The Annapolis City Council will consider leasing the WRNR radio tower to an area business, according to Legistar, a tracking system.
The four-year lease with Bethesda-based Cortona Media, which has not yet been signed, would expire in June 2029. The media company would pay “the greater of either” $500 a month or “the tenant’s monthly ‘Advertising Rent’ equal to one percent of [its] monthly gross advertising revenues generated through the operation of the radio station…,” according to the proposed lease. The radio studio next to the tower is included in the lease.
“Steve and I love Annapolis. We are making plans now and we’ll see how it goes,” Kirk Litton, executive manager for Cortona Media, said in a phone interview Wednesday, referring to Steven Kingston, Litton’s business partner.
Annapolis owns the 240-foot self-supporting tower on Silopanna Road, according to Michelle Stephenson, spokesperson for the city. The city acquired it in 1989 from Anna-Del Broadcast Company, Inc, known at the time as the WYRE property, according to a 1998 ordinance.
In 1998, Kingston, a career radio broadcaster, purchased WRNR as part of a $2.4 million deal. Kingston’s studio was located in Annapolis and broadcast adult alternative rock for nearly 25 years using equipment based in Grasonville before selling the station in 2022 for $1.54 million to the Timonium-based Peter and John Ministries Radio Fellowship. Kingston ceased broadcasts in February 2023, after the sale was finalized. A year later, Kingston, and his partners in Cortona Media, acquired Annapolis classic rock station WYRE-810 AM. Cortona Media also owns 99.9FM which simulcast Annapolis-based WNAV-1430AM, previously owned by recently retired game show host Pat Sajek.
The station saw many owners before Cortona’s 2023 purchase. Sajek sold WNAV at the end of 2021 to BMSC Media, a media company based in Silver Spring. Both WYRE-810AM and W260BM 99.9 FM are currently being leased to Victory Media, a broadcast company in Winchester, Virginia, according to Litton.
Since Litton’s sale of WRNR in 2022, WYRE-810AM has simulcast WRNR’s online stream, and Kingston has retained the rights to the WRNR-FM call sign, its format and intellectual property, as well as its studio and equipment in Annapolis. Litton declined to further elaborate on what the proposed lease of the radio tower means for the future of WRNR and other affiliated stations.
The lease is expected to be introduced as a piece of legislation sponsored by Mayor Gavin Buckley, a Democrat, on Jan. 13.
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