After operating Potomac Radio Group’s 1190 WTSD Leesburg VA/Washington DC for the past three years as Sports “iHeart Sports DC“, iHeartMedia has ended its lease of the station after choosing not to exercise its option to purchase the station.
WTSD has filed to go silent telling the FCC that they “were not successful in securing another LMA or purchaser for WTSD. Therefore, due to severe financial difficulties, WTSD cannot sustain operations at this time, and the owners have made the decision to take the station dark, on or around January 14th until such time that another LMA or purchaser is secured.”
iHeartMedia is continuing the Sports programming, which is a mix of Premiere Networks’ Fox Sports Radio from 6am to 7pm and VSiN sports betting programming from 7pm to 6am and weekends, on 101.1 WWDC-HD2 Washington. “iHeart Sports DC” launched on 1190 and 104.7 W284CQ Washington in January 2023. The translator would flip to Conservative Talk “Freedom 104.7” in July 2023.
edwardford
It is telling when iHeart calculates than it’s more effective to be on an HD subchannel than over the air. Another AM radio station goes dark. Whether the congressional save AM radio bill passes or not, AM radio stations will continue to cease operations due financial shortcomings.