Emmis Sports “1070 The Fan” WFNI Indianapolis is signing-on a second translator to bring all of its programming to the FM band.
While 107.5 W298BB/93.1 WIBC-HD2 Indianapolis is currently a partial mix of WFNI programming and national ESPN radio content, that will change as Emmis prepares to sign-on 93.5 W228CX this weekend. 93.5 W228CX will be a straight simulcast of WFNI as even a 50kW AM is no longer believed to be strong enough without a translator, with the station to rebranded as “93.5 The Fan“. W298BB/WIBC-HD2 will become “ESPN 107.5” airing the national ESPN Radio lineup with the exception of Mike & Mike in mornings which will remain on 1070/93.5. 107.5 will substitute NBC Sports Radio’s Erik Kuselias in that slot.
Emmis Market Manager Charlie Morgan told the Indianapolis Business Journal that the reasoning for the addition was, “When we started simulcasting The Fan on 107.5 we could tell a lot of our listeners were trying to find more of our local programming on AM. We wanted to go where our listeners were, and some of them simply never tune into AM. So we wanted to make it as easy as possible for them to find us. Having that programming where people are matters.”
We reported in July that Emmis had registered 935TheFan.com, 1075ESPN.com and ESPN1075.com for the translators. As W298BB’s lineup was not a direct simulcast of WFNI, both stations were listed separately in Nielsen Audio’s ratings. 1070 registered a 2.7 share of the audience in the September monthly, while 107.5 added an additional 1.4 share. The Business Journal adds that the stations combined for a market-leading 9.2 share in the Men 25-54 demographic.
