FL Radio: WLBE 790 AM Leesburg Goes Silent

The owners of WLBE 790 AM have pulled the plug on the station, which has been a beacon of local information and entertainment for more than 70 years, according to the Daily Commercial.

“It is so sad,” said Andrea Blackston, whose husband, David, hosted a program every Friday at 9 a.m.

There was virtually no notice. A one-line email was sent out last Friday saying that effective Saturday, June 22, WLBE will no longer be broadcasting, said Marc Robertz-Schwartz, president and executive producer of Red Apples Media.

The station was owned by the Harry Reiner Revocable Trust, which was set up in 1979. The trustee is Wendy Wolf of Chappaqua, New York.

Mark Fisher, who had a talk show on the station starting in December, pulled the plug on his own program the first of May.

He said a new manager came in with some “wild changes,” so he contacted the owners.

The station branded itself “Real Country AM 790.”

WLBE 790 AM (5 Kw-D, 1 Kw-N-DA)

Buzzfile.com estimated revenue at $663,275 per year and noted that the station had 12 employees. The license expires in 2020.

Couple that with declining audiences due to FM, satellite, Pandora, Spotify and internet radio, and the problems of owning a station multiply, especially when one considers the cost of staff and legal and technical costs.

WLBE began as WEUS when granted an FCC license in 1947.