Christian group buys Philadelphia AM station for $8.5 million
A legendary Philadelphia radio station is set to change hands for a surprisingly large price.
An agreement has been reached by Family Stations, which used to own 106.9 FM here, to buy 950 AM WPEN for $8.5 million.
The move swaps sports talk for a non-denominational Christian format.
The group broadcasts “Family Radio” spreading the teachings of Harold Camping, who drew attention for predicting the world would end in May 2011.
Art Camiolo is a broadcast consultant and former part owner of WIP-AM. He says the sale is the first in years of an AM station that covers the entire Philadelphia market.
“There’s only a handful of stations that are full market,” said Camiolo. “I’ve had clients looking for full market stations for years, there hasn’t been any available. I think we have to look and say the time has come that legacy stations, history don’t really mean as much anymore.”
WPEN has been airing sports programming, mostly simulcasting that of it’s sister station 94.1 FM.
The sale is subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission.
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