Deseret Management Corporation v. United States, No. 09-273T, 2013 U.S. Claims LEXIS 987 (Fed. Cl. Jul. 31, 2013)

(in transaction structured as like-kind exchange, sole country music radio station in Los Angeles exchanged for various other radio stations; plaintiff claimed that Los Angeles radio station contained no appreciable goodwill and, as such, no taxes triggered by transaction; bulk of purchase price allocated to FCC license with nothing attributable to goodwill in accordance with appraisal; IRS claimed that LA station had $73.3 million of goodwill and FCC license worth less than allocated by parties; plaintiff claimed no goodwill because change in LA radio station format would completely change listener base and, as such, no inherent value inherent attributable to future customer patronage as required by I.R.C. Sec. 197 and Treas. Reg. Sec. 1.197-2(b)(1); while court disagreed with plaintiff's assertion that change in format that eliminates customer patronage erases goodwill, court noted that broadcast stations can still have goodwill independent of that circumstance; while goodwill possible, court that there actually was no goodwill involved in transaction based on value of other assets of the seller and use of residual method for determining goodwill).