Newsweb Corporation
Newsweb Corporationis a printer of ethnic and alternative newspapers in the United States, based inChicago,Illinois.The company also owns several radio stations in the Chicago area. Newsweb was founded in 1971 by Chicago entrepreneur, political activist, and philanthropistFred Eychanerto continue his printing business.[1][2]
Radio[edit]
In early 2004, the company purchased 99.9 FMWRZAfrom Entravision and in late 2004, the company purchased three suburban Chicago radio stations fromSpanish Broadcasting System:92.5 FMWDEK,92.7 FMWKIEand 92.7 FMWKIF.Thetrimulcastwas formerly the home to Energy 92.7&5. WKIF was broken away from the trimulcast and WRZA took its place. WKIF became a CNN Radio affiliate. The new trimulcast became avariety hitsformat asNine FM,and the station later became a split-format station with Nine FM during the day and Dance Hits formatDance Factoryat night. Dance Factory is operated by TKC Entertainment, which leases the air time from Newsweb. Nine FM was discontinued as of October 19, 2008, in favor of Progressive Talk simulcast with sister stationWCPT.
WCPT-FM92.7,WCPQ99.9, andWCPY92.5 was a trimulcast which simulcast WCPT between 5 AM and 9 PM, and operates Dance Hits formatDance Factoryat night.
On June 2, 2014, WCPT-FM and 99.9WCPQbroke away from the Progressive Talk simulcast and changed their daytime format to Polish, branded as "Polski FM". WCPT-FM then swapped callsigns with 92.5WCPYin DeKalb, which remained part of the Progressive Talk simulcast.
Newsweb Corporation owns WCPT which was anAir AmericaandCNN Radioaffiliate, and also includes locally hostedProgressive talkprogramming. WCPT operates on 820 AM in the Chicago area.
Newsweb purchased AM 850WAITin 2004. Newsweb also ownsWSBC1240 AM andWNDZ750 AM,WCPY92.7 FM and formerly ownedWCFJ1470 AM, until surrendering the station's license to theFederal Communications Commissionon November 9, 2015.
In May 2018, Newsweb soldWCPQtoBible Broadcasting Networkfor $5,099,000.[3]WCPT-FM was sold toEducational Media Foundationfor $1.6 million in autumn of 2018.[4][5]
In August 2019, Newsweb sold WAIT's transmitter site toMcHenry County College,and the station was taken off the air.[6][7]Newsweb surrendered WAIT's license on July 15, 2020, and the FCC cancelled the license on July 21.[8]
Television[edit]
Newsweb had formerly owned theGary, Indiana-licensedUPNaffiliate for Chicago,WPWR-TV,until 2003, when they sold the station toFox Television Stations.
In 2006, they also soldDenverUPN affiliateKTVDtoGannett,[9]who made it part of a duopoly with Gannett's localNBCaffiliate,KUSA-TV.Newsweb retained KTVD's former satellite station inSterling, Colorado,KUPN (nowKCDO-TV), which was operated as independent station from 2010 to 2020. The company later sold KCDO-TV, which was briefly affiliated withGrit,toScrippsin November 2020.[10]
Coincidentally, both WPWR and KTVD are affiliates ofMyNetworkTV.
References[edit]
- ^McCormik, John (June 7, 2005)."Fred Eychaner".Chicago Tribune.RetrievedDecember 14,2011.
- ^Armstrong, David (September 30, 2002)."A Long Strange Trip".Forbes.
- ^Venta, Lance. "Bible Broadcasting Acquires WCPQ Park Forest IL",RadioInsight.March 20, 2018. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
- ^Finlon, Katie. "DeKalb station WCPT-FM bought out by Educational Media Foundation",Daily Chronicle.September 28, 2018. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
- ^Venta, Lance. "EMF Acquires WCPT-FM",RadioInsight.September 26, 2018. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
- ^Feder, Robert."Feder: WAIT to go dark as Newsweb sells land to McHenry County College",Daily Herald.August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
- ^Feder, Robert."WAIT to go dark as Newsweb sells land to McHenry County College",RobertFeder.com. August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
- ^"Surrender of License",fcc.gov. July 15, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
- ^Feder, Robert (January 20, 2006)."Top anchor, reporter lose Telemundo jobs".Chicago Sun-Times.RetrievedSeptember 25,2008.
- ^KCDO-TV STERLING, CORabbitEars.info (Print page for Technical Data). Retrieved November 29, 2020