After nearly 75 years on air, Eastern Washington University sold the broadcasting license for 89.5 KEWU-FM to the Oldies Preservation Society in Spokane for $510,000.
The jazz station, originally slated to close after the 2023-2024 school year, began in 1950.
“We’ve been broadcasting jazz as a format since the 1980s,” said Pete Porter, the general manager of the station. “Before that, it was more of a student-run radio station.”
However, due to budget constraints, the station is now automated and does not employ any students. Porter said that recent airings consist of programs from student DJs in prior years.
The lack of use by students contributed to the university’s decision to sell the station.
“We started to look at the radio station and think about how well it was serving the students. We decided that it wasn’t doing as much as it could be doing if we repurposed KEWU resources… we’re going to retool the space for more contemporary uses,” he said. “That’s part of the reason why we’re getting out of the broadcast radio business.”
EWU announced the closure of KEWU in August of 2023, effective at the end of the school year. According to an article posted on the university’s website, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jonathan Anderson said that the university would look into other broadcasting options, including podcasting.
However, a Dec. 14 update posted by the school said that the station would continue to operate, and “no final date for the station’s permanent closure has been established.” As of March 5, the station remained on the air.
“We thought the budget was more dire than it was,” Porter said. “When it became apparent that the station could run automatically for a certain amount of time and we had the funding to support that, that’s what we decided to do.”
The plan for the station became to sell the broadcast license. On Feb. 24, Eastern Washington University announced that the radio station had been sold to the Oldies Preservation Society in Spokane for $510,000, along with a publicity and advertising credit of $300,000.
“The ownership transition is pending a public comment period and regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission, but is expected to come after KEWU celebrates 75 years on the air on April 7, 2025,” a media release said.
Once the commission approves the sale, the Oldies Preservation Society will move its current station to the newly acquired frequency.
“The Oldies Preservation Society (OPS) has a mission to educate the public about the beginning years of rock and roll music and preserve the music of rock’s first three decades,” Bob Anthony Fogal, an Oldies Preservation Society Board Member, wrote in an email statement to The Easterner. “OPS was looking for an opportunity to expand our outreach with a bigger and stronger signal, and EWU’s 89.5 radio station fit perfectly into our hands.”
The strength of the signal is a key reason that Eastern Washington University took its time selling the license.
“It’s one of the most powerful signals in the Northwest,” Porter said. “We wanted to be sure that we did a thorough process for finding a new home for the license. That was something we didn’t want to rush.”
