Sean Hannity Replaces Family Radio on WKDN
Yesterday, Camden, New Jersey radio station WKDN made a radical change in programming, switching from Family Radio to Hannity@106.9 FM Radio following the the station’s sale to Merlin Media for $22.5 million. Listeners to WKDN in the Philadelphia-area could hear Family Radio’s religious programming transitioning to a loop of the R.E.M. song “It’s the End of the World as We Know It,” before a non-stop string of Sean Hannity’s talk show began airing over the station. Apparently this is a short-term stunt, a common occurrence after a radio station sale, and the final programming line-up has yet to be revealed, although it’s presumed to be moving to an all-talk format.
Along with the content changes over 106.9 FM, the call letters were also changed yesterday from WKDN to WWIQ. Although Family Radio operated the station as a non-commercial operation, the FCC granted their request to convert WKDN back to a commercial radio station (it resides on the commercial FM band). Family Radio, the religious broadcasting network founded by Harold Camping, had owned WKDN since 1968. The sale of WKDN followed Family Radio’s sale of WFSI in Maryland in the months following Camping’s high profile failed Judgment Day/End of the World predictions in 2011.
