WDCS-FM 97.9 ("A Cultural Oasis") Station Finder card....

[Time Traveler]

Back in 1980....when I worked at Rock station WLOB-FM 100.9 in Portland....I found what even than was clearly a very old promotional FM station finder card for classical station WDCS-FM in our studio building. I remember seeing these from time to time in the Boston area during the late 60s and early 70s. However....in 1980....some of these stations listed on the WDCS Portland card already didn't exist....and many that were on the air at that time....in 1980...obviously didn't exist when WDCS published its promotional card. In fact....WDCS swapped frequencies with Top 40 station WJBQ 106.3 in 1980....swapping their 50kw 97.9 facility for JBQ's 3kw 106.3 facility....to raise some quick cash...So....what historians out there can give an approximate timeline of when Portland's FM dial looked like this????? I am guessing this is probably right around 1970...

93.9-WCOU-FM
94.9-WMTW-FM
95.3-WJTO-FM
97.9-WDCS-FM
98.9-WCME-FM
101.9-WPOR-FM
102.9-WGAN-FM
105.5-WNWY-FM

 

[ray ting]

I think you've got the year pretty much on the nose, Time Traveler.

WNWY-FM, which is listed on the card, signed on in 1970. WIDE-FM in Biddeford, which almost certainly would have been listed on this card had it been on the air, signed on in 1972, if memory serves.

So somewhere between 1970 and 1972 is probably your answer.

 

[Time Traveler]

I think you've got the year pretty much on the nose, Time Traveler.

WNWY-FM, which is listed on the card, signed on in 1970. WIDE-FM in Biddeford, which almost certainly would have been listed on this card had it been on the air, signed on in 1972, if memory serves.

So somewhere between 1970 and 1972 is probably your answer.

And what ever became of WNWY-FM??? By 1980...it didn't exist....105.9-WIGY was around at that time...and I assume that it must have replaced WJTO-FM....

 

[Mainedude2007]

I think you've got the year pretty much on the nose, Time Traveler.

WNWY-FM, which is listed on the card, signed on in 1970. WIDE-FM in Biddeford, which almost certainly would have been listed on this card had it been on the air, signed on in 1972, if memory serves.

So somewhere between 1970 and 1972 is probably your answer.

And what ever became of WNWY-FM??? By 1980...it didn't exist....105.9-WIGY was around at that time...and I assume that it must have replaced WJTO-FM....

Pretty sure it upgraded and became what is today Dick Gleason's country 92.7 WOXO

 

[ray ting]

Correctomundo, Mainedude. Don't know why the WNWY move was made, though. Was it in coordination with WTOS' Summer of '72 move to Sugarloaf? The required spacing between WTOS at 105.1 and WNWY at 105.5 would have been close. IIRC, when it moved down to 92.7, WOXO was still a 3kw equivalent Class A, so I don't *think* there was any significant signal improvement for them.

Another factoid about the "Oasis" card: WJTO did not sign on its FM until some time in 1971, so now we've narrowed down the publication date of that card even further.

 

[Time Traveler]

Interesting stuff....Thanks for narrowing down this 30+ year mystery!!!!!

 

[Dusty Dale Brooks]

I worked at rocker WLOB-AM in 1970 when the FM was classical during the daytime and then due to FCC regs at that time simulcast the AM between midnight and 6A. I'll always remember that the phone would light up in the FM studio just seconds after midnight, practically every night. Had to have been a shock for those classical listeners.

At that time they were indeed 97.9, but right about then they were spun off to a company named Dirigo Broadcasting. They were also religious at times in fact the station was a hodge-podge of classical, schlock, and religion if I remember.

But the guy who could tell us the true story is Rick Snyder, the Internet Radio Coach. He was PD of WLOB at that time. Take it away, Rick!

http://internetradiocoach.net/

 

[Time Traveler]

I'm not Rick...but....Dirigo was the company that sold 97.9-WDCS to the owners of WJBQ in 1980....picking up 106.3 and some cash in return. Dirigo ran a mix of religion and classical on 97.9 during the entire time that they owned it...apparently. They were still doing so in 1980. I understand that one major reason that they became so cash strapped was that they invested heavily in the late 1970s to put highly directional 5 kw 1590-WDCI on the air in the Portland market. When they swapped 97.9 for 106.3...They initially went classical 100% of the time on 106.3....and programmed all the religion on 1590. That didn't last long....and religion soon appeared again on 106.3-WDCS. In 1982...1590-WDCI was sold....becoming Oldies station WASY. In 1986....97.9-WJBQ was sold.....becoming WWGT and later on WCST. Almost simultaneously.....WASY became WJBQ....still Oldies....but now satellite delivered. 1590-WJBQ eventually went dark....and the WJBQ call letters returned to 97.9 in 1997. 106.3-WDCS was sold in 1988 becooming WPKM and later on WBQW....still classical.....until flipping to Rock as WHXR in 2008....