For nearly 50 years, a 50kw Class C2 facility serving the eastern portion of the Triangle region of North Carolina has served the community “like no other, with innovative programming and the best in Jazz, Blues, Funk, Reggae, Latin, African and Gospel.”
It has a translator down in Fayetteville, over in Rocky Mount, and a construction permit for a third FM translator further down I-95 in Lumberton, N.C.
Now, the first radio station to be owned by a historically African American institute of higher learning has been sold. Who’s the buyer?
Approximately five weeks ago, Shaw University‘s Department of Mass Communications released a communiqué to local media regarding the future of WSHA-FM 88.9, licensed to Raleigh.
In it, interim university president Paulette Dillard said it was moving forward with various aspects of a plan to “provide a 21st century education for the students who elect to come to Shaw.”
This involved the investment in the school’s mass communications department as a way for the school “to improve the career possibilities, the educational programs — the things that attract students to our university, because first and foremost, we are a university.”
What it’s not, it seems, is a broadcast station owner.
On Monday (4/30), the school moved forward with a Form 314 filing that makes it official: WSHA is being sold, along with three FM translators, for $3.5 million.
The buyer of WSHA; W271BT, in Rocky Mount; W280EP, in Lumberton; and W272DD, in Fayetteville is Educational Media Foundation — the prolific buyer of FMs across the U.S.
This means W232CH at 94.3 MHz, a formidable Raleigh-licensed translator, will no longer be the lone home for the KLOVE noncomm Christian AC network in the Triangle.
A $175,000 escrow deposit is being held by Jorgenson Broadcast Brokerage, the broker in this deal, representing EMF.
The transaction also includes a tower lease deal with EMF, as Shaw will retain ownership of the tower until further notice.
Shaw will also keep the WSHA call letters and broadcasting equipment, which will be applied to a 24/7 audio stream of the station’s current programming, at http://shawu.edu/WSHA.
The WSHA campus offices are to become laboratory space for audio engineering, video editing, social media data analysis and streaming content creation, the News & Observer reports.
The sale of WSHA follows recent transactions that saw the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth sell WUMD-FM 89.3 in North Dartmouth, Mass., to Rhode Island Public Radio for $1.5 million, raising the ire of local listeners; and the sale of Class C3 WNKU-FM 89.7 in Highland Heights, Ky.; Class B 34kw WNKN-FM 105.9 in Middletown, Ohio; and Class CO 100kw WNKE-FM 104.1 in New Boston, Ohio, which reaches the Ashland, OH-Huntington, WV Nielsen Audio market by Northern Kentucky University to various owners.
