Big $$$ will return a locally-based FM music format

By JOHN FORTMEYER CNNW publisher

PORTLAND -- In 1996, California-based Salem Communications sold its 24-hour, contemporary Christian music station on Portland’s FM dial to a secular company for $14 million.

Now, Salem last month confirmed that it is spending almost three times that amount -- almost $36 million -- to return a locally based, 24-hour, contemporary Christian music FM station to the Portland radio market.

It is a well-known fact in the broadcasting industry that the market value of FM radio signals nationally has multiplied in recent years. But according to a Salem spokesperson, such a large investment to offer the fast-growing contemporary Christian music format again in Portland is well worth it.

“This purchase continues our strategy to cluster stations in strong markets,” said Amanda Strong, manager of investor relations for Salem.

Salem is purchasing KJUN 104.1 FM, from Thunderegg Wireless, Inc. KJUN initially operated out of Tillamook, but was recently relicensed to Scappoose to allow it to serve the Portland metro market.

The new station, which Strong says will hit the Portland airwaves sometime between October and December of this year, will be informally known as “The Fish.”

It features a Christian contemporary music format that Salem has already introduced in several of the nation’s larger markets; the name alludes to the use of fish symbols by Christians since the days of the early Church.

“The Fish” will be housed at the Portland studios of KPDQ AM-FM, SalemCommunication’s popular and long-established Christian talk and ministry stations. It is at those studios, at 5700 S.W. Stark St., that Salem also operated “Spirit 107.5 FM,” the contemporary Christian music station that it sold in 1996 to the surprise of many local listeners.

Strong said it is not unusual for corporations such as Salem -- one of the nation’s largest broadcasting chains -- to spend such a large amount of money on a broadcast facility several years after selling a similar outlet locally. “This is not unorthodox at all,” said Strong. “Properties and assets are bought and sold everyday for various opportunities and reasons.”

When Spirit 107.5 was sold in 1996, Salem officials explained that revenue from that sale helped the company to purchase stations in several other key cities nationally.

Strong said she couldn’t comment on whether the station’s call letters would change from KJUN to something better reflecting “The Fish” identity.

She also said “only time will tell” whether Salem expands that format to stations in other Northwest radio markets, such as Seattle.

Salem currently owns several AM radio stations in the Seattle-Tacoma area, but none on the FM side.

The Portland area FM dial already offers 24-hour contemporary Christian music through the “sister” networks K-LOVE and Air 1, but those are national networks with headquarters offices at Educational Media Foundation in Sacramento, Calif. However, Air 1’s programming studios happen to be located locally, in Scappoose.