Long-time Minnesota broadcaster Jerry Papenfuss is selling four stations to Doyle and Carolyn Becker’s Riverfront Broadcasting LLC. The purchase price is $2.38 million cash at closing.
In the package are country-formatted KBEW(FM), with 25 kW on 98.1, and its sibling daytimer KBEW(AM) with 1 kW at 1560, which carries an information format. The two stations are in Blue Earth in southern Minnesota, near the Iowa border.
The sale also includes KDOM(FM) with 5,700 watts at 94.3, and sibling KDOM(AM), 1 kW day/2 watts night, at 1580, both in the community of Windom in southwest Minnesota and airing information and entertainment.
The seller, Result Radio Group, comprises Windom Radio Inc. and KBEW Inc., headed by Papenfuss. Jerry and Pat Papenfuss are members of the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame; Jerry is a past president of the Minnesota Broadcasters Association and former NAB board member.
A press release on KBEW’s website quotes Papenfuss saying he is confident KBEW’s commitment to community service would continue under its new owners. It noted Papenfuss and his wife Pat have been involved in radio broadcasting since 1962. ”Their ownership of KBEW dates back to 1980, when they purchased the station from Paul Hedberg, who signed KBEW on the air in August of 1963,” according to the release.
Riverfront Broadcasting owns stations in South Dakota and Iowa. The Beckers started Riverfront Broadcasting in 2004 by buying two stations in Nebraska and has transacted several others since then (read a history). The map below is from the company’s website, showing the footprint of its current holdings.
The change is subject to FCC approval and is expected to take effect July 1.
