Harvey Sheldon resurfaces after ~50 years

[A Joseph Ross]

On 9/27/2012 4:56 PM, Dan.Strassberg wrote:

> Most likely only two people on this list--Joe Ross and me--remember 
> Harvey
> Sheldon, the licensee of WUPY (later WUPI) 105.3 in Lynn. I think 
> WUPY/WUPI
> lived its entire short life in the early '60s, although its tower
> (reportedly somewhere near the Kowloon Restaurant) survived as a
> non-broadcast communications tower until its demise a few years ago. 

Ah yes, Harvey Sheldon.  I never understood why he changed the station's 
call.  Nor did I ever understand how it lasted without sponsors until I 
heard that he somehow persuaded Anthony of Anthony's Hawthorne, 
Hawthorne-by-the-sea, and the General Gloverhouse, restaurants which 
were mentioned frequently on the station, to bankroll the station.

> Some
> people have even remarked that WUPY/I played good music--big-band 
> jazz,(something that I absolutely don't remember). 

"Jazz 24-hours a day" was the slogan.  On "Wooppee radio."


> Well, Sheldon has survived--a
> testament to his vegetarian life style, I guess--and is the
> subject of a thread on the Radio-Info (now RadioDiscussions) Philadelphia
> board. He is reportedly a Philadelphia native and is running an Internet
> station that plays big-band jazz. I hope his Internet station sounds a 
> lot
> better than did the WUPY/I that I remember, which has to be the most
> sloppily programmed, amateurish "commercial" station I can ever remember
> hearing.

I think that most of the initial announcers were professionals, but the 
first time I heard Harvey Sheldon himself, broadcasting live on Saturday 
night from one of the restaurants, he sounded completely amateurish, 
rambling on ad infinitem.  But a year or so later, when the station 
returned to the air as WUPI after a period of silence, I heard him doing 
a DJ shift, and he sounded much better.

Was Sheldon the licensee?  I heard a story, circa 1964, by which time 
the station had ended, that he had conned Anthony into thinking it would 
be his station.  I don't remember who told me that, but it was someone 
at WMUA (I was in college by then) who had worked at the station at some 
point.  He also told me that the FCC had killed the channel assignment 
because of interference with some other station somewhere.

Ah, memories.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.|92 State Street|Suite 700|Boston, MA 02109-2004
617.367.0468|Fx:617.507.7856|http://www.attorneyross.com