I’m Brad Hildebrand

I’m a radioholic. I’ve tried 12 step. It hasn’t worked. I’m still a HUGE FAN of radio. Of all radio. And specifically KWMU. Yes, I’m a KWMU fan and I listen almost everyday. On a side note, I truly miss the “Tappet Brothers” on Saturday morning.

II started my radio career in 1973. I’ve been in the radio business ever since. I currently own and operate three smaller radio stations in the St. Louis area. I still love the radio business. But I have to admit that I’m really worried about what has happened to our industry and what IS happening to our industry. That’s a whole ‘nother story for another time.

Within the last few years we’ve lost 4 AM stations that were owned by Bob Romanik. One of those was the old WIL-AM which at one point in history was a top 5 radio station with an incredible history and a who’s who of former staffers. Romanik had his licenses taken away by the FCC because of, shall we say, some less than above board activity. The stations went dark and the transmitter sites were sold off for pennies on the dollar.

Earlier this year David Green turned off KLIS (the former KFNS) and surrendered the license to the FCC (I still can’t believe he did this as the license still had value). So we now have FIVE fewer stations in the St. Louis area. Keep in mind these stations are gone forever. Under the current rules and regs the FCC will never reissues these licenses. I don’t want to lose anymore.

A little more background about me. I have two (worthless) college degrees. A bachelors AND as masters in journalism. Two of the classes I hated the most were two of my undergraduate journalism classes taught by Dr. Kamil Winter. Long story made short, Dr. Winter was a high ranking government official in Czechoslovakia who was in charge of regulating media. When the Soviets took over Czechoslovakia he fled the country (he claimed the Ruskies had a reward for his capture) and ultimately ended up in the United States. His classes were tough. We all hated it. But looking back it was probably the best classes that I had taken. He taught us how important it was to dig into a story and give the details. Obviously he was no fan of the Soviets who controlled the media and only told the citizens one side of the story. Hence, his relentless bias for digging into a story and exposing all of the facts.

That leads me to putting up this website. I saw this article on the KWMO (AKA St. Louis Public Radio) website in February of 2025. The title, UMSL and Friends of KWMU, Inc. announce new direction for St. Louis Public Radio, got my attention. My initial reaction was that the University of Missouri, the licensee of KWMU, was going to sell the station to the Friends of KWMU. So I made a few calls. What are the terms of the deal? Is this an LMA (radio jargon for essentially leasing the station to an operator, in this case the Friends of KWMU. Or was it a purchase. If so, how much? I started asking questions.

Maybe the most important question is this: What does the University of Missouri have to gain from divesting itself of KWMU, KMST and WQUB to a relatively small not for profit with no history of radio station ownership or management?

I started making inquiries last year soon after the announcement of the change in ownership was announced. I was told to contact Madalyn Painter who was the official spokesperson for KWMU. I sent her an e-mail requesting further information about the transfer. She replied back on February 12th, 2025. Her response:

“Brad,

We’re at the beginning of a three-year process with the details to be determined in the months ahead.

STLPR’s current location at Grand Center remains in place. Future decisions about facilities and operational needs will be determined by UMSL and STLPR station management and, following the transition, the nonprofit.

The licenses for KMST and WQUB will also be transferred to the Friends of KWMU, Inc., as part of St. Louis Public Radio.

Best regards”

Hmmm. Nothing about if this was a sale. A gift? An LMA? A sweetheart deal? No response. I thought it was there no mention of exactly how this transaction was going to be handled. Keep in mind that radio licenses are still worth money. Maybe even millions of dollars (keep reading for a financial analysis of this) And according to Madalyn this was not just KWMU but also KMST (Rolla, the former KMNR) and WQUB, Quincy Illinois.

I put it on the back burner. Until, as I write this, August 24th, 2026. 18 months after the initial article announcing the transfer. It just hit me that I haven’t followed up on this. OK, I’ll be honest. I had a dream and Dr. Winter was chastising me for not following on this story. For reals! So I sent an e-mail to Jess Luther, the Interim General Manager of KWMU, asking about the details of the transfer. She replied in a few hours. Here’s what she said:

“Hi Brad,

Thank you for your interest in St. Louis Public Radio’s future operational independence. The University of Missouri and our advisory board, the Friends of KWMU, are negotiating the terms of the agreement to convey ownership to the board. STLPR’s mission will not change. We are focused on producing accurate local journalism that creates a more inspired and engaged public. I don’t have additional information to offer in an interview at this time.

Thank you,
Jess”

Sounds like corporate speak to me. Answer, but don’t answer. And after 18 months they’re still “negotiating” the terms of the agreement? I followed up with:

“Hey Jess,

So no financial terms? Is UM giving the assets of the stations (licenses, equipment, etc.) to Friends of KWMU? Or will the assets be purchased by the Friends of KWMU? If so, what price and terms. And does this include WQUB and KMST?”

No reply.

I have to admit that this made me think that this was some kind of a “sweetheart” deal. But remember, the stations (three of them) are owned by the curators of the University of Missouri making the stations an asset of the state of Missouri. Shouldn’t this transaction be transparent? When the state of Missouri (or most governmental agencies for that matter) is done with an asset they normally sell it or auction if off on a well publicized public website such as govdeals.com. Shouldn’t that be the same situation here? Apparently not.

At this point I’m going to give you my somewhat deep dive into this “transaction” and some interesting background information about a somewhat similar situation with KDHX and it’s subsequent sale last year. Here we go!

The University of Missouri–St. Louis and the UM System are in the process of transferring KWMU/St. Louis Public Radio to an independent nonprofit, rather than simply shutting it down or selling it to a commercial broadcaster.

The recipient is Friends of KWMU, Inc., an existing 501(c)(3) organization that has supported the station since 1977. The plan announced in February 2025 calls for the station’s governance and FCC licenses to transition from the University of Missouri System to Friends of KWMU.

The interesting part is that this isn’t supposed to happen overnight. STLPR said the transition could take up to three years, while the university and Friends of KWMU work out the details. During that period, broadcasting is supposed to continue normally.

And KWMU isn’t alone. The UM System also supported moving KCUR and Classical KC away from UMKC and into independent nonprofit governance.

So if you’re asking, “Is UMSL basically giving KWMU to a nonprofit?” — that’s a reasonable shorthand, although technically it’s a negotiated transfer of the licenses and governance to Friends of KWMU.

One thing I’d be interested in digging into is what Friends of KWMU is actually paying the University for the station and its assets—or whether the licenses/assets are effectively being transferred for little or no consideration. The public announcements I’ve found don’t spell that out. If you want, I can dig through the UM Board of Curators records and FCC filings and see exactly how the deal is structured.

I dug into it, and the key thing is this: I cannot find any public document showing that Friends of KWMU is paying the University of Missouri a purchase price for KWMU, its FCC licenses, or the rest of St. Louis Public Radio’s assets.

The official announcement says UMSL and Friends of KWMU are working toward a “smooth transfer of assets” and that the UM Board of Curators supports transferring the licenses and governance. But it does not state a sale price or any monetary consideration. The transition was described as taking up to three years while the details are negotiated.

As of the latest material I could find, the Board of Curators still holds the FCC licenses for KWMU, KMST and WQUB. St. Louis Public Radio’s own board page still identifies the Curators as the license holder, which suggests the final FCC transfer has not yet been completed—or at least the station’s public documentation has not been updated to reflect one.

There’s another interesting clue. Friends of KWMU isn’t sitting on the kind of balance sheet you’d normally associate with purchasing a major-market FM operation. Its fiscal-2025 Form 990 shows about $540,000 in total assets and no liabilities. That’s up dramatically from only about $38,000 in assets the previous year, but it still doesn’t look like an organization preparing to write a multimillion-dollar check for a major FM license and operation.

Meanwhile, STLPR’s 2025 annual report says it is moving toward being 100% member- and sponsor-funded and completely financially independent of the university. That language sounds much more like a divestiture/transfer into an independent nonprofit than an arms-length commercial sale.

So, based on what’s publicly available, I’d characterize it this way:

UM appears to be transferring KWMU and associated assets to Friends of KWMU rather than selling the station for its market value. I have not found evidence of a cash purchase price, competitive bidding process, appraisal, or auction.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the consideration is literally “$0.” The final agreement could require Friends of KWMU to assume employee obligations, equipment leases, contracts, liabilities, operating expenses, or other commitments. The union has already reported discussions about employees eventually moving from the University to Friends of KWMU and the nonprofit taking on benefit-related responsibilities.

And that’s where I think the really interesting question is: what is KWMU actually worth? A full-power noncommercial FM at 90.7 MHz covering the St. Louis market has an asset value that is potentially far greater than $540,000.

IShouldn’t there be some appraisal of the likely market value of KWMU’s license, tower/transmitter assets and operation, and compare that with similar FM station transactions? That would tell us whether UM may effectively be transferring an asset worth millions of dollars for nominal consideration.

If you look at the technical facilities and, most importantly, the actual 2025 sale of KDHX in the same St. Louis market, I think there is a strong argument that KWMU’s broadcast assets could be worth well into the millions of dollars.

The best comparison is KDHX 88.1 FM. In June 2025, a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of KDHX’s FCC license and other assets to Gateway Creative Broadcasting for $8.75 million after competitive bidding. The original deal had been only $4.35 million, but competitive bidding nearly doubled the price.

That’s especially relevant because KDHX and KWMU are both full-power, Class C1, noncommercial FM facilities in the reserved educational band in the St. Louis market.

Here’s the striking difference: KDHX was operating at about 42,000 watts ERP with an antenna height of roughly 225 meters. KWMU operates at 100,000 watts ERP with a 289-meter HAAT—essentially a maximum-power Class C1 facility with very strong metro coverage. Its FCC Facility ID is 65585.

So purely as a broadcast facility, KWMU arguably has the superior signal.

That doesn’t automatically mean KWMU is worth more than $8.75 million. Radio valuations depend on tower arrangements, equipment ownership, lease obligations, restrictions on the transferred assets, competing buyers and—very importantly—the fact that 90.7 is in the FCC’s reserved noncommercial band. It cannot simply be converted into an ordinary commercial FM station. The 88.1–91.9 MHz channels are reserved for noncommercial educational use.

Still, the KDHX auction demonstrated that qualified nonprofit broadcasters were willing to spend $8.75 million for a comparable St. Louis NCE frequency.

If KWMU’s 90.7 license alone were exposed to a genuine competitive process among qualified nonprofit broadcasters, I would conservatively put it in roughly the $7 million–$12 million range.

If the transaction included useful transmitter equipment, tower rights, STLPR intellectual property, donor relationships, studio assets and other operating assets, the economic value could plausibly be $10 million or more.

I would not claim that KWMU is definitively worth $10 million without an independent appraisal. But after the KDHX transaction, saying a full-market 100,000-watt St. Louis NCE facility might be worth only a few hundred thousand dollars would be very difficult to reconcile with the actual marketplace.

There is another element that makes this interesting. KWMU isn’t just a transmitter. STLPR reported 292,098 monthly radio listeners, more than 260,000 monthly website visitors and substantial streaming and podcast audiences during its 2025 fiscal year. So there is also an established operating organization and brand attached to the frequency.

Meanwhile, Friends of KWMU reported just $540,232 in total assets at the end of fiscal 2025, with $632,049 in annual revenue. That’s another reason a traditional multimillion-dollar cash acquisition appears unlikely unless substantial financing or donors are involved.

This leaves what I think is the central public-policy question:

If the University of Missouri could potentially sell KWMU’s assets through a competitive process for several million dollars, why is it transferring those assets to Friends of KWMU, and what consideration is the university receiving in return?

There could be perfectly legitimate answers. Friends might be assuming substantial obligations. Donor restrictions might affect what could be sold. Some equipment or real estate might remain university property. Maintaining STLPR as a locally controlled public-radio service might itself be part of the university’s objective.

But those details matter enormously.

The KDHX sale gives us something we didn’t previously have: an actual St. Louis market price established through competitive bidding. And that price was $8.75 million for a weaker Class C1 signal.

So I’d revise my earlier assessment fairly substantially:

KWMU 90.7 is probably not a $500,000 asset. It’s quite plausibly an $8 million-plus broadcast asset, depending upon exactly what is included and what restrictions accompany it.

And remember, STLPR also operates KMST and WQUB. If licenses or assets associated with those facilities are part of the transfer as well, then we’re potentially talking about a package whose value is considerably larger than KWMU alone.

The next place I’d look is the actual University of Missouri Board of Curators resolutions/minutes and the FCC assignment application for KWMU. Once an FCC assignment application is filed, it should disclose the underlying agreement and usually makes it much easier to determine whether the consideration is $1, $100,000, assumption of liabilities, or some other arrangement. That would move this from an estimate to something much more concrete.