It was just two years ago that Altoona radio stations WVAM-AM and WPRR-FM were sold by Music Broadcasting, headed by Gary Gunton to Vital Licenses a group headed by Kristen Cantrell.
\nOn Friday, it was announced that Forever Broadcasting, based out of Altoona, purchased the two stations in Altoona for the same $2.1 million price tag that Vital Licenses purchased the stations for in 2001.
\nForever Broadcasting owns stations in Johnstown, Somerset, Meadeville, State College and Altoona radio stations WFGY (Froggy 98), WMAJ-FM (Majic 104.9), WALY (WALY 103.9) and WFBG-AM. Forever recently reached an agreement to sell its properties in Lima, Ohio.
\nCantrell is the daughter Forever Broadcasting partner Kerby Confer.
\n\u201cThis will only improve our product,\u201d said Cantrell who will stay on as General Manager of WVAM\/WPRR and will have other stations added to her cluster.
\n\u201cThis will allow us to bring in new resources to grow and develop.\u201d
\nCantrell will also be an equity partner in Forever Broadcasting.
\n\u201cThe stations will continue business as usual,\u201d said Cantrell.
\n\u201cThere is no plan on personnel or programming changes. We are going to do some things to enhance WVAM and regionalize our sales efforts. The possibilities are endless. There is the chance to do some neat and innovative things,\u201d said Cantrell.
\n\u201cWe will be able to do that and keep things affordable. When you are a stand alone operation, working capital is tough to come by. With the sale, we will now have that capital.\u201d
\nForever Broadcasting Altoona General Manager Dave Davies did not return calls placed by The Daily Herald.
\nWRTA owner Rod Wolf, filed with the Federal Communications Commission, to block the sale from Music Broadcasting to Vital Licenses.
\n\u201cThis sale doesn\u2019t change the picture for me,\u201d said Wolf.
\n\u201cOur station is competing against one big group instead of two. It doesn\u2019t change the competitive picture for me.
\n\u201cWe are competing the same as we did in the past when Music Broadcasting owned WPRR\/WVAM.\u201d
\nWith the change in regulations, Wolf questions the actions of the FCC.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know what has happened to the FCC,\u201d said Wolf.
\n\u201cI believe that the FCC has opened Pandora\u2019s Box and will eventually eliminate all independent ownership. I have been operating a stand-alone AM station for years. Sooner or later the big groups will wipe me out.\u201d
\nThe sale is pending approval of the FCC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was just two years ago that Altoona radio stations WVAM-AM and WPRR-FM were sold by Music Broadcasting, headed by Gary Gunton to Vital Licenses a group headed by Kristen Cantrell. On Friday, it was announced that Forever Broadcasting, based out of Altoona, purchased the two stations in Altoona for the same $2.1 million price […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}