Nassau Broadcasting Partners

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nassau Broadcasting Partners LP is a company based in Princeton that owns a group of radio stations. These AM and FM Radio stations are located in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. The Company is owned and headed by Louis F. Mercatanti. While the stations are in medium and small markets, Nassau owns a couple large market stations as well. The most used format is Classic Rock/Classic Hits, but they also own stations with other formats such as CHR, Adult Contemporary, Country, among others.

1 History
2 Current List Of Nassau Owned Radio Stations
3 Former Nassau Stations
4 External References

[edit] History

Nassau Broadcasting was founded by Herb Hobler with the acquisition of WHWH 1350 in Princeton. That station employed a full service MOR format. WHWH-FM was eventually launched and became WPST on 97.5 FM by 1975. WPST employed a rock based Top 40 format. WPST was one of the most successful medium market stations. Until the early 1990s WPST and WHWH were the only stations owned by Nassau.

In the early 1990s, Louis F. Mercatanti, a successful account executive and sales manager with the small company took over as general manager of WPST and WHWH. He eventually bought interest in the company and became outright owner. The raising of the ownership limits gave Nassau Broadcasting Partners room to grow and begin clustering in markets. Nassau's first acquisition was then- AC station 840 WVPO and Top 40 93.5 WSBG located in Stroudsburg in 1995. WSBG moved into a Pop Alternative format late in 1995 but returned to Top 40 by the Summer of 1996. WPST also moved into a Pop Alternative format in 1995 only to return to a CHR format by the end of 1996.

In the Spring of 1996, Nassau acquired then-Country music station 106.3 WHCY located in Blairstown which served Stroudsburg as well as the Sussex County, New Jersey radio markets. This station would for a few years remain a Country station. Shortly after Nassau went on a buying spree of radio stations.

In the Summer of 1996, Nassau would buy AM stations 1160 WOBM and 1310WADB in Monmouth County along with AC stations WJLK, WOBM-FM, and WQNJ (which became WBBO(now WKMK)). AM stations WOBM and WADB would become Adult Standards stations while WOBM-FM remained an adult contemporary station. WJLK-FM became a Pop Alternative based Hot AC station. In the Spring of 1997 WBBO left the WJLK simulcast and became B 98 and employed a CHR format. In the Fall of 1996 Nassau would acquire WNNJ and WNNJ-FM in the Sussex County market licensed to Newton, New Jersey. Early in 1997 WNNJ-FM would drop its Hot AC format in favor of a pop leaning Classic Rock format known as Classic Hits. WNNJ would drop Satellite Oldies in favor of Stardust, a satellite based Pop Standards format. At the end of 1997, Nassau also bought locally owned WSUS 102.3, which was and still is an Adult Contemporary radio station. Nassau also evolved WSBG to a Hot AC format.

Early in 1998 Nassau acquired Religious station WCHR 94.5 FM and Sports station WTTM serving the Trenton Market. The WCHR intellectual unit would move to the AM station while 94.5 became Oldies station WNJO. Nassau also began managing WDLC and WTSX located in Port Jervis and flipped WTSX to Oldies from AC and WDLC to Standards from Oldies. WTSX served Middletown, New York and the Sussex County markets while WDLC served Port Jervis. They also sold their Stroudsburg stations to Multicultural Broadcasting but continued managing them.

In 2000, Nassau agreed to acquire Aurora Broadcasting stations in the Southern New York state and Western Connecticut areas. They also agreed to buy Oldies 99.9 WODE and Sports 1230 WEEX in the Lehigh Valley market from Clear Channel Communications. On August 25 of 2000, WHCY dropped its Country music format in favor of CHR and became known as "Max 106.3". WSBG dropped its Hot AC format in favor of and 80's and 90's based Pop Adult Rock format.

But the company was losing money and was unable to get financing for WODE, WEEX, and Aurora Broadcasting. The Aurora deal was canceled that Fall. But when Clear Channel merged with AM/FM, they agreed to give Nassau WEEX and WODE plus some cash in exchange for WNNJ, WNNJ-FM, WSUS, and WHCY. Clear Channel also would get management contracts to run WDLC and WTSX. Nassau would keep LMA's for WVPO, WSBG, and WPMR (now WPLY) (and eventually buy them back outright).

So in February of 2001, the Sussex County cluster of stations would become Clear Channel stations. Nassau also sold the Monmouth County stations including WBBO, WJLK, WADB, and WOBM-AM-FM to Millennium Radio Group, LLC, which also owns WKXW New Jersey 101.5, a Talk station weekdays and a 70's based Oldies format on weekends.

Also in 2001, Nassau signed on WCHR FM in Monmouth County. That station employed a Classic Hits format but was eventually sold to Millennium Radio Group, LLC. Nassau was down to WHWH, WJHR, WCHR, WNJO, WPST, WVPO, WPMR, and WSBG. Except for WPST, Nassau's FM stations all had Rock based Classic Hits formats of some sort. AM stations had formats like talk, oldies, or sports. WPST was and still is a CHR station.

In 2002, Nassau began to grow with acquisitions of a bunch of New Hampshire stations. Later that year, Nassau added stations from Maine and Vermont. In 2004, Nassau added more stations from these areas as well as a few Maryland stations.

Still Nassau began decreasing presence in the New Jersey area. They shut down WHWH in the Spring of 2006. They also moved WPST's unit to 94.5 and the WTHK (formerly WNJO) Classic Rock unit to 97.5. They then swapped 97.5 FM Trenton to Greater Media for Boston's 99.5 FM which will employ a Classical music format as WCRB upon acquisition. FM 97.5 relocated closer to Philadelphia and became Smooth Jazz WJJZ, a format abandoned on 106.1 by Clear Channel.

Nassau also has sales pending to Axis Broadcasting of WVPO, WPLY, WSBG, WWYY, WODE, WEEX, WBYN, WTKZ, and WFKB. As of December, 2006, this sale has not been consummated. If or when it is, Nassau will be down to only several stations in the New Jersey region and none in Pennsylvania.

[edit] Current List Of Nassau Owned Radio Stations

MAINE 11 Stations FM - 9 AM - 2

Call Letters Frequency Name Location Format

WFNK - FM 107.5 Frank FM Lewiston Classic Hits
WTHT - FM 99.9 The Wolf Portland Country
WHXR - FM 106.7 The Bone North Windham Classic Rock
WHXQ - FM 104.7 The Bone Kennebunkport Classic Rock
WBQQ - FM 99.3 WBACH Kennebunkport Classical
WBQW - FM 106.3 WBACH Scarborough Classical
WBQX - FM 106.9 WBACH Thomaston Classical
WBQI - FM 107.7 WBACH Bar Harbor Classical
WBYA - FM 105.5 Frank FM Islesboro Classic Hits
WLAM - AM 1470 ESPN Lewiston Sports Talk
WLVP - AM 870 The Voice Gorham Air America Liberal Talk

MARYLAND 3 Stations FM - 2 AM - 1

WAFY-FM 103.1 Key 103 Frederick AC
WWEG-FM 106.9 The Eagle Hagerstown Classic Hits
WARK-AM 1490 WARK Hagerstown Talk

MASSACHUSETTS 3 Stations FM - 3 AM - 0

WPXC-FM 102.9 Pixy 103 Hyannis Active Rock
WFRQ-FM 101.1 Frank FM Mashpee Variety Hits
WFQR-FM 93.5 Frank FM Harwich Port Variety Hits
WCRB-FM 99.5 WCRB Boston Classical (formerly Country station WKLB owned by Greater Media which moved to 102.5 where WCRB's intellectual unit has been)

NEW HAMPSHIRE 11 Stations FM - 9 AM - 2

WWHQ-FM 101.5 The Hawk Meredith Classic Rock
WLNH-FM 98.3 WLNH Laconia Hot AC
WNNH-FM 99.1 WNNH Concord Oldies
WHOB-FM 106.3 Frank FM Manchester Classic Hits
WLKZ-FM 104.9 WLKZ Wolfeboro Oldies
WJYY-FM 105.5 WJYY Concord Top-40
WNHW-FM 93.3 The Wolf Belmont Country
WWHK-FM 102.3 The Hawk Manchester Classic Rock
WHDQ-FM 106.1 Q106 Claremont Classic Rock
WTSV-AM 1230 The Score Claremont Sports
WEMJ-AM 1490 WEMJ Laconia News/Talk

NEW JERSEY 5 Stations FM - 2 AM - 3

WPST-FM 94.5 WPST Trenton CHR
WCHR-AM 1040 WCHR Flemington Religious
WPHY-AM 920 WPHY Trenton ESPN Sports
WHWH-AM 1350 Silent Trenton Silent/off the air

PENNSYLVANIA 8 Stations FM - 3 AM - 5

WSBG-FM 93.5 WSBG Stroudsburg Rock AC
WWYY-FM 107.1 Lite 107 Stroudsburg AC
WODE-FM 99.9 The Hawk Allentown Classic Hits
WVPO-AM 840 WVPO Stroudsburg Oldies
WPLY-AM 960 WPLY Mt Pocono Oldies
WEEX-AM 1230 Sports Monster Allentown ESPN Sports
WBYN-AM 1160 Alive Allentown Religious
WTKZ-AM 1320 WTKZ Allentown ESPN Sports (change to oldies rumored)
WFKB-FM 107.5 Frank FM Reading Classic Hits

VERMONT 12 Stations FM - 9 AM - 3

WORK-FM 107.1 Work FM Barre Top-40
WWFY-FM 100.9 Froggy Berlin Country
WWOD-FM 104.3 Oldies 104.3 Hartford Oldies
WPLY-FM 96.3 WPLY Walpole Oldies
WXLF-FM 95.3 The Wolf White River Jct Country
WZLF-FM 107.1 The Wolf Bellows Falls Country
WEXP-FM 101.5 The Fox Brandon Classic Rock
WVAY-FM 100.7 The Fox Wilmington Classic Rock
WMOO-FM 92.1 WMOO Derby Center Adult Contemporary
WSNO-AM 1450 WSNO Barre Talk
WNHV-AM 910 The Score White River Jct Sports
WIKE-AM 1490 Stereo 1490 Newport Country

[edit] Former Nassau Stations

NEW JERSEY

WNJO/WTHK 94.5 (until 2005) 97.5 (2005-2006) Trenton Classic Rock (now Smooth Jazz WJZZ owned by Greater Media)
WNNJ 1360 Newton - Standards (now Oldies and owned by Clear Channel)
WNNJ-FM 103.7 Newton Classic Hits (now owned by Clear Channel and Classic Rock)
WSUS 102.3 Franklin AC (Now Owned by Clear Channel)
WHCY 106.3 Blairstown CHR (now Hot AC and owned by Clear Channel)
WOBM 1160 Long Branch Standards (Now owned by Millennium)
WADB 1310 Asbury Park Standards (Now Country and owned by Millennium)
WCHR-FM 105.7 Toms River Classic Hits (Now owned by Asbury park Press)
WBBO 98.5 Toms River CHR (now Alternative and owned by Asbury Park Press)
WJLK-FM 94.3 Asbury Park Hot AC (Now Owned By Millennium)
WOBM-FM 92.7 Toms River AC (Now Owned by Millennium)
WRDR 104.9 Egg Harbor Country 2003-04, Smooth Jazz 2004-05, Classic Hits Since 2005 (now owned by Millennium)