NEW YORK, July 1 -- SFX Broadcasting Inc. announced Monday it has acquired privately owned Liberty Broadcasting Inc., which owns and operates 19 radio stations in six markets, for $227 million. SFX and Chancellor Broadcasting also agreed to exchange SFX's four Long Island stations in New York, gained in the Liberty acquisition, for Chancellor's two Jacksonville, Fla., stations and $11 million.
Radio station groups have been scrambling to take advantage of the relaxed limits on ownership with mid-sized players facing the prospect of competing with Westinghouse Electric Corp., which announced plans June 20 to buy out Infinity Broadcasting Corp. for $3.9 billion. Walt Disney Co. recently was rumored to beputting together a $1 billion buyout for Chancellor, which operates 33 stations. The Long Island stations going to Chancellor are WBAB(FM), WHFM(FM), WBLI(FM) and WGBB-AM; and the Jacksonville stations which SFX will gain are WFYW(FM) and WAPE(FM). The Liberty stations include WHFS(FM) serving Washington, DC/Baltimore, Md.; WBAB(FM), WHFM(FM), WBLI(FM), WGBB-AM serving Long Island; WMXB(FM) serving Richmond, Va.; WHCN(FM), WMRQ(FM) and WPOP-AM serving Hartford, Conn.; WSNE(FM), WHJY(FM), and WHJJ-AM serving Providence, R.I.; and WGNA(FM), WPYX(FM), WGNA-AM and WTRY-AM serving Albany, N.Y. SFX also announced Monday it will sell three of the Liberty stations, WXTR(FM), WXVR(FM) and WQSI-AM in Washington, D.C., to Bonneville International Corp. for $25 million. Robert F.X. Sillerman, executive chairman and chief executive officer of SFX said the Liberty acquisition represents the first expenditure from the $750 million the company raised in May.
