Hits and music variety, en español.
That’s the brand promise for a Class B AM serving the Boston market, which has been airing a Spanish Contemporary format and iHeartLatino Chief Creative Officer Enrique Santos‘ syndicated morning show since March 2018, continuing the company’s 12-year commitment to Hispanic consumers in the Back Bay.
It now appears that the Hub’s “Rumba” is about to be removed.
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WKOX-AM 1430 in Everett, Mass., is being donated by the Ocean Station Trust II to Delmarva Educational Association.
WKOX had been placed in the trust, along with Class C Alternative KFOO-FM “Alt 102.9,” a South Sound station licensed to Centralia, Wash.; and Class C3 CHR/Rhythmic KUBE-FM 104.9, licensed to Eatonville, Wash., and serving the Tacoma and Puyallup areas south of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, in November 2017.
WKOX at the time was airing a Talk format, and moved the station’s programming to Spanish Contemporary for one big reason: News/Talk giant WBZ-AM 1030 was heading to iHeart from Entercom as part of a multi-market asset swap.
Keeping WKOX would have put iHeart over local market ownership limits. As such, WKOX was placed in the trust, first administered by the late Jeanette Tully and in October 2018 placed in the hands of former Backyard Broadcasting President/CEO Barry Drake. This creted the “Ocean Station Trust II” that is donating WKOX today.
The recipient? Nancy Epperson.
That is the aunt, on his father’s side, of Truth Broadcasting Company President Stuart Epperson Jr. — nephew of Salem Media Group CEO Ed Atsinger III.
Stuart Epperson Jr., along with Nancy, each have 11.1% interest in Delmarva Educational Assocation.
WKOX will become the sixth station licensed to DEA. The others are:
- WAYL-FM 90.9 “The Truth” in St. Augustine, Fla.
- WTRJ-FM 91.7 “The Truth” in Orange Park, Fla.
- WWIP-FM 89.1 “The Word in Praise” in Cheriton, Va.
- WATY-FM 91.3 “The Truth” in Folkston, Ga.
- WNTW-AM 820 in Chester, Va., a secular Talker
This suggests that WKOX will most certainly drop its current programming. Whether or not it will take a Salem-supplied spoken word format — non-secular or religious-focused — may be a question of when, not if.
