WMSF-FM is currently more closely associated with the West Palm Beach market than its southern neighbor Miami, but it has plans to move to there, and will attempt to do so as a member of the cluster owned by Lincoln Financial Media.
The station is headed to Palm Beach Broadcasting as part of that company’s acquisition deal with CBS Radio. It will be passed along to Liberty in a deal brokered by Star Media Group’s Peter Handy, who says its worth about $13M.
WMSF will become part of a cluster that also includes sports-talk WAXY-AM, classic hits WMXJ-FM and adult contemporary WLYF-FM.
“We are pleased to sell the station to Lincoln Financial Media, a quality broadcaster in South Florida,” said Dean Goodman, CEO of Palm Beach Broadcasting. “This is consistent with our desire to super-serve the Palm Beach County Market and our original plan for divestiture.”
“This is an exceptional strategic opportunity for us,” said Don Benson, President/CEO of Lincoln Financial Media. “We are big believers in sports-talk, and this acquisition both strengthens our cluster and gives us even better distribution of WAXY – “The Ticket” – throughout South Florida.”
The current WMSF is a Class C0 on 104.3 MHz with 100 kW @ 1,273’. It serves West Palm Beach, with a primary contour that makes partial inroads into the Miami market, making its southernmost impression between Hollywood and Miami.
If the station’s application to move to Miramar is approved, it will downgrade slightly to Class C1, with the same 100 kW but on a 928’ HAAT stick. From the new location it will fall just short of WPB to the north but will blanket the entire Miami urbanized area from a point of origin near Hollywood. Its southernmost impression will fall near Homestead.
