KMA Broadcasting's KKBZ/99.3 (Clarinda) has applied to move to 99.1, upgrading to 100kW. KKBZ currently transmits from a tower in Missouri with 50kW at 150m and would move to a site just west of Clarinda, with 100kW at 223m. Here's a comparison of coverage maps. The proposed facility is short-spaced with KQKQ/98.5 (Council Bluffs), but KKBZ demonstrates in its application that there is not actually prohibited overlap because KQKQ does not operate at the maximum facility for its class (C). (10/2/2006)
NEBRASKA/IOWA:
Cox Communications has dropped the high definition signal of KETV (ABC) in the Omaha area amid a retransmission consent dispute. KETV said its owner, Hearst-Argyle, allowed Cox to continue carrying KETV's analog signal during negotiations "so as not to inconvenience a large number of its viewers." (10/1/2006)
WISCONSIN:
WisconsinBroadcasting.com reports WBWT-LP/38 (Milwaukee) is on the air. Bustos Media, which also owns Regional Mexican WDDW/104.7 (Sturtevant-Milwaukee), moved WBWT-LP's license across Lake Michigan from Ludington, MI, where it was a 7-Watt station on channel 53. In Milwaukee, it's 150kW. The Milwaukee Business Journal reported earlier this year that WBWT-LP will carry Azteca America, becoming the second broadcast spanish-language TV station in the city. (10/1/2006)
| Upper Midwest Broadcasting: News/Main | IA | MN | NE | ND | SD | WI | MI |
