NKU Rejects Bid To Retain WNKN-FM's AAA Format

Louisville Public Radio's bid to buy Middletown's WNKN 105.9 FM, and preserve the adult album alternative (Triple-A) music format, has been rejected by Northern Kentucky University.

Louisville station president Michael Skoler emailed WNKU-FM supporters Wednesday saying: "I'm sad to write that Northern Kentucky University regents have turned down our offer to acquire the assets and last remaining radio signal for the university's groundbreaking, but financially challenged, independent music station."

According to John Kiesewetter, writing at wvxu.org, Skoler had offered $3.5 million in cash, plus $1.5 million in services, for the Middletown commercial-band station which reaches about 2 million people from downtown Cincinnati to north of Dayton. In February, NKU regents sold flagship WNKU 89.7 FM and WNKE-FM in the Portsmouth area to religious broadcasters.

"We are deeply disappointed by Northern Kentucky University's decision and the likely loss of WNKU's proud tradition of serving the region’s music and cultural community. We offered a fiscally responsible way for the board to protect university resources and still preserve the important service it had created and nurtured for 32 years," he wrote.