Thirteen months after Sacred Heart University leased 1400 WSTC Stamford CT to Martin Sheehan’s VGR Radio Agency, the station has gone Silent.
Sacred Heart had originally taken WSTC and sister 1350 WNLK Norwalk silent in January 2016 citing low listenership. In June 2016, VGR Radio began operating WSTC with a mix of Talk and Adult Standards and then shifted to Oldies earlier this year, while Peace & Love Radio flipped WNLK to Gospel.
WSHU Communications Director Janice Portentoso, told the Connecticut Post, “VGR Radio Agency has not paid us anything for the past six months”. General Manager George Lombardi stated, “As a non-profit, listener-supported organization, we take our fiscal responsibilities very seriously. We are accountable to the listeners and organizations whose financial support represents the largest segment of our budget. We could no longer continue with this arrangement where VGR was not honoring the financial terms of our agreement.”
Operations Manager Mike Raub wrote a note stating that Sacred Heart had “chosen to terminate our licensing arrangement with WSTC”. The WSHU network serves Southern and Western CT and Suffolk County NY with three programming services split between six full powered stations and eight translators.
I would imagine this is related to how WSTC now has an FM translator (W276AI) assigned to it? And a CP to move the translator’s freq, double height, and increase ERP from 3 to 10 watts.
I would imagine that it has everything to do with VGR Radio Agency not honoring a commitment to pay its station lease. That’s certainly the implication of the WSHU communication director’s statement. Nothing at all to do with the translator.
If they have not made payments in six months, VGR was clearly in over its head.
I would agree – my original comment was posted before WSHU announced VGR wasn’t making its lease payments.