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Cumulus shutdown tracker

M

Mediafrog+

I notice that a couple of posts have popped up this evening about Cumulus taking stations silent in Birmingham as well as Conway, South Carolina. Had been reported by RadioInsight that shutdowns could happen this week. Thought I would start this thread so we can track this.

WAPI and WAYS+translator are given in those posts.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
I notice that a couple of posts have popped up this evening about Cumulus taking stations silent in Birmingham as well as Conway, South Carolina. Had been reported by RadioInsight that shutdowns could happen this week. Thought I would start this thread so we can track this.

WAPI and WAYS+translator are given in those posts.
Click to expand...
Wow another powerful 1070 bites the dust.
 
TheBigA said:
I really think we're at the point where a lot of these AMs are just going to get turned off.

Cumulus inherited a lot of them in the Citadel deal. I think they realized if they shut down all the boat anchors, they may be able to survive as a company.
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How many AMs does Audacy still own, and do you expect them to meet the same fate as Cumulus'?
 
Cumulus filed to take KIKR 1450/KBED 1510 in the Beaumont/Port Arthur market silent today.
 
Of course, Cumulus has been shutting off AMs for several years now. Some of the ones they've shut off before this round in the last few years...

WFAS 1230 White Plains NY
WGPC 1450 Albany GA
KXZZ 1580 Lake Charles
WMHG 1600 Muskegon
WLQR 1470 Toledo
WHBT 1410 Tallahassee
KVEN 1450 Ventura
KSCR 1320 Eugene
KJQS 1060 Fort Smith
KLSZ 1550 Amarillo
WDDO 1240 and WRWM 1500 Macon
WJWF 1400 Columbus MS
WBMQ 630 and WJLG 900 Savannah
KNEK 1190 Lafayette
WHSC 1450 Hartsville SC
 
Here's an article from Inside Radio that includes a statement from the company:

www.insideradio.com

Cumulus Media Silences San Francisco AM.

San Francisco’s KZAC joins radio’s century club this year, marking 100 years since it was first licensed by the FCC. However, Cumulus Media has taken the 5,000-watt AM in radio’s
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

“As part of our ongoing efforts to optimize our portfolio and allocate resources effectively in our local markets, we have determined that certain stations are no longer the right strategic fit within their respective markets,” the company says in a statement. “As a result, we have made the decision to suspend operations at these stations — an adjustment that impacts very few individuals — while we evaluate the best path forward, allowing us to focus on strengthening and maximizing the impact of our other brands.”
Click to expand...
 
I suppose Cumulus could kill off WNML-990 Knoxville since probably all of the audience is on FM or online. They sometimes split off a high school game, and 990 carried Spanish play-by-play of Tennessee Volunteer football but other than that it probably just runs up the electric bill.
 
I'm sure they'd like to shut off AMs and keep attached FM translators, but the FCC says no. But they CAN shut down AMs that are simulcast on full power FM. So that's what they're doing. In one case, they shut down both an AM and its translator to comply with FCC rules.
 
TheBigA said:
I'm sure they'd like to shut off AMs and keep attached FM translators, but the FCC says no. But they CAN shut down AMs that are simulcast on full power FM. So that's what they're doing. In one case, they shut down both an AM and its translator to comply with FCC rules.
Click to expand...
The FM in question is not a translator, but a fully licensed Class A.
 
TheBigA said:
Here's an article from Inside Radio that includes a statement from the company:

www.insideradio.com

Cumulus Media Silences San Francisco AM.

San Francisco’s KZAC joins radio’s century club this year, marking 100 years since it was first licensed by the FCC. However, Cumulus Media has taken the 5,000-watt AM in radio’s
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com
Click to expand...

Woof. Inside Radio is really killing it again, including Audacy’s KMOX as an example where Cumulus kept the AM signal but added an FM simulcast. 🙄
 

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TheBigA said:
I'm sure they'd like to shut off AMs and keep attached FM translators, but the FCC says no. But they CAN shut down AMs that are simulcast on full power FM. So that's what they're doing. In one case, they shut down both an AM and its translator to comply with FCC rules.
Click to expand...
Question: Can a broadcaster legally take an AM station off the air, move its formatting to an HD subchannel of one of its FM stations, and then reroute the translator to broadcast the HD2 (or whatever) subchannel of the FM? I suspect it's legal (I'm thikinng that the latest time this happened was in St. George, Utah, when KHKR-AM was yanked from the air), but I don't really know.
 


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