Indy Radio: The Fan To Move Simulcast To 93.5 FM

Emmis Communications Corp. has bought translator W228CX 93.5 FM 93.5 and is set to move its simulcast of 1070 The Fan to it.  ESPN Radio's national content will be then be added fulltime to 107.5 FM, except for Mike&Mike.  M&M will remain on 1070 AM and 93.5 FM.

The Fan’s primary competitors in the sports-talk realm are WNDE 1260 AM and WXNT 1430 AM, but Emmis officials said The Fan is taking on—and beating—other top local male-oriented stations, according to the Indianpolis Business Journal.

“People say ‘you have the No. 1 sports-talk station,’ and I say ‘no, we have the No. 1 men’s station,’” said Emmis Market Manager Charlie Morgan. “Since we’ve started simulcasting, it’s safe to say we’ve more than doubled our audience, and advertisers have followed the audience growth.”

Emmis began airing sports talk on WFNI 1070 AM in December, 2007.

In early 2013, Emmis bought translator W298BB 107.5 FM from Frankfort-based Kaspar Broadcasting, ditched its soft-rock format, and boosted its weak signal. It then re-broadcast some of its locally generated content from WFNI—The Fan—but also aired a fair bit of ESPN national content.

This summer, Emmis bought another Kaspar station, FM 93.5, and strengthened its signal.

W228CX 93.5 FM (161 Watts) Red=Local Coverage Area

“We had so much success with the local parts of The Fan that we were simulcasting, we went on a search for another FM frequency,” Morgan said.

Emmis is merely waiting for FCC approval to flip the switch on the new FM 93.5.