Local radio stations already resold

Employees of radio stations KZZF FM and KPTL AM showed up Thursday expecting to work for new owners, but they didn't expect that the new owners had already sold the station to even newer owners.

The Carson City stations were bought from local real estate developer Dwight Millard on Wednesday by Moon Broadcasting of Los Angeles, Calif., which officially took over at midnight.

"One minute after midnight, we bought the stations from Moon," Roy Williams, president and general manager of the Silverado Broadcasting Co. based in Stockton, Calif., said Thursday afternoon.

"They came to work expecting us to ask them to learn Spanish," Williams said in a jesting reference to Moon's earlier plans to convert the FM station to a Spanish-language format.

"One had already cleaned out a desk but was rehired by us by afternoon. For now, everything will continue the way it has been here."

The negotiations with Moon leading to the purchase by Silverado began less than two weeks ago, Williams said.

"We had a radio station broker approach Moon Broadcasting's Irene Escalante and present her with an offer to buy the stations after they closed their deal," he said.

Silverado paid Moon more than the $3 million that Moon paid, Williams said, though he declined to say how much more.

"But we're very satisfied with the deal we made," Williams said.

Williams, chief financial officer Donald Kirkish and vice president and director of sales John Buckley of Silverado, came to Carson City Wednesday evening with Escalante, who introduced them to the local staff. They also brought along the stations' new program director, John Christian.

"We aren't making any changes here for awhile," Christian said. "We don't know what the stations' formats will eventually be, but we do know they won't be Spanish."

Silverado Broadcasting does have experience in that area. Williams said the company owned nine stations a few years ago, with seven broadcasting a Spanish-language format. The seven stations were sold to a company that specializes in Spanish broadcasting, ZSpanish, he said.

Silverado retained KWIN FM in Stockton and KWWN FM in Modesto, which both broadcast a Top 40 format. The company then purchased KJOY FM, an adult contemporary station in Stockton. The two Carson city stations bring Silverado's complement to five, with KPTL being the only AM entry.

"Until we got into the offices today, we literally had no idea what we bought. We had no idea about the AM station." Williams said. "All we really knew is that we were getting a 100 kilowatt FM station whose coverage included Reno and that we could also receive it in the parking lot outside our Stockton office.

"But that transmitter is impressive and Reno's radio market is projected to grow 30 percent a year for the next several years, so this was a very desirable deal."

The three officers from privately owned Silverado will spend several more days in Carson evaluating the purchase, he said.

'We'll be studying the market, checking out the equipment, listening to the listeners who are calling the station and meeting with people who have had long-term relationships with the stations. That will continue after we go back to Stockton and there's no way to say now what decisions we might make," Williams said.

Decisions include whether the broadcast equipment needs modernization, whether to continue to carry identical programming on both stations, and whether to keep the broadcast studios in Carson City, he said.