it was purchasing Lincoln Financial Group's entire 15-station lineup (including WQXI) in a $106.5 million deal, and will operate the outlets under a LMA deal until the sale is approved by the FCC. The sale was approved on July 14, 2015. On July 1, 2015, ESPN Radio announced it would end its programming on WQXI and move it to Dickey Broadcasting-owned rivals WFOM and WCNN on August 17. After that date, WQXI began simulcasting sister WSTR, effectively taking it back to its roots as an all-music station. On September 30, 2016, Entercom announced that it had sold WQXI to Kyung Sook Park's Atlanta Radio Korea, Inc. for $850,000 plus a time brokerage agreement prior to closing. The sale was approved by the FCC on November 29, and completed on December 14. On December 15, WQXI flipped to the Radio Korea format. WKRP connection In 1978, WQXI provided inspiration for WKRP in Cincinnati, a television sitcom about a radio station. Series creator Hugh Wilson dealt with WQXI when he worked in advertising. WKRP's early episodes about dropping turkeys from a helicopter and the "dancing ducks promotion," in which ducks danced on hot plates, were stunts actually done by Jerry Blum at WQXI in the early 1970s. Blum had leased an 18-wheeler from which he tossed hundreds of live turkeys at a suburban Atlanta shopping center. 2013 controversy On June 17, 2013, during WQXI's morning program Mayhem in the AM hosts Steak Shapiro, Chris Dimino and Nick Cellini mocked New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason and his battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The trio used a robotic-sounding voice to imitate Gleason, who speaks with a voice synthesizer, and told several knock-knock jokes about him. Station management suspended the three hosts as soon as the program went off the air, and fired them later that afternoon. Station vice-president and General Manager Rick Mack apologized for the incident. Shapiro and Dimino subsequently moved to rival WCNN, which overtook WQXI as Atlanta's leading sports talk station. WQXI never recovered from the loss of Shapiro and Dimino, a factor behind its decision to become a full-time satellite of ESPN Radio. It soon later became the factor behind WQXI to drop its sports radio format in favor of simulcasting WSTR due to declining ratings because of this controversy. References External links Radio Korea FCC History Cards for WQXI QXI Radio