Stations that have "gone dark" in your area

[TheFugitive]

Was wondering if anyone cares to list radio stations that have left the air and
"gone dark" where you live.

Here in the Pittsburgh area I can think of several.

WKZV-AM 1110  Washington, PA - This small station 25 miles south of Pittsburgh cranked
out Classic Country for many, many years.  All of it with live DJ's.  They went off the air at
sundown and had a strange directional signal meant to protect WTAM in Cleveland.  They
shut down for good last summer after their longtime owner died, and his widow decided
she could make more money selling the land underneath the towers than from continuing
to operate the station.  At that point I think they had only one paying sponsor, a local water
delivery service.

WSTV-AM 1340  Steubenville, OH - This small AM 35 miles west of Pittsburgh left the air for
good in 2012 after the owner, Keymarket Communications, had neglected to pay their property
tax on the land where their towers stood.  The property was foreclosed on and went to Sheriff's
Sale.  The person who bought the land gave the owners a very high quote on rent on their towers,
and the owners decided to just shut the station down.

WZUM-AM 1590  Carnegie, PA - Not to be confused with the current WZUM across town in Braddock, which assumed those call letters after the original had gone dark.  For many years a rock station known for popular local DJ's like "Mad Mike" Metrovich.  It had been owned by Jimmy Pol, a local musician best known for his recording of "Pittsburgh Steelers Polka".  It was eventually sold and became a religious station before technical problems forced it off the air.  It was sold again in the late 90's and brought back as a nostalgia station.  The owner had relatives who owned a local pizza shop, and they actually installed a studio in the shop and brought "Mad Mike" back to host live broadcasts from their classic car cruises.  Unfortunately Mad Mike suffered a fatal heart attack soon after.  The station was sold again and became Relevant Radio, a national Catholic talk network.  Finally it was sold to some local church that programmed it with Gospel music.  Unfortunately the new owners were not paying their rent, and got padlocked out of their studio.  Famously the transmitters remained on broadcasting dead air for a couple of weeks after this happened.  The towers were located on land owned by Crafton Borough, and finally the borough council voted to tear them down, not wanting any more drama over missed rent payments or liability insurance premiums on the towers.

WASP-AM 1130  Brownsville, PA - For many years a talk station running syndicated shows, plus some local news and sports programming aimed at Fayette County.  It had a 5000 watt directional signal that covered Pittsburgh nicely and went pretty far down into West Virginia.  It was eventually sold to Keymarket Communications, which wanted its FM sister station for its "Froggy" country format.  The AM ran a syndicated oldies package as "The Pickle".  The signal got weaker as the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission used eminent domain to take the land under one of their towers for a turnpike expansion project.  Rather than replace it the station just cut back to 1000 watts non-directional.  WASP left the air in mid-2012, one of three small AM's that Keymarket chose to shut down around that time.

WBGI-AM 1340  Connellsville, PA - Also shut down by Keymarket around that time.  It had been running the same Pickle oldies format as WASP.  Supposedly under prior owners this station had actually run illegally for several years when they had neglected to file a license renewal with the FCC.

WBCW-AM 1530   Jeanette, PA - Located about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, the owner and one other employee basically hosted local talk on this station from sunrise till around 3PM.  Then they would put on some syndicated show, which you could never hear because by that time of day WCKY in Cincinnati was booming in and walking all over their signal.  The owner got sick and died, and the station went off the air.  It is still around in some form though, the license having been acquired by the owners of WKHB, which changed the frequency to 770 and put them back on-air as WKFB.

WESA-AM 940   Charleroi, PA - Located in the Mon Valley about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, this station was the launching pad for a number of people who went on to work at bigger stations in Pittsburgh.  It ran talk shows throughout the 90's and was sold to Keymarket when they wanted its FM sister station for their Froggy country format.  (the FM station is now K-Love).  The station struggled along for a few more years with syndicated oldies until the transmitter finally gave out and it left the air in 2014.  The WESA call letters have been assumed by Pittsburgh's NPR station, after it was sold off by Duquesne University.

[ynkeesfn82]

Waterbury, Connecticut had a station called WQQW 1590 AM. They went off the air in the early 90s because their owners were somehow connected to the Colonial Realty scandal. Then the owners of WWRL 1600 in NYC bought it along with WLNG 1600 in Sag Harbor, Long Island, and a 1590 somewhere in Jersey turned their licenses into the FCC in order to boost WWRL's signal.

http://www.hartfordradiohistory.com/WQQW__WBRY__W1XBS_.html

WLCR 990 Torrington, CT. It was on the air 1947-1964. They shut down and the 990 frequency was reallocated to Southington for WNTY (now OLDIES 990 WXCT).

http://www.hartfordradiohistory.com/WLCR.html

There are many others in CT. http://www.hartfordradiohistory.com/Silent_Stations.html

[mvcg66b3r]

KFNS Wood River IL/St Louis. It went off the air last year because it couldn't pay its bills. It's now being sold to a religious broadcaster.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFNS_(AM)
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/other/kfns-off-the-air-and-not-coming-back/article_6197c572-6353-55b8-ac7a-bdbf36c9e66d.html

Many others here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Defunct_radio_stations_in_the_United_States

[Hudsons81]

How about those that "went dark" multiple times?

One of these is WDTW 1310 AM Dearborn, MI. The station once known as WKNR "Keener 13" first went dark at the end of 2012 and shortly afterwards their transmitters near I-94 and Telegraph in Taylor, Michigan were demolished. Since then, they have returned to the air twice, both times very briefly, the last time being as a Spanish folk station back in December.

Meanwhile, the famous WKNR letters are now used by a sports station in Cleveland.

[ynkeesfn82]

One of these is WDTW 1310 AM Dearborn, MI. The station once known as WKNR "Keener 13" first went dark at the end of 2012 and shortly afterwards their transmitters near I-94 and Telegraph in Taylor, Michigan were demolished. Since then, they have returned to the air twice, both times very briefly, the last time being as a Spanish folk station back in December.

That's them trying to skirt the FCC rules. In 1997 a rule went into effect that stated if a station is off the air for 12 consecutive months they lose their license. It's not right, but quite a few stations do this. They're off the air and then they'll come back on for a couple of weeks (or a month or two) and that way it resets the 12 consecutive months.


WHCT Channel 18 in Hartford, Connecticut (now WUVN) dark since 1991 made it back on the air in 1997 just 2 days before they would have lost their license. The station had a hard knock life when they were forced off the air in 91 they owed money to everyone and their brother. When they came back on they were being run by a bankruptcy lawyer. Initially when they came back on the air they were only on Monday-Saturday 9AM-5PM and they were running Lowell Paxon's Worship Network. For the past 14  or 15 years they've enjoyed much success as the market's Univision affiliate.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Appleton Midwestern Television's WXGZ-TV "FOX 32" of Appleton, Wisconsin declared bankruptcy in November 1991, and went dark on February 14, 1992, after unsuccessfully trying to search for a buyer or more financing. The station ended with a permanent sign-off featuring half-hour retrospective featuring on-air and behind-the-scenes footage at the station. The following day, former independent station WGBA-TV 26, licensed Green Bay, Wisconsin was granted the FOX affiliation, and became WGBA-TV "FOX 26". FOX 26 also acquired some of FOX 32's syndicated programming, such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, and The Arsenio Hall Show.

Here's a video of that final sign-off for WXGZ-TV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX6eTCmtkLU

[mvcg66b3r]

CKX Brandon MB went dark in 2009 after it couldn't find a buyer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKX-TV

Here's the final segment of CKX's final newscast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVWcu2b4ZrM

Closer to home, low-power WDYR-CD Dyersburg TN went dark in 2013. At the time, it was airing religious programming from the TCT Network. Until 2000, it had its own newscast called Tri 33 News.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDYR-CD

[Hudsons81]

Three different stations have occupied channel 20 in Detroit.

The first was Ann Arbor-licensed WPAG-TV. It signed on on April 3, 1953, as both the first television station licensed to Ann Arbor as well as the first UHF station in Michigan, beating what is now WEYI-TV in Saginaw by two days. It was an independent station, but it was likely also a part-time affiliate of the former Dumont network. WPAG-TV went dark on December 31, 1957. Ann Arbor would not see an over-the-air television station again until WIHT-TV (now Ion O&O WPXD) signed on in 1980.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WPAG-TV

The next station was Allen Park-licensed WJMY. It never signed on, but it did air a test pattern with the callsign and city of license for at least two weeks in 1968.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WJMY_%28TV%29

Finally, in 1972, WXON-TV 62 (now WMYD) permanently took over the channel 20 position. Detroit channel 62 is now CBS O&O WWJ-TV.