Just in time for the fall election season, progressive talk and local music station XRAY.FM is going to get heard in a lot more places in the Portland metro area.

Right now, the 91.1 FM signal is fairly weak -- with a range that primarily covers an audience of 170,000 in northeast Portland, mostly centered on the Gateway District.

After picking up the 107.1 FM signal from MetroEast Community Media, XRAY will add all of Portland west of I-205, Beaverton, Tigard, Lake Oswego, and Milwaukie -- a total coverage of an audience of some 750,000.

That means a lot more access to Carl Wolfson, Jefferson Smith, Adam Klugman, Thom Hartmann and the rest of the progressive talk crew at XRAY.

In the deal, MetroEast CEO Rob Brading will join the board of XRAY. Brading, you will recall, was my personal "Man of the Year" back in 2006 -- when he ran for the Oregon House against then-Speaker Karen Minnis. He lost in a close race, but the million dollars she spent beating him meant that we picked up four seats -- to win a one-seat majority, and put Jeff Merkley in the Speaker's chair. And the rest is history.

Big props to Brading, Jefferson Smith, Jenny Logan, and the rest of the crews at MetroEast and XRAY for putting this together.

Check out the new coverage map: