Emmis Launches Bilingual La Exitosa 98.7 in New York

Emmis Corporation announced the launch of New York’s La Exitosa 98.7 FM/1190 AM, with a bilingual adult contemporary format, playing English and Spanish language hits from the 1980s through the 2000s. Now, Madonna, Ricardo Arjona, Prince, Shakira, Phil Collins, Chayanne and Bryan Adams share a new home. La Exitosa will provide more hits for listeners per hour with less talk and fewer commercials than any station in the market.

Longtime industry programming guru Mike McVay, who worked with Emmis on the station development and launch, noted the station’s primary audience. “The strong Dominican, Puerto Rican, Columbian, Mexican, and Ecuadorian communities in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are radio’s most passionate fans. Delivering the popular hit music these diverse communities grew up listening to, will provide a unifying listening experience New York has never heard before.”

While Emmis has taken steps to sell its radio station portfolio, Emmis Chairman Jeff Smulyan called the launch of the station an easy decision. “We’ve been trying to sell our last two stations in New York, but when ESPN/Good Karma moved to AM after the LMA, we thoroughly reviewed the New York market and saw a significant opportunity for a Spanish AC format playing English and Spanish hits from the 1980s to 2000s. We believe the opportunity was too good to pass up and have spent several months preparing for the launch.”

WEPN-FM aired a Hot AC format for the past several months and WLIB-AM was a long-time provider of gospel content.