The old WUPY Lynn tower?

[Ted Larsen]

Hi Joe, Here's another "flaky story."

When my partner, Dan Friel and I bought WCEA in Newburyport in 1987 it 
sounded WORSE than..." your typical 10W high-school station sound totally 
professional!" it was that bad.

'CEA was owned by Cambridge City Councillor William "Bill" Walsh and a 
couple of partners who let a bunch of kids operate it horribly. They 
apparently  never visited or listened to it. Ad revenues for 1986 were 
$3,500 (Really). Walsh is the same guy who was convicted of Federal bank 
fraud in the '90's.

We cleaned up the sound, changed the calls to WNCG  (Newburyport, The Coast 
and Gloucester) "Your Coastal Home Companion" to widen our service area and 
regained local support. It had been considered the "town joke radio 
station."

Win Damon bought it from us in 1989 and changed the calls back to the 
original WNPB. Bob Fuller owned it for awhile and then "Woody" Tanger. I 
understand it has recently changed hands again.

Regards,
Ted

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com>
To: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 1:18 AM
Subject: Re: The old WUPY Lynn tower?


> On 18 Jun 2009 at 10:58, Dan.Strassberg wrote:
>
>> WUPY's owner was a real flake--a guy named Harvey Sheldon, who
>> obtained a CP for and built a Class B on (IIRC) 95.5 in Miami. He
>> moved the WUPY calls to Miami and got WUPI for the Lynn station. I
>> believe he eventually lost both licenses as a result of some
>> infraction of FCC rules--I can't remember what, but I could believe
>> just about any story I heard. WUPY/WUPI sounded SO bad on the air, it
>> made your typical 10W high-school station sound totally professional!
>
> Apparently he managed to pursuade Anthony Athanas to bankroll the
> station at the beginning, and every hour's newscast was "brought to
> you by" three named Anthony's restaurants.  There also was a Saturday
> night show hosted by Harvey Sheldon originating from one of the
> restaurants.  I remember that he sounded incredibly amateurish, but
> the announcers at all other times sounded professional.
>
> I heard the station at least once after its hiatus (I seem to recall
> it was off for several months), and Harvey Sheldon was hosting a
> Saturday morning airshift and sounding much more professional.  I at
> least give him credit for being able to learn.
>
> Later, when I got to UMass and WMUA, someone there told me that
> Harvey Sheldon had somehow conned Anthony into thinking he was going
> to own the station.  He also told me that he had worked at the
> station when it shut down.  He said that just after the final signoff
> and shutdown, a bolt of lightning fried the transmitter.
>
> He also told me that after the station went dark, the FCC killed the
> channel assignment because of interference with some other station.
>
> -- 
> A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
> 92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax 617.507.7856
> Boston, MA 02109-2004                    http://www.attorneyross.com
>
>
>
>