How Do You Buy A Radio Station?
• Contact one or more radio station brokers. A radio station broker will know what stations are up for sale. It usually does not do any good to call a station that you may be interested in buying, as the owners usually don’t want the employees to know that the station is up for sale. Loading… • Be prepared to pay cash. In todays economy, banks are not willing to lend more than 8 times gross yearly income. On the other hand, stations that sold for $500,000 5 years ago are going for $120,000 today. • Be sure you can afford it. Besides the obvious expenses of electric bills for the equipment and rent on office space, if the station plays music, royalties must be paid to ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. Even if you plan to run a bare bones operation with music from an automation computer, FCC rules require a “meaningful human presence” during “normal business hours” at the main studio. That means at least one full time person as a manager and one other person to “cover” the station when the manager
