UPDATE: After deadline Wednesday, Clear Channel said that 92.1 “is being sold to a separate buyer, not Clear Channel” with no further information.

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PETERBOROUGH – The long evolution of a Peterborough radio station from a folk music haven, where Fritz Wetherbee got his start, through all-news and Top 40 to Boston’s alt-rock scene is about to take a new step, although it’s not clear what that step is.

WFEX, 92.1 FM, has simulcast Boston-area WFNX from atop Pack Monadnock since 1999. On Wednesday, the station known as ’FNX was sold to radio behemoth Clear Channel, much to the dismay of alternative-music fans in the region.

But it’s uncertain whether the New Hampshire repeater is part of the deal.

The radio frequency and tower in Miller State Park have been for sale separately from WFNX for months, at a price close to $1 million, according to a couple of online radio-station dealer networks. But there was no comment from buyer or seller Wednesday whether they were included in the WFNX sale; Telegraph calls to the media conglomerate and to the parent company of WFNX went unanswered.

On Wednesday morning, Phoenix Media/Communications Group, which owns the station along with the Boston Phoenix paper, announced that WFNX was being sold to Clear Channel Communications, pending approval by the Federal Communications Commission.

The future of WFNX, long the king of new rock music in the whole Boston market, is uncertain. Rumors include a switch to country music or to Spanish-language broadcasting.

Most employees were laid off Wednesday, according to news reports, although the station will stay on the air pending FCC action.

Clear Channel, the nation’s biggest radio conglomerate, owns several stations in Boston and New Hampshir: WGIR in Manchester and a mix of FM and AM stations on the Seacoast, including WHEB.

“It’s always tough to see an independent go away,” said Jordan Walton, executive director of the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters. “But our experience with (Clear Channel stations) is they’re both run very well.”

News of the sale drew lamentation from fans of alternative music and a remembrance of high points in ’FNX history, including its role introducing Nirvana to the world and organization of the infamous Green Day concert at Boston’s Hatch Shell in 1994. Apparently such street cred didn’t pay enough bills.

“Despite its celebrated history, its cutting-edge programming, its tradition of breaking new music, its ardent fans among listeners and advertisers, for some time it has been difficult to sustain the station – especially since the start of the Great Recession. And that is why the station is being sold,” wrote Stephen Mindich, founder of the Phoenix Group, in a memo to staff that was posted online.

The change is relatively big news in New Hampshire’s radio scene, which has been pretty stable for a number of years.

The last big news, said Walton, was the purchase of a half-dozen stations by Nassau Broadcasting Partners, a national conglomerate which is now struggling with possible bankruptcy.

As for the frequency 92.1 FM, whatever happens, it will be the latest change in a long, varied history.

The station started as WSLE in the 1970s, with broadcasting studios in a small house on Route 101 in Peterborough and a radio tower on Pack Monadnock, in Miller State Park.

Its casual atmosphere and connection with then-famous folk club called The Folkway made it a favorite of what one fan, in a 1999 Telegraph article, called the “crunchy granola” crowd.

WSLE featured radio personalities like Wetherbee, who went on to fame as a public-television host, and a loose approach reflected by the fact that the 8-year-old son of The Folkway’s owner hosted a children’s music program.

Economics took a toll, however, and the station was sold. (The Folkway closed, too.)

A long litany of owners and formats came. One owner from New York tried an all-news format and changed its name to WMDK (as in “Monadnock”); another bought it in 1987 and created an “album rock” station.

In 1991, it was sold to a Connecticut-based media broker who turned it into WNHQ (“New Hampshire quality”), a Top 40 station based in Milford. Later it was sold to Radioworks, a small chain based in Concord, which later sold it to WFNX so that station could improve its signal in southern New Hampshire.

As for WFNX, it will remain on the air until the FCC process ends. Various events and concerts, including the Boston Best Music Poll, will go forward.

Phoenix Group says it will keep WFNX’s intellectual property, including the call letters and archives.

This lead to speculation that the radio station could be reborn as an Internet-only entity.

David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531 or dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com.