WFAN-FM - Sale To CBS and Flip To WFAN-FM

Sale To CBS and Flip To WFAN-FM

Despite WRXP making gains in the Arbitron ratings with its revived alternative format (the station jumped to a 1.6 share in July, and then to a 2.1 share in August), Merlin Media was faced with a high debt load from recent purchases and the cost of its failed news format; additionally, one of Merlin's investors was seeking buyers for the company's stations. Merlin would announce on October 8, 2012 that it had agreed to sell WRXP to CBS Radio. With the purchase (estimated at $75 million), CBS announced it would convert WRXP to a simulcast of its sports radio station WFAN. The purchase by CBS and its simulcast of WFAN programming on the 101.9 FM signal was termed by CBS Radio president Don Mason as a "compliment" to WFAN's 660 AM signal and to seek "an emerging sports market on FM."

Speculation also saw the WFAN-to-FM move as necessary to be competitive with Disney-owned ESPN Radio affiliate WEPN, which made its own move to FM in April 2012 to the former WRKS; speculation has also suggested that the move would allow CBS' new national sports network, CBS Sports Radio, to have a New York home assured when the network begins full-time programming in 2013, a move that would mirror some CBS sports stations in markets such as Philadelphia, where WIP will break away from its simulcast of local sports talk station WIP-FM and broadcast CBS Sports Radio programming full-time. Merlin's sale would relieve the company of its only New York radio property, allowing it to concentrate on its stations in the Chicago and Philadelphia markets.

The WFAN simulcast on 101.9 FM began at 11:57 PM on November 1, 2012, after Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye" brought a close to WRXP's "New Rock" format; at that time, CBS began operating the station under a local marketing agreement, and will do so until its purchase from Merlin is complete. A call sign change from WRXP to WFAN-FM took effect the next day, November 2.