CBS Agrees to Buy 5 of Taft’s Radio Stations

CBS said Thursday that it has agreed to buy five radio stations in Dallas, Houston, Washington and St. Petersburg, Fla., from Taft Broadcasting Co.

Taft is in the process of acquiring a number of radio and TV outlets from Gulf Broadcasting Group and must dispose of several of the properties.

The agreement in principle is subject to a final agreement and approval by the Federal Communications Commission.

FCC regulations were recently changed to allow a company to own as many as 12 AM and 12 FM stations. If all of the stations are acquired from Taft, CBS will own seven AM and 11 FM facilities.

The stations involved are:

- WLTT-FM, Washington, which plays adult contemporary light rock music.

- KTXQ-FM, Dallas-Fort Worth, an album-oriented rock station.

- KLTR-FM, Houston, now a Gulf station.

- WSUN-AM and WYNF-FM, Tampa-St. Petersburg. WSUN carries modern country music, and WYNF broadcasts album-oriented rock.

CBS owns radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis and Boston.

Terms of the proposed agreement were not announced.

However, Bill Lincoln, vice president of Frazier, Gross & Kadlec, a firm that advises clients on the sale and purchase of broadcast properties, estimated that the deal would cost CBS between $115 million and $120 million.

“One thing to keep in mind is that CBS is a group operator and is obviously interested in being in these markets and, as a consequence, would be willing to pay a premium,” he said. The acquisitions are “very strong stations in very good markets. These markets are all growing at a double-digit clip.”

Opportunity to Comment

Ownership of the additional stations would give members of the public in additional markets an opportunity to comment on Ted Turner’s proposed takeover of CBS.

But from a financial standpoint, Lincoln said he didn’t think it would add too many problems to Turner’s uphill battle to take over the media conglomerate.

“A lot of that would depend on how it is being financed,” he said. “Some form of debt would complicate matters somewhat. Given the overall size of the CBS corporation and the relative size of this deal, I don’t necessarily think it would be a problem. It would probably make CBS a more attractive property.”

Art Sando, a spokesman for Turner, said that “we can’t comment” on the radio station purchase.