Beasley Drops Rock, Bubba In Tampa

Beasley made some holiday season moves in the Tampa market by flushing the ratings-challenged Rock format on WBRN (No Rules Rock) and dropping the syndicated The Bubba the Love Sponge® Show. WBRN is currently stunting as “Santa 98.7,” treating its listeners to nothing but hours and hours of delightful commercial-free holiday music. A new format is expected to be revealed after the holidays.

Yesterday, Beasley released a formal statement, which read, “Beasley Media Group has decided to make a format adjustment on WBRN-FM in Tampa, Florida. As a result of this decision, The Bubba the Love Sponge® Show will no longer be carried by Beasley in the Tampa, Florida market. Beasley looks forward to continuing its relationship with Bubba and The Bubba the Love Sponge® Show on WRXK (96K-Rock) in Ft. Myers, Florida.”

These moves mark a major about-face from the heyday of WBRN’s 2014 launch when it was loudly and proudly branded as Bubba 98.7. In the fall of 2015, however, Bubba (who was an outside contractor and not a Beasley employee), famously ran into some trouble with Nielsen after Bubba was alleged to have attempted to unduly influence a local PPM user. That legal battle continues as we speak. Shortly thereafter, in December of 2015 WBRN dropped its Bubba branding in favor of the more generic “No Rules Rock.”

http://norulesrock.com