Cumulus Media has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Merlin Media to acquire Modern Rock WKQX/Chicago, as well as the WLUP-FM call signal and all related intellectual property. Cumulus has been programming WKQX under an LMA. The former 97.9 frequency of WLUP (aka “The Loop”) was sold to EMF last month by Merlin and is now the Christian “K-Love” format as WCKL.
“After operating the station for the past four years, we are delighted to be able to bring this beloved station under Cumulus’s ownership on economic terms that make sense for our business,” said Cumulus Media President/CEO Mary G. Berner. “We look forward to continuing to deliver the best alternative rock programming to our devoted listeners in the Chicago area for years to come.”
“I am truly pleased that we have reached an agreement to bring WKQX into the Cumulus family and fully focus on driving growth in the Chicago market,” said Marv Nyren, VP/Market Manager of Cumulus Media-Chicago. “We have lots of great programming planned for WKQX and our other stations in the Chicago market, and we look forward to growing these legendary stations and providing great content to our listeners and effective marketing strategies for our advertisers in and around Chicago.”
Cumulus will continue to program WKQX under a Local Marketing Agreement until the closing, which is subject to customary conditions such as regulatory and court approval, occurs.
