Cumulus Sells Last Radio Station in New York City (VIDEO) – Radiovision

Cumulus Media, America’s third-largest commercial radio group, is pulling out of the New York City radio market entirely. Last week it was announced that 103.9 WFAS would be sold to Christian radio network VCY America for over €6.8 million.

WFAS has been up for sale since 2019, after Cumulus sold 95.5 (W)PLJ (pop), 94.7 Nash FM (WNSH) (country) and 77 WABC (news). The stations were sold because Cumulus needed money to pay down debt.

As a result, WFAS, later operating as Radio 103.9 (WNBM) with an urban pop format, was the only remaining cumulus station in the Big Apple. This made the station more expensive as operational costs could no longer be shared with sister stations.

It also didn’t help that frequency 103.9 FM was not well received everywhere in New York City. This is because the frequency was originally for Westchester County, north of the city. The transmitter was also initially installed there. In 2014, Cumulus received permission to move its transmitter to the Bronx, but reception in southern New York City is still poor.

Cumulus has already decided in 2019 to replace all local programming on Radio 103.9 with network programming to save costs. Earlier this year, the course was completely changed and programs from talk channel 1230 WFAS were broadcast on the frequency. The station had Medium wave broadcasts were digitized, making the FM spectrum an alternative to the analog listening public.

Now the FM frequency changes to VCY. The party will first acquire a license to convert from commercial to non-commercial and broadcast Christian programs. (Radio World)