Cumulus Media is not the only company turning off stations for economic reasons.
Townsquare Media, which has been pruning underperforming stations from its portfolio for divestment or license cancellation for the past several years, has ceased operations on two more.
Sports “ESPN Quad Cities” 1170 KBOB/104.1 K281DB Davenport IA and Red Dirt Country 1280 KSLI Abilene TX both ceased operations in late February. KBOB had been operating via STA with its nighttime pattern for the past three years due to a faulty switcher. The station is licensed with 1kW both daytime and night, but with different directional patterns.
KSLI has been simulcasting 92.5 KMWX Abilene since January 2023 when the AM’s Red Dirt Country format was moved to the FM and rebranded from “Lonestar 1280” to “92.5 The Ranch“. KSLI is licensed to operate with 500 watts day and 226 watts night non-directional.
In both STA requests, Townsquare Media SVP/Engineering Martin Stabbert said, “Due to economic conditions in the market, the licensee was forced to take the station off the air temporarily. The licensee respectfully requests special temporary authority for the station to remain silent. The licensee will promptly notify the Commission when it is able to resume station operations.”
Edward Ford 
Lance Venta
Radio needs to learn from the retail industry. When retailers have stores that habitually under perform and continue to post losses, they shut those locations down.
Instead of switching from one Filler Format, such as ESPN to another one, radio companies need to realize those type of format changes to non-local, syndicated programming aren’t going deliver advertisers or listeners. Have you ever seen Macy’s decide that instead of closing a money losing store, they change it to selling all men’s shoes?
Radio companies should consider partnering with print (newspapers and community) magazines in markets where AM signals are at risk of going silent. There are many possible hybrid combinations that would be mutually beneficial to both media and attract revenue because of the innovative approach.
Crossownership rules prohibit such combinations. The Rules need to be modernized.
The newspaper/radio cross-ownership rules were eliminated 5 or so years ago.