When Cincinnati Public Radio picked up WVXU/91.7 to add to its classical WGUC/90.9, the pubcaster also inherited a bunch of far-flung simulcast outlets...as close as Chillicothe OH, and as far off as northern lower Michigan...known as the "XStar Radio Network".The Cincinnati station is now selling off the final three simulcasters still under its control.
In a $1 million deal (FCC PDF), Christian Voice of Central Ohio gets WVXC/89.3 Chillicothe, WVXW/89.5 West Union OH and WVXR/89.3 Richmond IN. Christian Voice of Central Ohio is better known as the owner of Columbus market CCM outlet WCVO/104.9 Gahanna ("104.9 The River") and its sister station, WCVZ/92.7 South Zanesville ("92.7 The River").The move completely disassembles the "XStar" network. WVXU/Cincinnati Public Radio sold off the distant stations in Michigan to mainly commercial broadcasters.
And while neither report makes mention of this sale, both the Cincinnati Post's Rick Bird and the Cincinnati Enquirer's John Kiesewetter take a look at the year anniversary of the change at WVXU, where the dominant local pubcaster took over the quirky station once run by Xavier University and turned it into an NPR news/talk outlet.
The WVXU folks are pronouncing the combination a "success" a year later...
4 comments:
Great acquisition for CVCO to expand their ministry; however, I wonder how they will operate those stations, as they are non-commercial. WCVO Columbus and WCVZ Zanesville are both commercial stations, and therefore a simulcast would be out of the question.
Also, is CVCO somehow affiliated with 95.1 WVXG Mt. Gilead, OH? They position as 95.1 The River and carry the same format and website design as 104.9 Gahanna/Columbus.
~collegedj86
CVCO owns 95.1 WVXG I beleive. They are running CCM as "95.1 The River" Dont know if any one realizes but that was the first XStar station to be let go (prior to Xstar selling their network of stations)
I beleive that CVCO will probally run a seperate music mix on these other stations (92.7 and 95.1 and 104.9 at least checked had seperate music even though they shared simular airstaff via Voicetracking) I would suspct they will do the same thing with the "non coms" they just bought. With computers it would not be hard to run 3 non com stations.
perhaps toddohio can clarify this, but when i was a volunteer dj at wcvo back in 1990-91, cvco was NON-COM. from listening to the station while in columbus on businsess, i have heard various businesses sponsor certain segments of time, but not ads. i agree with collegedj86 that the addition of the xstar stations will be a terrific expansion of cvco ministry. the addition of 95.1 in mt. gilead is an outgrowth of pat patterson's(founder cvco) vision for ministry expansion to the metro mansfield market dating back to 1991.
Even thought "The River" says they are "listener supported", they do IN FACT, have a commercial license. Also, CVCO is starting a talk format, ProTalk, which may be what they put on these Non-comm frequencies.
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