Big Isle’s
KAOY-FM
gets sold
New West Broadcasting is purchasing Kona's KAOY-FM 101.5 from Pacific Radio Group Inc. for an undisclosed price.
Maui-based Pacific Radio had purchased the station along with seven others from Big Island Radio last month and announced at the time it would have to sell three of the stations to comply with federal ownership limits.
New West plans to operate KAOY under a time brokerage agreement beginning in October, pending final approval of the sale by the Federal Communications Commission.
The album rock format of "K-Hawaii" will change.
"We're going to take KWXX (FM 94.7) over there," meaning KAOY will carry its sister station's contemporary hit and island music programming, said Chris Leonard, New West vice president and general manager.
Leonard has long been interested in getting one of his Hilo radio signals into Kona. "Of the three groups that were here, we were the only ones that did not have a Kona signal," he said. Come October, residents on the Kona side will hear the lineup of KAOY's cross-island sister-station, including Kat and Keala from 6 to 10 a.m., G. Cruz from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Keoni Johnson from 3 to 8 p.m.
"There are to be no staffing changes in the Hilo office," said Leonard, who plans to assemble a sales staff in Kona, as well as a studio for special broadcasts.
The deal leaves Pacific Radio Group with two more stations to sell and negotiations with potential buyers are under way, said Chuck Bergson, Pacific Radio president and chief operating officer. While New West will obtain the rights to use KAOY's signal from Pacific Radio, "Big Island Radio has been good about helping us in our efforts to sell the other stations," Bergson said.
An FCC freeze on station ownership transfers earlier this year stalled Pacific Radio's purchase of four stations on the Big Island owned by Connecticut-based Maverick Media LLC. Approval had been expected in June but was thwarted by the freeze, which was lifted in mid-August. On almost the same day, Pacific Radio announced the purchase of Big Island Radio's eight-station cluster. Since then the FCC has refrozen and unfrozen the use of certain forms relating to ownership transfers. The deal is now expected to close Oct. 1.
