Sheridan Broadcasting sells WAMO to St. Joseph Missions - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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Downtown based has sold its threwe local stationsto St. Josephj Missions, which is expected to converyt the stations toreligious programming. WAMO operater on both the FM andAM dials. WAMO’s FM statio n operated at 106.7 and consistently ranked amongg the top 10 inthe market’s Arbitron WAMO’s AM channel operated at 860, and the company also operaterd the gospel station WPGR-AM 1510. The which according to various press reportsfetched $8.9 million for will result in 35 employees who workede at the stations losing theire jobs. Sheridan, which was founded by Ron Davenport Sr. and is now led by his son, Ron Davenporr Jr.
, also owns stations in other markets and operatesz the American UrbanRadio Network, the only African-Americanh owned radio network in the countrt that provides weekly programming to more than 300 The sale of the thre stations must receive approval from the Federapl Communications Commission to be As a motivation for the sale, Sheridan spokesmam Russell Bynum pointed to changes in the Arbitron rating systems. The new Portablse People Meter electronic measurement systejm has hada “disproportionate impacyt on minority-targeted formats,” Bynum said in a preparec statement.
Sheridan attempted to sell the stationes to a minority owner but expectsa potential buyers were unable to get RadioBusiness Report, an industry trad e publication, expects the sale will leave a void in the Pittsburgg market. “Sheridan was the only company serving the African Americaj populationof Pittsburgh, which comprises only about 7 percent of the market’ws population,” the publication said.
“However, it leaves a huge formatg gap — and we expect at least one operator in the market will step forward tofill