Posted by KRM on November 26, 2009 at 08:25:02:
I was wondering if Chicago's share time stations at 1450 KHZ, WCEV and WRLL, are the last share-time radio stations in the country. I don't recall hearing of any others in large cities. Is there an Internet source where I could find out?
This share-time arrangement came about in the late 1970s when Magalas Communications (WCEV) and Midway Broadcasting (then WXOL) were competing for the abandoned 1450 frequency which was temporarily simulcasting WFMT.FM. (WVON abandoned the frequency when the station moved from 1450 to 1390 KHZ and couldn't find a buyer for 1450.)
Of course, Chicago had a three-way shared time frequency for years : 1240 KHZ up to the late 1990s was shared by WSBC, WEDC and WCRW, before the stations were consolidated into WSBC. Until 1955, WLS-AM shared its frequency with WENR-AM. The stations merged and there was a co-ownership of ABC-Paramount (former owner of WENR) and the Prairie Farmer Newspaper (owner of WLS). In the late 50s. ABC took control of WLS from Prairie Farmer by purchasing the newspaper, and transformed the frequency into the Big 89. Chicago even had a time share arrangement for Channel 60 with WPWR and WBBS sharing the channel. WBBS, a Spanish language station, after a few years sold out to WPWR.