Emmis is knowingly waiting for the FCC to adjust the ownership caps to add Audacy and iHeart to the potential buyer pool for the station.
My view is he's also waiting for his offer to Emmis stockholders (made in 2023) to expire, which will be next year.
The possibility of IHeart eventually buying WEPN 98.7 and adding it to their NYC cluster is intriguing. Even though Audacy did not succeed with Country on 94.7 in this market, perhaps it could work for IHeart on 98.7. They may have a better infrastructure for selling the format to advertisers, and they have successful national shows such as Bobby Bones that they could clear. 98.7 is also more of a full market signal than 94.7, so they could reach more Country fans in NJ and Long Island.
iHeart brought the "WFID Format" to the U.S. mainland, so the current WEPN rendition of this option does match with something that the programming crew at iHeart seems to believe in.
Is that directly tied to the sale of 98.7 or can that be mutually exclusive if the caps are loosed and iHeart comes with an offer?
I can see Hispanic and country, but are there enough alternative rock fans still listening to ANY radio to give an alt station any shot at a competitive number?
Could IHeart be concerned that the mostly A/C music on La Exitosa may compete with their Lite FM? I could see that as a reason they would switch 98.7 to something else if they were to buy it.
Would there be any tangible benefit running Bobby Bones in morning drive on a full-power NYC FM? Cumulus used 94.7 to clear their various Westwood One morning shows and that didn't exactly help the format's chances.
A previous poster speculated that country on 98.7 could reach LI and NJ more effectively than 94.7. Whether that's enough to convince the agencies to send business 98.7's way, who knows? Maybe iHeart has, or can bring aboard, salespeople who are sold on country and know how to get Madison Avenue types to share their enthusiasm. Apparently, that was the big problem at 94.7.
What's funny is that I've been listening to WFID recently and I've listened to no English-language music on it. The format is much more similar to WAMR in Miami. They put in a Gilberto Santa Rosa, Romeo Santos, or Manny Manuel romantic song every now and them between the Ednita and Ricky Martin, so there is a bit of AC Tropical flavor.
I still wonder how feasible this format is for New York. It's unique, but New York City is just not home to the same kind of immigrant that Florida is.
If WEPN goes less Bilingual and a little more closer to Tropical AC as well as hiring names known in the market, I could see WPAT losing its a decent portion of its audience.
