Hagerstown Forecast: A Tad Brighter
• As initially reported by Country Aircheck, and confirmed by RAMP, VerStandig Media is spinning off the 104.7 frequency of its highly rated Country outlet WAYZ/Hagerstown, MD to Peter and John Radio Fellowship, Inc.’s Brighter Media Group for $3.1 million, which will buy them the 8,300-watt signal and transmitter site. Brighter Media plans to launch its ‘Bright FM” Christian AC format and change the call letters to WRYS.
VerStandig retains three other signals in the Hagerstown market, and will retain the WAYZ call letters and intellectual property for potential use on another signal.
As Aircheck reports, “WAYZ has led the Hagerstown market for 31 consecutive surveys dating back to 2009, and had a 9.1 share in the most recent Nielsen ratings.” That being said, we fully expect VerStandig to quickly relocate the WAYZ calls and format onto another one of their local signals: Active Rock WBHB (101.5 Bob Rocks), Sports-Talk WIKG (92.1 The GOAT), and Fox Sports affiliate WLIN-AM 1380/100.9FM.
Brighter Media Group already owns Bright FM affiliate WRBS-FM/Baltimore, and let’s not forget the company’s other higher profile Maryland acquisition: the highly publicized late 2022 transaction, when it purchased 103.1 FM/Grasonville (Annapolis), MD (then-Triple A WRNR-FM — now WRHS) from Steve Kingston‘s Empire Broadcasting for $1.54 million.
In the happy ending department… As we recently reported, WRNR and its format, which had been streaming since their former FM home was sold, have been successfully revived on broadcast radio via Kingston’s WYRE-AM 810/Annapolis and pumped through translator W228ER at 93.5.
