A Tucson businessman who has been involved in media ownership for 30 years recently made his first foray into the local market with his purchase of a Sahuarita radio station.
George Kimble, 56, paid $1.1 million to buy KGVY, 1080-AM, purchasing the station from longtime owner Larry Nelson earlier this month.
Originally from the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, where he still owns 10 radio stations, Kimble has lived in the Tucson area the past eight years. He said he and Orlando, Fla.-based partner Jim Walker eyed KGVY both for its growth potential and as an inexpensive way to enter the Tucson radio market.
"Green Valley and Sahuarita are growing. And if someone wants to advertise down there on a daily basis, it's with that radio station," said Kimble, who submitted his application for the transfer of ownership to the Federal Communications Commission in early May and expects it to be approved by July. "And it reaches all the way into Tucson. It's very successful; it does a great job."
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Kimble said he feels he got KGVY for a bargain compared with the recent sale prices of other Tucson-area radio stations. He said in the past year three stations have been sold for between $1.3 million and $3.5 million.
"I think I got a good deal," said Kimble, who has also filed for a license to start up a new FM station in Flagstaff and has put in an offer to buy three stations in Hawaii.
KGVY has been in existence since 1981, when Joe and Martha Crystall founded the station. Nelson, from Plano, Ill., had been owner since 1998.
The station, at 1310 W. Camino Antigua in Sahuarita, broadcasts from dawn to dusk, which general manager Dave Schmidt says currently is from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
To the everyday listener, Schmidt says no changes to the station will be noticed. He said KGVY will continue to play oldies, mostly from between 1955 and the 1970s, while on weekends the station airs a simulcast called "Music of Your Life."
"We've got a good product, we're just going to try and tweak it a little," said Schmidt, who has worked for KGVY since February 2006.
Kimble said one of the few changes he intends to make is the creation of a station Web site, which would fall in line with all of his other stations.
"All of our other stations have an active Internet presence," Kimble said.
