Minnesota radio station owner Leighton Enterprises, which does business as Leighton Media, will become a fully employee-owned company under a stock redemption agreement that will see several top leaders sell their individual shares.
According to the plan submitted to the FCC on Sept. 25, The Robert G. Leighton Revocable Trust, Jeffrey T. Leighton, Patrick Dotzler, Tony Abfalter, and Brian Zenzen will sell their shares for a combined $7,842,579.60. Currently, the Trust owns 25.48% of the company while Jeffrey T. Leighton owns 25.36%, Dotzler owns 1.38%, Abfalter owns 0.46%, and Zenzen owns 0.22%.
The Leighton Enterprises, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan, which currently owns 47.1% of the company, will become the sole owner once the transaction is complete.
Leighton Enterprises and its subsidiary, Leighton Radio Holdings, own 25 full-power stations in seven markets including:
Alexandria: KXRA/1490, KXRA-FM/92.3, KXRZ/99.3
Detroit Lakes: KDLM/1340, KRCQ/102.3, KBOT/104.1 (Pelican Rapids)
Fergus Falls: KJJK/1020, KBRF/1250, KJJK-FM/96.5, KZCR/103.3
Grand Forks, ND: KNOX/1310, KGFK/1590 (East Grand Forks, MN), KZGF/94.7 (Grand Forks), KYCK/97.1 (Crookston, MN), KZLT-FM/104.3 (East Grand Forks, MN)
Perham: KPRW/99.5
St. Cloud: KNSI/1450, KZPK/98.9 (Paynesville), KCML/99.9 (St. Joseph), KCLD/104.7
Winona: KWNO/1230, KHWK/1380, KGSL/95.3, KWMN/99.3 (Rushford), KRIV-FM/101.1
The company also owns FM translators relaying most of its AM stations as well as K277BS/103.3 (St. Cloud), which relays an HD subchannel of KZPK as “Z103.3.”
Leighton Enterprises got its start when Al Leighton bought KDLM in 1963. He was inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2001.