WEEU-AM in Reading, PA, will be going dark after nearly 90 years on the air. Publishing company Reading Eagle, which owns the station and several newspapers, filed for bankruptcy after being family owned for over 150 years.
According to WFMZ-TV, a federal judge is expected to approve a $5 million bid by MediaNews Group to buy the company. The TV station reports that an asset purchase agreement shows that MediaNews Group’s offer of $5 million to buy Reading Eagle’s assets calls for shutting off its radio station when the deal is finalized, no later than July 31. Five million dollars was the minimum amount set for the sale.
WEEU, a news, talk, and sports programming station, signed on the air in 1932.
What a shame! In the 1950s, WEEU had AM, FM, and TV facilities. The FM station was on 98.5 and the TV was on channel 33. Even though the present-day WEEU is AM only, the license is still valuable. Reading, PA has a format hole big enough to drive a Mack truck through. That city has a large Latino population that is not being served by any of the other local radio stations. Someone should make the Reading Eagle an offer for WEEU and flip it to a full-service Spanish language format. The nearest Spanish station is WHOL in Allentown (1600 kHz, 500 watts), but the signal peters out by the time one reaches Reading. Interestingly, the TV station that reported this story, WFMZ-TV in Allentown, has a bureau in Reading and airs a daily half-hour newscast in Spanish to serve the growing Latino population in Reading, Allentown, and the Lehigh Valley.