Community Radio For Northern Colorado, owners of Public News/Talk/AAA 91.5 KUNC Greeley/Fort Collins CO, has announced the acquisition of Front Range Sports Network’s “ESPN Denver” 105.5 KJAC Timnath.
The current sports format will cease on January 3, 2016 with CRNC launching a non-commercial AAA on the signal on Monday, February 29
All of KUNC’s music programming will move to the new signal, while KUNC will move to all Public News/Talk programming. More information regarding the purchase can be seen here.
Despite one station currently targeting Denver and the other Fort Collins, both are located on the same tower outside Fort Collins. KJAC operates with 50kW at 397 meters (Coverage Map).
Prior to flipping to Sports in 2012, KJAC was the first station in the United States to take on the Variety Hits “Jack-FM” branding in April 2004. Front Range Sports sold KJAC’s former simulcast partner 102.3 KDSP Greenwood Village to Colorado Public Radio earlier this year.
INSTANT INSIGHT: With Kroenke Sports acquiring Wilks Broadcasting’s Denver stations and iHeartMedia planning to launch a Sports station in the market, the loss of KJAC will put the ESPN affiliation in play for the market. Will it return to now Bonneville owned KKFN/KEPN or to one of the new players?
This sports radio shakeup is getting more and more interesting than the sports teams in Denver combined.
Per the latest version of the Denver Post’s story on the sale, the ESPN affiliation is indeed being picked up by KEPN and (to a lesser extent) KKFN…
http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/2015/12/07/kunc-to-buy-second-station-split-musicnews-formats/23725