WXEX-FM

WXEX-FM
City Sanford, Maine
Broadcast area Portland, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire areas
Branding Classic Rock 92.1
Slogan Your Classic Rock Station
Frequency 92.1 MHz
First air date October 10, 1975[1] (as WSME-FM)
Format Classic Rock
(WXEX simulcast)
ERP 1,800 watts (Equivalent Effective Radiated Power = 6,000 watts)
HAAT 156 meters (512 ft)
Class A
Facility ID 74067
Transmitter coordinates 43°25′11″N 70°48′9″W / 43.41972°N 70.80250°W / 43.41972; -70.80250Coordinates: 43°25′11″N 70°48′9″W / 43.41972°N 70.80250°W / 43.41972; -70.80250
Callsign meaning taken from sister AM station WXEX, based out of EXeter
Former callsigns WSME-FM (1975-1983)
WEBI (1983-1986)
WCDQ (1986-1999)
WPHX-FM (1999-2011)
Owner Aruba Capital Holdings, LLC (operated by Port Broadcasting LLC under a Local Marketing Agreement))
Sister stations WXEX
Webcast Listen Live
Website wxexradio.com

WXEX-FM (92.1 FM) is a radio station licensed to Sanford, Maine, USA, the station serves the Portland, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire areas. The station is currently licensed to Aruba Capital Holdings[2] (based in Newburyport, Massachusetts) and currently simulcasts with WXEX 1540 AM from Exeter.

History

WCDQ's logo from their website c. 1998

The station originally went on the air October 10, 1975[1] as WSME-FM, with an automated Drake/Chenault adult contemporary/oldies hybrid format. Later in 1986, WSME-FM became WCDQ, well known for its on-air staff, as well as creative programming. One such program was "Dead Tracks", an all-Grateful Dead program broadcast on Thursday nights at 10 PM. Another program was "Blue Monday", featuring all Blues music hosted by "The First Lady of Mt. Rialto" Sharon Small. Two other groundbreaking programs were "Mt. Rialto Redemption" a Reggae music show and "Local Chords" an opportunity for local, unsigned bands to get their material played on the radio hosted by Steve Biron, who also did afternoons. The show would later be hosted by Pete Casper "The Friendly DJ".

The station claimed that it broadcast from "The Summit of Mt. Rialto", a reference to the common name for movie theaters, popular in the 1930s through the '50s. It was sometimes called Mt. Rialto Radio. Another fictional locale often referenced by the station was "The Elegante Ballroom", a cavernous hall from which the station's lunch time show was supposedly broadcast. The ruse of the station's broadcast locale was so well done (complete with summit ski and weather reports) that occasionally students from the University of New Hampshire would travel to Sanford with the intent of hiking the fictitious mountain.

The weekend's arrival was heralded every Friday at 5 PM by playing "Switchin' To Glide" by The Kings.

The secondary tag line for the radio station was "The Theater of the Mind". This was based on the fact that WCDQ produced its own original radio plays, similar to "The Shadow" and "The Lone Ranger" radio shows from the 1930s and 1940s, before televisions were a common household item. WCDQ staff wrote original plays, together with original music, and performed them on the air. Radio plays included a Christmas story entitled "The Miracle of Mt. Rialto", a 1950s high school drama called "Young Lust", and a soap opera-style story called "The Web of Fate".

Logo used between August 2011 until August 20, 2015

The station was owned by Donald Crown, who sold the station to Phoenix Media/Communications Group. It became WPHX-FM and began simulcasting WFNX, from the Boston, Massachusetts, radio market in the summer of 1999. Phoenix Media/Communications Group announced a sale of the station to Aruba Capital Holdings, licensee of WXEX in Exeter, New Hampshire, in May 2011.[2] In August 2011, Aruba Capital Holdings took over the station and switched it to its current simulcast with WXEX.

On April 14, 2015, Port Broadcasting LLC, owner of WWSF in Sanford, ME and WNBP in Newburyport, MA (and their respective FM translators) began operating WXEX and its AM simulcast partner in Exeter under a local marketing agreement.[3]

On August 20, 2015, WXEX-FM and its sister AM station shifted their format from classic hits to classic rock, branded as "Classic Rock 92.1".[4]

On August 31, 2015, the WXEX stations merged with the Port Broadcasting stations and Garrison City Broadcasting's WTSN and WBYY to form Coastal Radio Partners, with Port Broadcasting assuming immediate oversight of all stations in the partnership.[5]

Former DJs

Two photographs from the end of days of Mount Rialto:
http://www.timepassagesnostalgia.com/rontoth/wcdqparty1.jpg
http://www.timepassagesnostalgia.com/rontoth/wcdqparty2.jpg

References

  1. 1 2 Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1999 (PDF). 1999. p. D-201. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "The Boston Phoenix regional network is about to shrink". Radio-Info.com. May 9, 2011. Retrieved May 9, 2011.
  3. ↑ Port Broadcasting To LMA WXEX AM/FM radioINSIGHT, April 14, 2015
  4. ↑ WXEX Shifts to Classic Rock
  5. ↑ Local radio stations merge to form new broadcast group Judi Currie, Fosters Daily Democrat, August 31, 2015
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