Lutheran Church Sells KFUO/St. Louis

Sold

The LUTHERAN CHURCH-MISSOURI SYNOD is officially selling Classical KFUO-F (CLASSIC 99)/ST. LOUIS to GATEWAY CREATIVE BROADCASTING (JOY FM) for $18 million, reports the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. The church announced in APRIL that it was offering the station for sale, and JOY FM has been the leading candidate to buy the facility throughout the process.

JOY FM will pay $150,000 cash down, $1.35 million at closing, and the seller will finance the rest in a 10-year note with $1.5 million in interest and amortization in the fourth year, and the remainder in the tenth year. JOY FM owns ST. LOUIS rimshot simulcast Contemporary Christian KPVR/BOWLING GREEN, MO-KHZR/POTOSI, MO.

The sale of KFUO has been controversial, with claims that the church, through board member and OMAHA politician/lawyer KERMIT BRASHEAR, resisted plans to sell the station to either another Lutheran organization or a citizens group dedicated to saving the station's Classical format, opting instead to sell to JOY FM and proposing that the citizens' group, the RADIO ARTS BOARD AND CIRCLE OF FRIENDS, buy JOY FM's current signals for $5 million with a simulcast on an HD multicast channel of KFUO.

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