The company has decided to leave one of the markets it has been in a very long time. Beasley is selling 6 stations it owns in the Greenville-New Bern Jacksonville, North Carolina market. Beasley will make $11 million on the deal and use the money to pay down debt. Here are the details of the deal.
The stations in the deal are WNCT-AM, WNCT-FM, WSFL-FM, WIKS-FM, WMGV-FM and WXNR-FM. They are being sold for $11 million in cash to CMG Coastal Carolina, LLC, a subsidiary of Curtis Media Group. Curtis intends to spin-off WNCT-FM to Inner Banks Media.
Inner Banks President Henry Hinton said it’s a dream to add a station with such huge reach like WNCT FM. “We are very excited to be able to add a huge heritage station like WNCT-FM to our group. WNCT has one of the largest FM signals in the state covering everything from Raleigh to the coast so obviously, this is a great opportunity for us to increase our reach and continue our mission to serve the listeners in the east. The classic hits format is a great match to our current station mix”.
Beasley CEO Caroline Beasley said, “Since the Company’s founding in 1961, Beasley has established a long-term record of successfully optimizing its station portfolio through both strategic acquisitions and divestitures to drive returns for our shareholders. Last November we completed the accretive acquisition of Greater Media, adding 17 stations (net of divestitures) and four attractive new markets to our operating footprint. We are making continued progress with the integration of the new stations as we apply our proven strategies that focus on strong core programming and targeted localism to support ratings and market leadership. We are confident that the stations being divested will continue to offer listeners in Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville great local programming.”
