Austin Losing Oldies Station

The University of Texas' pending $6 million purchase of KXBT-FM from Dallas-based Border Media means 98.9 Austin's Greatest Hits will soon disappear, according to a  story byGary Dinges at the Austin Statesman.

The deal allows UT to split National Public Radio affiliate 90.5 KUT-FM's news and music programming across two frequencies.   News will stay on 90.5 FM. KUT-FM's music will shift to 98.9 FM, which gets new call letters: KUTX-FM. And those oldies tunes, a format not heard on any other station in town? They're, ahem, history.

Why's this happening?

Well, a couple reasons, according Dinges. Border Media is getting out of the radio business. The company recently sold its other Austin-area stations: 92.5 KXXS-FM, 104.9 KTXX-FM, 1260 KWNX-AM and 1530 KZNX-AM.

 Even though KXBT-FM is beating several well-known Austin stations in the overall ratings, it's farther down the list when it comes to the so-called "money demographics," such as women ages 18-34, that ad buyers crave. That's why some advertisers shy away from oldies stations, making them less lucrative to operate in many cases.

Read more here.