Updated at 11:40am Eastern
It is one of the more intriguing radio station transactions of 2025. Yet, it comes as a big surprise to many — including the broker who represented the company in its sale of WPBB-FM in Tampa-St. Petersburg to K-LOVE. In a single sentence offered by its CEO as part of its second quarter 2025 financial earnings review, Caroline Beasley revealed that Beasley Media Group is selling its five radio stations in its home market.
BUYER CONFIRMED
The company’s head offered scant further details at the start of the company’s quarterly earnings call. Most notably, she didn’t mention the name of the “third-party” buyers taking the stations in twin transactions totaling $18 million. A company spokesperson declined to reveal the name of the buyer when contacted by RBR+TVBR; Caroline Beasley did not respond to RBR+TVBR‘s request for further information about the deal.
However, two sources close to the matter have confirmed that Fort Myers Broadcasting Co., the owner of CBS affiliate WINK-TV and WAVV-FM, WINK-FM and WTLQ “97.7 Latino” in Fort Myers, is the buyer of Sports Talk WBCN-AM 770, an ESPN Radio affiliate; Gold-based Adult Contemporary WJPT-FM “Sunny 106.3,” and Adult-oriented Tropical WWCN-FM “Playa 99.3.” Long-owned by the McBride family, these three stations are being sold by Beasley to Fort Myers Broadcasting for $9 million.
The second transaction sees Beasley selling WRXK-FM “96 KRock,” and Top 40 WXKB “B103.9,” to Sun Broadcasting Co. for $9 million. This would pair the two FMs with four other FMs — WFSX “Fox News 92.5,” WFFY-FM “FLY 98.5,” WHEL-FM “Trump Country 93.7” and WARO-FM 94.5. Sun is led by President Jim Schwartzel, who in April opened a federal account to run for House Member Byron Donalds’ House seat as a Republican. Sun is also the owner of The CW affiliate for Fort Myers-Naples, WXCW-TV, and two low-power TV stations offering Univision and UniMás programming to Southwest Florida. The TV stations are operated via a shared services agreement with Fort Myers Broadcasting.
Beasley has also been competing in the Southwest Florida radio marketplace against Renda Broadcasting and iHeartMedia.
WRXK dates to 1986, and has a long history as a personality-driven Rock station. WBCN, which took the famed former Boston call letters in 2021, dates to December 1983 and enjoys a strong 10kw daytime signal but must reduce power at night to protect WABC-AM in New York. WWCN is the former home of Alternative WJBX “99X,” while WXKB’s current history dates to 1993, when it shifted from 103.7 MHz and adopted its current branding and format, replacing WINK-FM as the market’s dominant Top 40 station. WJPT was acquired by Beasley in October 1997 (as WJST-FM) and has long had an adult-focused presentation. The $5 million WJPT deal saw George Beasley sign a $2 million Promissory Note after making a $3 million cash payment to the seller.
Could there be more deals in the works?
“We are always open to asset sales or swaps if it makes sense for the company,” Caroline Beasley said at the end of the Q2 2025 earnings call, in which she described the quarter as “challenging but important,” yielding mixed results.
