NRG/Waitt sells all 14 of their Kansas stations

[MN Maniac]

Doris and Monte Miller, along with son Christopher Miller have purchased 14 Kansas radio stations from NRG Media/Waitt Radio. The new company will be known as Rocking M Radio. Purchase price has not been disclosed.

This deal includes the following stations:

KXXX/790/Colby
KQLS/100.3/Colby
KGNO/1370/Dodge City
KZRD/93.9/Dodge City
KOLS/95.5/Dodge City
KSSH/96.3/Dodge City
KZLS/107.9/Great Bend
KNNS/1510/Larned
KGTR/96.7/Larned
KYUU/1470/Liberal
KSLS/101.5/Liberal
KWLS/1290/Pratt
KILS/92.7/Salina
KQNS/95.5/Salina

Rocking M Radio will be based in Manhattan, KS.

First Sioux City, now this. Is Waitt/NRG in the process of full divestiture or are they just selling a few underperforming clusters?

[KristenNews@10]

The story's confirmed by the Pratt Tribune. 

http://www.pratttribune.com/articles/2007/04/17/news/01.txt

[LKidd]

Purchase price was $4.75 million, which means NRG just about got out of it what was spent to purchase the stations. The price may not seem real high for this number of stations, but it needs to be remembered the group was barely on life support when Norm Waitt bought Goodstar Broadcasting. Waitt/NRG also had to put a lot of money into the stations after they made the purchase.

From what I've heard, the Colby stations account for a big chunk of the purchase price, as they have been the stations that have managed to keep their cash flow going through all of this. Three of their other markets are holding their own (though one of them is nowhere near where they used to be), and two markets have been described to me by sources in those towns as still being basket cases.

You'll probably be seeing some changes at some point; not right away but once they get into some of their communities and learn how those stations are viewed, especially among key business people, changes will come.

[MN Maniac]

I for one am looking forward to the new regime.  As LKidd mentioned, these stations have been neglected for a long, LONG time.  First under Steckline, then barely operational under Goodstar. 

Is KXXX still the cash cow that it used to be?  What about the signal?

When I was working in Garden City (1984-86), we always envied the billing that place had.  Killer signal, too.  I caught it once while driving between St. Joseph and Omaha on I-29!  But I've heard the coverage has lessened significantly in recent years, due to deteoriation of the ground system.  True?