Seattle Radio: KOMO To Rebrand As 'Northwest Newsradio'

KOMO Radio, 95 years on the air, 1000 on the AM dial, a brand name associated with such slogans as “You’re in KOMO Country” and “Your Husky station,” isn’t going to be KOMO anymore.

It’s just business. Radio and TV stations get bought and sold all the time, reports The Seattle Times.

What happened is that there is KOMO the news and talk radio station, which was sold in May 2021 by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. And there is KOMO the TV station, which Sinclair has kept.

The radio sale did not include the KOMO brand name.

Sinclair is the Maryland behemoth that owns 185 TV stations across the country. Back in 2013, it paid $373 million to Fisher Communications for KOMO-TV and 19 other television stations.

The 2013 sale included “Newsradio” KOMO-AM and FM, “Star 101.5” KPLZ and “Talk Radio” 570 KVI.

But Sinclair’s core business is television, and it sold the radio stations to Lotus Communications of Los Angeles for $18 million in cash and “other consideration.”

Lotus specializes in radio, with 48 stations in the West. On its website the company touts its “vision of producing local programming.”

Meanwhile, KOMO Radio, as it still is called for these next few days, is figuring out a marketing plan, says Rick Van Cise, the program director and afternoon news co-host.

“There won’t be any difference in the sound of the radio station,” he says. “The personalities, the reporters are all staying the same.”

And, really, the only time listeners will hear the new call letters KNWN is at the top of the hour, as mandated by FCC rules.