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Could Delaware radio and news look different after the sale of the Delmarva Broadcasting Company (DBC)?

Without much fanfare, DBC quietly confirmed the sale that was first reported earlier this year in February. A message on its website Monday. “Delmarva Broadcasting Company – As of May 20, 2019, all radio stations and digital services owned by Delmarva Broadcasting Company have been sold as an asset sale to Forever Media. The stations are now owned, operated and managed by Forever Media”

As apart of the deal, the Altoona, Pennsylvania based Forever Media reportedly paid $18.5 million for 93.7 WSTW, News/Talk 1150/101.7 WDEL, 103.7 WXCY, Classic Hits “97.1 The Wave” WAVD, News/Talk “Delaware 105.9” WXDE , Classic Hits “Cool 101.3” WNCL, Hot AC “Eagle 97.7” WAFL, “ESPN Delaware” 930 WYUS/102.1 W271CX, and Christian “Faith 1510” WFAI and one translator.

The DBC deal is not a first for Forever. Over that last several years the company has been adding to its portfolio, acquiring stations in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and now with this latest deal, Delaware.

Forever regularly uses similar brands for its stations in a particular format, however, no changes to the DBC stations have been announced publicly. If they did decide to rebrand one or more of your favorite stations you might see country stations with a Froggy or Willie in the name, rock station brands would have Rocky in the name, favorite hits stations are labeled with Happy in the name, and classic hits are Pickle. Although Forever has rebranded stations in the past it has also left some brands intact. In other cases, they have switched some station’s formats altogether.

News/Talk

Only a handful of Forever’s stations currently operate under the News/Talk format. Adding DBC’s WDEL and 105.9 FM makes a total of five News/Talk stations, with the remaining three located in Altoona, Johnstown, and Northwest Pennsylvania. Forever’s three Pennsylvania News/Talk stations each have a local morning show, however, the remainder of the lineups are filled with syndicated conservative talk radio. In June of 2018 Forever did switch its Cumberland Maryland News Talk 560 WFRB to Classic Country Willie 106.7/560.

Other than the DBC website message and the acquired stations’ logos and links being added to Forever’s website no obvious changes are apparent. We’ll keep an eye out for any rebranding or format changes should they occur.