Country Crosses The Street
• UPDATED: On Thursday, Nov. 1, right on schedule, Craig Karmazin‘s Good Karma Brands officially closed on its $16 million purchase of WKTI/Milwaukee from the E.W. Scripps Co. and flipped it from Country to Sports-Talk as 94.5 ESPN.
Meanwhile, across the street… Magnum.Media made the strategic decision to fill this newfound Country vacancy by flipping Adult Hits WVTY (92.1 The Shore) back to Country as 92.1 VTY Country.
A Brief History: 92.1 WVTY was a Light AC station for a number of years. When Magnum acquired it exactly four years ago, they flipped it to Country… a move that lasted all of five months before WKTI went Country. Magnum decided to get out of that lane and flipped the station to Adults Hits as 92.1 The Shore. And now, Country is back! Interestingly, the new 92.1 VTY Country is now sporting a logo (left) that is comfortably reminiscent of the now former KTI Country logo.
In a statement, Magnum.Media principal Dave Magnum explained the move, stating, in part, “92.1 covers the southern half of the Milwaukee market, while our West Bend-licensed WMBZ (92.5 Buzz Country) covers the northern half. The two signals meet perfectly in the middle of Milwaukee. We’ll program WMBZ and WVTY separately, so each station can super-serve its half of the market. We’ve invested a lot of resources over the last four years re-building the transmission, antenna and processing systems of 92.1 and 92.5. The combined coverage spans from the North Chicago suburbs to Portage to Oshkosh, WI.”
To help boost market awareness of the new 92.1 VTY Country, Magnum has bought spots on WKTI through Friday, inviting soon-to-be displaced Country listeners to make the switch to 92.1 and 92.5. Magnum added, “I tell my sons, Reid & Ty, that unless you could have Aaron Rodgers’ gig with the Green Bay Packers, there’s not a more exciting game than radio.”
• In a semi-related story, Kalil & Co., Inc. also announced the $47 million sale of 17 radio stations in Wichita, KS, Springfield, MO, Omaha, NE and Knoxville, TN from E.W. Scripps to SummitMedia LLC is now closed.
The following stations now officially belong to SummitMedia — Wichita: KFDI-FM, KFXJ-FM, KYQQ-FM and KFTI-AM; Springfield: KTTS-FM, KSPW-FM, KSGF-FM and KRVI-FM; Omaha: KEZO-FM, KSRZ-FM, KQCH-FM, KKCD-FM and KXSP-AM; Knoxville: WWST-FM, WCYQ-FM, WKHT-FM and WNOX-FM.
