RI Getting FM Sports/Talk Station

["Keith Fornal" <kfornal@loa.com>]

On Monday May 14th, RI will apparently be getting an FM Sports/Talk
station when WZRA 99.7 (Wakefield - Peacedale, RI) flips to WSKO-FM in a
partial simulcast with 790 The Score, WSKO Providence.  Right now, WZRA
is half of the all 80's "Z100" with WZRI (Middletown, RI).  Here is the
text from an email that was apparently sent today to the "Score
E-Squad:"

"To Score E-squad member: 

You have it first! You have the exclusive, major news that everyone's
been asking about for weeks. 

Starting Monday, the Score will now also be on 99.7FM. That's right
sportstalk on the FM dial at 99.7FM. Plus, you'll still get to hear the
Score where it's always been at AM 790. 

And with our new home at 99.7FM, it means we'll have EVERY New York
Yankees game from May 14th right up until the end of the season. You can
hear the Yankees every game on 99.7FM while still catching the Pawsox
every game on AM 790. 

Its sports talk that rocks right here on the AM 790 and 99.7FM the Score
starting this Monday. 

For many more details on our exciting MAJOR news, including more local
programming on the Score, listen to Coach and Gresh Thursday morning at
7:20am. 

Thanks for listening and thanks for being a member of the Score
E-Squad!"


Apparently the station will also break from its AM sister daily from
12pm to 2pm when it airs "The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly" which
seems rather odd for a sports/talk station.  Excerpt from the Providence
Journal website (5/9):

"Bill O'Reilly, the right-leaning, top-ranked cable television host,
debuted The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly nationwide yesterday.  In
this area, he's on WPRO-AM from 10 p.m. to midnight (on evenings when
WPRO broadcasts Red Sox games, O'Reilly will follow the game), WBSM-AM
in New Bedford from noon to 2 p.m. and WZRA-FM in Wakefield from noon to
2 p.m. As of Monday, WZRA will change to WSKO-FM, a simulcast of
sports/talk station WSKO-AM." 

http://www.projo.com/tv/content/projo_20020509_lefthosts.d0b47.html



Keith Fornal
Treasurer
Dutch Island Lighthouse Society
www.dutchislandlighthouse.org