AUBURN – WOXO and its five stations will be returning to the airwaves after Maine-based Bennett Radio Group received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to buy it from Mountain Valley Broadcasting.
Bennett Radio Group announced Wednesday that it received FCC approval to purchase WOXO-FM 92.7 Norway, WRMO-FM 100.7 Mexico, WEZR-1240 AM Lewiston/Auburn, WPNO-1450 AM South Paris and WTME-980 AM.
The purchase also includes translator stations 105.5 FM Lewiston/Auburn, 95.3 FM South Paris/Norway, 96.9 FM South Paris, and 98.3 FM Rumford.
Before Bennett Radio Group received approval from the FCC, the WOXO stations were owned by Gleason Media Group.
After Dick Gleason, founder of Gleason Media Group, passed away in February 2019 at the age of 71, his wife, Kathy Gleason, and WOXO station manager Vic Hodgkins ran the business.
However, according to Hodgkins, a combination of low receivables and slow payments, combined with a projected drop in advertising because of COVID-19, resulted in the need to close the stations.
Stan Bennett, president of Bennett Radio Group and a veteran of Maine radio, said that he has been interested in radio since he was a kid.
“My mom and dad asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I pointed at the radio,” Bennett said. “My ultimate goal was to own radio stations, and when the opportunity arose to look at WOXO, I couldn’t pass it up. I’m very, very excited about it.
Bennett said he started working in radio in 1987 at WIGY-FM in Bath. He later attended the New England School of Broadcasting in Bangor, and for the last 26 years, he has served as director of programming for 107.5 Frank FM and 99.9 The Wolf.
He currently serves on the board of directors for the Maine Association of Broadcasters and has been inducted into the Maine Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Bennett said that he’s hoping for the sale of the stations to close by the end of July so “hopefully we can have the stations back on and operating by the first week of August.”
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