What's a TV station worth these days?

How about $45 million? That's what the News-Press & Gazette paid for KRDO/Channel 13, KJCT in Grand Junction and KRDO (1240 AM), according to documents released by the FCC on Tuesday.

That's actually at the low end of some of the estimates I heard prior to the sale -- you have to figure the Grand Junction station was worth maybe $10 million and throw in a million or two for the radio station, leaving you with perhaps $33 million for KRDO.

When KXRM and KXTU sold last month, the deal was for a dozen stations, so it was hard to put a value just on the locals, although I had heard KXRM was in the $30 million range.

The last local media sale we have specific numbers for was when Superior bought KKCS FM in 2003 for $18 million. Their plan all along was to move that station into the Denver market, so they arguably paid near-Denver prices for it. Walton, the old owner, sold KKCS AM to Salem for $1.5 million (it's now KZNT), which is probably a fair measuring stick for what an AM station in the Springs is worth.