WPEI (95.9 FM) is a WEEI Sports Radio Network station serving the

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

area. The station is owned by

Atlantic Coast Radio Atlantic Coast Radio, LLC is a radio company located in the state of Maine, owned by longtime broadcaster J. J. Jeffrey. It was incorporated in 1982 and has a staff count of approximately twenty. Prior to the current radio group, Jeffrey was a part ...

History

On July 18, 1982, WPEI signed on as WPIG with a country format and the slogan "Southern Maine's Country: FM-96 WPIG". In 1984, it became

hot adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

WHYR with slogans "Your Stereo", and then "R-96". In July 1990, WHYR flipped to

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...

as "96-HYR". In 1995, WHYR changed calls to WRED, but kept the same format and was known on air as "Red Hot 95" with the slogan "Portland's Hot Hits". Some time later, WRED went

rhythmic top 40 The Rhythmic chart (also called Rhythmic Airplay, and previously named Rhythmic Songs, Rhythmic Top 40 and CHR/Rhythmic) is an airplay chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The chart tracks and measures the airplay of songs played on ...

as "Red Hot 95.9" with the slogan "Maine's #1 for Blazin' Hot Hits". On August 31, 2008, at 6 PM, WRED dropped its

format after a farewell from station DJs (airstaff and listeners had been notified a week in advance). WRED and WJJB-FM (which was simulcasting The Big JAB) then flipped to programming provided by

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

's WEEI, with the simulcast of The Big JAB moving to 96.3 FM. (WGEI had initially planned to use the WTEI call sign, and for a week in September 2008 used the WUEI call letters.) The shift left the market with no hip-hop-based station. Up until April 1, 2009, WEEI's programming was also heard on sister station WGEI (95.5 FM), and the stations were known as ''WEEI on the 95's''. As of April 2009, WGEI is now simulcasting AM sister station

WLOB WLOB (1310 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Portland, Maine. The station is owned by Atlantic Coast Radio and airs a Talk radio format. The studios and transmitter are on Warren Avenue in Portland. WLOB operates at 5000 wa ...

, as WLOB-FM; that station eventually returned to simulcasting with WPEI in August 2011, and is now

WPPI WPPI (95.5 FM) is a sports radio station in the Portland, Maine area. The current owner is Atlantic Coast Radio. The station mostly carries the same programs as WEEI-FM from Boston. Some local commercials take the place of Boston commercials ...

Programming

WPEI does not carry

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

football. It does carry

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

basketball, as well as

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

baseball in tandem with The Big JAB. WPEI carries

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

when not airing WEEI; it had previously carried

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an American sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports division and iHeartMedia, parent company ...

(now on The Big JAB) and

Sporting News Radio SportsMap is a sports radio Radio network, network that is distributed by Gow Media. The SportsMap Radio Network supplies its network affiliates with a 24-hour schedule of sports programming, including call-in shows and sports updates. Over its h ...

(simulcast from The Big JAB, before WZAN dropped the FSR affiliation). WPEI has been the flagship station of the

Portland Sea Dogs The Portland Sea Dogs are a Minor League Baseball team based in Portland, Maine, playing in the Eastern League (1938–present), Eastern League. Established in 1994, the Sea Dogs are the Double-A (baseball), Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red ...

since 2012, taking over for WBAE/WVAE that year.

References

External links

WEEI official website
* {{ESPN Maine

PEI PEI or Pei may refer to: Places *Matecaña International Airport, Pereira, Colombia, IATA code PEI *Pei County (沛县), Jiangsu, China *Pei Commandery (沛郡), a commandery in Chinese history *Prince Edward Island, a province of Canada * Pei, ...

Sports radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1982

Saco, Maine 1982 establishments in Maine ESPN Radio stations