Beasley Broadcast Southwest Florida has beefed up the reach of its local ESPN sports programming to the FM dial. In addition to WWCN-AM 770, the company has added three locations on the FM dial. Additionally, 770 ESPN Radio is heard on the HD2 channel of sister station 96 K-Rock WRXK-FM. WWCN is 10,000 watts, but powers down to 630 watts at night, making it hard to hear for much of SW Florida. So these FMs will also boost nighttime ratings for the station significantly.
The translators include:
W268AH 101.5 Bonita Springs, Florida 10 watts
W251AL 98.1 Fort Myers, Florida 80 watts
W286AK 105.1 Naples, Florida 19 watts
Games from the Miami Heat, Tampa Bucs, Florida Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida State Seminoles and Miami Hurricanes all air on 770 ESPN Radio, as do the NBA Championships, Super Bowl, Stanley Cup Play-Offs and all professional and college football games.
Said Vice President and Market Manager Brad Beasley: “This is a big deal for SW Florida sports enthusiasts. For the past 12 years, the only way to hear sports in our community has been on the AM dial. Now our loyal listeners can also follow their favorite teams and events at multiple locations on the FM dial…and that’s awesome!”
RBR-TVBR observation: For the state of Florida, lightning strikes from the abundance of storms in the summer has always affected AM listening. While 770’s signal is strong, with the summer storms listeners will hear the incessant crackling of lightning strikes (and typically turn the dial) unless they are pretty close to the tower. These FMs will solve that problem.
