WCAP (AM)

Last updated

WCAP
WCAP-AM logo.png
Broadcast area Merrimack Valley
Frequency 980 kHz
Branding980 WCAP
Programming
Format Full service (talk/oldies)
Affiliations WCVB
Ownership
Owner
  • Sam Poulten
  • (Merrimack Valley Radio, LLC)
History
First air date
June 10, 1951
Technical information [1]
Licensing authority
 FCC
Facility ID 49416
Class B
Power 5,000 watts
Transmitter coordinates
 42°39′16.33″N71°21′41.22″W / 42.6545361°N 71.3614500°W / 42.6545361; -71.3614500 (WCAP)
Links
Public license information
Webcast Listen live
Website www.980wcap.com

WCAP (980 AM) is a radio station licensed to serve Lowell, Massachusetts, United States. The station is owned by Sam Poulten through the holding company Merrimack Valley Radio, LLC. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Lowell.

Contents

History

WCAP began commercial broadcasting in 1951 after a five-year licensing odyssey that saw the station's city of license, proposed hours of operation, output power and call letters changed at various points during the proceedings.

Station head Israel "Ike" Cohen established Northeast Radio Inc. in 1946. [2] He sought a license at 1210 kHz in Lawrence and was granted the call letters WABW. However, when the call letters WCAP became available, Cohen took those calls, and later won approval to amend his application to seek 980 kHz, which was ultimately granted a construction permit in the spring of 1949 as part of a regional arrangement under which the Brockton Enterprise won approval to increase the power of its WBET from 250 to 1,000 watts at 990 kHz (the station later moved to 1460 to add nighttime service), and a mutually exclusive application for 980 in Newport, Rhode Island, was denied and dismissed for reasons including lack of candor on the part of that applicant. When the family that owned the Lawrence Daily Eagle and Evening Tribune newspapers appeared poised to win approval for an upgrade of its station, WLAW, to 50 kW on 680 kHz (now occupied by WRKO), Cohen sought and received approval to move the station license from Lawrence to Lowell, which at the time was home to only a 250-watt station, WLLH.

The original investors in WCAP were Cohen and his brothers Theodore and Maurice, each with 20%, Ray Goulding, of Bob and Ray fame, and his brother Philip, an announcer at WMGM in New York City, where Israel Cohen worked as an engineer, each with 5% and engineer Ralph Floyd, 30%. Ray Goulding was station manager and Phillip Goulding served as program director. Ray hosted occasional afternoon programs. Ray Goulding was active in working to get the station on the air, appearing at a meeting of the Lowell Planning Board to advance an argument in favor of a transmitter and studio location that was rejected. The Gouldings were ousted from their positions in a stockholders meeting on September 10, 1951, three months after the station went on the air. Phillip Goulding was quoted by the Lowell Sun newspaper of September 11, 1951, as saying the ousters came as a shock, and the brothers planned to contest it, however they sold their interest in the station to the Cohen brothers. [3] The newspaper reported that the day following the firing of the Gouldings, the daytime-only station signed on two hours late as employees staged a sick-out. Ray, who had been born in Lowell, pulled the first air shift on WCAP, and Ike Cohen kept a signed copy of the program log in his office for the rest of his life. It was Goulding's first on-air appearance on a Lowell station under his real name; he had previously worked at WLLH as Dennis Howard, taking the air name to avoid confusion with Phillip, who was an established news announcer in Boston at the time.

The station was the third to bear the call letters WCAP; the original sign-on for both of the others, in Asbury Park, New Jersey (now WOBM), and in Washington D.C. (now defunct) were voiced by sportscaster Ted Husing. Israel Cohen, at the time a broadcast engineer at WMGM in New York, secured Husing's services for the third WCAP sign-on.

Israel Cohen ran the station until his death in 1994 [2] and was succeeded by his brother Maurice. A deal to sell the station was made in August 2007, approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on September 25, 2007, and the transaction was consummated on November 21, 2007. [4] The station is now owned by Merrimack Valley Radio, LLC. [5]

In early 2011, the two primary partners in the station, Clark Smidt and Sam Poulten, were involved in a legal dispute over operation of the station, with both claiming that the other partner put WCAP in financial danger. [6] The dispute ended on June 28, when Poulten agreed to purchase Smidt's 55-percent stake in the station, giving him full ownership. [7]

After having operated from studios on Central Street in Lowell since its 1951 sign-on, [8] WCAP moved to a street-level studio on Market Street in 2019. [9]

Programming

During the week, WCAP broadcasts a news/talk radio format including both local talk programs and the nationally syndicated progressive talk shows The Thom Hartmann Program and The Stephanie Miller Show . [10] WCAP also airs simulcasts of the morning and evening newscasts from WCVB-TV. Nights and weekends, the station broadcasts an oldies format called "Beatles & Before". WCAP's seasonal programming also includes live broadcasts of high school football and basketball matchups, and UMass Lowell River Hawks hockey.

WCAP carried the Lowell Lock Monsters and Lowell Devils hockey teams from the franchise's inception in 1998 [11] until 2009, when the broadcasts moved to Boston-based WWZN. [12] The station added Lowell Spinners baseball to its sports programming in 2003, replacing Lawrence-based WCCM as the team's flagship station. [13] The station nearly lost the rights to the Spinners to WUML in 2005; a dispute between the University of Massachusetts Lowell and WUML's student programmers resulted in WCAP signing a new two-year contract with the team. [14] Spinners broadcasts moved to WLLH in 2007, but returned to WCAP the following season, after the station's sale; [15] it would continue to broadcast games until the team was dropped from Minor League Baseball in 2021.

The station conducts an annual radiothon to benefit the Salvation Army each December. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lowell Spinners</span> Defunct minor league baseball team in Massachusetts

The Lowell Spinners were a baseball team based in Lowell, Massachusetts. From 1996 to 2020, they were members of Minor League Baseball's New York–Penn League (NYPL) as the Class A Short Season affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. With Major League Baseball's reorganization of the minor leagues after the 2020 season, Lowell was not selected to continue in affiliated baseball.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WUML</span> Radio station in Massachusetts, United States

WUML is a non-commercial college radio station licensed to Lowell, Massachusetts, United States. The station is owned by the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The transmitter is atop Fox Hall on Pawtucket Street in Lowell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WXKS (AM)</span> Radio station in Newton, Massachusetts

WXKS – branded Talk 1200 – is a commercial conservative talk radio AM radio station licensed to Newton, Massachusetts, serving the Greater Boston area. Owned by iHeartMedia, WXKS serves as the Boston affiliate for Fox News Radio, The Glenn Beck Program, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, The Sean Hannity Show and The Mark Levin Show; and the home of syndicated personalities Bill Handel, Ron Wilson, Gary Sullivan and Leo Laporte. The WXKS studios are located in the Boston suburb of Medford, while the station transmitter resides in Newton. Besides its main analog transmission, WXKS streams online via iHeartRadio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WEPN (AM)</span> ESPN Radio station in New York City

WEPN is a sports radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned-and-operated by Good Karma Brands and its transmitter site is located in North Bergen, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WINS (AM)</span> All-news radio station in New York City

WINS (1010 kHz) is a commercial, all-news AM radio station licensed to New York, New York owned by Audacy, Inc. The station brands itself "1010 WINS", with its call sign phonetically pronounced as "wins". WINS's studios are located in the combined Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood in lower Manhattan, and its transmitter is located in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.

WCRB is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Lowell, Massachusetts, which serves the Greater Boston area. It broadcasts classical music. The station's studios are located in Brighton, and its transmitter is located west of Andover.

WFME is a currently silent non-commercial AM radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned by Family Radio, a Christian radio network based in Franklin, Tennessee. The station ceased broadcasting on March 4, 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WKLB-FM</span> Country music radio station in Waltham, Massachusetts

WKLB-FM is a country radio station licensed to Waltham, Massachusetts, and serving Greater Boston. WKLB's studios are located in Waltham. The transmitter is located in Needham, on a tower shared with WBUR-FM and several TV stations serving Boston and beyond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WLLH</span> Radio station in Lawrence, Massachusetts

WLLH is a commercial radio station in Lawrence, Massachusetts, serving the Merrimack Valley region. The station is owned by Gois Broadcasting, LLC, and airs a tropical music radio format. The transmitter site is on Common Street, near the Lawrence Police Department Headquarters.

WOFX is a radio station licensed to Troy, New York. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and runs a sports format and is the Fox Sports Radio affiliate for the Capital District, Adirondacks, and Berkshires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WJAG</span> Radio station in Norfolk, Nebraska

WJAG is a commercial radio station broadcasting a talk radio format. It is licensed to Norfolk, Nebraska, and covers parts of Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. It was founded in 1922 by the Huse Publishing Company, publisher of the Norfolk Daily News, and since 1956 to a subsidiary, WJAG, Inc. The studios are at 525 Norfolk Avenue in the newspaper headquarters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WMOS</span> Radio station in Connecticut, United States

WMOS is a classic rock radio station that targets the Connecticut and Rhode Island coastlines from New London, Connecticut, to Wakefield, Rhode Island and it is licensed to Stonington, Connecticut. It broadcasts at 102.3 MHz with 3 kilowatts ERP from a tower located in Westerly, Rhode Island. The station is owned and operated by Cumulus Media and is "powered by Mohegan Sun", the casino in Uncasville. The Mohegan Sun casino also hosts the station's studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WVEI (AM)</span> WEEI sports radio station in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

WVEI is an AM sports station in Worcester, Massachusetts, operating with 5,000 watts. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc. Most programming is provided by Boston sister station WEEI-FM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WLAN (AM)</span> Radio station in Pennsylvania, United States

WLAN is a commercial AM radio station licensed to serve Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. through licensee iHM Licenses, LLC, and airs a Spanish tropical music format.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WPKX</span> Radio station in New Hampshire, United States

WPKX is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Rochester, New Hampshire, that broadcasts a sports radio format, largely supplied from Fox Sports Radio. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and serves the Portsmouth-Dover-Rochester media market, also heard in Southern Maine. WPKX broadcasts at 5000 watts around the clock from a transmitter off Route 108 in Rochester. To protect other stations on 930 kHz, WPKX uses a directional antenna at night.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WKXL</span> Radio station in New Hampshire, United States

WKXL is a radio station broadcasting a talk radio format. Licensed to Concord, New Hampshire, United States, the station serves the Concord area. The station is currently owned by New Hampshire Family Radio LLC, itself owned by former Senator Gordon J. Humphrey, and features programming from AP Radio and Bloomberg Radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WSRO</span> Radio station in Massachusetts, United States

WSRO is a radio station broadcasting a jazz music format with a digital-only transmission on a standard AM band frequency. Licensed to Ashland, Massachusetts, it serves the MetroWest area. The station is owned by Alex Langer. WSRO also operates translator station W271CU in Framingham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WHAV-LP</span> Radio station in Haverhill, Massachusetts

WHAV-LP – branded 97.9 WHAV – is a non-commercial low-power radio station licensed to serve Haverhill, Massachusetts. Owned by Public Media of New England, Inc., WHAV-LP services the immediate Merrimack Valley and considers itself the successor station to the original WHAV, also licensed to Haverhill, and transmits from WHAV's original 1947 transmitter site; however, the original WHAV continues operations to this day as WCCM. Besides a standard analog transmission, WHAV-LP's audio is also carried, in part, by a number of public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable television stations, and is available online.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WNNW</span> Radio station in Massachusetts, United States

WNNW is a commercial radio station licensed to Lawrence, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1947 as WCCM, the station is owned by Costa-Eagle Radio Ventures, LP, a partnership between Pat Costa and the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune newspaper. WNNW airs a Spanish-language tropical music format.

WMGM-FM was a radio station in New York City, broadcasting on 100.3 MHz. It was owned by Loew's, Inc., a subsidiary of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio alongside radio station WMGM, which was previously WHN. One of New York's earliest FM outlets, WMGM-FM broadcast from 1942 to 1955.

References

  1. ↑ "Facility Technical Data for WCAP". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. 1 2 Smith, Denise (November 21, 1994). "Deaths" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable . p. 79. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Lowell Sun Newspaper Archives, Sep 11, 1951, p. 24". September 11, 1951.
  4. ↑ "Application Search Details (BAL-20070810AAL)". FCC Media Bureau. November 21, 2007.
  5. ↑ "WCAP has New Ownership". Archived from the original on January 8, 2008.
  6. ↑ Savard, Rita (February 4, 2011). "WCAP partners take station battle to court". The Sun . Retrieved February 7, 2011.
  7. ↑ Myers, Jennifer (August 11, 2011). "WCAP to get new owner: Sam Poulten". The Sun. Retrieved August 11, 2011.
  8. ↑ Fybush, Scott (June 16, 2006). "WCAP 980, Lowell, Massachusetts". Tower Site of the Week. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  9. 1 2 Melanson, Alana (December 12, 2019). "WCAP Radiothon for Salvation Army this Saturday". The Sun . Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  10. ↑ "Station Information Profile". Arbitron.
  11. ↑ Fybush, Scott (August 27, 1998). "Mergers and Spinoffs". North East RadioWatch. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  12. ↑ Fybush, Scott (October 5, 2009). "Jim Nettleton, RIP". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  13. ↑ Fybush, Scott (May 12, 2003). "Kingston Focuses on Blink". NorthEast Radio Watch. Archived from the original on July 9, 2003. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  14. ↑ Lafleur, Michael (June 11, 2005). "Spinners back with WCAP radio". Lowell Sun. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  15. ↑ Minch, Jack (November 3, 2007). "Spinners baseball broadcasts returning to WCAP next summer". Lowell Sun. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.