Since its launch a year ago, WEPN (La Exitosa 98.7) New York has been what Emmis Communications president of programming Rick Cummings calls a “grow as you go” radio station.
Utilizing Radio.Cloud’s cloud-based automation system, the station launched a bilingual AC format — a mix of English- and Spanish-language music with a Spanish-speaking presentation, inspired by the growth of the format at WMIA (Magic 93.9) Miami and elsewhere — on January 10 under consultants Mike McVay and Pio Ferro.
In April, middayer Gloria B., a veteran of crosstown WPAT (93.1 Amor) joined La Exitosa for middays, later followed by morning host Gino Latino and p.m. driver Jorge Mier. Emmis market president Victor Giacomelli joined the station from New York’s MediaCo stations in August and has been building a sales staff. The station hired its third full-time salesperson in November.
In October, La Exitosa reached a 2.1 share and nearly 960,000 cume. It did that, Giacomelli notes, even as WPAT and Tropical WSKQ (Mega 97.9) remained steady, instead giving its audience an alternative to AC WLTW (Lite FM) and Classic Hits WCBS-FM with “música para nosotros” — “music for us.”
La Exitosa also heralds a return to programming for Emmis, which had been looking for a buyer for WEPN and simulcast AM WLIB. Instead, the station briefly used Radio.cloud technology to become Hot AC TJ98.7, promoting the syndicated TJ Show, before launching the new format a year ago, still utilizing Radio.Cloud.
Here’s a special Ross on Radio look at La Exitosa’s first year, as told by its principals, beginning with Emmis’s decision to operate the station after its lease to Good Karma Broadcasting to operate as New York’s ESPN affiliate expired.
Rick Cummings: I had been watching what was happening at WMIA, and then I had discussions with Pio Ferro, who was my operations guy at Emmis New York for years, but also programmed in the Spanish [-language radio] world for years and knows the New York market. We said maybe there is something to this notion of a product that sort of swims in both lanes. … because the target audience, a great number of them grew up in households where they listened to Top 40 radio stations on their way to school, and they came home and they watched novelas.
Mike McVay: When Rick reached out to me in mid-December, he said, “We’re going to keep this station for real. We believe there’s a great opportunity to do an English-music/Spanish-language radio station.” I said, “Like [WFID] Fidelity 95.7 in Puerto Rico?” And he said yes, and I said, “Believe it or not, I consulted that station in the ’90s. [I] followed David Gleason who launched it in the ’80s.”
We’re targeting listeners who are primarily second- and third-generation Hispanic, those people who move between Spanish and English in a fluid fashion. There are many households where people might speak Spanish at home and English outside the home and they don’t think about it. It’s whoever they’re talking to at the moment.
Gloria B: I’ve done radio for over 30 years in New York for SBS and Univision. I was born and raised in New York, but my parents are from Ecuador. I grew up listening to Ana Gabriel, Juan Gabriel, and Vicente Fernández, but also to Cyndi Lauper and Madonna.
Amor started with Ana Gabriel, with Franco De Vita, with Ricardo Arjona, all these artists from the ’80s and ’90s that are still relevant, but [with the Spanish Contemporary format’s emphasis on bachata and increased presence of urbano crossovers], they left those artists to the side. We need to take advantage of that, because people still love those artists. I took my mom to an Ana Gabriel concert two years ago and there are all these young people in their mid-20s singing these songs.
Victor Giacomelli: Ricardo Arjona sold out two shows at Madison Square Garden in less than 48 hours. They just put up his third show at the UBS Arena, and we’re the only station playing his music.
(Asked about the advertiser response.) The first advertiser on the station, Gloria brought on. The law firm Gorayeb & Associates was a longstanding partner with Gloria at SBS. The moment Gloria joined us, they came on to be part of the station.
Gloria B: I’ve been their spokesperson for about 10 years. I was deciding between La Exitosa and an opportunity in another market, and they made it very easy for me to make the decision. They said this is a great opportunity. We’re already part of the Spanish market but we want to do the crossover, and this [format] is the best idea. Whoever came up with this idea, we’re signing up.
Cummings (asked about having to create a station and sales infrastructure for a cloud-based radio station): It was certainly new territory for me, but not as new for Mike. He’s been in that world for a few years. It’s been an adjustment, figuring out how we implement contesting, and create a listener feedback loop, and do all those things you take for granted in a physical radio environment. I give Mike and Pio a lot of credit here. They have come up with elegant solutions for everything that has come forth at this point.
Giacomelli: The fun part about this station is that since I joined in August, we’ve literally had to build out everything from scratch. We got a new advertiser who wanted to give away tickets for the Arjona concert, so we launched a text line. We’ve launched a new app and website. We wanted to get some street presence, so we hired YEA Networks to have brand ambassadors who were bilingual. In 2026, you’re going to see a very big street engagement from this station.
Cummings: I guess you would describe the model as “grow as you go.” No radio company these days is in a position to say, “we’ll make a massive financial investment to see if we can get this right.” So, we’ve been in a position where it’s all incremental. We drive some revenue and that justifies the next investment. That means being able to do a market study or hire two more sales representatives. That’s the approach we’ve taken and, so far, it’s worked pretty well.
McVay: In Cleveland, a million cume would be huge. In a market of 17 million people, a million in cume is pretty big, but we don’t feel that we’ve even begun to scratch the surface yet … The average listening occasion for the station is 26 minutes, and when you look at the average daily TSL, it’s 2:41. So it’s way over the norm.
Giacomelli (asked about selling a stand-alone station in a market of large group-owned clusters): The big companies like an iHeart are going to sell a full audio strategy — local radio, streaming, podcasts. I think there is space in this landscape for operations that are locally owned and operated. We’re not trying to sell you a national campaign. We can and have those digital capabilities, but we’re really engaged in your business. We’re really trying to focus on the second- and third-generation Hispanic community. We’ve got a strong position we can fill in that space.
We just had our best month. We have 60 new advertisers on the station. We’re up against two historic, dominant stations, who would have 120-125 advertisers. So, considering we started with zero, I’m happy with where we’re at so far.
Cummings: One of the things I love about life is being able to continue to learn things. I’ve learned a lot in the last year. I hope I can say that if we talk again in another year — new challenges and new opportunities.
Giacomelli: One of the things we talk about with advertisers is Emmis and its spirit of innovation. Jeff Smulyan introduced sports radio. We launched Hip-Hop on [WQHT] Hot 97 [New York] and [KPWR] Power 106 [Los Angeles]. Now we’ve launched this first bilingual station in New York and people understand that because of that kind of story arc. People respect Emmis as a broadcaster.
Here’s La Exitosa on January 13 at 9 a.m.:
- Sam Smith, “Stay With Me”
- Madonna, “Lucky Star”
- Cheyanne, “Me Enorame de Ti”
- Train, “Hey, Soul Sister”
- Paul Young, “Every Time You Go Away”
- REO Speedwagon, “Take It on the Run”
- David Bisbal, “Buleria”
- Elton John, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”
- Bruno Mars, “Marry You”
- Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine, “1-2-3”
- Alejandro Sanz, “Amiga Mia”
- Backstreet Boys, “As Long as You Love Me”
- George Michael, “Faith”
- LeAnn Rimes, “How Do I Live”
- Michael Jackson, “Black or White”
- Juanes, “La Camisa Negra”
- Prince, “When Doves Cry”
- Lady A, “Need You Now”
