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Come Nov. 1, the owners of WOPP will operate WAMI in Opp.

Robert Boothe, owner of WOPP, said Friday that Covington Broadcasting Inc., and Opp Broadcasting Inc., entered into a lease-to-operate contract, effective Nov. 1, with a purchase of WAMI 102.3 upon approval of the FCC.

Boothe and Robert Breedlove are negotiating how to make the acquisition a smooth transition.

“I met with employees today,” he said. “We have made them more at ease. We still have a lot of things to work out, but now they know it has happened. We want to dispel rumors. We had not talked to the staff until today (Friday).”

Boothe said Covington Broadcasting was organized to bring better radio to the Wiregrass specifically stabilizing radio in Opp.

“We’ll be looking at other community in the near future,” he said. “We are open to investors. We had several investors come to us. We had not thought about doing that in the past. We can expand more quickly if we are open to investors.”

The operation of WAMI gives broader territory for WOPP programming, he said.

They will also be homogenizing some of WAMI’s program.

“We will continue Alabama and the SEC sports program. We will continue a lot of other thing WAMI does,” Boothe said. “We will begin simulcasting WOPP and WAMI, but we may separate for Alabama and Troy football.”

Boothe said the timeframe for FCC approval will be around five months.

“I’m just pleased to have this opportunity after 50 years in radio to seek some new ways,” Boothe said. “People are saying that conventional radio and newspapers are dying. That’s not so. We just have to adapt, rebrand and listen to the younger people. After all these years, radio still has a 92 percent reach over the course of the week. We have only lost 5 percent in approximately 10 years. Stay tuned for more updates on this project.”