Caldwell County’s only local radio stations are set to end local programming at the end of the month after 65 years of broadcasting local news and high school sports.
The station broadcasts WAVJ 104.9 FM "the Wave" and WPKY 1590 AM out of Princeton.
Operations Manager Caroline Garcia says employees were informed Friday morning of the situation.
This is Operations Manager, Caroline Garcia .It was with a heavy heart that I made the announcement this morning that... Posted by 104.9 The Wave on Friday, July 24, 2015
Commonwealth Broadcasting owns the station. Vice President Dale Thornhill says a two-year search for a local buyer was unsuccessful and that the station’s local-oriented format was no longer financially viable for the company.
“It’s kind of like a restaurant and a franchise," said Thornhill. "You have the corporate overhead, the franchise fees, accounting, administrative staff, etc so we have to have much greater margins to operate the stations here. Someone locally could buy them, operate them, the term we would call ‘a mom and pop shop.’ and make a much greater profit.”
He says the 104.9 FM signal will be simulcast with a sister station out of Webster County.
“Quite simply, we’ve had the FM for sale for quite some time, it’s a greater value to us somewhere else than here because we can combine it in with some of our other facilities and realize those, that efficiency," said Thornhill.
WWKY out of Providence plays mainstream country music hits with regional news.
Thornhill says the station’s physical assets along with its AM signal will remain on sale and its employees will remain part of the company until a transaction is made.
