The company broadcasting classic rock under the Arkansas Rocks brand and featuring longtime Arkansas DJs like Clyde Clifford and Tom Wood has agreed to acquire 13 radio stations and two FM translator signals in Arkansas and Mississippi.
Jay Brentlinger’s Broadcast Industry Group, which owns KLRG-AM 880 in Sheridan and KJJI-FM 1190 in White Hall, hopes to buy 11 stations in Arkansas and two in Mississippi in separate transactions worth a total of $3.5 million, Inside Radio reported on Wednesday.
The seller is Texas-based High Plains Radio Group, owned by Monte Spearman.
The stations in Arkansas are KVRC/KDEL-FM 1240 and 100.9 in Arkadelphia, KAFN-FM 690 in Benton, KWPS-FM 99.7 in Caddo Valley, KYXK-FM 106.9 in Gurdon, KZYP-FM 1310 in Malvern, KCMC-FM 94.3 in Viola, KJMP-FM 95.7 in Calico Rock, and KRXP-FM 1260 is Gassville. Broadcast Industry Group’s Mississippi acquisitions were WDMS-FM 100.7, a country station, and classic hits WGVM-FM 1260. Both are in Greenville.
Several of the acquired stations have been operated by Broadcast Industry Group under a local marketing agreement and broadcasting the Arkansas Rocks lineup.
That lineup includes Clifford, Arkansas’ elder statesman of rock; Wood, who made his name at Magic 105; and other well-known voices like Bob Terrell, Mark Wallace, Sonny Victory, Barry Mac and David Allen Ross. The team offers a mix of live and pre-recorded work from Broadcast Industry Group’s studio in Benton. Twelve of Brentlinger’s stations are expected to carry that content now.
The deal, worth $3 million, also includes the Benton-licensed translator K229CX-FM, 93.7, and Sheridan-licensed translator K281CK-FM, 104.1. The acquisitions are pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which is also reviewing a $500,000 deal for Broadcast Industry Group to purchase Helena's classic hits station, “The Mix,” 103.1-FM and its classic country station, KFFA-FM, 1360. That deal is also with High Plains Radio Network, which owns stations in Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
“We’re pretty busy working on growing our company,” Brentlinger told Arkansas Business last year. “That’s the key to building these small-market radio stations into something.”
