Adios, Entravision

Five local radio stations--four on the FM side of the dial, one from the AM--are being sold after their parent company went and lost $168 million in a single quarter. Yesterday, Santa Monica, California-based Spanish-language broadcasting giant (though now, not so much) Entravision Communications Corporation announced that it was gonna...

By Robert Wilonsky

August 4, 2006

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Five local radio stations--four on the FM side of the dial, one from the AM--are being sold after their parent company went and lost $168 million in a single quarter. Yesterday, Santa Monica, California-based Spanish-language broadcasting giant (though now, not so much) Entravision Communications Corporation announced that it was gonna have to ditch its Dallas radio properties because it needs the long dinero to expand elsewhere. Couldn't have helped, though, that it lost a small fortune this year after its radio assets were re-appraised; Entravision is actually a pretty profitable company. Says Entravision's chairman and CEO Walter Ulloa in a press release, "We will continue to build leading positions in the fastest-growing and highest-density Hispanic markets where we can operate both television and radio assets, allowing us to efficiently manage our costs and leverage our operating footprint."

But if that suggests Dallas' Spanish-language radio stations are in trouble, that is news to Jose and Lenard Liberman. The father and son are the beneficiaries of Entravision's exit from the market; their company, Liberman Broadcasting of Dallas Inc., is forking over $95 million to buy KTCY-FM (101.7, Super Estrella), KZZA-FM (Casa 106.7), KZMP-FM (104.9), KZMP-AM (1540) and KBOC-FM (98.3). The sale has to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission and probably won't close till the end of the year, but when it does, Entravision won't have any local Dallas media outlets, while Liberman will have a total of seven. Liberman already owns KNOR-FM (93.7), which recently switched formats from a hip-hop station to "La Raza" rock, and KMPZ-Channel 29 on your TV dial.

News of this transaction has to thrill the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) and other local and national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organizations who last year went after the Libermans for "promoting physical violence against and verbal abuse" against the LGBT community. Go here to watch the video GLAAD was mad about. --Robert Wilonsky

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