Upon determining (11) a need to transmit a message (such as a paging message) to a mobile station within a multi-band wireless communications system, the system (via, for example, a mobile switching center) identifies (12) discrete geographic locations within the system having a likelihood of presently supporting the mobile station and further identifies (13) a band within the multi-band system that also has a present likelihood of presently supporting the mobile station. This information is then used (14) (for example, by a base station controller) to identify one or more communication resources to be allocated for use when transmitting the message.