KCFM, the oldest FM radio station in St. Louis, has been sold for $3.2 million to
Combined Communications Corporation of Phoenix, Ariz., pending approval by the Federal Communications Commission.
KCFM, with offices at 432 DeBaliviere Avenue, went on the air in 1955 and was a so-called “beautiful music” station until last January when it started playing “soft rock.”
Harry Eidelman, station president, said he made the change because “I felt rock was the wave of the future. The beautiful music audience is getting older and older and you want to be able to sell advertising to somebody other than savings and loans and undertakers.”
He said that the resulting audience loss had been expected. “A station in Phoenix took two years to rebuild an audience when it switched from beautiful music, but once you’ve got that new audience;” he said, “you can really sell some advertising with it.”
He said that the audience dip is not the reason for his selling the station. “I just want to slow down,” he said.
Eidelman will retain ownership of three companion companies, a telephone switchboard installation company, a background music installation company and a background music supply company.
Combined Communications broadcast holdings include television and radio outlets in Arizona, California, Georgia, Indiana, Arkansas and Kentucky.
Eidelman said the group has both “beautiful music” and rock stations and that he has no idea which will be the future format for KCFM.
Originally published in The Paper, September 1978.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1978_09.pdf, printed page(s) 4; PDF page(s) 4.
