Cortona Media says radio station WRNR could return to the airwaves after the City Council recently agreed to lease the company an Annapolis radio tower and small production studio.

The four-year lease, which has yet to be signed, was approved for Bethesda-based Cortona Media at a Feb. 24 City Council meeting. The media company would pay “the greater of either” $500 a month or “the tenant’s monthly ‘Advertising Rent’ equal to one percent of [its] monthly gross advertising revenues generated through the operation of the radio station…” according to the proposed lease.

Annapolis acquired the 240-foot self-supporting tower on Silopanna Road in 1989.

Kirk Litton, executive director of Cortona Media, said that the new lease means WRNR could return to the airwaves. Cortona Media owns WYRE 810 AM, W260BM 99.9 FM, and the intellectual rights to WRNR’s branding, Litton said in an email last week.

“WRNR could begin to broadcast from the WYRE tower in the future, once those decisions are made,” he said. “As owner of the WYRE 810AM signal that uses the tower now, it was just important to have a new buttoned up official lease with the city to grow and move forward.”

WRNR aired on 103.1 in Annapolis before it moved online. Steve Kingston, a longtime radio personality and Cortona Media partner, purchased WRNR as part of a $2.4 million deal. His studio was located in Annapolis and played adult alternative rock for 25 years using equipment based in Grasonville before selling the station in 2022 for $1.54 million to Timonium-based Peter and John Ministries Radio Fellowship. Kingston ceased his radio broadcastingin February 2023. WRNR can still be heard online at wrnr.com

Kingston, and his partners in Cortona Media, acquired Annapolis classic rock station WYRE-810 AM a year later. Cortona Media also owns 99.9FM which simulcast Annapolis-based WNAV-1430AM, previously owned by former game show host Pat Sajak, broadcasting from its tower on Admiral Drive. Both radio signals are currently leased to Victory Media of Maryland, which airs classic rock, according to Litton.

Kingston did not return a request for comment.

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