PRESTON, Minn. – The New York-based profit-oriented radio giant Townsquare Media physically leaving Preston, population 1,300, and selling its local studio. Townsquare, however, is not surrendering its federal license for KFIL. The station will continue to occupy 1060 frequency on the AM dial, albeit programmed remotely from the regional Townhouse facility in Rochester. Townhouse earlier abandoned its KFNL FM site in nearby Spring Valley, also in Fillmore County, and moved it to Rochester with automated programming and simulcasting with other Townhouse stations. Under chain ownership hen the Fillmore County stations had no local news staffs in either Preston or Spring Valley. Regional Townhouse executive Shannon Knoepke in Rochester said, however, there will continue to be a local advertising salesperson in Preston and Spring Valley.

KFIL profile

The station went in the in in 1971. TheFederal Communications Commission license was to Preston business man Obed Borgen to serve Fillmore County.His sons, Michael and Jeffrey Borgen, became the owners in 1991 and later sold it to Cumulus Broadcasting in 2003. KFIL became part of Townsquare chain in 2013 with the acquisition of Cumulus.

Townhouse profile

Townsquare Media was created in 2010 from the bankrupt Regent radio chaiin and has grown to 321 radio stations in 67 markets. Headqurters is in Purchase, New York, just north of New York City. The company is listed in the New York Stock Exchange. The initial Townhouse public offering, in 2014, was for $143.8 million. Pell-mell expansion followed. These included the MOG music subscription service. Anothernacquisition in 2014  was  53 stations from Cumulus Media, including KROC in Rochester and related station in the southeast Minnesota market for $238 million. Townhouse is federally licensed in Minnesota to transmit in Duluth, Faribault, Owatonna, Rochester and St.  Cloud. In neighboring Iowa the company has licenses for multiple frequencies in Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Dubuque and Waterloo.

Radio KFIL. The station’s building, at300 St Paul Street Southwest, has been sold to a next-door company — Preston Protein, which blends sprays for dairy farmers. The building housed both KFIL and a sister with numerous call letters over the years –most recently  KFNL-FM  and before that KVGO.

Knoepke. Regional marketing executive for Townhouse stations in Rochester.

Verbatim

Knoepke: “The physical move to Rochester will not impact the radio station’s many listeners in Fillmore County. As we embark on a new chapter by selling our building in Preston, I want to reassure each and every one of you that KFIL is not bidding farewell to Fillmore County. For over five decades, KFIL has woven itself into the very fabric of Fillmore County, providing country classic hits, agricultural news, and high school football, boys and girls basketball.” Knoepke noted that she grew up in nearby Fountain and graduated from Preston-Fountain High School. ”Our roots run deep in Fillmore County, and we are here to stay.”