Forum Communication is selling WDAY/970 (Fargo) to Bakken Beacon Media, which already operates the station as part of its Flag Family Media business.
The purchase price is $600,000, according to an asset purchase agreement filed with the FCC on Oct. 3. The deal includes WDAY translator K226CL/93.1 (Fargo).
Plans for an eventual sale had been announced when Bakken Beacon began operating WDAY in 2020. WDAY operates alongside they buyer’s WZFG/1100 (Dilworth-Fargo).
Forum retains ABC affiliate WDAY-TV/6.1 (Fargo). Though the radio station will be able to keep the WDAY callsign, the asset purchase agreement states that each mention of the callsign on the radio station must include the words “AM” and/or “radio.”
FCC history cards do not document the date on which Forum bought WDAY. An Associated Press account published in the Bismarck Tribune places it in January 1935. (WDAY signed on in 1922 under different ownership.)
WDAY’s current lineup includes local programming from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. followed by a simulcast of WDAY-TV news and ABC’s “World News Tonight” from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Overnight syndicated programming includes “Our American Stories,” Rich Valdez, “Red Eye Radio,” and “America in the Morning.”
Bakken Beacon Media is owned by Scott Hennen and Steve Hallstrom. Besides WZFG, the company also owns KTGO/1090 (Tioga, ND) and members of the company own Rapids Radio, which owns three radio stations in Grand Rapids, MN.
Decades ago, Forum sold the former WDAY-FM/93.7, which is now KOYY.
Disclosure: Jon Ellis was an employee of Gray Media Group at the time this item was posted. The statements and views expressed in this posting are his own and do not reflect those of Gray Media Group.