WVRC Media has filed a request for a waiver with the FCC to be able to operate five of AJG Corporation’s six stations via Time Brokerage Agreement to give the company nine properties in the Morgantown/Clarksburg/Fairmont WV market.
In the waiver request, WVRC claims that the AJG stations “are not financially viable on a stand-alone basis, and the TBA is what would permit them to continue serving their communities. AJG’s stations do not generate revenue sufficient to sustain their current operations, and absent the operating efficiencies the TBA would provide, AJG cannot indefinitely maintain service at its present level”. What they do not state is the ownership of AJG Corporation is held by a trust of David and John Raese for their descendents. John Raese is also Chairman of WVRC Media and each brother owns 33% of WVRC Media as the company was founded by their grandparents Agnes and Herbert Greer in 1940.
The waiver request notes that the combined operation will have a combined 83.8% of the radio revenue in the Morgantown market in 2025. WVRC’s five stations were responsible for $3.8 million in revenue making up a 60.1% market share, while AJG’s five stations made $1.5 million for a 23.7% market share. The next company, John Fredericks’ Disruptor Radio’s six stations all simulcasting the same Conservative Talk programming made $800,000 with some of that coming from West Virginia University Sports that have since moved to WVRC’s cluster. The company’s claim that a number of Pittsburgh market stations pull revenue from the market for a combined total of $7.7 million, with $4.7 million of that alone is attributed to iHeartMedia CHR “Kiss 96.1” WKST-FM for its revenue across the entire Pittsburgh market.
Should it be granted, WVRC Audio will take over operations of Classic Country “Superstar Country” 1300 WPDX/92.1 W221DR Morgantown and 104.9 WPDX-FM Clarksburg, Classic Hits 93.1 WFGM-FM Barrackville, and Rock 100.1 WCLG-FM Morgantown/102.3 WBTQ Weston. Silent 1460 WBUC Buckhannon will not be included.
WVRC Media operates Country 97.9 WKKW Morgantown, CHR 101.9 WVAQ Morgantown, News/Talk 103.3 WKMZ Salem, Classic Hits “Sky 106.5” WWLW Clarksburg, and News/Talk 1440 WAJR/104.5 W283CR Morgantown.
The waiver request states that “the TBA will allow WVRC to provide more diverse programming and to increase its local sports coverage. Currently, AJG and WVRC’s stations run overlapping formats on three stations. As part of the TBA, WVRC plans to align its programming across the WVRC and AJG stations. That will allow WVRC to introduce new programming formats on several stations in the market that will run programming neither WVRC nor AJG currently offer and giving listeners in Morgantown access to a wider variety of radio content. WVRC also provides local sports coverage on its stations. It plans to expand its local sports coverage as part of the TBA. That expanded coverage will allow WVRC to cover more local sporting events and deliver that coverage to a wider audience. Therefore, grant of the waiver request will serve the public interest by allowing WVRC to add new formats to the Morgantown market, giving listeners access to more diverse programming.”
