“South Florida will soon be without a classical radio station,” writes Lawrence Budman in Saturday’s (7/11) South Florida Classical Review. “Minnesota-based American Public Media is selling their Classical South Florida radio stations to Education Media Foundation, a California religious broadcaster for $21.7 million, according to reports from Current, a public radio and media news website, and WLRN, Miami’s public radio news station. There has been no announcement of the sale on the stations’ airwaves or on its Classical South Florida website.… According to Current, APM has posted losses of $1.2 million dollars in 2010 and $3 million in 2012. For the fiscal year ending June 30, the station group had a loss of $1.69 million. For most of its short history, the stations have primarily carried the lightweight Classical 24 syndicated service as well as signature APM programs Performance Today and Symphonycast and the venerable Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. More recently, broadcasts from Lyric Opera of Chicago, Carnegie Hall and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival have been added…. The website Radio Ink says a letter of intent to sell will be filed with the FCC on Tuesday with a switch to religious programming coming as soon as Wednesday.”
Posted July 15, 2015
