After more than four decades in the broadcast television and radio business, Detroit media magnate Kevin Adell is ready to retire.
In a phone call with The Desk on Wednesday, Adell said he is moving forward with the sale of his independent television outlet WADL-TV (Channel 38) and will also part ways with his two other media assets: Radio station WFDF (910 AM) and religious broadcast network The Word.
Greg Guy, the founder of South Carolina-based Tideline Partners, has been hired to help broker the sale of WADL, WFDF and The Word. Adell intends to sell all three separately, and has already received offers of interest from other individuals and companies; he declined to identify the interested parties, citing non-disclosure agreements.
Additionally, Adell is selling a 22-acre parcel of land in the Detroit suburb of Novi. The plot, called the Adell Center, includes tenants like Planet Fitness, Fairfield Hotel, Texas Roadhouse and iFly; Matt Croswell of commercial real estate service CBRE is representing Adell, according to materials reviewed by The Desk.
“If I don’t live with you, and it’s not nailed down, it’s for sale,” Adell remarked.
The decision to retire comes several weeks after an offer by Mission Broadcasting to purchase WADL for $75 million fell through. The offer was subject to regulatory approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which received objections from groups representing cable and satellite companies, who said the transaction would substantially benefit Nexstar Media Group, the largest independent owner of broadcast TV stations in the country.
All TV stations owned by and licensed to Mission are operated through shared services agreements with Nexstar. Through those agreements, Nexstar negotiates distribution fees with cable and satellite platforms for the right to redistribute channels owned by Mission. Pay TV industry groups say the arrangement allows Nexstar to flout an FCC rule that is supposed to cap the national reach of any one particular broadcaster based on where and how many TV stations it owns.
After several months of scrutiny, the FCC issued a mixed order in April, approving the sale of WADL to Mission under certain conditions. Among the conditions was a requirement that Mission and Nexstar decouple their financial investments concerning WADL upon closure of the deal. Nexstar had agreed to front Mission the cash to purchase the station in the first place. Mission terminated the deal one month after the FCC’s decision.
Related: FCC gives conditional approval to Mission’s purchase of WADL
After the deal with Mission fell through, Adell said he continued looking for ways to sell WADL. His decision to put all his broadcast and real estate assets for sale was more recent, and has not been previously reported until now.
Adell affirmed his decision to put everything up for sale and retire was partially inspired by his long and draining fight with the FCC when the Mission sale was pending. He also said the departure of his daughter for college in another state encouraged him to think about spending more time to pursue his personal interests.
To that end, Adell is hoping to get enough money from the sale of his media and real estate assets to make the minority shareholders of his business more than whole, and to afford a Viking fishing boat. (He wants to name the boat “Stugots,” a slang and vulgar term that is commonly associated with the hit HBO series The Sopranos.)
“I think I will do a much better job fighting with sailfish than the FCC,” he quipped.
From now until the time the assets are sold, Adell says he is committed to growing out his businesses. He recently inked syndication deals for WADL that allows him to broadcast shows like “Suits,” “Two and a Half Men” and “Bob Hearts Abishola,” and has expressed interest in acquiring live sports rights for the station.
Adell is also looking to use artificial intelligence tools to automatically translate content airing on The Word into Spanish, and says he has deals to distribute the Spanish-language simulcast on cable TV systems in Mexico and Latin America. The Word is already available to more than 200 countries over free-to-air satellite, and also offers a free linear stream that is available on the network’s website and some video platforms.
WFDF — branded as “910 AM Superstation” — broadcasts at 50,000 watts and carries news and talk programming from Premiere Networks and ABC News Radio. Conservative voices that are heard on the station include Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, OutKick founder Clay Travis and Blaze Media founder Glenn Beck.
