As Woodward Community Media prepares to acquire Mid-West Family Broadcasting’s stations to add to its recently acquired cluster in Springfield IL and divest its holdings in Bloomington IL, it has found a buyer in Educational Media Foundation.
EMF, the operator of the Christian AC “K-Love” and Contemporary Worship “Air 1” networks, will enter both markets for the first time with the acquisitions of “Rock 96.7” WIHN Normal/Bloomington and Variety Hits “96.7 Bob-FM” WCVS-FM Virden/Springfield for $200,000 each. Since it will be the first station in either market for EMF, it is expected that the “K-Love” network will be launched on each signal.
The sale of WCVS-FM was required to remain under the ownership cap as Woodward prepares to bring the 1 AM and 3 FMs it purchased earlier this year from Neuhoff Media with the 1 AM and 3 FMs it is now purchasing from Mid-West Family giving the company one too many FMs.
In Bloomington, Woodward announced its plans to divest the three stations it acquired from Neuhoff. Great Plains Media has begun operating Variety Hits “97.9 Bob-FM” WBBE Heyworth via LMA to add to its cluster of Conservative Talk “Cities 92.9” WRPW, AC “Magic 99.5” WZIM and Country “107.7 The Bull” WIBL/92.1 W221CY. With the sale of WIHN, that leaves only Hot AC “Now 100.7” WWHX Normal to be sold.
