Cumulus and Townsquare Media both continue to shut down under-performing stations across the country.
Following its shutdown of “ESPN Quad Cities” 1170 KBOB/104.1 K281DB Davenport IA and Red Dirt Country 1280 KSLI Abilene TX in early March, Townsquare has taken three more stations off the air.
1400 WJZN/95.9 W240DH Augusta ME, which was previously silent from May 2023 to May 2024, once again has been taken off-the-air. When broadcasting, the stations were simulcasting Alternative 94.3 WCYY Biddeford/Portland and 103.7 WPKQ North Conway NH. In New Jersey a pair of signals most recently being used to expand the coverage areas of co-owned FMs were taken off the air.
1160 WJLK/104.1 W281CK Lakewood Township, had been used to expand Hot AC “94.3 The Point” WJLK-FM Asbury Park into Ocean County and 1310 WOBM/96.7 W244EE Asbury Park did the reverse for AC 92.7 WOBM-FM Toms River into Monmouth County both went silent.
Townsquare used the boilerplate comment in its STA filing with the FCC noting, “Due to economic conditions in the market, the licensee was forced to take the station off the air temporarily. The licensee respectfully requests special temporary authority for the station to remain silent. The licensee will promptly notify the Commission when it is able to resume station operations.”
Cumulus in particular has been very active on this front with an internal list privately shared with RadioInsight showing over 20 stations to be taken off the air within the company. Those shutdowns started on Friday, February 28 with 560 KZAC (formerly KSFO) San Francisco and “101.5 Jack-FM” WLXX Richmond/Lexington KY going off-the-air.
Six additional stations shut down last week, eleven are set to cease operations this weekend, and more to continue later this month.
Signing off the weekend of March 7 were:
“Sportsradio 1450/1510” KIKR Beaumont and KBED Nederland TX. The simulcast featured the Infinity Sports Network 24/7. The stations did not rank in the Fall 2024 Nielsen Audio ratings.- 1070 WAPI Birmingham. WAPI has simulcast Conservative Talk “Talk 99.5” WZRR Birmingham since that station launched the format in May 2016. Before that WAPI simulcasted on what was then 100.5 WAPI-FM from 2010-13.
- Sports “1230 The Team” WSSO Starkville MS. WSSO also carried Infinity Sports Network programming 24/7.
- 920 WYMB Manning SC. WYMB simulcast co-owned Sports “100.5 The Game” WWFN Marion/Florence.
- “Fox Sports 101.9” 1050 WAYS/101.9 W270BZ Conway SC. The Myrtle Beach rimshot served as a secondary Sports signal along with sister “100.3 The Game” WSEA Atlantic Beach.
Another eleven stations are set to be shut off this weekend. Those stations are:
Conservative Talk “Newsradio 1440” WLWI Montgomery AL had a lineup of all-syndication mostly from Westwood One. WLWI had a 0.7 share in the Fall 2024 Nielsen Audio ratings.- Sports “The Fan” 1560 WLZR/107.9 W300DL Melbourne FL will see its current local afternoon show hosted by Program Director Mark Moses be relaunched as a video stream and podcast. Moses also remains as PD/midday host for Classic Rock “95.9 The Rocket” WROK Sebastian. WLZR carried Infinity Sports in other dayparts. WLZR did not rank in the Fall 2024 Nielsen Audio ratings.
- Classic Country “93.7 Nash Icon” WJBC-FM Pontiac/Bloomington IL. WJBC-FM rimshot Bloomington and had a 1.1 share in the Fall 2024 Nielsen Audio ratings.
- 1340 KRMD Shreveport LA currently serves as parent signal to AC “Lite Rock 100.7” K264AS Mooringsport. It is unknown at this time if the translator will change parent signal to one of Cumulus’ FMs. The duo had a 0.3 share in the Fall 2024 Nielsen Audio ratings.
- Classic Country simulcast “97.5 Nash Icon” 1490 WLAW/99.1 W256DM Whitehall and 97.5 WLAW-FM Whitehall/Muskegon MI both carried the 24/7 Westwood One format. The stations had a 1.5 share in the Fall 2024 Nielsen Audio ratings.
- Cumulus will shut down both of its Jefferson City MO stations. Conservative Talk 1240 KLIK/103.5 K278CT Jefferson City’s lineup featured Westwood One’s suite of Conservative Talk programs. Classic Hits 97.5 KJMO Linn aired Westwood One’s Classic Hits 24/7 network.
- “Erie Sports Radio” 1260 WRIE Erie PA will go silent, but its translator 96.3 W242CU Erie has filed to change parent to 97.9 WXTA Edinboro. It is unknown at this time whether its will feed the primary 97.9 signal or retain its current programming via an HD subchannel as the station is not in HD at this time. WRIE carried the Infinity Sports Network lineup 24/7.
- “Sportsradio 1440” KPUR Amarillo TX. KPUR carried Infinity Sports Network programming along with “806 Sports Radio” hosted by Kenny Nagunst and Megan Price from 9-11am. That show will be moving to sister “107.1 Nash Icon” KARX Canyon in the market on Monday, March 24.
- The previously announced Red Dirt Country “94.9 The Outlaw” KOLI Electra TX. The Wichita Falls rimshot was originally set to sign-off on February 28.
For the stations that have already filed Silent STAs with the FCC, Cumulus filed identical statements with the FCC noting that it “respectfully requests authority to discontinue operations. Cumulus is in the process of deciding whether to change format or sell the station.”
Edward Ford 
TempoNick 
harles 
Townsquare and Cumulus are starting to mimicking retail with underperforming, money losing stations being shutdown. If those stations are off for months, then there’s no real point to restarting operations. Attempting to sell, then turning in the licenses will be the next steps. The vast majority of the stations mentioned were AM. Only two were FM. Even with translators, these AM stations were not generating enough revenue to be viable.
This trend will continue throughout 2025, and will accelerate if the national economy slips into a minor recession.
Call me a heretic, but I don’t have a lot of nostalgia for these low powered AM and FM stations that are going off the air. They just clutter up the dial anyway. But some of these stations that are being shut down have good signals and that kind of surprises me. It seems like local ownership might be able to do something with them that the big radio chains can’t do.
I mostly agree that we’ve cluttered the dial and undermined radio’s simplicity, especially with many of the translators which are meant to disrupt, not win. I did find that I had an odd connection to one of last week’s sign-offs, though. (Fortunately, there was a happier ending for the station’s IP than for the frequency itself.)
Sean-
Remember back 20 years when all the AMs were saying “If I only had an FM translator…
Seems as though that wasn’t it.
It all comes down to finding, training, and retaining good sales reps. It always has.
If it were only that simple anymore. There’s much more competition from multiple platforms to directly market to consumers. It’s not like your only local advertising choices are just radio, TV, newspapers, billboards, placemats at a diner, and the phone book anymore.
Here’s my 2 cents. Any company in the world must have a sales operation. I have a feeling that these “underperforming stations” were not given the attention to, by sales or programming. Huge players are in enough hot water with their stations that DO do well.
If any company is run well, and their is a viable product, it can work. It simply depends on your expectations. In the cases of the large radio groups, they paid a lot of money, so they must bill a lot of money. In many cases, they do bill a lot of money, and they are profitable, however, not profitable “enough” for hungry stockholders.
If these stations had no connection to Wall Street, it would be a much different situation. Expense control, a plan for revenue. That’s all it takes.
If a station is sold for let’s say 500K. You need to bill around $45K per month to recoup that initial risk money. That pays it back in 12 months. If you do 60 months, that’s about 8K per month. Add in monthly expenses. Let’s say 30K per month (which is very liberal). Thats billing needed of 38K per month, and the station is paid off in 5 years. Even in the smallest markets, 38K per month is nothing. Not with a good product and sales team.
So, if your total billing is 48K per month, all of your expenses are paid, the owner takes 10K a month and now making 120K per year, and the station is paid in full in 5 years. Like I said, I inflated the expenses.
My point is radio stations are cash cows. You get out of it, what you put in. You can make an incredible living. you may not be a billionaire, but you can certainly make a great living and control your destiny. I would have to say that if an independent owner got a radio station and ran it the correct way, with expense control, a client first attitude, destination programming, and most of all passion, that owner will be in good shape.
These stations are not being shut down because the companies do not like them. They are being shut down because they are not performing, and guess whose fault that is. Just my 2 cents. Buddy