WPNI (1430 AM) was an American

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

licensed by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(FCC) to serve the community of Amherst, Massachusetts.

Ownership

In spring 2003, Pamal Broadcasting Ltd. (James Morrell, chairman/CEO) reached an agreement to acquire WPNI and

WRNX WRNX (100.9 FM) is an American radio station licensed to serve the community of Amherst, Massachusetts. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and the broadcast license is held by iHM Licenses, LLC. The station was assigned the WRNX call letters ...

from Western Massachusetts Radio Co., (Thomas G. Davis, president) for a reported sale price of $8 million. The broker for this transaction was Doug Ferber of Star Media Group, Inc. WRNX was later sold to Clear Channel Communications in 2006. For a period of time after the purchase, WPNI was leased to the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

, owner of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

member station

WFCR WFCR (88.5 MHz) is a non-commercial FM radio station licensed to Amherst, Massachusetts. It serves as the National Public Radio (NPR) member station for Western Massachusetts, including Springfield. The station operates at 13,000 watts ERP ...

, to provide an AM feed of the NPR News and Ideas channel. The NPR programming was moved to Clear Channel's WNNZ on April 2, 2007 through a unique agreement where UMass programs the station, but Clear Channel retains ownership of the station and shares in the revenue stream generated by the station. (WNNZ was later sold to WFCR under the name "WFCR Foundation, Inc.") Following the transition of the NPR programming to WNNZ, Pamal Broadcasting announced that WPNI was for sale and would temporarily carry the programming of

WUMB-FM WUMB-FM (91.9 FM) in Boston, Massachusetts, is the radio station of the University of Massachusetts Boston. It broadcasts an Americana/Blues/Roots/Folk mix hosted by its staff weekdays. On weekends the station concentrates on traditional folk, ...

, a folk music non-profit radio station from the

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massa ...

. In late September 2011, a tractor hit the guy wires of tower #1, causing it to collapse. WPNI filed for special temporary authority with the FCC to operate "non directionally" using the remaining tower for 180 days while the 2nd tower is replaced. Pamal reached a deal to sell WPNI to Brian Dodge's The Love Radio Church on January 23, 2013. The sale was never completed, and was dismissed on June 25, 2014. WPNI was taken

off the air In the broadcasting industry, a dark television station or silent radio station is one that has gone off the air for an indefinite period of time. Usually unlike dead air (broadcasting only silence), a station that is dark or silent does not e ...

on November 30, 2013, as the station had no revenues to cover operational costs. After determining that resuming operations would not be viable, Pamal surrendered the station's license to the

on May 27, 2014.

References

External links

{{Springfield MA Radio PNI Mass media in Hampshire County, Massachusetts Radio stations established in 1963 1963 establishments in Massachusetts Radio stations disestablished in 2013 2013 disestablishments in Massachusetts Defunct radio stations in the United States PNI Pamal Broadcasting