Norsan Media, which has built a formidable collection of radio, television, newspapers, events, social media and digital marketing assets in the Southeast,
has given the growing Hispanic market of Jacksonville, Fla., a Latin Urban FM.
WYKB-FM, at 105.3 FM, is the home for the format, as first predicted by Radio + Television Business Report.
Norsan in April agreed to purchase WYKB from Neal Ardman‘s NIA Broadcasting, at a price tag of $1 million, RBR.com reports.
Jacksonville’s diverse Hispanic community continues to grow, and Norsan’s presence in the market already includes WNNR-AM & WVOJ-AM, billed as “La Raza 92.9” thanks to FM translator W225BI. La Raza targets the regional Mexican audience.
Co-owned WEWC-AM & WJXR-FM, billed as “Latina 92.1,” offers a Spanish Contemporary format with a much broader Latino audience target.
WYKB is now targeting Hispanics of Caribbean descent with a Tropical or Latin Urban presentation. This puts Norsan in competition with iHeartMedia, which operates two Spanish-language FM translators — “Rumba,” modeled after WRUM/Orlando; and regional Mexican “El Patron.”
“We continue to look for ways to engage with the growing Hispanic audience in the U.S., and the new station will fill a gap in the Latin Urban genre in the city,” said Natalia Sanchez, Norsan Media’s President.
Norsan Media CEO Norberto Sanchez added, “We have a special connection to Jacksonville, since this is where we launched our first radio station. We have been researching the market for some time and believe now is the right time to expand there.”
Norsan Media’s holding company, NORSAN, owns and operates 18 restaurants including Frontera Mex-Mex Grill, Luciano’s Ristorante Italiano, Pampas Steakhouse and
Frankie’s the Steakhouse, La Capital MX, H & W Steakhouse and operates the 1818 Club. It also owns Prime Meats, which provides high-quality meats to restaurants and grocery stores on the Eastern Coast of the US.
In 2004, NORSAN launched Norsan Media, which currently owns over 30 radio stations, 3 TV stations, and weekly regional digital and printed publications.