As radio group Regent Communications goes from being a debtor-in-possession to a new license entity, it will have the unfortunate side effect of booting grandfather out of the house. Grandfather, or rather the infamous grandfather clause, had allowed the group to keep two oversized local clusters together.
One impacted market is Fort Collins-Greeley. The New Regent license group will have four stations there – KUAD-FM Windsor CO, KTRR-FM Loveland CO, KMAX-FM Wellington CO and, coming in from across the state line but still considered part of Fort Collins, KKPL-FM Cheyenne WY. That’s four FMs – only in the largest of markets are five-of-a-kind permitted – and it does not leave room for KARS-FM Laramie WY.
Lafayette LA is the other market. There, the new organization will have KTPY-FM and KPEL-AM licensed to the main market municipality of Lafayette, along with KMDL-FM Kaplan, KHXT-FM Erath, KFTE-FM Breaux Bridge and KROF-AM Abbeville. That’s two AMs and four FMs, forcing KPEL-FM Abbeville into the care of an orphanage.
Well, orphanage is not the correct term. Both stations will be placed in trust pending permanent disposition. Usually that means they are either sold or are able to take advantage of changes in the regulatory climate that allow them to return to the parent company.
One other possibility – that the markets expand and encompass enough signals to accommodate a top-tier cluster – is extremely remote.
