WSHU Taking Two AMs Dark, Will Sell

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Old-Timey-RadioWSHU Public Radio Group is closing two Connecticut AM stations and putting them on the block.


WSTC(AM) in Stamford and WNLK(AM) in Norwalk are slated to go off the air on Monday. Class C WSTC transmits 780 watts from a single tower on 1400 kHz while Class B WNLK transmits 1,000 watts day/500 watts night on 1350 kHz.

The stations had only about 900 listeners combined, according to WSHU. Station GM George Lombardi called the move a “strategic decision,” noting: ‘“We are a nonprofit organization and a community resource. We have a responsibility to our supporters to make smart business decisions, and we have found that it is not financially viable to operate these stations at this time.”

Sacred Heart University, which operates WSHU from its Fairfield, Conn. campus, acquired the stations from Cox in 2011 and had planned to attract more listeners with them. Listenership hasn’t grown at the rate previously hoped.

Officials made the decision to pull the plug on the AMs now, before a sale, because WSHU fundraising is set to begin this week. WSHU will continue to air programming on its 12 other stations and translators in Connecticut and Long Island, N.Y.