It’s a Class B1 FM serving an area to the south of Buffalo that includes Olean, Jamestown and Salamanca, N.Y. and the radio station’s city of license, Little Valley.
And, it has had quite a 14-month ride. In March 2021, the station was poised to go dark. Then, in September 2021, the station was saved by a buyer who shortly after closing ran into a series of issues tied to its operations.
Now, the station is heading to a non-secular broadcasting ministry, signaling the end of a short-lived burst of Energy for Western New York.
WGWE-FM 105.9, a station intended to target Buffalo under Paul Izard Communications since the start of 2022, is being transferred to Family Life Ministries.
The purchase price: $1 — plus any fees or expenses associated with the reinstatement of the WGWE license with the FCC.
While WGWE’s online stream is presently operational, Izard in April 2022 voluntarily cancelled and returned the license for the station that had briefly been the home for “Energy Radio Buffalo.”
The action resulted in the dismissal of WGWE’s pending license renewal application. Now, Izard has filed a petition for reconsideration of that decision, requesting a reinstatement of the WGWE license. Thus, it is a contingent deal — and one that resurrects a broadcast voice that would otherwise be silent.
Should the FCC agree to reinstate the WGWE license, Family Life would be poised to gain an important addition to its Twin Tiers radio properties. As WGWE serves a good portion of the I-86/Route 17 corridor, and all of the Olean, N.Y. market, it would be added to a chain of stations including WCOR-FM in Lewis Run, Pa.; and New York State-based WCOQ-FM in Alfred, WCID-FM in Ithaca, WCIG-FM in Corning-Elmira, and WCIM-FM in Montour Falls-Watkins Glen.
Family Life Ministries CEO Richard Snavely signed off on the deal for the buyer. It used the legal services of Joe Chautin III of Hardy Carey Chautin & Balkin.
In January 2022, Izard completed his $25,000 acquisition of WGWE from the Seneca Nation of Indians, which had previously taken the FM dark under a STA with the FCC. At the time, the Native American licensee explained to the Commission that it must cease operations as it faced “financial distress, including long-term losses,” in its operation of the station.
Thus, WGWE — once a construction permit owned by notable radio industry figure Randy Michaels but fully owned and operated by the Seneca tribe since its February 2010 sign-on — appeared to be dead. Izard entered the picture. On February 28, 2022, WGWE resumed broadcasting, airing a high-energy dance music format that took an online radio station to the FM dial. There was no finder or broker; locally based Tarshus Law Firm served as Izard’s legal counsel.
Just six weeks and three days later, WGWE would be silent again; Izard surrendered its license to the Commission. Then came a petition seeking to negate that move. Why? Izard explained to the FCC that, as a novice when it came to running an FM radio station, he was completely unaware of “serious defects.” This includes the WGWE transmitter, which Izard claims was sold to him “inoperable without costly repairs.” He eventually hired a company to repair and upgrade the transmitter, but admits that he was “completely unfamiliar” with radio broadcast equipment.
There were other issues, including tower lease terms he hadn’t fully vetted prior to buying WGWE. Perhaps it was frustration, or uncertainty, but Izard explained to the Commission that he made “a hasty and uninformed decision” to surrender the WGWE license — one that he sought to erase just four days later, in mid-May.
“I did not think at the time that selling the station was viable given the equipment issues and lease expenses,” he wrote to the Commission. “I failed to consider how the public would benefit from having another listening choice with WGWE.”
There was also a matter of the WGWE tower lease. It had 28 months remaining on it as of May 2022, and that lease was still an obligation even if WGWE no longer existed. That’s when conversations with Snavely accelerated, after he had contacted Izard about buying WGWE should a license reinstatement transpire.
It’s now in the hands of the Commission to determine if WGWE will get a third lease on life.
