U of M Regents Give Final Approval to Duluth Radio Sale

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents has given final approval to a plan to sell public radio station KUMD/103.3 (Duluth) to the group that owns Duluth PBS station WDSE-TV.

The financial terms of the deal have not changed since the board gave preliminary approval in March. The Duluth Superior Area Educational Television Corporation will pay $175,000 for KUMD and plans to invest far more in technical and facility upgrades for the station while retaining its staff.

There were a few additions to the final plan:

• The buyer will have to change the callsign.
• The buyer cannot convert the station to commercial operation for at least two years (it has not indicated any plans to do so).
• The station will air a 10-second promotional announcement for the university twice daily for one year.

WDSE issued a news release saying it will now enter a 90-day due diligence period and plans to hold listening sessions to hear from community members. The deal will also need to be filed with the FCC for approval.

“We see the potential for our station and KUMD, together, to provide Northlanders a complete, full-service public media experience, that’s unique to any other media offering in the Northland,” WDSE General Manager Patty Mester said in the news release. “The two stations are poised to become stronger together and to serve the community in a distinctive way that this area has not experienced before – a multi-media organization owned by the community.”

KUMD, a 100kW station, carries a broad Adult Alternative format and is known as a strong booster of the local music scene. As noted in earlier coverage, KUMD is one of seven public radio services in the Twin Ports but is the only one that offers predominately local programming.

One potential area of growth is in local news, since all other Twin Ports radio stations — both commercial and non-commercial — have dropped their own newscasts in favor of statewide reports or headlines from local TV stations. Minnesota Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Radio both have reporters based in the Twin Ports, but their reports are only run as part of statewide newscasts.