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Walking AwayThe POWELL BROADCASTING four-station cluster PANAMA CITY, FL has gone silent, and COO ROBERT BOND told RADIOINSIGHT’s LANCE VENTA that the stations will not be returning to the air.
The stations — Country WKNK (KICK’N COUNTRY 103.5)/CALLAWAY-PANAMA CITY, Adult Hits WASJ (BOB FM 105.1)/PANAMA CITY BEACH, Classic Rock WRBA (CLASSIC ROCK 95.9)/SPRINGFIELD-PANAMA CITY, and Top 40 WPFM (HOT 107.9)/PANAMA CITY — went dark during last week’s devastation of the market by HURRICANE MICHAEL, and the station’s STL tower partially collapsed onto the studio building, which sustained water damage. BOND told VENTA, “We have made the difficult decision to cease broadcasting operations in PANAMA CITY. HURRICANE MICHAEL did catastrophic damage to our physical plant to the point that rebuilding was uneconomic. We wish the entire PANAMA CITY community Godspeed in rebuilding.”
POWELL had recently sold WPFM to EDUCATIONAL MEDIA FOUNDATION in a deal that had been filed with the FCC but had not yet been approved or closed.
FM stations still out of service as of SUNDAY, according to the FCC, besides the four POWELL stations:
- AMERICAN FAMILY RADIO Religion W232BI/ALBANY, GA
- iHEARTRADIO Rock W242BF/PANAMA CITY
- RADIOJONES Classic Hits WBMZ (103.7 THE BOOMER)/METTER, GA
- COLUMBUS STATE UNIVERSITY Variety WCUG/LUMPKIN-COLUMBUS, GA
- EDGEWATER BROADCASTING Religion WHHR (FREEDOM RADIO FM)/VIENNA, GA
- EDUCATIONAL MEDIA FOUNDATION Contemporary Christian WHKV (K-LOVE)/SYLVESTER-ALBANY, GA
- EDGEWATER BROADCASTING Religion WJEP (FREEDOM RADIO FM)/CUSSETA, GA
- ECHO BROADCASTING NETWORK low-power WSWL-LP/VALDOSTA, GA
- BIG BEND HERITAGE MUSIC ASSOCIATION Variety WZRE-LP/PERRY, FL
FMs still sending programming to another station:
- RADIOJONES Country WXRS-F (THE ROOSTER 100.5)/SWAINSBORO, GA
- CUMULUS Urban AC WHBX (96.1 JAMZ)/TALLAHASSEE
AMs out of service:
- iHEARTRADIO Rock WDIZ-A (96 ROCK)/PANAMA CITY
- iHEARTRADIO Gospel WJYZ-A/ALBANY, GA
- RADIOJONES Classic Hits WXRS (THE ROCKET 97.1)/SWAINSBORO, GA
TV stations out of service:
- NEXSTAR ABC affiliate WDHN-TV/DOTHAN, AL
- SINCLAIR FOX affiliate WFXL-TV (FOX 31)/ALBANY, GA
- NEXSTAR ABC affiliate WMBB-TV/PANAMA CITY, FL
Meanwhile, a slew of air personalities for those stations are now looking for work. First and foremost are WPFM’s ADAM AND ALLISON, who can be reached at weareadamandallison.comor their FACEBOOK page; and WKNK’s FLIP & STREETER, who can be reached at their FACEBOOK page, where they are still providing updates for BAY COUNTY.
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Pretty good reason why so many stations in a smaller market shouldn’t be owned by one company. That’s a lot of dead air. Perhaps ownership should be limited in smaller markets to keep this from happening. I can see religious broadcasters lining up to buy these full power (and Repeater) stations.