The final five stations left to be sold by Radio Disney will go to multiple holding companies of Salem Communications for a combined $2.225 million.
1260 WSDZ Belleville, IL will be Salem’s only station in the St. Louis market for $275,000 under Caron Broadcasting.
1380 WWMI St. Petersburg, FL will become Salem’s fifth AM in the Tampa market for $750,000 as it goes to South Texas Broadcasting.
1440 KDIZ Golden Valley, MN becomes Salem’s fourth AM in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market as it goes to Common Ground Broadcasting for $375,000.
1640 KDZR Lake Oswego/Portland, OR goes to Salem Media of Oregon for $275,000. Salem already owns one AM and three FMs in the Portland market.
1690 KDDZ Arvada/Denver, CO goes to Salem Media of Colorado for $550,000. Salem currently owns two AMs and one FM in the Denver market.
Salem has been the most prolific buyer of Disney’s divestitures in this round as it previously purchased stations in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Orlando, and Pittsburgh.
But not Phoenix, where Salem owns KKNT, KXXT and KPXQ – all on Ancient Modulation. They wisely passed on Disney’s KMIK, as someone else foolishly overpayed $1.4m for 15~Eighty.
Yup, 15~Eighty.
YIKES!!
An FL station owned by South Texas Broadcasting? That’s funny!
Note that Salem also owns WWTC/1280 in the Twin Cities, which back in the 90s served as the flagship for Radio AAHS… the other all-children’s radio network.
Did any of the Disney stations turn into anything “mainstream?” Or, are they all now religious / ethnic?
Indianapolis, the only Radio Disney FM, went Country under iHeart. Pittsburgh went Conservative Talk under Salem. Miami went Spanish News/Talk under a local owner.
The SLC station (KWDZ) was also sold to iHeart–which means that, when it goes back on the air, it should be something “mainstream”.
Another talk station to complement Family Values!
Sad ending to what was once a quite interesting, unique, entertaining, fun, radio network. Each station had local promotions teams that would be out at various events in the community. Listeners could call in 24/7 (In Dallas, they had a DJ on 24/7) At it’s peak it was on close to 60 markets. Of those, most were AM signals. Cumberland, MD (WDZN-FM 100.1 and it’s translator) was the only FM. Others included KDIS-FM Little Rock (Which replaced a non O&O AM), WXIR (WRDZ-FM) Indianapolis, WOLF-FM Syracuse, and 102.1 WQUA in Mobile.
These days the internet stream is mostly automation. They have maybe 2-3 DJs. Often runs repeats of the now-syndicated Top-30 Countdown. Often times I find it jockless. The stream is delayed up to 60-90 seconds behind the AM signals, and Sirius, giving the listeners in Los Angeles and on satellite contest advantages. It’s really just a sad shell of it’s former self. But I guess that’s how things are.