Radio One, the company that bills itself “The Urban Media Specialist,” has officially left the Boston market more than four years after it opted to discontinue programming targeted to African-American listeners.
WILD-AM 1090, a Class D daytimer that must protect 50kw Class A WBAL-AM 1090 in Baltimore, is being acquired by Radio Boston Broadcasting.
RBB is the company that has been operating WILD with the “China Radio International” network via a Time Brokerage Agreement since December 2013; a related entity had been running WILD via a similar arrangement from June 2011.
Radio Boston is 78% owned by James Y. Su, through Universal Broadcasting Group. The remaining 22% of Radio Boston is owned by John and Greg Douglas.
According to an asset purchase agreement made public by the FCC on Sept. 9, Radio Boston is paying exactly $888,326.16, “plus or minus pro-rations.” Specifically, Radio One will apply the $15,000 per month it has received since the current TBA began in December 2013 toward the purchase price.
Radio Boston will then assume Radio One’s obligation to Vertical Bridge, which is $348,626.16. A monthly payment will begin immediately, with such payments concluding in May 2020.
Su and John and Greg Douglas have served as partners in other AM station buys. As RBR + TVBR reported in July 2015, the three teamed up to form Beach Time Broadcast LLC, which purchased KUPA-AM 1370 in the Honolulu suburb of Pearl City, Hawaii, for $320,000. Beach Time closed on KUPA in mid-August 2016.
In March 2015, the three formed Mountainview Broadcast LLC and acquired KDYL-AM in the Salt Lake City market for $712,000. Kozacko Media Services served as the broker of that transaction.
Stations operated by Su airing China Radio International came under the scrutiny of Reuters in November 2015. In a lengthy investigative piece, the news organization noted that the Chinese government “controls much of the content.”
Asked about CRI’s presence in the U.S., former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt told Reuters, “If there were allegations made about de facto Chinese government ownership of radio stations, then I’m sure the FCC would investigate.”
The 2011 arrival of CRI on WILD, for all intents and purposes, marked the end of an era for Boston’s Black community.
In the mid-1960s, WILD brought R&B programming to listeners via a split schedule; Italian programming also aired on WILD. In 1967, the station shifted to a Soul format, with the Nash family providing a then-important conduit for Black listeners in Boston.
In 1999, Radio One entered the market by buying an FM signal and putting on an Urban format. One year later, the Nash family ceded control of WILD to Radio One through an Local Marketing Agreement. In 2001, Radio One purchased WILD.
By autumn 2005, WILD’s daytime-only status proved to be too limiting for Radio One, which was airing an Urban Adult Contemporary format on the signal at this point in its history.
Attempts at a Gospel format, African American-targeted Talk and a mix of brokered programming and Classic Soul and Gospel on the weekend ultimately failed, leading CRI to assume the facility.
Meanwhile, Radio One had sold its FM in the market, at 97.7 MHz, in August 2006 to Entercom. Upon the sale, the facility became a simulcast partner of Active Rock WAAF-FM 107.3 in nearby Worcester, Mass.
