$3M Sale Of Evanston AM Radio Station Goes Through

EVANSTON, IL — The Evanston-based talk radio station WCGO has been sold to Pollack Broadcasting for about $3 million, according to a news release. Kovas Communications was the license holder for the station, broadcasting at 1590 AM, for 42 years. The deal was announced in May and closed earlier this week.

Last year, Pollack announced deals to buy WBIG-AM 1280 in Aurora and WRMN-AM 1410 in Elgin. Those purchases closed in February.

Kovas Communications was founded by radio engineer and entrepreneur Frank Kovas. Kovas purchased WCGO in 2002, moving its frequency from 1600 AM to 1590 AM and eventually increase its signal strength to 10,000 watts from 3,500. Kovas died in 2005, and the company has been owned by his widow, Connie Kovas, and run by her son, Joe Walburn.

WCGO's schedule currently includes a mix of local broadcasting, like Korean Christian Broadcasting and the Assyrian Social Club, as well as nationally syndication shows, like the Dave Ramsey Show, Coast to Coast with George Noory and the Alex Jones Weekend Edition.

"We are very excited with the acquisition," Pollack told Patch. "The businesses are well managed and staffed with seasoned professionals. We are honored that after 40 years of ownership, the Kovas family allowed us to become the new suitors of their established and successful operations."

After the deal was announced last year, Walburn said the station would be in good hands.

"It's comforting to know that Bill Pollack will be taking over the reins of the last of our family-owned radio stations," Walburn said of Pollack Broadcasting's president. "He is a seasoned broadcaster and we could not be more delighted with this deal. My step-father Frank Kovas would have been very happy that the station is going to a true broadcaster." (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Evanston — or your community. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

Pollack told the Elgin Courier-News he plans to keep WCGO's format in place for the moment. He suggested there might be some tinkering to promotion, and said the station has "tremendous upside potential."

» Read more from the Elgin Courier-News

_{Top photo: WCGO studios in Evanston | Google Street View}