Feder: WAIT to go dark as Newsweb sells land to McHenry County College

While the future of northwest suburban WAIT 850-AM remains uncertain, owner Newsweb Radio has agreed to sell the station's transmitter site in Crystal Lake to McHenry County College, Robert Feder writes.

In May the McHenry County College board of trustees voted unanimously to purchase the 26.9-acre parcel east of Ring Road adjacent to the college for unspecified future development. The deal has not yet been finalized.

"Contiguous property is always of great value to us," said trustee Diane Evertsen. "Obviously we can't see ahead what's going to happen in the next 10, 20 years. But I think having it is certainly better than not."

As reported here Monday, WAIT ceased broadcasting the time-brokered Spanish-language Christian format "La Promesa" in July and has been vamping with syndicated public-service programming and an eclectic music format since then.

Now it's about to go dark while the company looks for other transmitter sites, according to Mark Pinski, general manager of Newsweb Radio.

Get the full report, and more Chicago media news, at robertfeder.com.