• by Paul Gough , October 1, 2003

In its first purchase of a radio station since federal regulators cleared the $3.1 billion merger with Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., Univision announced Wednesday that it would buy an FM station serving Long Island, southern Connecticut and New York City.

Univision said it would pay $60 million in cash to Jarad Broadcasting Co. Inc. and the Morey Organization Inc. for WLIR-FM, which has been one of the most distinctive alternative rock stations operating in the New York metro for many years. Morey said Wednesday that it would move WLIR to another spot on the dial after the deal closes, which is expected sometime in the first quarter of next year. It has to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission.

WLIR was part of a larger group of four FM stations in the market, as well as owning The Long Island Press alternative news weekly, which is noted for running a regular column by Amy Fisher, who gained headlines (and a prison sentence) in the early 1990s for shooting her lover's wife in suburban Long Island.

Further details for WLIR-FM weren't immediately available from Univision. But it will add to Univision's newly gained portfolio in New York, the nation's second-largest Hispanic market with more than 3.9 million people. Univision Broadcasting, formerly HBC, owns WCAA-FM a Latino music station, and WADO-AM, a news-talk station in New York City. Univision also owns WXTV, a Spanish- language station serving the New York metro area.

Three Univision executives met the investment community Wednesday for what was probably the first public session since Univision's merger with Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. But none of them mentioned the purchase of WLIR and it didn't come up in questioning.

But they did talk about current conditions in Spanish-language radio, which are not suffering as a whole from the same malaise that has continued to grip the general radio market. Ron Furman, executive vice president of network sales, said that falling CPMs haven't been as much a problem with Spanish- language radio as it has elsewhere in the industry. He said a convincing case can be made that advertisers aren't wasting part of their buy on non-targeted audiences.

"People are paying for performance, and Spanish-language radio works, and it works very well," Andrew Hobson, executive vice president of Univision Communications Inc., told investors Wednesday.