I think jry is right in that Salem should be looking at this. And they probably will. It comes down to, is Disney serious about selling these stations for their worth or will they hang onto them because they are worth a LOT less than they were acquired for and run throwaway programming like ESPN Desportes on it? ESPN Desportes is throwaway in this region, it has a value where there is a higher concentration of Spanish speakers.
Why not run the Radio Disney feed until they can sell it? But again, you're dealing with very arrogant people, as jry also noted.
Disney is among the more transparent entertainment companies, a fact that explains why their shares have been less volatile than others in the biz.
They stated that they were out of the AM radio business and gave statistics as to why. And they clearly said they would turn the stations off at the end of September, sale or no sale.
Disney likely figured that the stations had no ongoing operations value, and would be sold for stick value only. Under that assumption, there was no value in continuing on the air and the expenses, over 23 stations, were considerable.
That is not arrogance... it is simply being realistic about costs and the value of the stations.
Detroit is 4.6% Hispanic, with 145,600 12+ persons in the market. That is enough to sustain a station were that some buyer's specialty or intent.