After stunting for a day, iHeartMedia launched Spanish CHR “Rumba 97.7” WKAF Brockton/Boston MA at noon today.

The station will run jockless and commercial-free until July 5 with core artists including Bad Bunny, J. Balvin, Romeo Santos, and Marc Anthony. Giving Boston its first full-powered Spanish language station, the move resurrects the “Rumba” brand that had previously aired in the market on 1200 WXKS and 1430 WKOX at different points from 2006 to 2010 and 2018 until last August’s sale of 1430.

– iHeartMedia Boston announced today the debut of Rumba 97.7, #1 Para Raggaeton y Variedad en Boston, effective immediately.

Catered specifically for the Boston market, Rumba 97.7 will deliver high-energy,
contemporary Top 40 hits from the most popular genres in Latin music today, such as
Reggaeton, Bachata, Salsa and Pop. Listeners can tune in to hear top-ranking music from
some of their favorite Latinx artists including Bad Bunny, J. Balvin, Romeo Santos, Marc
Anthony and many more. In addition, in celebration of the station’s debut, Rumba 97.7
will broadcast non-stop music through July 5.

“It is a pleasure to expand iHeartLATINO to a city as legendary as Boston, where
RUMBA 97.7 can carry a badge of heritage for our Hispanic listeners,”
said Pedro Javier Gonzalez, Senior Vice President of Programming for iHeartLATINO.

“Rumba 97.7 will deliver the biggest Latin hits combined with Boston’s local flavor to
the FM airwaves—appealing to Boston’s growing Hispanic community,” said
Dylan Sprague, Senior Vice President of Programming for iHeartMedia Boston.

In addition, Rumba 97.7 is actively recruiting local programming and marketing talent to
work at the station. All interested parties can apply at http://iheartmedia.com/careers.

Original Report 5/24: iHeartMedia Rhythmic AC “97.7 The Beat” WKAF Brockton/Boston has met its demise.

WKAF is currently stunting with unbranded Spanish language music telling listeners to tune in on Tuesday, May 25 at 2:00pm.

As we just reported in today’s Domain Insight, WKAF will flip to iHeartMedia’s Spanish CHR “Rumba” brand as “Rumba 97.7“. “Rumba” had previously aired in the market on 1200 WXKS and 1430 WKOX at different points from 2006 to 2010 and 2018 until last August’s sale of 1430.

The move will give the Boston market its first full-powered Spanish language signal. WKAF held a 1.2 share in the April 2021 Nielsen Audio ratings.