Binnie closes on purchase of WLNH

GILFORD — The sale of 30 radio stations in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, including three based in Gilford, owned by Nassau Broadcasting to Bill Binnie of WBIN Media Co., Inc. and Jeff Shapiro of Great Eastern Radio, LLC for $12.5-million, which was announced in May, closed yesterday.

Among the 17 stations that Binnie acquired in the transaction are WLNH-FM (98.3), WNHW (93.3), and WEMJ-AM (1490) and WJYY-FM (105.5), all with offices and studios in Gilford.

Shapiro will also have a presence in the Lakes Region through the acquisition of two stations also based in Gilford, WLKZ -FM (104.9) and WWHQ-FM (101.5).

Neither Binnie nor Shapiro could be reached for comment yesterday.

Last month, when Binnie purchased the vacant Walker Street School in Concord at auction for $900,000, he said that the building would become the headquarters of WBIN Media as well as house the news department of WBIN-TV and studios of at least three radio stations — WJYY-FM and WNHW-FM, which have operated from Gilford, along with WFNQ-FM (106.3) based in Nashua.

Meanwhile, Binnie is negotiating with the city of Laconia to acquire of the long-vacant former police station on Church Street, which would become home to the studios of WLNH-FM and WEMJ-AM and perhaps a news bureau of WBIN-TV.

In less than three years, Binnie has stamped a heavy footprint in the New Hampshire media market. In 2010 he acquired more than a half-dozen low-power television stations and transmitters reaching 90-percent of the state's population and a year later paid $9.25-million for WZMY-TV of Derry, which became WBIN-TV.

In May, when Binnie topped the bidding for Nassau Broadcasting's stations at a bankruptcy auction, he said that "our goal is to become the preeminent media company in New Hampshire," Noting the lack of competition in television and radio markets, he said "we need more voices and we will be part of that group that brings more voices." Since then he has said that while major changes in programming are not in the immediate offing he plans to introduce more news content to the radio stations.