Cape Classical WFCC Being Sold To Christian Broadcaster

BREWSTER – Radio station WFCC-FM, which first broadcast nearly 40 years ago from studios in Chatham, and which was home to classical music programming and local public affairs information, is slated for sale to a Tennessee-based Christian broadcasting network.

 The 50,000-watt station transmits from a tower off Freeman’s Way, and once had its studios in Chatham and Brewster.

 Current owner Cape Cod Broadcasting Media is selling the station to K-Love, which operates a network of more than 1,000 Christian radio stations in the continental U.S. and beyond; it has four other stations in Massachusetts. The sale price is $362,000.

 The sale becomes final upon approval by the Federal Communications Commission, perhaps as early as next month. A final decision has not yet been made about the programming the new station will carry. K-Love generally provides contemporary Christian music, but its sister service AIR1 focuses on worship songs.

 “We are grateful for the opportunity to bring Christian music to a new audience in the Cape Cod area,” K-Love CEO Tom Stultz said. “We are dedicated to helping spread God’s message to expand His Kingdom and inspire people to move closer to Jesus.”

While Cape Classical is a commercial radio station, K-Love is a religious nonprofit that relies on donations for revenue.

 Cape Cod Broadcasting Media Owner Gregory Bone said his company was committed to keeping classical music on WFCC for the 19 years it has owned the station, as part of a longstanding commitment to support the local arts community. But advertising revenue for classical music stations tends to be lower than for other formats, he said.

 Bone cited the “rapidly changing media and economic landscape,” which made it impractical for CCB Media to continue operating WFCC. “Unfortunately, we no longer had the luxury to continue,” he said. 

 “We were able to carry it, and I have no regrets,” Bone said. “It was a painful decision to sell it.”

 CCB Media owns four stations that broadcast from its studios in Hyannis: WFCC Cape Classical 107.5, 99.9 The Q, Cape Country 104 and Ocean 104.7. CCB Media has 55 years’ experience operating local radio stations. It also has a robust digital advertising division.

 Supporting the arts has been central to Cape Cod Broadcasting’s philosophy, Bone said. The company was an early supporter of the Cape Cod Symphony and the annual Pops by the Sea event. When his company purchased WFCC, many in the industry expected a change to a more profitable radio format, “and we did not,” he said.

 WFCC first broadcast on March 24, 1987, from studios at 1455 Main St., West Chatham. Massachusetts First Lady Kitty Dukakis, whose husband was running for president at the time, threw the ceremonial switch to bring the station alive. The station was the brainchild of South Orleans resident Joseph A. Ryan, a former newspaper reporter who went on to write for NBC’s Today show before working at Channel 5 in Boston.

 Ryan operated the station with his wife Pauline and his adult children Kevin and Justine for the next five years, amassing a team of respected local broadcasters that included Chatham’s Jack Hynes, who read the news under the direction of Eric Hartell, the former editor-publisher of The Cape Cod Chronicle. Boston TV meteorologist Bob Copeland, who had a home in Eastham, did the weather reports. The station won the Mass. Broadcasters’ Association’s Radio Station of the Year Award in 1992, and at one point had the largest average market share of any classical music station in the U.S. 

 The station moved its studios to Main Street in Brewster in 1991, and the following year was sold to a New York investor who reduced its staff and eliminated most local programming. In 1996, the investor sold the station to Charles River Broadcasting, which then owned Boston’s WCRB. (Still a classical station, WCRB is now a nonprofit operated by public broadcaster WGBH.) Charles River Broadcasting initially operated WFCC as a satellite station, with offices in West Yarmouth. CCB Media purchased the station in 2008.

There continues to be an appetite for classical music on Cape Cod, Bone said. 

 “The thing about classical listeners in this market, they’re passionate and they’re knowledgeable and they communicate what they like and they don’t like,” he said. Bone thanked the station’s listeners for their support over the years. “At CCB, we were honored to have owned, operated and programmed Cape Classical,” he said.