99.7 KHLT-FM Belle Plaine/Wichita is now running a Regional Mexican format as “La Raza 99.7“. The station is promoting that it will begin carrying Univision’s syndicated Raúl Brindis morning show on Monday.
Update 8/18: With Air Capitol Media Group filing with the FCC to transfer 99.7 KHLT-FM back to previous owner Daniel Smith’s Bad Gas Broadcast, the AC “99.7 Lite-FM” programming has come to an end.
Smith will acquire KHLT-FM for forgiveness of $1,363,117.61 in debt. The sellers will also pay Smith $1600 per month for three years to pay off their 2013 purchase of the station. Bad Gas will begin operating the station immediately via LMA so a new format should be imminent.
Original Report 7/29: Shane and Kianne Prill’s Air Capitol Media Group is selling AC “99.7 Lite-FM” KHLT-FM Belle Plaine/Wichita back to previous owner Dan Smith for an undisclosed amount.
The Prill’s had acquired then Regional Mexican “Fiesta 99.7” KANR from Smith in March 2013 for $2 million. They quickly flipped the station to AC to compete with iHeartMedia’s “B98” 97.9 KRBB. Brett Harris, the former morning host at KRBB was part of the launch at KHLT but quickly departed and is now hosting mornings at Envision Hot AC “Q92.3” KKGQ.
The Wichita Eagle quotes the Prill’s on their sale of the station:
We gave it sufficient time, hoping to find a niche for a locally-focused adult format, but in such a congested and highly competitive market, we were unable to attract a large enough audience and generate enough revenue to build a viable business. We say thank you to a dedicated staff that, from day one, has believed in the concept of quality, local radio and has made every effort to make it work.
The sale has yet to be filed with the FCC.
I’ll be interested to see what happens with this. I see Fiesta returning.
It’s been dead air all day long as of 5:30 central time on 8/17/15.
Competing with iHeart apparently wasn’t as easy as one would think.
Officially has flipped to Spanish sometime during the evening of 8/19/15.
See http://andoverleader.com/2015/08/word-on-the-street-its-lites-out-at-99-7 for some more details.