The Radio Station is Gone, But the App Lives On

[TheFugitive]

WFNT was a radio station on AM 1470 in my old stomping grounds of Flint, Michigan.
When I lived there the call letters were WKMF, and they played country music.  They were also the station that broadcast games of the Flint Generals, the local hockey team.  About a year after I left the area they changed to a news/talk format and adopted the callsign WFNT.

On New Years Eve of 2023 the station signed-off.  The owners, Townsquare Media, requested temporary authority from the FCC to go silent due to poor economic conditions.  The FCC will let a station remain silent for one calendar year, after which time they will cancel the license.  WFNT did not return to the air within a year and it's license was canceled on January 2 of this year.

So despite being off the air since 2023 and legally no longer existing WFNT still has a website and an app.

https://wfnt.com/ 

And the website is updated daily with new news content.

I have not tried to download the app so I have no idea whether there is any sort of programming still streaming that you can listen to.  But it's odd that Townsquare appears to be continuing to operate the website and app for a station that is no longer on the air.

[TheFugitive]

And then the other day Cumulus Media, owners of two other AM radio stations in Flint, pulled the plug on both of them, likewise citing financial difficulties.

WTRX was airing a sports format and WWCK-AM was airing Classic Hits (WWCK-FM was not shut down).  So from the five AM radio stations that were on in Flint when I lived there they are now down to one, WSNL, which has a Christian format.

In 2003 WFDF was purchased by Disney and moved to Detroit to air Radio Disney.  When Disney shut that down it was sold to local owners who are running a talk format.

The population of Flint is now roughly half of what it was when I lived there, which I'm sure played a role.
Unlike WFNT Cumulus pulled the plug on these station's websites almost immediately.

[BillyGr]

WFNT was a radio station on AM 1470 in my old stomping grounds of Flint, Michigan.
When I lived there the call letters were WKMF, and they played country music.  They were also the station that broadcast games of the Flint Generals, the local hockey team.  About a year after I left the area they changed to a news/talk format and adopted the callsign WFNT.

On New Years Eve of 2023 the station signed-off.  The owners, Townsquare Media, requested temporary authority from the FCC to go silent due to poor economic conditions.  The FCC will let a station remain silent for one calendar year, after which time they will cancel the license.  WFNT did not return to the air within a year and it's license was canceled on January 2 of this year.

So despite being off the air since 2023 and legally no longer existing WFNT still has a website and an app.

https://wfnt.com/ 

And the website is updated daily with new news content.

I have not tried to download the app so I have no idea whether there is any sort of programming still streaming that you can listen to.  But it's odd that Townsquare appears to be continuing to operate the website and app for a station that is no longer on the air.

I suppose it makes some sense - a website is not (terribly) hard or costly to run, and if people are still checking it out (even just a few) it may be enough to maintain it (and likely the content could be coming from someone in one of the other stations that company has, thus no "extra" cost for that either).

[TheFugitive]

I just checked the WFNT website again, and this time it asked me to accept push notifications AND like them on Facebook.  Pretty aggressive digital marketing for a radio station that isn't there anymore.