WAEC-AM, the first African-American-owned radio station in the country, has gone dark after 76 years on the air. Beasley Media Group (NASDAQ: BBGI) sold its 17.2-acre tower site to Toll Brothers to build townhomes. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution did not report the purchase price.
The Class B AM used to transmit 5 kW (day) on 860 kHz from a tower 257.5 feet tall, according to FCC records. The station’s initial call letters were WERD. It debuted in 1948, and was purchased for $50,000 in 1949 by Jesse Blayton, Sr., a Black bank president and Atlanta University professor.
The tower site transaction mirrors other such sales of AM sites as the land in many cases is worth more than what the station is billing. For example, Inside Towers reported Cumulus Media (NASDAQ: CMLS) closed on the sale of the former tower site for WMAL-AM in June 2020. The sale of the approximately 75-acre parcel of land in Bethesda, MD to Toll Brothers generated gross proceeds of $74.1 million. At the time, Cumulus Media President/CEO Mary Berner said, “Given the difficult operating environment, our ability to continue to strengthen our balance sheet with the proceeds of this deal is particularly meaningful.” WMAL went on the air in 1940.
WERD had a place in the civil rights movement. The studios were upstairs from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Civil Rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would tap on the ceiling when he needed to send a message to the Black community. WERD would lower a mic out the window and let him speak, according to Ryan Cameron, who hosted a recent podcast series on the history of minority radio called “Amplify Color,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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