Broadcast station mergers and acquisitions reached $486.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2015, lower than the more than $3 billion in deals made in the previous quarter but more than the deal volume for the first half of the year.

SNL Kagan, a financial intelligence branch of S&P Capital IQ and SNL, announced this data on Jan. 7. They found that radio deals reached $160.4 million in Q4 of 2015, and TV registered deals reached $326.4 million. These are solid numbers compared to the previous quarter; in Q3 there were 38 deals over $1 million, while Q4 had 37. Q4 didn’t see any billion-dollar deals, but did have one over $100 million.

Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. acquired several CBS outlets in West Virginia from West Virginia Media Holdings in a $130 million/8.4x c.f. deal. The only $100 million-plus deal in 2015 brought the West Virginia markets of Charleston-Huntington, Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill and Wheeling and the NBC affiliate in Clarksburg, W.Va. under the Nexstar Broadcasting umbrella.

The radio cash flow (c.f.) multiple remained the same as Q3, at 6.7x, while the TV market reached 0.1 point higher than in Q3 for an average 8.4x forward seller’s multiple.

In radio, Wilks Broadcast Group made headlines with the second-largest radio deal of the year, in which it sold its three-station cluster in the Denver market to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment LLC. Wilks is leaving the radio business entirely, and also sold off its Columbus, Ohio stations WLVQ, WHOK, and WZOH. Saga Communications Inc. purchased WLVQ for $13 million/7.4x, and Radio One purchased WHOK and WZOH for $2 million.

Another large sale in the television sector was LocusPoint Networks LLC selling three of its stations to HME Equity Fund II LLC. WMJF-CD in Baltimore, W33BY in Detroit and WBNF-CD in Buffalo, N.Y. were sold for $23.75 million. LocusPoint sold these stations for more than they were purchased: LocusPoint acquired them in 2012 – 2014 for $4.83 million in total. S&P Capital IQ speculates that LocusPoint and its supporters Blackstone Group might have wanted to earn a return on the money they had already invested, or to focus their efforts on a few high-demand markets instead of a wider range.