A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to select a plurality of antenna elements of an antenna array, such as to match the angular spread of the antenna array to a deployment scenario, thereby increasing the effective beamforming gain. In the context of a method, a plurality of antenna elements of an active antenna array are selected by separately selecting first, second and third pluralities of antenna elements and obtaining measures of first, second and third signals based upon transmission or reception of signals by the first, second and third pluralities of antenna elements, respectively The method additionally includes processing the measures of the first, second and third signals and determining a sub-army of antenna elements of the active antenna array to be utilized based on the processing of the measures of the first, second and third signals.