On September 1, Hispanic media veteran José Villafañe, the 70% equity interest holder of Costa Media Boston LLC, completed the purchase of WFAX-AM 1220 and FM translator W264DB at 100.7 MHz, each licensed to Falls Church, Va., for $800,000.
This made Costa Media an active competitor in the National Capital Region against both Audacy Corp. and Hubbard Radio, as well as the owner of a “Franken FM” that enjoys a sizable Spanish-language listening audience of its programming on Channel 6, and as such on 87.7 MHz.
Now, Costa Media will be taking on management of that audio service, giving them a second property in the D.C. region — one that has higher ratings than any of its peers.
“We have signed an agreement with Signal Above to manage and operate WDCN,” Villafañe shared in an announcement distributed on Tuesday.
Pedro Biaggi, Costa Media’s Washington, D.C. President/General Manager, will lead the team. This sees a combination of resources associated with WDCN-LD and WFAX-AM 1220, branded as “100.7 La Pantera” and airing a regional Mexican format.
“Pedro and his team will work diligently to make our combo No. 1 in the D.C. radio market,” Villafañe said.
Six months ago, that would have been a herculean task for Costa Media, as it was just acquiring WFAX, an AM with a big signal accompanied by a FM translator that largely covered key Hispanic ZIP codes in Northern Virginia but not suburban Maryland or the District of Columbia.
Now, Costa Media is gaining control of WDCN, which ranked No. 1 among all Hispanic radio stations in the market in the October 2022 ratings.
This put Tropical-flavored “La Nueva” ahead of Audacy’s similarly formatted WLZL-FM “El Zol 107.9,” which has limited coverage of Fairfax and Prince William Counties in Northern Virginia; and Hubbard Radio’s WBQH “La Mera Mera 1050.” Other competitors in the market include AMs WDMV “La Jefa” and WTNT “La Mega Capital.”
“The dual stations place us in a solid strategic position in the Spanish-language radio
market to increase substantially the share of the total radio revenue in D.C.,”
Villafañe, who is Managing Partner of Costa Media, shared. “As we expand in the D.C.
with a second station, we have an opportunity to create and forge partnerships in the
community to super serve the DMV local Latinx and bilingual radio listeners through our
formats. Our mission is to serve the Latino communities in Washington, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia by combining Regional Mexican and Spanish Urban
formats and provide the best local content to become No. 1 Spanish Radio Media Group in
the market.”
Gerardo López, Costa Media Partner and President of Programming, has assumed programming responsibilities for “La Nueva.”
