KMBQ awaits decision on possible sale

WASILLA — Pending approval from a federal judge and the Federal Communication Commission, longtime Valley radio station KMBQ (99.7 FM) will have a new owner.

Gladstone Capital Corp., which took over Spirit of Alaska Broadcasting Inc. last year after the company defaulted on $2.3 million in loans, has reached an agreement with Ohana Media Group to sell the Wasilla FM station and Anchorage-based talk station KBYR, according to filings with the FCC. Also included in the $1.227 million sale price is a pair of FM translators.

What the sale means for local radio listeners is more of the same, said Del Smith, KMBQ business manager.

“We are still going to remain as we are,” she said. “They have every intention of retaining the station with the same format, the same people. Ohana in Hawaiian means ‘family,’ and they want to keep this very much a local, family, community-oriented station.”

Headquartered in Seattle, Wash., Ohana own radio stations in Oregon and in and around Anchorage. A call to Ohana’s Anchorage general manager Bill Sigmar was not returned by press time. Repeated attempts to reach Ohana’s corporate office were unsuccessful.

The sale ends more than a year of reorganization and change for Spirit of Alaska Broadcasting Inc. The company went into receivership in summer 2010 after former owners John and Joan Klapperich defaulted on a pair of loans. In 2005 and 2006, the Klapperiches took out $2.3 million in loans from California-based Wells Fargo Foothill Inc. to pay off debt and to purchase AM1430, a frequency that’s not being used. Gladstone Capital bought the loan, and the court appointed Bob Woodward to serve as receiver for the company.

Over the past year, KMBQ has made major efforts to be fiscally responsible leading up to the company’s sale, Smith said. The long-term hope was to find a buyer like Ohana who would continue to operate the stations with a local focus, she said.

“Overall, this is something the general public will find very seamless,” Smith said. “It’s a very positive step forward. It’s very good, and it’ll very much help us in securing our future here in the community. We’re very, very happy with who has given us an offer. Those of us who were very attached to the station and the format were concerned, but that’s not the case at all with Ohana.”

Until the Ohana offer, which Smith stresses at this point is just that — an offer — the options for Spirit of Alaska’s future were not good, she said.

“That was just a fire sale, which no one would win with that,” Smith said. “This is the best we could’ve hoped for.”

Because the company is in receivership, any potential sale would need approval from the FCC and the court system, she said. As for when that could happen, that’s hard to say, Smith said.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.