WAMU in Washington, D.C., announced Tuesday that it will sell an FM station in Maryland to Delaware Public Media.
WAMU will sell WRAU in Ocean City for $537,500, according to the asset purchase agreement.
JJ Yore previously told Current that the planned sale was a strategic move and not sought out of financial necessity.
In a press release, WAMU said WRAU’s audience represents over 2% of WAMU’s weekly broadcast audience.
The sale allows WAMU to “focus its resources on the Washington, D.C., region by cultivating audiences in the high-density metropolitan region through digital platforms and new broadcast formats,” the release said.
The sale would expand Delaware Public Media’s reach into southern Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore. WRAU’s signal overlaps with the coverage areas of public station WESM in Princess Anne, Md., and two stations operated by Delmarva Public Radio in Salisbury, Md.
Jane Vincent, president of Delaware Public Media, said that “the opportunity to extend our terrestrial signal to a much wider portion of Delaware is consistent with our mission to serve all three counties of the state with independent high quality news and programming for and about Delaware. Ensuring Sussex County residents will continue to have access to great NPR programming and keeping the signal within the NPR family are added bonuses.”
The sale is awaiting FCC approval.