Charlotte radio station KISS 95.1 sold. Maney and LauRen show finds new home
Charlotte’s contemporary hit radio station WNKS-FM (KISS 95.1) is being sold to a Christian media company, KISS’s parent company Beasley Media Group announced this week.
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The Nashville region-based Educational Media Foundation entered into a “definitive asset purchase agreement” with Beasley, according to the news release. This also led to plans for moving the popular “Maney & LauRen Morning Show” on KISS 95.1 to sister station 104.7 WKQC-FM.
The long-running Maney & LauRen program that airs weekday mornings in Charlotte reaches more than 2.4 million listeners across the Carolinas, according to Beasley Media Group. The show is syndicated in additional regional markets, including in Augusta, Georgia, Memphis, Tennessee, and Fayetteville.
EMF is the owner of K-LOVE and Air1, the largest contemporary Christian radio network in the U.S., operating more than 1,200 radio signals.
Beasley Media Group, a subsidiary of Beasley Broadcast Group, operates about 50 radio stations in nine large- and mid-sized markets in the U.S. The Naples, Florida-based business is also selling Las Vegas station KXTE-FM to EMF, along with the Charlotte station.
Those deals are expected to close in mid-October, pending closing conditions and approval by the Federal Communications Commission, according to Beasley.
Financial details behind the sale and its impacts on jobs were not provided by the media groups.
Thomas Stultz, Chief Executive Officer of K-LOVE, Inc., said the organization is ready to welcome the stations.
“Both signals have long histories of serving their communities, and we look forward to building on that legacy as we expand our mission of delivering uplifting, positive programming to listeners in Charlotte, Las Vegas and the surrounding areas,” Stultz stated.
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In Charlotte, KISS 95.1 was ranked 21st in Nielsen rankings, Radio World reported.
The decision to purchase the station was made in a push to strengthen its position in Charlotte, although the region is not a new market for K-LOVE. K-LOVE is heard on 91.9 WRCM-FM in Charlotte, which EMF purchased from Columbia International University in 2014. EMF’s Air1 is heard on a 100.3 FM translator.
Steve Maney and LauRen Merola Strager’s “The Maney and LauRen Morning Show” has a simple motto: “Real, Life, Laughs.” The two focus on their life, families and experiences, according to their radio station.
Maney is a New Jersey native who once interned with radio shock jock Howard Stern and also worked with radio personality Elvis Duran. Maney serves as the lead anchor of the show, according to the show’s website.
Strager, who is from Miami, is a former Miss Pennsylvania USA and a former NFL and NBA cheerleader who transitioned into radio. She also has a fashion and lifestyle blog, “All Of The F-Words” and is a supporter of the autism community.
Former co-host Roy Brown was previously the third main voice on the program, which originally aired as “The Maney, Roy & LauRen Show.” Maney joined the Kiss 95.1 morning lineup in the early 2010s, while Strager and Brown joined him in February 2015 to form the familiar team format.
After Brown departed in 2022 to relocate, the program transitioned to “The Maney & LauRen Morning Show.“ Producer and Gastonia native Big Al then took on a larger on-air presence. He spent more than half a decade at multiple Beasley stations.
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This story was originally published August 6, 2026 at 1:23 PM.
