Port Broadcasting, Aruba Capital Holdings and Garrison City Broadcasting have announced they will be merging to create Coastal Media Partners.

The new group will be operated by Port’s Carl Strube and Pete Falconi. Port Broadcasting had begun operating Aruba Capital Holdings’ 1540 WXEX Exeter, NH and 92.1 WXEX-FM Sanford, ME via LMA in April and relaunched them as “Classic Rock 92.1” earlier this month. Port Broadcasting owns 1450 WNBP/106.1 W291CC Newburyport, MA and 1220 WWSF/102.3 W272CG Sanford, ME both of which operate as Oldies “The Legends“.

Garrison City Broadcasting owns News/Talk 1270 WTSN Dover, NH and AC “98.7 The Bay” WBYY Somersworth, NH.

Port Broadcasting, LLC of Newburyport, MA, Aruba Capital Holdings, LLC of Exeter, NH, and Garrison City Broadcasting of Dover, NH, announced today that they are merging together to form a new media company called Coastal Media Partners. The new regional enterprise will serve Northern Massachusetts, coastal New Hampshire and Southern Maine and will include the following radio stations: WNBP in Newburyport; WWSF in Sanford, ME; WXEX AM & FM in Exeter, NH; WTSN, and WBYY (The Bay) in Dover, NH. The agreement includes the radio stations and digital assets, such as live streaming and websites, of all six stations.

Port Broadcasting’s Carl Strube and Pete Falconi will run the day-to-day operations of the new company, with sales teams now offering advertising across all of the combined stations, whose variety of programming appeals to a broad range of listeners. Coastal Media Partners comprises: “The Legends” 1960/1970’s Oldies format, Classic Hits format, Soft Rock/Adult Contemporary format, and News/Talk/Sports.

“There is a great deal of synergy in this merger. All of the stations are very community-focused but offer different brands to attract different demographics. The overall radio signal footprint spans geographies to reach a population of just over 2 million people,” explained Port Broadcasting Owner and Operations Manager Pete Falconi. This makes Coastal Media Partners one of the largest locally owned and managed media groups in New England.

Aruba Capital’s Andy Hartmann, owner of WXEX, notes that advertisers will benefit greatly. “Local businesses can target local listeners from the North Shore of Massachusetts up the coast to Portland, ME by working with one regional broadcaster that offers reasonable rates,” he said. “Consumers today want to support local – whether it is shopping, eating or listening local. Together, we serve the towns and cities where we live and work by providing news, information and entertainment, along with contributing to the regional economy.”

Garrison City Broadcasting, a family-owned and operated company that owns WTSN AM 1270 news, talk and sports and WBYY FM 98.7 The Bay adult contemporary music, are part of the fabric of Southern New Hampshire. WTSN broadcasts major sports like the Bruins, Celtics and Yankees, as well as live high school events. “After 30 years of being independent radio station owners, our family is delighted to form a partnership with three radio veterans who understand the importance of providing our listeners with local programming, news and sports,” said Susan Demers Weigold, Senior Vice President, Garrison City Broadcasting, “Our niche is to keep our stations community based. We can expand on community service and provide businesses with creative advertising opportunities that reach across three states on six stations.”

The merger will take place immediately. Coastal Media Partners is expected to benefit by the knowledge and expertise of the combined staff. “We look forward to working together to create tremendous local radio opportunities and programming,” said Carl Strube, Port Broadcasting General Manager and Co-Owner.

Brad Murray of JBMedia provided merger advisory services to Port Broadcasting for this transaction.