Limbaugh, Hannity to lose Philadelphia affiliate (non-Cumulus)
As Limbaugh and Hannity's people are scrambling trying to find them new affiliates in 40 markets where Cumulus Broadcasting will reportedly drop them, another affiliate problem is surfacing, and completely unrelated to the Cumulus situation.
WWIQ (106.9 FM) has been sold by troubled owner Merlin Media to Educational Media Foundation. You may have heard of EMF. They are notorious for gobbling up hundreds of low-power translator licenses to air their contemporary Christian music formats, such as K-Love and Air1. Well, looks like once the sale is commenced, it's bye-bye to right-wing shock jocks, and hello to happy Christian pop.
EMF Broadcasting has purchased Conservative Talk “IQ 106.9” WWIQ Camden/Philadelphia from Merlin Media. No price has been disclosed.
Upon completion of the sale, EMF will flip the station to Christian AC “K-Love“. There will be no LMA prior to closing.
Merlin Media acquired what was then WKDN from Family Radio in December 2011 for $22.5 Million and flipped to Conservative Talk in April 2012. The station replaced its last local programming with syndication last month. The sale will leave Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck seeking new affiliates in Philadelphia.
http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/84537/emf-acquires-iq-106-9-philadelphia/
Now, I've always despised broadcasters like EMF for the underhanded way they've abused the FCC translator rules. But I now have new-found respect for them for giving those two loudmouth pricks added migraines.
And Philly is a market where those guys will have trouble finding a new affiliate. Their former affiliate, WPHT, will likely not take them back. All the other decent AM stations in town are either all-sports or successful with all-news and other formats. This will be quite interesting if those two jocks can't find a replacement affiliate in this Top Ten market.
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Locally...but as far as Rush and Sean...
Not much of a stretch but at least get those hats mongers off the airwaves!
So does WOR the inevitable day Rush & Sean move there...
Philadelphia dittoheads will just have to put up with some background noise.