{"id":56893,"date":"2025-07-19T21:39:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T01:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=56893"},"modified":"2025-07-19T21:39:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T01:39:58","slug":"hall-communications-replaced-polk-county-live-with-a-nationally-syndicated-news-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/07\/19\/hall-communications-replaced-polk-county-live-with-a-nationally-syndicated-news-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall Communications replaced \u2018Polk County Live\u2019 with a nationally syndicated news program."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When WLKF\u2019s long-running \u201cPolk County Live\u201d morning show signed off on June 20, neither its hosts nor listeners knew it would be the last episode.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"eae3e3\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #eae3e3;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"197\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/download-2.webp?resize=200%2C197&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-56894 not-transparent\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The show had 3.1K followers&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/polkcountylive\">on Facebook<\/a>, where it also streamed live. It touched on just about everything of significance in Polk County, including growth, road projects, local sports and tourism, mental health, veterans\u2019 experiences, science, arts events, and nonprofit efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wlkf.com\/schedule\/\">time slot<\/a>&nbsp;is now filled by the nationally syndicated news magazine program \u201cAmerica in the Morning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cancellation is a significant loss for the local community. But Polk County is just one of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/08\/16\/media\/news-radio-local-wcbs-wnyc-sign-off-job-cuts-spotify\">many markets<\/a>&nbsp;where financial pressures have forced radio outlets to slash staff and scale back coverage.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Traditional radio stations have lost revenue as streaming services have peeled away listeners and online platforms like Facebook and Google have siphoned advertising dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hall Communications, which had 21 stations in five states in 2021, is down to 17 after divesting from Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bottom of Form<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRadio stations across the country \u2014 iHeart, all the big boys, everybody \u2014 we\u2019re all struggling, and that\u2019s because there are so many other ways that people can get their media now,\u201d said Nancy Cattarius, executive vice president of Hall\u2019s four Central Florida stations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The one exception is Christian radio stations, she said. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t affected them very much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hall Communications has made several strategic moves in recent years, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/rbr.com\/hall-says-goodbye-to-central-pa\/\">Selling its four Lancaster, Pennsylvania stations<\/a>\u00a0in 2021.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Letting the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/rbr.com\/hall-says-farewell-to-max-with-joyful-transaction\/\">program director and morning cohost<\/a>\u00a0of MAX 98.3 FM adult hits station, go in January.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Selling a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/rbr.com\/hall-communications-completes-a-tower-sale\/\">communications tower<\/a>\u00a0in New England in April.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reaching a deal this month to<a href=\"https:\/\/rbr.com\/hall-says-farewell-to-max-with-joyful-transaction\/\">\u00a0sell its MAX 98.3 FM station<\/a>\u00a0to Lakeland resident James Campbell, president of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejoyfm.com\/about\/\">The Joy FM<\/a>\u00a0Christian radio network.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cattarius declined to discuss the potential sale, but said, \u201cWe have been taking a very close look at everything within the operation to make us stay as solvent as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Mutz added, \u201cIt is a reflection of the changing nature of radio listeners and the economics for radio station owners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When WLKF\u2019s long-running \u201cPolk County Live\u201d morning show signed off on June 20, neither its hosts nor listeners knew it would be the last episode. The show had 3.1K followers&nbsp;on&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDdcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTIud2VicD9maXQ9MjAwJTJDMTk3JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiSGFsbCBDb21tdW5pY2F0aW9ucyByZXBsYWNlZCBcdTIwMThQb2xrIENvdW50eSBMaXZlXHUyMDE5IHdpdGggYSBuYXRpb25hbGx5IHN5bmRpY2F0ZWQgbmV3cyBwcm9ncmFtLiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.cCg8_0jMc3Twc3R64L0qyq_ERj9N-6t-BvibXnAndz8MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":56894,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/download-2.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[11868],"class_list":["post-56893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-hall-communications-replaced-polk-county-live-with-a-nationally-syndicated-news-program"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56895,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56893\/revisions\/56895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}