Indie Lives!

As first reported here last month, and then picked up elsewhere, Indie 103.1's future beyond this month was far from clear.

Clear Channel will no longer hold a joint sales agreement to handle the station's ad inventory starting April 1 -- leaving many radio insiders speculating about the station's demise. Several sources speculated that Indie owner Entravision, which focuses mostly on Spanish-language outlets, would scrap the format and either sell KDLD/KDLE or flip the station to brokered-time Asian programming.

But momentum has been building in recent weeks to keep the station as-is. And it looks like that'll be the case for now, reports Radio & Records:

As Clear Channel prepares to relinquish sales control of KDLD & KDLE (Indie 103.1)/Los Angeles at the end of the month, the early rumors of a format flip appear to be false. The Entravision-owned station is ending its joint sales agreement with Clear Channel as of April 1 due to FCC regulations, and a memo to advertisers from Radio Division President Jeffrey Liberman declares that Indie will soon have its own sales staff in place with no changes in programming.

"We at Entravision Communications Corporation and Clear Channel/Los Angeles would like to thank you for your support of Indie 103.1," the memo says. "Because of the support for Indie 103.1 from our listeners and clients like you, Indie 103.1 will continue on the air as it has been since the end of 2003. The only changes that you will see are a few new faces on the sales end.... We thank you for your continued support of Indie 103.1, and we will be contacting you soon!"

To that end, Entravision has named Dawn Girocco the new station manager and KDLD/KDLE. Girocco, who formerly was a sales manager at Clear Channel for KIIS-FM and KHHT-FM, will oversee Indie's sales team.