Home Economy PBN parent company acquires 4 Illinois radio stations

PBN parent company acquires 4 Illinois radio stations

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PBN Staff

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11/13/2024

Woodwardsmall — WOODWARD COMMUNICATIONS Inc., owner of Providence Business News, has acquired four radio stations from Mid-West Family that serve the Springfield, Ill. marketplace, CEO and President Tom Woodward announced Wednesday.

PROVIDENCE – Woodward Communications Inc., owner of Providence Business News, has acquired four radio stations from Mid-West Family that serve the Springfield, Ill., marketplace, CEO and President Tom Woodward announced Wednesday. The stations acquired are WNNS-FM, WQLZ-FM, WMAY-FM and WMAY-AM. Woodward Communications plans to merge these stations with Springfield, Ill., radio stations it previously acquired

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PROVIDENCE – Woodward Communications Inc., owner of Providence Business News, has acquired four radio stations from Mid-West Family that serve the Springfield, Ill., marketplace, CEO and President Tom Woodward announced Wednesday. The stations acquired are WNNS-FM, WQLZ-FM, WMAY-FM and WMAY-AM. Woodward Communications plans to merge these stations with Springfield, Ill., radio stations it previously acquired from Neuhoff Media in October. Three of those stations, WXAJ-FM, WFMB-FM and WFMB-AM, will work out of Mid-West Family's current office and studios. A fourth station from the deal with Neuhoff, WCVS-FM, will be divested in order to comply with Federal Communications Commission rules. “Strategically, by merging these two operations, it will strengthen our competitive situation, including providing enhanced listener experiences and advertiser value,” Tom Woodward said. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, and the deal still needs to be approved by the FCC. Woodward Communications has also entered into agreements with potential buyers of two of the three Bloomington, Ill., properties it acquired in October, WIHN-FM and WWHX-FM. The third station acquired in that transaction, WBBE-FM, will now be operated by Great Plains Media via a local marketing agreement with WCI, Woodward added. These transactions are also subject to FCC approval, Woodward said, and expected to be finalized in early 2025. Woodward Communications, based in Dubuque, Iowa, owns the daily newspaper Telegraph Herald, weekly newspapers, niche magazines and other publications and media services and commercial printing in northeast Iowa and southeast Wisconsin. Woodward acquired Providence Business News in December from Roger Bergenheim, who co-founded PBN with his late father, Robert C. Bergenheim, in 1986. The company operates under an employee stock ownership plan – or ESOP – structure.