One month ago, a Class B AM serving Reading, Pa., revealed that it would be signing off the air forever, ending nearly 90 years of service to this slice of the Keystone State.
On Thursday (6/20), a white knight arrived to save WEEU-AM from eternal darkness.
Ironically, the company that opted to do it is named Twilight Broadcasting.
In a deal that has yet to be filed with the Commission, WEEU is being transferred to Twilight by the Reading Eagle Company for an undisclosed price, thanks to an auction held for interested parties conducted by the company’s bankruptcy trustee.
The Eagle Company was acquired by MediaNews Group for a minimum bid of $5 million, following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing. However, MediaNews did not want the radio station.
At first, it appeared no one did. MediaNews was to simply take control of WEEU, and then shut it down by July 31. This would have silenced the News/Talk/Sports station with 20kw daytime from 2 towers and 6kw from 5 towers after having signed on the air in 1932. The tower array is clearly visible from Interstate 78, in Shartlesville, Pa., to the north of Reading.
Now, the studios and transmitter site’s ownership will be held by Twilight, which owns WKQW-AM & FM and FM translator W281CA in Oil City, Pa., to the southeast of Erie. The New Freedom, Pa.-based company is led by Bob Lowe.
An official announcement was delivered to WEEU viewers at 2:07pm on June 20, with Mike Faust interrupting the Rush Limbaugh Show to share the news that “the sale of the WEEU is complete.”
Lowe was joined in studio by Twilight Manager Todd Atkins, who said, “This has been something that a lot of people in the community have been concerned over, whether or not WEEU had a future here in Reading, and we’re so excited to know that it’s going to continue on.”
Atkins added that “we’re Pennsylvania natives,” and that Lowe has family in Berks County, where Reading is located. “We got word of the fact that the fate of a heritage station that has been on the air for 87 years may come to an end. Then we thought about all of the people working in radio, at this radio station, that may not have a job at the end of June. We’re radio people, and we’re totally associated with that. For the station to go dark … we especially didn’t want to see that happen.”
An outpouring from the community is perhaps the catalyst for Twilight to pursue WEEU ownership.
“We listened to WEEU,” Atkins continued. “We did some research on it, and we thought this station really served the community. It really was a part of it, and it was really embedded here.”
Twilight was moved to submit a bid for the license. Then, it needed to figure out what to do about the studios and tower site, as MediaNews Group was buying them.
“That was totally separate from the license,” Atkins said.
Atkins admitted the path to WEEU ownership was not as smooth as he and Lowe had hoped. But, with a lot of people behind the scenes, a deal was reached to allow Twilight to have access to the studios, offices and tower site.
Lowe noted, “There are no AM radio stations left like this, pretty much in this area. We saw an opportunity — both a business opportunity and a social opportunity — to not less this go away.”
He added that few, if any, programming changes would be made at WEEU. The station is an affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies Radio Network and offers a mix of local and nationally syndicated talk programs, including American In the Morning, Coast to Coast with George Noory, and shows hosted by Jim Bohannon and Lars Larson.
