Get your radio scorecard out – and your free antenna.
Starting Tuesday, two popular southern and central Maine stations will undergo a radio shakeup that will jumble call letters, dial numbers and two very different musical tastes.
WCYY, known for hard alternative rock at 93.9, will start simulcasting the programming from 98.9 WCLZ, a soft rock, eclectic music station.
Fans of The Opie & Anthony Show can still catch it during the morning drive on 93.9 – that switch to soft rock won’t happen each day until 9 a.m.
Meanwhile Citadel Broadcasting Co. has named 94.3 the new WCYY – same music as before, same format.
The reason: Citadel has put both 93.9 and 98.9 up for sale.
The company had to sell two of its six radio stations in the local market because of its impending purchase of ABC Radio.
General Manager Mike Sambrook said there won’t be noticeable changes at 98.9 WCLZ until new owners arrive, and perhaps not even then.
The 94.3 signal, which had been a simulcast of 93.9 minus Opie & Anthony, reaches “well into L/A,” Sambrook said. “Augusta and north will really, really have to stretch to hear (it.)”
So the station’s offering free home antenna to improve reception, while supplies last. Sambrook said people are asking for them already. He declined to give a number on how many may be handed out.
The WCYY programs, promotions and concerts, nicknamed CYY Summer Camp this time of year, “are all a full go” at 94.3, Sambrook said.
“The confusion will come next week when people switch to 93.9 and say, ‘What the heck is this I’m listening to?'”
Both stations are being placed in a trust while they await a sale. Trusts can last up to six months, he said.
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