Goodman (left) with partner Carl Hirsch, who died hours before the deal for WRMF. The photo was taken at Saturday's Cleveland Clinic gala in Mar-a-Lago

WRMF-97.9 FM, a one-time leading radio station in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast that fell on hard times, was sold late yesterday to a partnership led by former Paxson Communications executive Dean Goodman, a resident of West Palm Beach’s Trump Plaza.

The purchase price for the station that once hosted the area’s top radio talent was $16.5 million, according to a statement released by General Manager Elizabeth Hamma.

The money barely covers seller Great Hill Partners‘ note on the property. The Boston-based Great Hill bought WRMF from Jim Hilliard in 2002 for a record $70 million.

Former U. S. Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned from the House in 2006 after a text-messaging scandal, was among WRMF’s current suitors, but he couldn’t gather enough capital down the stretch.

“I’m a little disappointed,” Foley said late Monday. “But Dean Goodman is a great radio professional who can make WRMF great again.”

The WRMF purchase, incidentally, was to include Goodman’s best friend and another former radio station owner, Palm Beacher Carl Hirsch. Hirsch, who ran radio stations in Cleveland and the Midwest, suffered a fatal heart attack while at dinner at Palm Beach’s Cafe Boulud Monday, hours before the WRMF paperwork was signed. (A wake for Hirsch has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at Cafe Sapori in West Palm Beach)

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Foley, at the microphone at Seaview (AP Photo)

While it’s no secret that the owners of West Palm Beach radio station WRMF-97.9 FM is quietly trying to unload the station, the name of one of the suitors will surprise many.

Page2Live hears that former U. S. Rep. Mark Foley has been doing due diligence and discussed the station’s purchase with principals at Great Hills Partners, the Boston-based equity firm that has owned WRMF for nine years.

Foley, who resigned from Congress in 2006 following a text-message scandal, just came into some cash last week as the deal he brokered for the sale of First Bank of Indiantown for $11.8 million closed.

Foley’s also been dabbling in real estate, and owns a consignment store in West Palm.

And Foley already is in radio. He currently hosts his own political talk show on WSVU-Seaview 960 AM.

“I can’t confirm or deny that I’m looking at WRMF,” Foley said. “I’m looking at a host of business opportunities. I have a show and I’ve always been interested in radio.”

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Mahoney

Is former U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney’s midlife crisis not over yet?

He reportedly tried to pick up Russian women in a Palm Beach hotspot recently by claiming to be a “retired, respected congressman.”

Mahoney acknowledges being at the restaurant but, he said, he was there for Haiti fundraiser — not to hit on ladies.

A source at the Boys & Girls Club of Palm Beach County’s beachside wingding the other night told me about Mahoney’s recent foray into the Palm Beach hangout Bice.

Remember Mahoney? The 53-year-old slipped into the U.S. Congress in 2006, when the then-congressman-for-life Mark Foley got caught text-messaging sweet nothings to male pages.

Mahoney, who represented parts of Palm Beach County and most of Martin County, lost reelection to current Congressman Tom Rooney after it was revealed that the then-married Mahoney paid off a former mistress to silence her, and was seeing another paramour, Martin County’s engineering boss Kim Roden.

Word is the now-divorced Mahoney is seriously hooked up with Roden — but then this little tale below makes you wonder.

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Mark Foley

– West Palm Beach socialite Dorothy Sullivan says former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, now a radio talk show host, is her hero. “We were celebrating my 84th birthday Sunday at Trump International,” Sullivan tells me, “when we started smelling smoke.” An overload of candles on that cake? Nope. Napkins on fire at another table. And Sullivan picks up from there. “So, Mark pounced on the napkins and started pounding them with his bare hands until the flames were gone. It was cute. We all stood up and cheered.” Glad to hear his hands are still operational after all that text-messaging he used to do.

– Guess whose backside?

(Courtesy http://jjb.yuku.com)

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Mark Foley

Disgraced former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley is now a full-fledged radio talk show host!

After his recent tryout garnered some of WSVU-Seaview 960 AM’s best ratings, Foley starts a weekly gig Nov. 3.

Seaview General Manager Chet Tart tells me Foley, who resigned from the U.S. Congress in 2006 after his blue text messages to young male pages appeared online, will be on the air from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Tuesday.

“It’s been a very positive experience for the station,” Tart said. “He’s been able to get guests like (know-it-all TV talking head) Gloria Allred and higher-ups at ACORN.”

With lawyer Allred, the former Republican pol discussed late-night TV host David Letterman’s own sex scandal.

“It was how the sex stuff affects the workplace,” Tart said. “It’s a good topic.”

While the North Palm Beach station doesn’t subscribe to ratings organizations, Tart said the station’s Web site has shown spikes of 40,000 extra visitors when Foley’s on. That’s the site’s second-highest number, behind Joe Raineri’s Cup o’ Joe show weekday mornings.

“We’ve tracked a lot of traffic outside South Florida for Mark,” Tart said. “Places like Washington, D.C., New York City, North Carolina and even Burbank, Calif.”

As for Foley getting paid (he didn’t receive money for the tryouts), “we’re working on it,” Tart said. “We’re negotiating for three or four sponsors.”