Carl Strube and Pete Falconi have an AM in Newburyport MA and a Sanford ME translator with permission to move there as well. But a deal for an AM in Sanford means that the duo and their Port Broadcasting LLC won’t be leaving the community behind.
The station is WPHX-AM, and its coming from FNX Broadcasting LLC, headed by Bradley Mindich. FNX will still have WFEX-FM Peterborough NH and WFNX-FM Lynn MA, serving Manchester VT and Boston MA, respectively.
WPHX is part of the Portsmouth-Rochester-Dover NH market, although it only gets its primary signal over the latter two communities. It puts a fringe signal over Portsmouth, and up to parts of Portland ME during the day, when its 1220 kHz facility operates with a full kW. It reduces to 234 Watts at night.
The price for the station will be $42.5K cash.
Port’s other station is WNBP-AM, in an unrated portion of the Massachusetts coast to the northeast of Sanford. A Class C in 1450 with 1 kW day and night, it meets the signal of WPHX only on the fringes.
Port also owns W292DY, an FM translator licensed to Sanford and said to hold a CP to move to Newburyport.
WNBP is a locally-programmed station – it calls itself The Legends and its website features photos of artists including the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ray Charles, The Beatles, Neil Diamond, Carly Simon, Norah Jones and Diana Krall, among others.
The buyer is proud of its local orientation, and provided bios of the two main partners in the company. We will pass them along to you:
* Port Broadcasting’s Carl Strube began his radio career in Maine when he was still in grade school. In fact, with his father’s help, Carl started broadcasting from his homemade radio station located in his bedroom. Those humble beginnings lead Carl to a real career in radio and on the air in Portland, Maine. Through the years, Strube was a radio personality and eventually became a well respected industry consultant working with radio stations all over the United States. When he wasn’t in radio, Strube was in the music business and owned a record company that produced several worldwide chart-topping songs, including number one hits in the US and Europe. Even with that outstanding success he never lost his love for radio and has come full circle as a partner in ownership of WNBP.
* The other managing owner is Pete Falconi who is no stranger to the world of radio broadcasting. Like Strube, Falconi began his career while still in high school and became a DJ on a local station near his home in Southborough, Mass. After ten years as a popular Top 40 DJ in Boston, Pete moved into the management ranks of radio, first in Portland, Maine, then Portsmouth, Worcester and back to Boston. Through the years Pete has gained the respect of radio industry leaders throughout the country and has won various awards and citations for radio programming and operations. Just prior to his purchase of WNBP, Falconi was Program Director of an FM station for CBS Radio and led the station to a number one ranking in Boston.
