News of New Pope Rallies Spirit FM Listeners

Spirit FM 90.5 (WBVM) celebrated the news of the new pope nonstop Wednesday on its live radio show.

The 26-year-old station broadcasts to Catholics in the Tampa Bay area. It is able to do so via a 77,000-watt signal from a tower in Riverview.

Catholic followers not only heard the news of Pope Francis but listened in on a live press conference with Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg.

The radio station office is on the parish grounds of Christ the King Catholic Church in South Tampa, but its strong signal enabled 90.5 FM to share the good news in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. See the "coverage map" with this post.

The station shares the Riverview tower with Channel 3 (WEDU). It also livestreams its radio broadcast.

Spirit FM also kept followers informed via Facebook.

"We've got WHITE SMOKE!!!" Spirit FM radio station shouted (virtually) across the Interent via Facebook upon the announcement that Pope Francis is the new  chosen leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Radio Station Spirit FM offered blessings for the new pope on its Facebook page:

"God Bless Pope Francis I!!! :D May the Holy Spirit be with him and grant him wisdom!!" the station's organizers wrote on Facebook.

"Amen!" replied Beth Coger Casey just four minutes later. More than 130 people immediately "liked" this.

Spirit FM even helped Tampa Bay followers with an app that alerted followers when white smoke was rising from the Vatican:

"Want to be one of the first people to know when there's a new pope? Check out www.popealarm.com ...It's a pretty cool service from FOCUS (www.focus.org) that will actually text and/or email you when that white smoke rises! :)"