By Adam Jacobson and Carl Marcucci
MONTCLAIR, VA. — As of today, iHeartMedia‘s group of radio stations serving the National Capital Region is now comprised of five FMs, an FM translator, and two AMs.
One is an AM home of its BIN: Black Information Network. The other, as of Wednesday, January 4, is an AM that is officially joining the family, thanks to a LMA signed late last week by the company and New World Radio Network.
While a “WONK-FM” simulcast was heard Wednesday, it turns out that was just a 24-hour placeholder. The station’s official new identity debuted today.
And iHeartMedia is wagering on Sports Betting Talk Radio.
After 30 years in business, the New World Radio Network formally announced via social media and on its website Sunday (1/1) that it would, “unfortunately,” be shutting down.
That transpired on Monday, when all of the programs listeners to WCRW-AM 1190 have tuned to in recent years ceased transmissions.
New World Radio made it clear that online broadcasts would also be ending, with no transition of WCRW to a purely digital entity.
“The remaining staff of the New World Radio Network would like to thank all of the radio show hosts, past and present, for bringing their diverse messages that made this radio station something special in the Washington, D.C., community,” it said. “We would also like to thank you, the listeners, because without you New World Radio would not have lasted even one year. We hope everyone has been enjoying a happy holiday season as we look toward new ventures in 2023.”
What would come on Wednesday was debated on message boards including RadioDiscussion.com. Would it be Sports Wagering and Betting Talk? Nope.
At least, not until January 5.
The launch of “1190 iHeartSports DC – The DMV’s Best Bet on Sports” came in the morning. However, it will not be 24/7 wagering talk — Fox Sports Radio fare will air Monday through Friday from 6am to 5pm and VSiN, The Sports Betting Network, will air Monday through Friday from 5pm to 6am and weekends; call letters WTSD will be used.
There’s more. WCRW-AM 1190 in Leesburg, Va., is now officially WTSD and is simulcasting on the FM translator that until today was the home of Progressive Talk “104.7 WONK-FM.” The Class B signal, with a directional, two-pattern 50kw signal during daylight hours and 1,200 watts at night to protect WOWO/Fort Wayne and WLIB/New York, uses three towers near Dulles Town Center, in the fast-growing area of Loudoun County, Va.
WWDC HD2 is also home to “iHeartSports DC,” putting an end to WONK-FM altogether.
To make it all happen a three-year LMA between iHeartMedia and the station’s licensee, Potomac Radio Group, was reportedly signed, with an option to acquire the AM at a later date.
If that licensee sounds familiar it is because BIN: Black Information Network airs on WUST-AM 1120, which sold to iHeartMedia the Class D serving Washington, D.C., for $1.2 million. That transaction closed in January 2021.
As WCRW, the station’s programming grid was largely comprised of brokered Spanish-language evangelical fare.
WTSD joins “BIN: Black Information Network 1120” on the AM dial and FMs WASH-FM, WBIG-FM, WIHT “Hot 99.5,” WWDC “DC101” and WMZQ-FM in the iHeartMedia Washington family of stations.
