Colorado Public Radio buys Boulder station

BOULDER — Colorado Public Radio has acquired Boulder-based KWAB AM-1490, giving CPR’s all-news channel a Northern Colorado boost.

KWAB signed a letter of intent last week to sell the license for $1.1 million. The deal includes the station’s transmission equipment and license. All of the station’s 16 employees have been laid off, and its remaining assets will be sold.

CPR made a $2.6 million bid in February to buy KUNC, a National Public Radio affiliate on the University of Northern Colorado campus, to bring its news-talk format into Northern Colorado. But a grassroots fund-raising effort among KUNC supporters matched the CPR offer within three weeks, and the university agreed to sell KUNC’s license to supporters. The station will be relocated to a downtown Greeley building in late June and retain its format that mixes music with local news and NPR programs.

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The Boulder purchase means that CPR will have two AM signals to carry news programming northward, the other located in Denver.

KUNC general manager Neil Best said his station’s strong presence in the Boulder County market would continue.

“I don’t think that it seriously changes things,” Best said. “Eighty percent of all radio listening these days is on FM.” The CPR acquisition “does expand reception in Boulder of public radio, period, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “But we still think we offer a pretty good choice for Boulder.”

KWAB staff members were notified at the time of the sale, and the station will say goodbye to listeners today.

With KWAB’s 1,000-watt signal that extends throughout Boulder County, CPR will be able to reach listeners in the Boulder/Longmont area, an audience it had difficulty reaching when it divided its single-channel news and classical music service into two channels in April.

CPR plans to build a new 132-foot tower at 3085 Bluff St., KWAB’s current location, taking the station’s signal further into Northern Colorado and giving CPR coverage of 80 percent of the state, CPR President Max Wycisk said.

The non-commercial programming that includes such NPR favorites as Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation and Fresh Air, will be the same as CPR’s other news stations, including KCFR AM-1340 in Denver. Wycisk said reporters from offices in Grand Junction and Denver will keep tabs on the Boulder Valley.

KWAB made the decision to seek a buyer late last year if it could not reach its financial goals, Lontine said. The station had talked to several Denver radio groups, including ethnic and religious groups, before sealing a deal with CPR.