“Due to economic conditions in the market, the licensee was forced to take the station off the air temporarily.”
But, how long will the challenges of running a pair of Docket 80/90 Class A radio stations in rural Delaware County, N.Y. keep them dark? And, could Townsquare Media simply try to sell them?
That’s what some industry observers may be asking, as the company led by CEO Bill Wilson on Tuesday filed a request for Special Temporary Authority with the FCC that will take Hot Adult Contemporary WTBD-FM 97.5 in Delhi, N.Y. and Classic Rock “Eagle” simulcast WIYN-FM 94.7 in Deposit, N.Y. and WDHI-FM 100.3 in Delhi, N.Y. silent.
For locals who drive along NY-10 or perhaps on Route 23 between Oneonta and Stamford, the three signals have been dark since the start of 2024.
“The licensee will promptly notify the Commission when it is able to resume station operations,” Townsquare says in its FCC request, signed off by SVP of Engineering Martin Stabbert and submitted by the company’s legal counsel at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, Emilie de Lozier.
Visitors to the WTBD website are being redirected to the online portal for “CNY News,” the brand Townsquare uses for WDOS-AM 730 in Oneonta and WDLA-AM 1270 in Delhi.
Those seeking to stream “The Eagle” are being sent to the online portal for WKXZ-FM “Star 93.9,” a regional Hot Adult Contemporary Class B powerhouse licensed to Norwich, N.Y.
While Townsquare also silenced two AMs at the end of 2023 — WNJE-AM 920 in Trenton, N.J., and WFNT-AM 1470 in Flint, Mich. — the decision to cease operations at three FMs in the middle of the Empire State is perhaps an ominous sign that even FM radio is particularly threatened by dollars in the smallest of markets. This runs counter to the often-repeated statements that radio is healthier in small and mid-sized markets, core to Townsquare Media and peer Saga Communications, than in the nation’s top 30 markets.
However, Delaware County, N.Y., and its broadcast media history is unique to New York, and this can perhaps help explain why Townsquare made the decision to seek STAs for the FM trio.
WDHI signed on the air in September 1992, as part of a major expansion of FM radio in the Catskills and Mid-Hudson Valley. WIYN debuted nearly one year earlier, in October 1991, while WTBD is believed to have signed on full-time in 2005.
Before these stations arrived, local radio listeners largely tuned to the bigger Binghamton, N.Y., FMs located some 26 miles away, if they were in Deposit. For those in Delhi, tuning to Oneonta stations in addition to WGY-AM in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy market has long been a habit of locals.
With limited advertising from local businesses in Delaware County, and most gravitating to Oneonta or Binghamton for their marketing needs, this put the squeeze on Townsquare.
The trio’s historical owners include Banjo Communications Group and Double O Central New York Corp., which sold the stations to Townsquare as part of a multi-market transaction agreed to in August 2011.
Will Townsquare’s next move be to sell WDHI-FM, WTBD-FM and/or WIYN-FM?
RBR+TVBR sent a request to Townsquare CEO Wilson for comment on Tuesday afternoon. On Thursday, Townsquare COO of Local Media Erik Hellum offered an explanation for the trio’s silence.
“We have had a very small number of stations that were not only losing money, but had engineering expense increases each year due to rising utilities and tower leases, so the losses were widening,” Hellum says. “As a result, we decided to take them off the air.”
Potential buyers are welcome to contact Townsquare Media. “If someone has interest, we would consider selling,” Hellum says. If no buyer emerges, Townsquare could go so far as to turn in the stations’ licenses. “At this point are not planning to turn them back on,” Hellum says. “As you know, we have many strong stations, so we wanted to invest back in those stations rather than losing money on these three stations.”
RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson is a native of Kingston, N.Y., and was raised in the Catskills Region of New York State.
