Five West Virginia radio stations could be at risk of going silent unless the FCC allows one of the state’s largest broadcasters to expand beyond federal ownership limits. West Virginia Radio Corp. is seeking permission to take over programming of five stations owned by financially struggling AJG Broadcasting, arguing the arrangement would preserve local radio service while giving listeners more programming choices and expanded local sports coverage.<\/p>\n
The proposed deal would give West Virginia Radio attributable interests in nine commercial stations in the Morgantown-Clarksburg-Fairmont market, three more than FCC rules permit. It would also put seven FMs under the company’s programming umbrella, compared with the four-FM limit.<\/p>\n
West Virginia Radio argues in its request that strict enforcement of the ownership limits could have unintended consequences for local listeners, potentially forcing stations off the air rather than preserving competition.<\/p>\n
“The most immediate public interest benefit of the proposed arrangement is the one most easily stated: the AJG stations are not financially viable on a stand-alone basis, and the TBA is what would permit them to continue serving their communities,” President\/CEO George Pelletier writes in the filing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pelletier says AJG’s stations don\u2019t generate enough revenue to sustain their existing operations. Without the cost savings and operating efficiencies of the proposed time brokerage agreement, Pelletier warns there is a real possibility AJG could be forced to cease operations at some or all of its stations.<\/p>\n The proposed agreement would cover rock \u201c100.1\/102.3 Rocks\u201d WCLG\/WBTQ, classic hits \u201cFun 93.1\u201d WFGM, classic country \u201c104.9 Superstar Country\u201d WPDX-FM and its simulcast on WPDX (1300). One other AJG station isn\u2019t included in the request: the currently-silent WBUC (1460).<\/p>\n They would be paired with West Virigina Radio\u2019s country WKKW (97.9), CHR \u201cChannel 102\u201d WVAQ, classic hits \u201cSky 106.5\u201d WWLW, news-talk WKMZ (103.3), news-talk WAJR (1440).<\/p>\n The arrangement wouldn\u2019t involve a transfer of station licenses. AJG would remain the licensee and retain ultimate control over station finances, personnel and programming. But West Virginia Radio would provide programming under a long-term brokerage agreement. That market currently has 26 full-power radio stations held by 11 separate ownership groups, and the filing says all 11 would remain following the arrangement.<\/p>\n New Formats Promised<\/p>\n Beyond keeping AJG’s stations operating, Pelletier says the arrangement would create opportunities to expand local programming. The filing says the two companies currently operate three stations with overlapping formats. By coordinating programming across the combined operation, West Virginia Radio plans to introduce new formats that neither company currently offers in the market.<\/p>\n It also intends to expand local sports coverage, allowing more sporting events to be broadcast and reaching a larger audience. Pelletier doesn\u2019t specify which formats would be introduced or how much additional sports programming would be offered.<\/p>\n Pittsburgh Competition<\/p>\n Pelletier acknowledges in its request that the proposed combination would significantly exceed the FCC’s ownership limits. But he argues the rules fail to account for the unusual competitive dynamics of Morgantown, a small market situated near the Pennsylvania border. The company says nine commercial stations in the Pittsburgh area stretch into its region, competing for listeners and advertisers even though they aren\u2019t counted as part of the metro.<\/p>\n According to BIA estimates, West Virginia Radio generated approximately $3.8 million in over-the-air advertising revenue in 2025, while AJG generated an estimated $1.5 million. However, the filing says AJG’s actual revenue was less than 55% of BIA’s estimate. Using the adjusted figures, the two companies would account for approximately 81.6% of the Morgantown market’s radio ad revenue.<\/p>\n Pelletier argues that figure overstates its actual competitive position. The nine Pittsburgh-area stations generated approximately $7.7 million in combined advertising revenue last year. By allocating just 25% of that revenue to the overlapping service territory, the filing calculates that the proposed West Virginia Radio-AJG operation would account for 60.7% of the broader competitive market. The company also points out that several stations technically assigned to the Pittsburgh market are geographically closer to Morgantown than to Pittsburgh itself.<\/p>\n Pelletier also argues that the FCC needs to consider the increasingly competitive audio marketplace. He also is also points to recent FCC decisions as precedent for granting its request. Among them is the Commission’s approval allowing Connoisseur Media to hold nine FMs<\/a> in the San Francisco market,. The filing also cites ownership waivers granted to Sun Broadcasting in Florida<\/a> and Alpha Media in Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five West Virginia radio stations could be at risk of going silent unless the FCC allows one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,710,61,60,278,43],"class_list":["post-673684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-free","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}