The radio deal market continued to hum along at a slow but steady pace during the first half of the year. BIA Advisory Services says 216 radio station sales were announced between Jan. 1 and June 30, with a total value of $60.1 million. While that is a far cry from the frenzied pace of dealmaking seen in the past, it also shows what has become the continuation of a new normal.
BIA data shows June had more big-ticket sales than most other months so far this year. The total value of deals announced added up to more than $11 million, despite only 23 station sales being announced last month.
One radio company is responsible for roughly one of every five dollars in deal activity in the first half of 2024. Neuhoff Media announced in February that it would exit the business, and it quickly struck a series of three deals that added up to $11.6 million. Woodward Communications said it would pay $4.3 million to buy stations in two Illinois markets from Neuhoff Media. Neuhoff also sold five stations in the Lafayette, IN market to Saga Communications for $5.3 million. And it sold its eight stations in Decatur, IL and Danville, IL to Champaign Multimedia Group for $2 million.
Among some of the first half’s other bigger sales were Norsan Media’s $6 million purchase of JVC Media’s Orlando stations. And Kyle Bauer’s $2,710,000 deal to buy seven stations from Rocking M Media as part of a bankruptcy auction.
“The financial pressure on the publicly traded groups and the slowdown in growth are having a direct impact on interest and activity in the radio station transaction space,” said Tom Buono, founder and CEO of BIA Advisory Services. “We sense many groups would like to spin off less desirable properties, but the lack of lenders and the high cost of interest makes it more difficult for purchasers to pull the trigger on an acquisition unless it fits their strategic narrative.” He thinks some policy changes by the Federal Communications Commission, or an easing of interest rates, could help to improve the acquisition environment for buyers. “But it will remain a challenge without a group of interested lenders,” Buono said.
The BIA tally also shows that radio station sales have been far more active in 2024 than what is happening in television. The firm says there have been only eight TV stations sold this year, totaling $13.7 million. That includes one sale announced in June, valued at $475,000.
Broker Doug Ferber says he has seen a shift in the radio deal market, and it’s expected to generate a more rapid pace of sales in the months to come.
“I wouldn’t call it robust, by any means. But I feel that the market is changing a little bit, in that there is more inventory,” he says. “I’ve got more listings right now than I’ve had in the last five years. I don’t know if it’s luck or just the timing of where the industry is now. There are more guys aging out of the business, and others are probably saying this is as good as it’s going to be, so let me see what is available.” Ferber says the result is that the quality of what has been brought to the market has been top-notch in many cases.
In previous decades sellers may have been scarce, helping to drive up deal values. Today, the reverse is true, with more sellers than buyers. And that means deals are more likely to be based on a station’s strategic value rather than the cash flow multiples that have long been used as an industry yardstick.
“There are no multiples. If you think you’re going to get ten-times, it’ll be a very long time before you sell,” Ferber says. Because of the slower pace of the market, he says it is also difficult to use multiples since there are not enough comparable sales to arrive at a number. “Think of it as a really good neighborhood, but after an economic downturn, how do you price the first house that comes on the market?”
During the past several years, a smaller crowd of buyers has opened a door for several religious broadcasters to expand into new markets and in other cases upgrade from translators to full-powered signals. In recent months that has slowed, however. Ferber thinks it’s in part because they know there is no rush to get a deal done with little competition for most stations.
“They’ve also taken on a lot and have to digest it,” he says. “So some have fine-tuned their buying criteria and become a bit more stringent because they were getting overfed with deals.”
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