WBAP Leaving Tarrant County
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 8:07AM by Bonzer Wolf WBAP/820 AM and 96.7 FM, part of Tarrant County since 1922, looks destined to move to Victory Park in Dallas with KSCS/96.3 FM as part of their sale to Atlanta-based Cumulus Media, according to Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy. 
WBAP and KSCS are what’s left of the radio empire Amon Carter founded in 1922 at the Star-Telegram. They haven’t been part of the same company since 1997. The stations are the home of Fort Worth-Arlington broadcasters Mark Davis, Hal Jay, Terry Dorsey and “Hawkeye” Louis.
The two stations are expected to leave Arlington to share a new studio with Cumulus’ four Dallas stations, including KTCK/1310 “The Ticket” and KLIF/570 AM.
Cumulus is building Victory Park studios. According to the websites, WBAP and KLIF already share a program director and will share a new sales manager.
When Tarrant Country loses a radio or TV news station to Dallas, we lose more than an office tenant. We lose influence. Eventually, we lose our role in the daily conversation about Dallas-Fort Worth.
Dallas County is a dysfunctional mess. Listen to KTCK or KLIF or CBS’ KRLD. Except for KLIF/570 AM Wheels host Ed Wallace, a Star-Telegram columnist, those anchors rarely mention Fort Worth or Arlington. They quote Dallas newspapers and talk about nights out in Dallas.
This a huge step backward from the days when radio executive Ron Chapman’s No. 1-rated stations promoted serving “Dallas and Fort Worth” and telling “a tale of two cities.”
Reader Comments