By SCOTT FYBUSH
After just over 16 years as Radio Disney’s New York City outlet, WQEW (1560) fell silent Tuesday evening, just ahead of a planned Friday closing date for the sale of the station from Disney ownership to Family Stations.
Family’s $12.95 million purchase of the 50,000-watt signal was announced back in November, and we reported in NERW in December that Family had requested the calls WFME for 1560 once the deal closes.
Whenever Family puts 1560 back on the air – and it’s not clear whether that will happen right away after closing or whether there will be a delay – the new WFME will return Family Radio religious programming to New York listeners two years after Family sold its former New York-market outlet, Newark-licensed 94.7, to Cumulus. (The calls have been parked in the interim up in northern Westchester County on Mount Kisco’s 106.3, which Family got from Cumulus as part of the 94.7 deal; that signal will apparently remain in place as WFME-FM.)
More details in next Monday’s NERW…
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Would you believe new people every day are discovering the Tower Site Calendar?
One person praised its uniqueness, saying, “There are 75 puppy calendars. There’s only one that shows off radio towers.”
Now we have barely a dozen left. And once these are gone, they’re gone. We’re not reprinting.
But for now, you can buy the standard version. Or the signed version. You can add a resealable polyethylene bag if you want to keep the calendar once the year is up. You can add a pen if you want to use the calendar as a planner. And if you never got last year’s calendar and like the pictures, we have that, too.
But our new admirer wasn’t quite right about there being only one radio calendar.
We still have a dozen copies of The Radio Historian’s 2019 calendar, too. You, our loyal customers, were so good about buying our calendar. Wouldn’t you like to have this one, too? It’s full of historic hard-to-find photos.
Check them both out now at the Fybush.com store!
What is the status of the remaining properties? Any bites?
The sale of WFDF-910 in the Detroit market (COL is Farmington Hills) has been completed. The license has been transferred to Church of the Word. It sold for $3 million; not bad for 50 kW/25 kW DA-2. However in December Disney was granted an STA to run less power both day and night because both patterns are out of tolerance. There are several possibilities as to what is causing the problem. The repairs could be expensive. I don’t know if the sale price included Disney paying for the repairs. My guess is it did.
Disney has filed applications to transfer the licenses of WDYZ-990 in Orlando and WMYM-990 in Miami to new owners. The purchase price of WDYZ is $1.3 million and WMYM is $2.1 million. WDYZ is 50 kW/14 kW DA-2. WMYM is 5 kW full time DA-2.
I’m not aware of any other deals in the works.
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