Good Karma Brands

Last updated
Good Karma Brands, LLC
Type Private
Industry Radio broadcasting
Sports marketing
Retail
FoundedAugust 20, 1997
Founder Craig Karmazin
Headquarters
Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
,
United States
Area served
 United States
Website goodkarmabrands.com

Good Karma Brands, LLC (GKB, formerly Good Karma Broadcasting) is an American conglomerate. Based in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, it has interests in radio broadcasting, sports marketing, retail, and real estate. GKB was founded in 1997 by Craig Karmazin, the son of former Viacom and Sirius XM executive Mel Karmazin. Craig remains the CEO of Good Karma to this day.

Contents

The company owns and/or operates radio stations in the states of California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The majority of its radio stations are ESPN Radio affiliates, including its New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago stations—which were sold by The Walt Disney Company to GKB in December 2021. In July 2023, GKB also assumed the day-to-day operations and advertising sales for ESPN Radio nationwide.

History

The company was established in August 1997, and GKB would make its first acquisition of radio stations in December of that year with the purchase of stations in its home base of Beaver Dam (WBEV and WXRO) as well as in Columbus, Wisconsin (WTLX). [1]

As time passed, GKB would also eventually purchase stations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Madison, Wisconsin; Cleveland, Ohio; and West Palm Beach, Florida, with the majority of these stations having a sports radio format with an ESPN Radio affiliation. [2]

In 2006, GKB opened an interior design/furniture store in Milwaukee called The Home Market, and would later open a second location in Madison, Wisconsin. [3]

In 2011, GKB began to purchase residential properties near Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The buildings were collectively branded as the "Tundra Trio", and were renovated as upscale properties that can be rented for events. [4]

In 2013, GKB station WKNR ESPN 850 in Cleveland became the AM flagship station for the Cleveland Browns. [5] That year, it also partnered with ESPN Events on the Boca Raton Bowl. [2]

In January 2014, to reflect the company's expansion beyond radio, GKB officially changed its name from Good Karma Broadcasting to its current name of Good Karma Brands.

On July 17, 2014, it was reported that GKB had purchased a minority ownership stake in the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). [6]

On July 27, 2018, GKB announced it had reached a deal to acquire WTMJ and WKTI in Milwaukee from the E. W. Scripps Company. [7] WKTI would flip to ESPN Radio. [8]

On August 28, 2019, it was announced by ESPN Radio that day-to-day management of Chicago's WMVP would move from direct purview by ESPN to a management agreement with Good Karma Brands. The station's incumbent general manager, Jim Pastor, retired at the end of the year, with Good Karma beginning to operate the station on September 29, 2019, under a lease with Disney. The lease did not lead to any immediate changes to personnel and facilities. [9] [10] Two years later, on December 13, 2021, Good Karma announced it would acquire WMVP outright, as well as WEPN in New York City, and KSPN in Los Angeles. [11] GKB also assumed Disney's local marketing agreement to operate Emmis Communications-owned WEPN-FM in New York City. [12] GKB would pay $15 million for the stations, with $1 million paid at the deal's closing and the rest paid in quarterly installments of $500,000. [13] The sale of WEPN was closed in March 2022. [14]

On July 31, 2023, it was reported that ESPN had reached an agreement for Good Karma Brands to assume day-to-day operations and advertising sales for the ESPN Radio network and its podcasts under a revenue sharing agreement, which began July 28; ESPN will continue to remain responsible for the network's content and distribution. Karmazin considered it a culmination of the company's long-standing relationship with ESPN Radio, explaining that "we probably went against what anyone would recommend, but we have just gone all-in with one brand — a brand that we don't own. [...] We just believe so strongly in it. And we believe we complement what the Walt Disney Co. and ESPN does so well because we’re going to treasure their brand in the same way they do." [2]

List of radio stations

California

Florida

Illinois

Ohio

New York

Wisconsin

Team Radio Networks

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">WEPN-FM</span> ESPN Radio station in New York City

WEPN-FM (98.7 MHz) branded as ESPN New York, is an all-sports radio station licensed to New York City. The station is owned by Emmis Communications and its operations are controlled by Good Karma Brands, under a local marketing agreement. The station's transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WTMJ (AM)</span> Radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

WTMJ is a commercial AM radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Owned by Good Karma Brands, the station has a news/talk radio format. Its sign-on dates back to 1922 and for most of its history it was owned by The Milwaukee Journal newspaper. On weekdays, it airs news blocks during drive time, local talk shows in middays, sports in the evening and syndicated shows in late nights. It is the flagship station for Milwaukee Brewers baseball and Milwaukee Bucks basketball.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WEPN (AM)</span> ESPN Radio station in New York City

WEPN is an all-sports AM radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned-and-operated by Good Karma Brands and its transmitter site is located in North Bergen, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ESPN Radio</span> Sports radio network

ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The network is based at the ESPN campus in Bristol, Connecticut, with multiple studio facilities nationwide, along with home studios. The network airs a regular schedule of daily and weekly programming as well as live radio play-by-play of sporting events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WMVP</span> Sports talk radio station in Chicago, Illinois

WMVP is a commercial radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, carrying a sports format. Owned by Good Karma Brands, the station serves the Chicago metro area as the market affiliate of ESPN Radio, the flagship station of the Chicago Bears, Chicago White Sox, and the Chicago Wolves and is the home of local personalities David Kaplan, Tom Waddle and John Jurkovic. Formerly an ESPN Radio owned-and-operated station, WMVP's studios are co-located with WLS-TV in the Chicago Loop while the transmitter is located in Downers Grove. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WMVP is simulcast over the second HD subchannel of WSHE-FM and is available online.

The Evening Telegram Company, d/b/a Morgan Murphy Media, is an American television and radio company based out of Madison, Wisconsin. The company is named for publisher Morgan Murphy, who expanded the business after he took over from his grandfather, who founded the Superior Evening Telegram.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KSPN (AM)</span> ESPN radio station in Los Angeles, California

KSPN is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, and serving the Greater Los Angeles Area. Owned by Good Karma Brands, the station airs a sports format as the market's ESPN Radio affiliate. KSPN's studios are located at the ESPN Los Angeles Studios at L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles, while the transmitter resides in Irwindale. In addition to a standard analog transmission, KSPN is simulcast over former sister station KRDC and is available online; KSPN is also licensed to broadcast in the HD Radio (hybrid) format.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WKNR</span> Sports radio station in Cleveland, Ohio

WKNR – branded as 850 ESPN Cleveland – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland. Owned by Good Karma Brands, WKNR is the Cleveland affiliate for ESPN Radio and the AM flagship station for the Cleveland Browns Radio Network; the Cleveland affiliate for the Ohio State Sports Network, and the radio home of Je'Rod Cherry and Tony Grossi. The WKNR studios are currently located in the East Bank of The Flats in Downtown Cleveland, while the station transmitter resides in the Cleveland suburb of North Royalton. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WKNR is available online.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WKTI</span> ESPN Radio affiliate in Milwaukee

WKTI – branded 94.5 ESPN Milwaukee – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, serving the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Owned by Good Karma Brands, WKTI is an affiliate for ESPN Radio. WKTI is known as ESPN Milwaukee; also jointly identified as ESPN Wisconsin alongside Madison-based sister station WTLX, which simulcasts much of WKTI's local programming. WKTI also serves as the flagship station for the Marquette Golden Eagles; and the radio home of Mark Chmura, Mark Tauscher, Tony Smith and Steve True. The WKTI studios and transmitter are located off of Capitol Drive in Milwaukee, an Art Deco facility known as "Radio City", in tribute to the New York complex of the same name. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WKTI broadcasts over two HD Radio channels, and is available online.

WWGK was a commercial daytime-only radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, that broadcast on 1540AM from 1947 until 2022. Last owned by Good Karma Brands, it featured ESPN Radio programming at the time of closure, co-owned with ESPN affiliate WKNR. The transmitter tower for WWGK was located on Euclid Avenue at East 81st Street in Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood.

WGKB is a radio station licensed to Waukesha, Wisconsin and serving the Milwaukee area.

WLVE is a radio station in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. The station is owned by EMF Broadcasting and began airing the K-Love contemporary Christian (CCM) format on February 15, 2008. WLVE's Milwaukee offices and studios are located near the Wisconsin State Fair Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WAUK</span> Radio station in Jackson, Wisconsin

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">WTLX</span> Radio station in Monona–Madison, Wisconsin

WTLX is a commercial radio station, licensed to Monona, Wisconsin and serving the Madison metropolitan area. The station is owned by Good Karma Broadcasting, LLC, and runs a sports radio format as a network affiliate of ESPN Radio, sharing most programming with Milwaukee based WKTI-FM identifying jointly on air as ESPN Wisconsin. Studios and offices were on North Pinckney Street in Madison for 5.5 years from mid-2016 to the end of 2021. Jason Wilde stated on December 21, 2021 during an episode of Wilde & Tausch that the show that day was the last show from that studio as the radio station was going to be moving to a new location. The transmitter is off Tower Road, using an antenna on the water tower at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison.

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WMDX is a commercial radio station licensed to Columbus, Wisconsin, and serving the Madison metropolitan area radio market. The station is owned by Sage Weil and Michael Crute, through licensee Civic Media, Inc. Crute is the host of "The Devil's Advocates", a syndicated show for which WMDX serves as the flagship station. Branded as "Mad Radio 92.7", WMDX airs a progressive talk radio format. WMDX carries live locally programmed news and talk programming for most of the day originating from studios in the Sunset Village neighborhood of Madison as well the Waukesha studios of sister station WAUK. The station also carriers live syndicated programing from Stephanie Miller and Thom Hartmann. WMDX also serves as the flagship station of the Civic Media Network, a statewide news network with affiliates across Wisconsin.

Craig Karmazin is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Good Karma Brands (GKB), and the son of Mel Karmazin, former CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio and former CEO of Viacom.

The Milwaukee Brewers Radio Network is a 33-station radio network in Wisconsin and Michigan that broadcasts baseball games and related programming for the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball, and is operated in lieu of the Brewers by Good Karma Brands. The network's flagship is WTMJ/620 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was purchased by Good Karma Brands in 2018. WTMJ served as the flagship station for the network for all but three years of the Brewers' existence.

References

  1. ↑ GKB's roots - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
  2. 1 2 3 "Sports Media: Good Karma's deal with ESPN Radio a long time coming". Sports Business Journal. 2023-07-31. Retrieved 2023-07-31.
  3. ↑ The Home Market - Good Karma Brands.com
  4. ↑ "Refined hospitality, just a Lambeau leap away". Sports Business Journal. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  5. ↑ WKNR becomes Browns AM flagship - All Access.com
  6. ↑ GKB buys stake in Bucks - Fox 6 Now.com
  7. ↑ "Good Karma Pays Off For Craig Karmazin". Radio & Television Business Report. 27 July 2018. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  8. ↑ Foran, Chris (October 31, 2018). "Radio station switches back to country after WKTI makes move to an all-sports format". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . Retrieved November 1, 2018.
  9. ↑ Feder, Robert (28 August 2019). "New management team brings Good Karma to take over ESPN 1000" . Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  10. ↑ Kirchen, Rich (28 August 2019). "Milwaukee's Good Karma agrees to run Chicago ESPN radio station". The Business Journal of Milwaukee . Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  11. ↑ Feder, Robert (December 14, 2021). "Robservations: Sun-Times political reporter Rachel Hinton joins BGA; Good Karma Brands acquires ESPN 1000; Tribune promotes Nina Metz to critic". Daily Herald . Daily Herald Media Group. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  12. ↑ "Price For Good Karma's 3-Station Deal With ESPN: $15 Million". Inside Radio. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  13. ↑ "More Details On Good Karma's ESPN New York, Los Angeles & Chicago Purchase". RadioInsight. 20 December 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
  14. ↑ Simon, Perry Michael (March 2, 2022). "Good Karma Brands Closes On Acquisition Of ESPN Stations". allaccess.com. All Access Music Group. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
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