ATLANTA, March 12, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Small Town Radio, Inc. (OTCBB:STWI) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the assets of its Dahlonega, Georgia, AM radio station WDGR to a private individual. The sale, set to close following approval by the FCC, is an all cash transaction. The sales price was $500,000, and closing is expected within 60 to 90 days. The station was acquired last summer for $225,000.
"We were approached a number of weeks ago by a private individual, and while the station was not 'for sale,' the transaction was attractive, and met our business objectives," said Daniel Hollis, Chairman and CEO of Small Town. Hollis explained the transaction, stating, "A fundamental component of our strategy is to be a 'value buyer', and as such we expect to have some flexibility as to the subsequent resale of selected properties. We are current evaluating other station situations and will announce additional acquisitions when appropriate."
The addition of industry veteran Mike McClain as Regional General Manager signals Small Town's emphasis on the execution of the fundamentals of its business plan. "We are seeking to acquire 'clusters' of stations, generally in the smaller towns, but where the population growth is greater than the national average," explained Mc Clain. I see our business plan as a safe, profitable approach to creating a broadcasting company with significant upside potential.
Mc Clain will be focused on the acquisition of stations in the Southeastern U.S., generally in Georgia and North and South Carolina.
Other executives will be recruited as expansion plans require.
Small Town Radio, Inc.'s business strategy is to acquire a significant number of radio stations in smaller, less populated areas near, but not in, mid-sized and larger markets. The Company intends initially to acquire radio stations in rural sections of the Southeastern United States, with the goal of ultimately building a geographically contiguous coverage area for both its broadcast signals and advertising sales force. The Company believes that a network of stations in contiguous broadcast areas with two or three common programming formats would provide an advertising and listener base of significant size.
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. Words such as "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, future events or performance and assumptions and other statements that are not statements of historical fact. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove correct. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement made by us.
We caution readers that the following important factors, among others, could cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this report: (i) our ability to successfully purchase radio stations in accordance with our business plan; (ii) our ability to operate our radio stations profitably; (iii) our ability to obtain adequate financing to finance our operations and execute our business plan; (iv) the effect on our competitive position within our market area of the increasing consolidation within the radio broadcast industry; (v) the effect of changes in laws and regulations, including federal laws and regulations governing the ownership and operation of radio stations, and the associated costs of compliance with such laws and regulations either currently or in the future as applicable; (vi) the effect of changes in accounting policies and practices, as may be adopted by the regulatory agencies as well as by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or of changes in our organization, compensation, and benefit plans; (vii) shifts in population and demographics, competition, cost fluctuations, technology advances and challenges; (viii) financial, operational and other business problems associated with the acquisition of a number of radio stations in a short period of time; and (ix) general and industry-specific economic conditions. We caution that the foregoing list of important factors is not exclusive. We have no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect the occurrence of future events or circumstances.