MESA, ARIZ. — As 2023 came to close, the $850,000 purchase of KBSZ-AM 1260 in nearby Apache Junction, Ariz., and K247CF at 97.3 MHz in Payson, Ariz., by William Tucker Jr.-led WOOK Radio DC Inc. was completed.
Now, Tucker has struck a deal to purchase an AM radio station and its accompanying FM translator a little closer to the District of Columbia.
WOOK Radio DC is purchasing WCTN-AM 950 in Potomac-Cabin John, Md., and Potomac-licensed FM translator W232DE from WIN Radio Broadcasting Corp.
An $800,000 purchase price was agreed to by the parties, with Griffin Media Partners serving as the seller’s broker. A $50,000 escrow deposit is being held by Griffin. A second deposit of $150,000 has also been made per the signing of the asset purchase agreement by Tucker and WIN Radio President Richard S. Yoon.
WCTN’s daytime signal covers Montgomery County, Md.; Northwest Washington, D.C.; and a large swath of Northern Virginia. The FM translator was the focal point of a $75,000 Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture issued in June 2023 to WIN Radio for constructing W232DE’s facility with an incorrect antenna. The result? Broadcasts at 101.5 MHz caused interference issues with WOWD-LPFM, a 20-watt facility covering Northeast Washington, D.C., and downtown Silver Spring. While a NALF was issued, WOWD’s desire to cancel W232DE’s license didn’t transpire.
If the WOOK licensee name is familiar to you, it is because WOOK was once a Washington, D.C.-based AM radio station that pioneered serving African Americans in the 1950s. Following a nine-year battle that saw the FCC issue a Hearing Designation Order to the owner of WOOK-AM, a preservation of the station’s intellectual property saw a shift to 100.3 MHz over Christmas 1976, giving birth to WOOK-FM. That incarnation of WOOK ended in 1984.
There’s market chatter that W232DE and WCTN will bring the WOOK brand back to Washington. However, the properties’ signals do not reach the African American communities of eastern Montgomery County, or eastern Washington D.C.
Serving as WIN Radio’s legal counsel is David O’Connor of Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP; the legal representative for WOOK Radio is James L. Oyster.
