BergnerCo.com

BOCA RATON, FLA. It's a transaction that sees  Michael J. Bergner serve as the broker, and it involves  Beasley Media Group, owner of a six-station cluster in the Cradle of Liberty and an FM in neighboring Wilmington, Del.

While Delaware's largest city is within the Philadelphia DMA, it's a separate, unique community with media focused largely on the First State. As such, WJBR has been a standalone in Wilmington for Beasley. That's about to change.

VCY America, the non-secular Christian Talk & Teaching-focused broadcast ministry that in March 2022 acquired KESN-FM in Dallas for $9.25 million and attempted to purchase three FMs stripped by a Federal judge from Ed Stolz's Royce International, is buying  WJBR-FM 99.5 in Wilmington.

Branded as "Mix 99.5," WJBR is being spun for $5 million.

According to one market observer who requested anonymity when communicating with  RBR+TVBR, the deal is "savvy for VCY but not good for the industry."

How so? Factoring in a 60 dBu population count of 5,028,130 per "F50,50 mapping" based on the 2020 Census, the price-per-person comes out to $0.99.

However, that valuation presented to  RBR+TVBR may be inaccurate for one key reason: while WJBR enjoys a Class B signal and can be heard in Philadelphia, it has never been a station serving anywhere but Delaware. and perhaps West Chester, Pa., to the immediate north.

As such, WJBR has never truly been considered a sixth FM within Beasley's Philadelphia station group, comprised of Rocker WMMR, Classic Rock WMGK, Adult Hits WBEN, Sports Talk WPEN, Country WXTU and WWDB "Talk 860."

With  Sally Buckman of Lerman Senter serving as Beasley's legal counsel and Kathryne Dickerson of Wiley LLP acting as VCY America's legal counsel, terms call for a 10% escrow deposit to be held at Truist Bank.

Bergner represented Beasley in the transaction.

WJBR was founded in January 1957, making it an early standalone FM in an era when few turned to the MHz band. Across the 1960s and 1970s, it was "Just Beautiful Radio," airing an Easy Listening format; the call letters are for first owner John B. Reynolds.

His son, John B. Reynolds Jr., in 1985 sold WJBR-FM, and WJBR-AM, which was added in 1976, to the former Commodore Media. It was then acquired by Capstar.

A HUGE DEVALUATION FOR A HERITAGE FM

In March 2000, Capstar sold WJBR-FM to the now-defunct NextMedia Group.

Seven years later, NextMedia sold the station to Beasley. That deal perhaps puts in perspective the current valuations seen across the radio industry compared to the mid-2000s, prior to the "Great Recession" and real estate crisis of the late 2000s.

In a deal that saw  Peter Handy of  Star Media Group serve as the broker, Beasley agreed to purchase WJBR for $42 million from the former entity led by President/CEO  Steven Dinetz.

Today, Star Media Group is also defunct.