NorthEast Radio Watch 10/17/2022: Seven Mountains Absorbs Forever

In this week’s issue… Family deal grows Seven Mountains – Remembering RI’s DiPaolo – Beasley cuts continue at WMMR – Canada’s Elmnt cuts back

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada

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*Already one of the biggest broadcasters in PENNSYLVANIA, Seven Mountains Media is about to get even larger with a $17,375,000 deal to buy 34 full-power licenses and 12 translators from Forever Media.

The deal is a family affair, shifting stations in the Lebanon, State College, Altoona, Johnstown, New Castle and Meadville/Franklin areas from Forever’s Kerby Confer to his daughter, Kristin Cantrell, who’s been running Seven Mountains as an independent operation. Cantrell will then recoup $1 million from the deal by spinning off signals in State College to Seven Mountains COO Jim Loftus’ Covenant Communications to stay under the ownership caps in the one market where there’s ownership overlap.

Loftus will take over most of the existing Seven Mountains cluster, including top-40 WBHV (B94.5), AC WZWW (3WZ 95.3), oldies WOWY (97.1), Bigfoot Country Legends WLEJ (98.7) and WOWY’s Altoona-rimshot simulcast WHUN in Huntingdon.

Seven Mountains, in turn, picks up the entire Forever cluster in State College: news-talk WRSC (1390), sports WQWK (1450), top-40 WMAJ (Majic 93.7), classic rock WBUS (99.5), country WFGE (101.1) and adult hits WAPY (Happy 103.1).

Just to the south in Altoona, Seven Mountains gets news-talk WFBG (1290), oldies WTNA (Toona 1430), country WFGY (Froggy 98.1), top-40 “Hot” WWOT (100.1), AC WALY (103.9) and rock WRKY (Rocky 104.9). In Johnstown, the new Seven Mountains signals include news-talk WNTJ (1490), top-40 “Hot” WJHT (92.1), country WFGI (95.5), AC “Key” WKYE (96.5), rock WRKW (Rocky 99.1) and oldies WCCL (Cool 101.7), as well as WNTJ simulcast WNTI (990) in nearby Somerset and WLKH (97.7), which is leased out to EMF’s K-Love.

Those central Pennsylvania signals expand Seven Mountains’ existing reach, which includes clusters in Du Bois, Selinsgrove, Bloomsburg, Scranton and Mansfield as well as neighboring Olean and Elmira/Corning across the border in New York. To the west, Seven Mountains will also extend its reach with the addition of Forever’s Franklin/Meadville stations: news-talk WTIV (1230)/WFRA (1450)/WMGW (1490), “Rocky” WRQI (94.3)/WRQW (107.7), “Froggy” WGYI (98.5)/WGYY (100.3), and top-40 “Magic” WHMJ (99.3)/WXMJ (104.5), as well as news-talk WKST (1200), classic hits WUZZ (1280) and classic country WYLE (Willie 95.1) in New Castle. And to the east, the deal brings Seven Mountains into Lebanon with news-talk WLBR (1270) and country WFVY (100.1).

The deal doesn’t include several of Forever’s bigger markets: it keeps its “Froggy” country and “Pickle” oldies stations around Pittsburgh, its cluster in York that includes “Froggy” WGTY, “Rocky” WYCR and “Nu” top-40 in Lancaster (WNUU), Hanover (WHVR) and Gettysburg (WGET), and its stations in Wilmington, Delaware and Cumberland and Salisbury, Maryland.