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NERW Update: Langer buys the Cape's WBUR AM 1240

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

via facebook by Fybush/NERW:
>>Alex Langer expands again with the purchase of WBUR 1240 AM to bring his Portuguese programming to Cape Cod. WBUR will still be available via WBUA 92.7 from Martha's Vineyard.

There used to be local programming on the old WOCB 1240 and also the Cape had an AM 1170
(now simulcasting WUMB, right?) WOCB had the Sox and for a time
1170 had Yankees.
 
http://www.boston.com/businessupdat...h-from-wbur/Xn88j1ERRbBiFlDJNXSECI/story.html

>>Earlier this year, WBUR acquired the 92.7 FM signal in Tisbury that was previously held by rock station WMVY. When WBUR began broadcasting its programming from the Tisbury tower, it said it no longer needed the AM signal in West Yarmouth. In a statement, WBUR general manager Charlie Kravetz said: “In February, when WBUR began simulcasting on 92.7 WBUA in Martha’s Vineyard, we recognized that our 1240-AM signal was redundant in its coverage. And so, we’re pleased the station will now go to Langer Broadcasting
 
I had heard rumors that Boston University would put WBUR-1240 up for sale, but I thought (until he bought a station in Augusta, Maine) that Bob Bittner was going to buy it.

The demographics of Cape Cod (the oldest median age of any area of New England) would have been perfect for 1240 to become a Cape Cod version of his Boston-area station WJIB-740.

But on the other hand, there has been a major increase in the Portuguese-American population on Cape Cod in recent years, so a simulcast of/similar format to WSRO-650 might also be successful.
 
As Langer says: "There is an appetite for more multi-cultural broadcasting in Massachusetts, especially in areas like Cape Cod where the Portuguese-speaking community is increasing every year.”

Years ago Edmund Dinis had a CP for a station in New Bedford (or somewhere near there--Dartmouth?) on 1270,
but I don't think it was ever built. Dinis, a prosecutor in the Ted Kennedy Chappaquiddick case, owned WJFD 97.3, which runs some kind of Portuguese programming. Maybe Dinis intended to put some kind of Sp.-lang stuff on the 1270.

Obit http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/us/21dinis.html?_r=0

WJFD:
http://www.wjfd.com/
>>WJFD 97.3 is the only 50,000-watts FM radio station in New England broadcasting in the Portuguese language 24/7/365. From its 600’ tower in the New Bedford area it reaches the various Portuguese communities located throughout Eastern New England from Salem, NH to Mystic, CT and the world via the internet. The 97.3 frequency has broadcasted in the Portuguese language from the mid 50’s, initially as WBSM-FM, then WGCY (1972-1975) and finally as WJFD-FM (1975-present).
 
Dinis did hold a CP for 1270 in N.Dartmouth, but the patterns the antenna system needed to protect 1270 New Hampshire,1280 Fitchburg, and 1290 in Providence would have been very tight. I think 1260 in Boston also had to be protected. And what really killed it was the NIMBY factor.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
I had heard rumors that Boston University would put WBUR-1240 up for sale, but I thought (until he bought a station in Augusta, Maine) that Bob Bittner was going to buy it.

The demographics of Cape Cod (the oldest median age of any area of New England) would have been perfect for 1240 to become a Cape Cod version of his Boston-area station WJIB-740.
Click to expand...

At WJTO-730 in Maine, we are repairing the ground system this week, and a new transmitter has just been delivered today. With a real good signal increase, I WILL have a station on the Cape.... WJTO.
 
I have a soft spot for the old WOCB 1240.

My parents had a cottage in West Yarmouth and one day I wandered down to the station and it was there I caught the broadcasting bug.

(BTW WOCB is where Fred Cusick started)

Langer on WSRO does Portuguese programming geared to people from Brazil. The Cape audience comes from New Bedford and is Portugal based.

Dinis's station actually had a decent audience in East Cambridge.

People forget that it isn't that far from New Bedford to the Bourne Bridge.
 
Fenway1912 said:
The Cape audience comes from New Bedford and is Portugal based.
Click to expand...

You're forgetting about a considerable segment of that audience with ties to the Azores Islands.

There's more to Portugal than just the portion of the Iberian Penninsula it shares with Spain.
 
JIBGUY said:
At WJTO-730 in Maine, we are repairing the ground system this week, and a new transmitter has just been delivered today. With a real good signal increase, I WILL have a station on the Cape.... WJTO.
Click to expand...

Are the ground-system repairs simply to reverse the ravages of time? Or was WJTO visited by copper thieves?
 
IIRC, 1270 can't be used in Dartmouth any more because of 1290 in Providence, RI's 10 KW power increase a few years ago.
 
Fenway1912 said:
The Cape audience comes from New Bedford and is Portugal based.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Over the past 15 years, the brazillian population mid-cape has exploded. Hyannis aka Brockton-By-The-Sea has a bunch of brazillian markets and even a couple churrascarias. I dont see a population migration of portuguese decendent people from New Bedford/Fall River.
 
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