Private company

Cromwell Radio Group

Cromwell Radio Group is a privately held radio broadcasting company based in Nashville, Tennessee. They currently own and operate 32 stations:2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Cromwell Radio Group is a privately held radio broadcasting company based in Nashville, Tennessee. They currently own and operate 32 stations:2

The story

Cromwell Radio Group was founded in 1969 when Bayard H. "Bud" Walters (still company president today) applied to the Federal Communications Commission for permit to construct WKCM, a country-formatted AM station in Hawesville, Kentucky. That station, which went on the air in November 1972, is still owned by Cromwell today. The company has since grown by building new stations from scratch, or buying underdeveloped stations and increasing the power and performance of those stations.

In 1990 Cromwell expanded into Tennessee with the acquisitions of WQZQ-FM (now WPRT-FM) & WYCQ-FM (now WBUZ), both located in Nashville, Tennessee. At this same time, Cromwell also relocated its corporate headquarters from Hawesville, Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee.

In each market where Cromwell is present, they have now increased the number of stations owned to three or more (as of 2011, the FCC allows a single company to own a maximum of five FM stations and two AM stations in any given market; however this ownership limit does not apply to translator stations, as they are exempted by the FCC).

From Wikipedia’s article on Cromwell Radio Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

  • radio

Listed on Wikidata.1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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