Centennial Broadcasting

1997–2000

Centennial purchased Las Vegas–based KQOL from American General Media for an undisclosed sum on May 13, 1997.^[6] Two months later, on July 22, 1997, the company bought another Las Vegas station, KJUL, also for an undisclosed amount.^[7] In March 1998, Sinclair Broadcast Group sold three New Orleans–based stations to the company for $16 million.^[8] The stations included two FMs, WRNO-FM and KMEZ, and one AM, WBYU.^[8] In April of the same year, Centennial purchased Las Vegas station KKLZ from Apogee Companies for $21 million.^[9] The company sold all six of its stations to Beasley Broadcast Group in late 2000 for $113.5 million.^[10][11]

Since 2004

The company would re-enter the radio business, this time in Virginia, with the purchase of Lynchburg, Virginia-area stations WZZI (then at 101.5) and WZZU from Travis Media LLC on August 31, 2004, for $4.146 million.^[12] In 2005, the company purchased WLNI from 3 Daughters Media for $4.4 million.^[13] Centennial filed suit on 3 Daughters Media and owner Gary Burns in 2006 for violating a five-year non-compete agreement.^[13] The case was heard in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia.^[14] U.S. District Judge Norman Moon ruled 3 Daughters Media "could not operate a station with a Talk format until the five-year non-compete" had ended on August 4, 2006.^[13][14] Burns appealed to United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which upheld the previous court's ruling.^[13][15] In March 2005, Cumulus Media sold WBWR and translator W247AD-FM to Centennial for $1.9 million.^[16][17] The deal closed in April of the same year.^[18]

On May 17, 2007, Centennial announced it was buying WINC, WINC-FM, WWRT, and WWRE in Winchester and WBQB and WFVA in Fredericksburg from Mid-Atlantic Network Inc. for $36 million.^[19] Later reports had the price of the sale at $35.972 million.^[20] Shaw, commenting in a Winchester Star interview on the sale, said he had been considering buying the stations for several months.^[19] The sale closed in August 2007.^[19]

In April 2008, the company agreed to purchase four stations from Univision Radio in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for $24 million.^[21] The sale included stations KIOT, KJFA, KKRG, and KKSS.^[21] For unknown reasons, the sale was never completed and the stations remain owned by Univision.^[22]

On February 1, 2011, WVMP was sold to CityWorks Community Broadcasting LLC for $500,000.^[12] Centennial sold WZZU and WZZI (now on 106.9 MHz), then airing an Active Rock format, to WVJT, LLC. for $523,000 on August 27, 2012.^[23][24] Mel Wheeler Inc. purchased W247AD-FM from Centennial for $75,000 on April 4, 2012.^[25] A year later, Centennial sold WLNI to Mel Wheeler Inc. on January 12, 2013, for $1.025 million.^[26] That sale was delayed due to a "petition to deny" filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).^[27] Gary Burns, owner of 3 Daughters Media, contented the sale would give Mel Wheeler Inc. control of too many stations in one market.^[27][28] The FCC disagreed and denied the "petition to deny" in August 2013.^[27][29]

On October 6, 2020, Centennial sold WINC-FM operating on 92.5 MHz from Winchester, Virginia, to Educational Media Foundation (EMF) for $1.75 million.^[30] WINC-FM's existing music programming moved to the co-owned WXBN (105.5 FM) and WZFC (104.9 FM) ahead of the sale;, and Centennial retained the rights to the WINC callsign and branding.^[31] On December 29, 2020, after the sale of the 92.5 FM channel closed, Centennial transferred the WINC-FM callsign to 105.5 MHz.^[32] WZFC continued to simulcast WINC-FM's programming.

Fredericksburg

Formerly owned stations