Will Tieman’s WGHN Inc. AC 92.1 WGHN-FM Grand Haven and 93.1 WMPA Ferrysburg MI are off the air after being evicted from their tower site by the city of Grand Haven.
WGHN-FM entered a lease with the city in 1984, with WMPA launching from that site in 2012. Tieman told listeners on Friday, “WGHN-FM has been told this is a decision made by the city manager. For some months we had been in discussions with the previous city manager before his departure, but had been denied multiple requests for a meeting to discuss the move off the tower – which is not an easy process.”
WZZM-TV shares the following document from the city outlining the timetable of discussions between the sides with the city claiming that they station failed to comply with an agreement to locally originate 75% of the programming on the two stations, failed to pay a $18,008 lease fee invoked by that 75% origination clause, placing additional antennas/cameras on the tower without the city’s consent, selling WMPA without the city’s consent, and failing to pay its outstanding $84,538.59 in utilities. WMPA is in the process of being sold to West Central Michigan Media Ministries for $420,000. The station was being operated via LMA running the buyer’s Christian “Strong Tower Radio” network ahead of closing, which has now been requested to be extended by the FCC twice.
WGHN Lease Breach Timeline by WZZM News
WGHN-FM’s programming is currently being heard on 1370 WGHN/94.9 W235CM Grand Haven in place of that station’s normal Westwood One Oldies programming. As we reported in our 11/20 FCC Report, WGHN-FM and WMPA applied last week to relocate to a new tower east of Grand Haven. WGHN-FM and WMPA will both operate with identical 6kW/51m facilities upon grant.