Saga Communications has begun a shuffle of their AM properties in Portland ME.
Standards “1490 The Bay” WBAE Portland has dropped its format and has begun simulcasting Talk 970 WZAN. On January 1, WZAN’s programming will be heard exclusively on 1490.
The move of WZAN will make room for ESPN Radio on 970. ESPN is currently heard in the market on Atlantic Coast Radio’s 95.9 WPEI Saco in overnights and weekends. Saga registered ESPNPortland.com in May.
Based on the Radio-Locator.com signal maps, WZAN won’t lose as much coverage area by moving to 1490 as I had thought.
On the other hand, our own Bob Bittner may with to record some announcements for his WJTO-730 “welcoming former WBAE/1490 The Bay listeners”, since ‘JTO’s signal area does greatly overlap that of WBAE, and probably has a similar format to what WBAE had.
On same day All Access reported Bittner buying WLVP 870 Gorham and WLAM 1470 Lewiston from Bill Binnie