Even after station sale, WCAP will remain the talk of Lowell
By Clea Simon
Globe Correspondent | August 17, 2007
The more things change, the more they stay the same -- at least at WCAP-AM (980). For the first time in the Lowell station's 56-year history, it is being sold and will be run by someone other than the founding Cohen family. But the new owner, a seasoned Boston-area radio veteran, has pledged to continue the station's distinctive local talk format, and to beef up community content as well as the quality of the 5,000-watt station's transmission.
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"After 56 years, it's about time, isn't it?" asks Maurice Cohen, who founded WCAP in 1951 with his brothers, Ike and Ted, both now deceased. Announced by Cohen on air Monday morning, the sale (for more than $2.5 million) will transfer the station to a group of investors known as Merrimack Valley Radio LLC, led by Andover-based radio consultant Clark Smidt. If no problems arise, the Federal Communications Commission should approve the sale by October
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Cohen, an octogenarian who will only give his age as "over the hill," adds that due to health reasons, it was the right time to sell. "I need a hip replacement, and I'll be laid up for about six weeks," he says. But timing is not the only reason that Cohen is selling WCAP. The AM outlet -- which went on air in June 1951 with 1,000 watts, bumping up to 5,000 in 1980 -- has been sought by other buyers over the years. In fact, Cohen was entertaining another offer when Smidt first contacted him two years ago. "But I learned that the other party was going to turn it into an ethnic station," says Cohen. Even though the other suitor "sweetened the offer," says Cohen, he chose to sell to Smidt. "I wanted to keep it local and keep it English language. There's only one other media [outlet] here, the Lowell Sun." With his station, he says, "the people have another voice. If there is only one media, sometimes the other side is never heard. We try to get both sides out." Although the station has live local programming only part of the time, 6-9 a.m. and 3-6 p.m. weekdays and on some weekend shows, it has become a regular stop for Lowell politicians and leaders, such as former congressman and current UMass-Lowell chancellor Marty Meehan.
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There is nothing in writing that says Smidt will keep the format, the language, the Lowell Devils hockey coverage, or even the call letters. But Smidt, who is joined in this venture by Chelmsford real-estate agency owner Sam Poulten, local developer Brian McMahon, and others, says that retaining the talk format makes business sense.
"Good local radio is good local radio," says Smidt, who has recently consulted with Worcester talk station WCRN-AM (830) and helped put together Concord, N.H., talk station WTPL-FM (107.7). Lowell, he says, should be able to support a talk station. "It's the fourth-largest city in Massachusetts," he says.
Michael Harrison, editor of the Springfield-based trade magazine Talkers, agrees. "Talk, more than any other format, lends itself to generating advertising revenue on the local level," Harrison says. "WCAP remains a viable broadcasting property in the Boston metropolitan area."
Once his group takes over, Smidt says, he hopes to add to the local talk shows. He may also replace syndicated shows, such as Jerry Springer (10 a.m.-noon weekdays), as the station reaches beyond the Lowell base to "super serve the Merrimack Valley."
But first, Smidt says, "we want to work on the infrastructure." That includes "making sure the transmitter facility is brought into this century. We want to make sure that what people hear at home is good."
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.