WPPI (95.5 FM) is a

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

in 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 current owner is

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 ...

. The station mostly carries the same programs as

WEEI-FM WEEI-FM (93.7 Hertz, MHz) – branded SportsRadio 93.7 WEEI-FM – is a commercial Sports radio, sports Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to Lawrence, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by ...

from Boston. Some local commercials take the place of Boston commercials. And some WEEI-FM game broadcasts are substituted with

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 ...

. WPPI also carries

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universities, flagshi ...

Black Bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

football and ice hockey, and

Portland Pirates The Portland Pirates were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). Their home arena was the Cross Insurance Arena in downtown Portland, Maine. The franchise was previously known as the Baltimore Skipjacks fr ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

.Pirates Announce New Radio Home
/ref>

History

The 95.5 frequency began operations in 1993 as WPME, simulcasting a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

format with 96.7 WCME from

Boothbay Harbor Boothbay Harbor is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,027 at the 2020 census. It includes the villages of Bayville, Sprucewold, and West Boothbay Harbor. During summer months, the entire Boothbay Harbor regio ...

(now

WBQA WBQA is a non-commercial FM broadcasting, FM classical music radio station located at 96.7, owned by Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation and licensed to Boothbay Harbor, Maine. The station serves Mid Coast, Mi ...

). A year later, the station converted to an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...

format as WXGL-FM. Atlantic Coast Radio purchased the station in 1999, and in January 2000, the station switched to an

adult album alternative Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, 2 ...

format as WCLZ. A few months later, WCLZ adopted a

sports talk Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...

format, initially as a simulcast of WJAE; the next year, the station took the call letters WJJB-FM. On August 25, 2008, WLOB-FM was converted to a simulcast of WJJB (which WJAE had become by that time), resulting in WLOB's programming being heard only on the AM signal. This was part of a shuffle of Atlantic Coast Radio's FM stations as a result of the conversion of two of its stations, including WJJB-FM, on September 1, 2008 to simulcasts of WEEI. Shortly after the completion of these format changes, 95.5's call letters were changed to WGEI (it had initially planned to use the WTEI call sign, and for a week in September 2008 used the WUEI call letters). On April 1, 2009, WGEI converted to a simulcast of WLOB; it became WLOB-FM a few days later. In August 2011, WLOB-FM returned to simulcasting WEEI. On September 7, 2011, WLOB-FM changed their call letters to WPPI.

References

External links

* * {{WEEI Sports Radio Network PPI Sports radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1993 PPI Topsham, Maine 1993 establishments in Maine ESPN Radio stations