THE BACK PAGE: Northern Star Sells Back to Reynolds

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! NORTHERN STAR SELLS BACK TO REYNOLDS NSB exits radio at a loss Within the next few weeks, Traverse City-based Northern Star Broadcasting will be no more. The company, which owns northern Michigan radio stations Real Rock 105/95-5, The Bear 98.1/107.1/94.5/93.9, Big Country 102.9 and tiny WCBY 1240 Cheboygan has agreed to pull out of the unprofitable world of radio altogether by selling those stations to the man they bought them from in 1998, Del Reynolds. Yep! Del Reynolds is back to being a player in northern Michigan radio again after years of playing engineer and even starting up a Christian station in Mackinaw City that eventually ended up 1) kicking him out due to insider politics and 2) getting sold to Interlochen. Already, Del and his wife Mary are employed at NSB as VP of Operations/Programming and GM/VP of Sales/Marketing/Promotions, respectively.  Reynolds has been called one of northern Michigan's most-beloved broadcasters, starting at WIDG St. Ignace in the late 60's as a teenager to eventually owning that station, plus the stations he sold in 1998. However, he sold those stations to what was Calibre Communications, which was based in Chicago and run by a man named David Gariano. The deal fell through, but a new company was formed to take over the Reynolds stations: Northern Star Broadcasting. When NSB finally purchased the stations in 1998, they paid $7 million. However, it's been a rocky ride for NSB. They also purchased a boatload of stations in the UP, ran them into the ground, and sold them to Sovereign Communications for way less then what they paid for them. In the case for their northern Michigan sticks, it's been the same. For an example: in 2000, The Bear was beating the crap out of KLT in the mornings with Bob and Tom, The Zone (pretty much what's now Real Rock) was finally finding its voice by eliminating chick pop for real Modern Rock and Big Country was holding its own. A decade later, The Bear is now an average classic rocker with B&T getting pummeled by KLT's Omelette and Finster in the ratings, Real Rock has music stability issues and Big Country is, well, Big Country. Plus, they only recently finally got the embarrassment known as WIHC 97.9 Newberry off their hands, selling it to a ministry for $150,000. In the end, NSB sold their stations back to Reynolds for a whopping $1.8 million. But then again, I don't blame NSB for selling back to Reynolds. After all, the economy - especially in northern Michigan - sucks and if I owned a radio station up north, I'd have headaches, too.  God only knows what Del and Mary have in store, but for starters, he already owns a new station in Cheboygan, WQEZ 97.7, which is stunting with Christmas music. What will happen to the rest of his stations will be exciting to watch after the holidays, especially since when he sold out to Calibre/NSB, they made many changes here and there (ie their infamous "K-Garth" stunt when they flipped KC Country to Big Country, or when they flipped Smooth Jazz "Coast FM" to The Zone).  One thing I do remember is when Calibre flipped Coast FM to The Zone, Del was pissed since it was run off a satellite and it made money with upscale advertisers. Will this mean the end for Real Rock? Heck, The Bear's seen better days. Who knows? But one thing's for certain: a radio station owner's like a magician: they never tell.