NorthEast Radio Watch 1/26/2026: Public Radio Grows in RI

In this week’s issue… OSM grows with Audacy sale – Remembering Uncle Floyd – Tower down in NY – AM goes dark in NH

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*We don’t have much of an opportunity lately to bring you stories about public radio growing, what with all the funding cuts on the federal level and often at lower levels, too – so when the news broke last week from RHODE ISLAND that the state’s public radio network was finally getting the one big signal it’s been missing for almost three decades, we knew what the lead story in our next column would be.

After merging with Rhode Island PBS (WSBE-TV), the entity now known as Ocean State Media has financial leverage it lacked as a stand-alone, which made it possible to enter into a deal to acquire the class B WVEI-FM (103.7 Westerly) signal from Audacy – and here’s why it’s such a big deal.

Longtime readers of this column have read all about the struggle to get Rhode Island and adjoining areas a public radio voice of their own, something that was missing entirely for the first few decades of the medium. In 1998, Boston University’s WBUR bought the former WRCP (1290) in Providence, turning it into WRNI as an initial stab at local public radio. A decade later, the station came under local control, and ever since 2008 it’s been trying to expand its signal reach in bits and pieces as small upgrades have become available, most notably with the 2018 acquisition and upgrade of what’s now flagship station WNPN 89.3, licensed to Newport. (Full disclosure: as a brokerage firm and as a consulting engineering firm, Fybush Media has assisted at times with some of those expansions.)

But trying to be heard on multiple frequencies in different locations, even in a small state like Rhode Island, isn’t the same thing as having one big signal on one frequency for the whole area, and that’s what will be changing when Ocean State Media moves from “102.9 in Providence, 89.3 in Newport, 89.5 in Westerly, 102.7 in Narragansett” to “103.7 everywhere.”

The sale hasn’t been filed with the FCC yet, so we don’t know all the details, but OSM says it will be a $4.9 million project to purchase 103.7 and make whatever technical upgrades it needs.

Why is Audacy selling 103.7 after 22 years operating it as a rebroadcaster of its Boston-based WEEI sports network? While it’s drawn decent ratings in Providence, especially with its Red Sox and Bruins coverage, it’s still a standalone station in the market, with no real prospect for Audacy to grow by acquiring the other big clusters in town owned by iHeart and Cumulus. That’s a tough spot to sell from, especially these days as radio competes not only with itself but with so many new forms of media. (And while the 103.7 signal reaches into the southern fringes of the Boston market to augment the main WEEI-FM 93.7 signal north of Boston, its separate ad load means its ratings there can’t be combined with 93.7, so that audience can’t effectively be sold for ratings, either.)

Audacy says it’s looking for new homes in the Providence market for WEEI programming, both the Sox play-by-play and the talk shows it networks to other New England markets, and we’ll be watching for news about whether other broadcasters in the state end up picking up the WEEI network or at least some of its shows.

We’ll also be watching to see what becomes of the existing OSM stations, which seem likely to be spun off once the long process of filing and closing on the 103.7 purchase and flipping the format is complete. The 89.3 WNPN signal, broadcasting from the old channel 6 tower in Tiverton, reaches much of the state’s population core as well as a nice chunk of southeastern Massachusetts, while the combination of 1290 (now WPVD) and its 102.9 translator serves the immediate Providence area, WNPE (102.7 Narragansett Pier) serves much of South County, and WNPW (89.5 Westerly) covers the state’s southwestern corner. There are also two unbuilt construction permits on Block Island.