Update 12/8: When Salem returns 99.5 KDIS-FM Little Rock to the air, it will do so as Christian Preaching “Faith Talk 99.5” KSLR-FM.
FaithTalk995.com, FaithTalkLittleRock.com, and KSLRFM.com were all registered by Salem on Friday. While awaiting FCC approval for the purchase of the station, Salem has also applied to boost the station’s facilities.
KDIS-FM has applied to upgrade its Class A signal from 3kW at 95 meters to 6kW, while retaining the same tower height and location.
Update 10/30: Disney has announced buyers for three of the now dark stations.
99.5 KDIS-FM Little Rock and 1160 KRDY San Antonio have been sold to Salem Communications for $2 Million. KDIS-FM will be Salem’s first station in Little Rock, while KRDY will join Christian Preaching 630 KSLR and Conservative Talk 930 KLUP in Salem’s San Antonio cluster.
1460 WDDY Albany, NY goes to the non-commercial Pax et Bonum, Inc. for $375,000. Pax, which operates Catholic 89.9 WOPG Esperence on the fringes of the Albany market, will convert 1460 to non-commercial status and a simulcast of the FM.
Meanwhile, one of the other Radio Disney stations that went dark is back on the air testing. 1640 WKSH Sussex/Milwaukee was spotted yesterday playing the soundtrack to the Broadway musical “Promises, Promises”.
Update 9/30: More of the to-be sold Radio Disney stations have gone dark. 1460 WDDY Albany, 1290 WDZY Richmond and 1640 WKSH Milwaukee turned off their transmitters on Sunday as Disney continues to seek buyers for the stations. 910 KWDZ Salt Lake City went dark earlier this month.
No sales have been announced, but in their previous STA filings Disney is seeking to keep the stations off for up to 180 days to give them time to complete the sales.
Update 8/11: Two of the Radio Disney stations that have been put up for sale have both ceased broadcasting.
1190 KPHN Kansas City and 99.5 KDIS-FM Little Rock have both notified the FCC that they have suspended operations stating, “RADIO DISNEY GROUP, LLC IS NEGOTIATING WITH PROSPECTIVE BUYERS OF STATION KDIS-FM, AND IS COMMITTED TO COMPLETING THE SALES PROCESS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE IN ORDER TO MINIMIZE THE AMOUNT OF THE TIME THAT THE STATION WILL BE SILENT.”
Could a previous owner be returning to the Little Rock station? Loretta Lever, who operated the station as Urban AC “Foxy 99.5” KYFX until 2003, registered Foxy995.com on July 31. Lever sold the station to Disney for $2.56 Million in 2002 and then took the company to court seeking to have the sale overturned.
Original Report 6/4: Variety is reporting that Disney has put up the for sale sign at seven of its medium market “Radio Disney” stations.
The stations reportedly going up for sale are:
- 1460 WDDY Albany, NY
- 1190 KPHN Kansas City
- 99.5 KDIS-FM Little Rock
- 1640 WKSH Sussex/Milwaukee
- 1290 WDZY Colonial Heights/Richmond
- 910 KWDZ Salt Lake City
- 1160 KRDY San Antonio
The move follows a similar cutback in 2010 when Disney shut down and later sold eight Radio Disney stations. Disney has been placing extra emphasis on digital distribution of the network. Variety states that the company will continue to operate their owned stations in the top 25 markets.
oasisrulz 
laurenceglavin 
MattParker
Any word on the flamethrower 640 in Mount Holly, (Philly Market). It would be great if its sold and reverts back to the Standards format they had before Radio Disney…
They’re keeping their stations in the Top 25 markets, Philly is in the top 10.
I’m in San Antonio, and 1160 KRDY is still up and strong with Radio Disney. Just giving you heads up as you mentioned you didn’t have word on it. But that’s all I know.
Just a couple of days ago when I read about Radio Disney outlets on the auction block, I thought I’d check out their AM station in Boston, WMKI-AM 1260. But when I tuned to 1260, the main signal I received was CKHJ in Fredericton, NB Canada with Disney bubbling up in the background….and I live directly “in front” of the nighttime pattern. According to FCC records (when the FCC was up and running) WMKI is putting out the equivalent of more than 10,000 watts in its major lobe at night. During the daytime, it’s 5K NDA and isn’t much stronger than a station transmitting just a couple of miles away, WJDA-AM 1300 in a neighboring City to Boston, Quincy, MA (where the WMKI-AM transmitter is located also). Which raises the question, even if WMKI is in a top-10 market, if the signal is really crappy, why keep it? AM 1260 does however boom into several neighborhoods in the City of Boston itself and would seem to be of value to someone.
KRDY is now off the air. I guess Disney turned them off in preparation for selling.
Radio Disney has to be one of radio’s dumbest ideas ever – in an industry rife with dumb ideas. Disney dumps the heritage ABC owned radio stations and keeps a bunch of computer-in-a-closet weak sticks and rim-shots to target a generation oblivious to radio (with music that has no connection to the Disney brand).
The emerging trend here is the last surviving radio formats will be sports talk and brokered religion.