Black Radio Continues Decline: Two Stations Merge in New York

April 26th, 2012 - By MN Editor

by R. Asmerom

Black radio has been slowly shrinking in the United States, and today, two legendary Black stations, WBLS (107.5 FM) and WRKS (98.7 FM, Kiss-FM), announced that they will merge to become one. Due to the struggles of the stations and their parent companies, Disney was able to buy 98.7 Kiss-FM in a $96 million dollar deal, and has leased its frequency to ESPN radio. The historical Black-owned company Inner City Broadcasting, which experienced financial decline, recently sold off WBLS  to YMF Partners.

According to New York Daily News, each station averaged about 1 million listeners per week. But ratings may soon be affected by programming as the merger will mean that popular syndicated hosts Tom Joyner and Michael Baisden will not be carried. However, Steve Harvey’s popular morning show will continue to be broadcast.

Read more at New York Daily News

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  • http://profile.yahoo.com/NYEWQGSSHWGGNI3CNMCSF7PQHE Tamara Davis

    It is reported that WBLS was brought for $66 million and $15 million was taken out of its bank accounts even though the debt was supposed to be between $180 and $250 million. My question is, why did it come to this point? Did Inner City Broadcasting use its connections in the Black Community to get the funds to keep it afloat and keep its legacy? We have too many successful multi-millionaires who are people of African descent who should have realized or should realize the importance of this legacy who could have formed an investment group or brought it outright themselves. In order to stay relevant and to have continual progress you must conserve legacy and build legacy. Everyone else sees the importance of and the leverage of legacy, why not people of African descent.

  • Mathsl

    That is so sad I grew up listening to both stations. And respected both for the differnt types of music they played and infromation they shared. I feel that this is a lost. Music is to big to be shared on one station.

  • grunt.bw

    Their music was tedious and their talk shows were Obama obsessed. They never had any new ideas. I’m shocked but I’ll get over it.

    • Gardner Phillip

      You hit it on the head.black radio has become too obsessed with the democrat party priorties rather than the united states true needs.

  • Tdavila551

    Why are we losing the people that were trying to suppo and educate the black community. Hope the new station will get people to the polls. MB focused on issues that got very little attention in the past and sparked change in communities and people. Cant be all about bopping your head to music all day and laughing at our short comings. Please bring sone substance.

  • Jermichael

    This is more than just listening to it on a better form or about taking a ‘get over it and move with the technology’ attitude. This is about slowly destroying institutions that concern us and have enriched us in our struggle as a community. Many of my back N the day mixes came from this station. I hate to see them go. And don’t tell me to just go online, its more than that. I understand younger generations that didn’t grow with these instituitions. Preservation is the bigger issue for us older heads.

  • TDR25_Forever

    This really sucks because I listen to the Baisden show a lot. Hope he doesn’t get cancelled.

  • LotusLeader

    Guess what radio is going away.  I use Pandora.