Educational Media Foundation is acquiring Hot AC 92.5 WINC-FM Winchester VA from Allen Shaw’s Centennial Broadcasting for $1.75 million.
The deal gives EMF an additional signal in Northern Virginia as WINC-FM covers a wide swath of the Washington DC market. The company’s “K-Love” Christian AC format is currently heard on 107.3 WLVW Washington DC, 94.3 WLZV Warrenton and 103.3 WTCF Wardensville WV/Winchester, but Contemporary Worship “Air 1” is not on any analog signals in the area.
Centennial will retain the WINC-FM call letters and employees. The company may move the format to one of its three remaining Winchester area stations: Talk simulcast 1400 WINC Winchester/104.9 WZFC Strasburg and Country “B105” 105.5 WXBN Berryville. Centennial also gains a 20 year lease for the WZFC STL to remain on the WINC-FM tower for $1 per year.
dudefromva 
Eric Jon Magnuson 
StogieGuy 
Les Talk 
WOW! WINC-FM has been around since the early 40s. One of the first FM signals. This is my home market. It covers a HUGE area. Basically, long-time DJs at WINC-FM are going to be out of work. What’s worse, is Comcast uses WINC-FM for their audio on the community bulletin board station (channel 15) in the Winchester/Frederick County area. Even worse, WINC-FM has made some in-roads on market leader WUSQ-FM too.
Due to its long history, it’s indeed a “superpower” FM…
http://www.w9wi.com/articles/superfm.html
EMF and their fat wallet are contributing to the slow death of radio in a big way. By buying up many heritage stations, then “zombifying” them, they eliminate local content, variety and competition. And their national cookie-cutter religious formats have no business on the commercial band. They’re non-comms. The FCC should never have allowed the 92.0 MHz barrier to be breached.
Amen. Ooops, is that the right word?
Well I expect emf to flip 103.3 to air 1 since 92.5 blankets Winchester . It will go k love similar to the 92.5 to the west of Chicago situation. Does the removal of non coms past 92.1 include WBAi nyc or npr stations on the commercial band or just Christian formats . I do feel stations that draw little audience in big markets might do better away from 92.1 and up. Family radio did finally sell theres off but klove draws an audience . In Atlanta the 16 month old k love got the highest numbers 6plus on its 106.7 signal the best that frequency has seen in 20+ years and that’s with a highly rated commercial competitor. Unfortunately the only way the format can be in many markets is the k love method
My initial hunch is that 94.3 would also flip to Air-1; that station’s primary contour almost entirely fits within 92.5’s, and also overlaps a bit with 107.3’s. Still, even though I realize that EMF seldom sells off signals, I could see it doing so here–since all of the stations in this case are in the commercial band, and since a lot of D.C.-metro operators wouldn’t mind creating a simulcast to cover NoVa’s exurbs.
I don’t understand the apologists for the K-Love monopoly. The EMF business model is to hold pledge drives in order to acquire more radio stations. More radio stations, more coverage = more donations, more cash. And unfortunately, more conquering of the FM dial. No local staff. No local identity. A loss to the community. Although, WINC has not been the same the past few years. Centennial started rebroadcasting clips from the morning show at night. News was piped in from the national (but locally focused) rip and read newsman in a box service. This was a station that was live and local 24.7 not that long ago. Including an actual news department. But I’d still prefer the scaled back local WINC to the EMF K-Love scam. It’s truly a shame what the EMF conversions are doing to local airwaves. And to the medium as a whole.