Surprising thought on what station Clear Channel has to spin off...

[radio247mama]

So here is something from the rumor mill for you...

You all have been talking about Clear Channel having to spin off WPHH, WKSS, WWYZ...one station in the Hartford Metro.

But the rumor is that Clear Channel will be spinning off...WPKX (Kix 97.9)!!!

You read it right. It seems that since WPKX is licensed to Enfield, CT...then it falls under the Hartford ownership rules. Doesn't matter that serves the Springfield, MA market or that 99% of it's dollars come from Massachusetts. If it's COL is in the Hartford market, it is considered a Hartford station...therefore will be spun off.

Hmmm...very interesting. WPKX has sounbded great as of late, even with all the Clear Channel mandates that seem to be going around. I wonder how good they would sound with an owner like Saga, Regent, or Citadel...if this indeed does happen.

 

[KML0224]

I only consider them a Springfield station myself. Why is the station licensed to Enfield for anyways?

 

[GreatCalloftheNE]

They would still have to spin off another one since the rules permit common ownership of only three FM's in a market the size of Hartford.

 

[Adam Rivers]

I only consider them a Springfield station myself. Why is the station licensed to Enfield for anyways?

I'm pretty sure the story is that the station applied to fill the gap to serve Enfield itself and that the only reason the license was granted was because the Enfield area needed some kind of community station (they do now with WACC-107.7), but never went on to serve Enfield or anywhere in CT in general..they've always targeted Springfield.. their tower is on Provin Mountain along with TV-22 and Rock 102 in Agawam.

Just by reading up on what has happened in other markets with spinoffs in the past, I don't see any way that the FCC would accept what the original poster of this thread has said.....I could certainly be wrong, but I think that Kiss, Power, The River, or Country has to go...and I think they will spin Kiss or Power off to SBS or Univision to become a big Spanish FM in the Hartford market... that seems the most logical thing to do for them. If Kiss was sold, TIC would be the option to fill the CHR gap. Either that, or leave Hartford without a CHR..

 

[kms575]

If Kiss were sold off, perhaps someone would reinvigorate the existing format. It's become such a joke to listen to, in my opinion.

 

[JustinT]

I only consider them a Springfield station myself. Why is the station licensed to Enfield for anyways?

I'm pretty sure the story is that the station applied to fill the gap to serve Enfield itself and that the only reason the license was granted was because the Enfield area needed some kind of community station (they do now with WACC-107.7), but never went on to serve Enfield or anywhere in CT in general..they've always targeted Springfield.. their tower is on Provin Mountain along with TV-22 and Rock 102 in Agawam.

That's basically it from everything I've heard. When the allocation for 97.9 FM in Springfield came up, every applicant applied with a COL of Springfield... except for the one that applied for a COL of Enfield. As plenty of stations already had COLs of Springfield and none had one of Enfield, the Enfield applicant won the CP.