WTOP sold to Hubbard Broadcasting WTOP is one of 17 radio stations changing hands in an all-cash transaction valued at $505 million.
Minneapolis-based Hubbard Broadcasting Inc. said it will acquire the stations from Salt Lake City-based Bonneville International Corp., and two top Bonneville executives will join the new owners.
The deal also includes stations in Chicago, St. Louis and Cincinnati.
Hubbard Broadcasting says it expects no programming or personnel changes at any of the acquired stations.
WTOP is the Washington market’s top-ranked radio station, and a cash machine to boot. It reported $51.03 million in revenue in 2009, the second-highest annual revenue among radio stations in the nation, topped only by Los Angeles’ KIIS.
Sallie Mae earnings rise
Reston-based SLM Corp. said its fourth-quarter earnings rose nearly 50 percent as it set aside less money for bad loans and saw higher profit margins on its lending business.
Sallie Mae reported core fourth-quarter earnings of $401 million, or 75 cents per share, compared with $268 million, or 44 cents per share, a year earlier.
Sallie Mae, which has shifted from originating government-backed loans to making its own loans, said private loan origination totaled $413 million during the quarter, up from $381 million in the final quarter of 2009.
For all of 2010, it originated $2.3 billion in private loans, compared with $3.2 billion in 2009.
Interstate to manage Charleston Crowne Plaza
Arlington-based Interstate Hotels and Resorts Inc. is managing the new Crowne Plaza Charleston Airport Convention Center in Charleston, S.C., the city’s first Crowne Plaza hotel.
The property recently completed a $13 million renovation and is owned by Barclay Hospitality Services Inc., part of Inland American Lodging Group Inc.
Interstate Hotels, acquired last year by Annapolis-based Thayer Hotel Investors and Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels for $307 million, owns or manages 245 hotel properties, including the Latham Hotel in Georgetown and the Hilton Arlington.
