By all accounts, K Earl Durden was a Very Good Person. He dabbled in a lot of business ventures, like all good Rich Republicans. One of his more successful ventures was Rail Management Corporation, which owned and operated a number of short-line railroads. Short Line railroads are typically castoffs from the major railroads which they can’t operate profitably as union operations. The owners of the short lines typically serve a small number of industrial or agricultural customers and perhaps run tourist trains on the weekends.
In May 2005, Mr Durden got $243 million in cash for his railroad business. He also owned the local radio stations in the area and around the Southeast U.S. In July 2005, Style Broadcasting (the name of the radio company owned by Durden) paid $120 million to buy KDAY-FM and KDEY-FM from Spanish Broadcasting company for the mere sum of $120 million in cash.. KDAY/KDEY are in the Los Angeles, California market, which is part of why they were so expensive. The company was renamed to Magic Broadcasting.
Mr Durden was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, and in 2009 the station ownership was moved around so that his son Michael has 60% control of Magic Broadcasting and 40% to others. Mr Durden died in April 2010. Michael immediately got into trouble with the FCC because necessary filings weren’t made, as Michael doesn’t understand the FCC’s rules.
December 28th, Magic Broadcasting announced they have sold the two stations for $5 million at closing, and $6 million a year for 5 years, for a total of $35 million, a loss of $85 million in 5 years.
The good news (unless you’re a Democrat) is that since Mr Durden died in 2010, his federal estate tax rate was 0.0%. Those of you billionaires out there considering killing yourself to avoid the death tax have only one day left. Time is running out.
