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Radio stations retune WDLC, WTSX are under new management By BETH KALET Staff Writer PORT JERVIS – Listen up Port Jervis. The times, they are a changing. The city's long-standing radio stations, WDLC 1490AM and WTSX 96.7FM, are under new management. The Princeton, N.J.-based Nassau Broadcasting Partners Inc. entered an agreement Aug. 7 with station owner Robert Wein that permits the firm to manage the Port Jervis stations. Nassau will handle all operating budgets and advertising sales for a period of several years; the current staff will stay in place. "We will be running the station as if we owned it, although he (Wein) is still the owner,'' explained Joan Gerberding of Nassau Broadcasting. "We have an option to purchase the station,'' she said. The agreement, which also pays Wein a monthly stipend, will remain in effect for about two to three years, she said. Neither Nassau Broadcasting nor Wein would discuss financial terms of the deal. Some changes will be made to the formats, though neither would say at this point. The AM station now plays oldies; the FM plays adult contemporary music. "The Wein family has been part of the radio station since before the radio station went on the air July 4, 1953,'' Wein said. That first broadcast was of a Soapbox Derby down Jersey Avenue. Wein's father, Oscar, and Sidney Sakofsky, a local businessman and former mayor, bought the station in 1956. In the early '70s, they added the FM station, and Robert Wein, now president of Port Jervis Broadcasting Co., later bought the station. He had been working at the station most of his life - "almost since the beginning,'' said his wife Eileen, who is corporate vice president and station manager. "We all wear a million hats,'' Wein said. There are seven full-timers and several part-timers at the station. The deal took only three months to put together, Wein said, though he was first approached by Nassau Broadcasting Partners some three years ago. The acquisition of WDLC and WTSX brings to 17 the holdings of Nassau Broadcasting. "This expansion rounds out our northwest coverage strategies and is our first small step into the lucrative New York state market,'' said Louis S. Mercatanti Jr., president and CEO of Nassau Broadcasting. The firm's other area stations include WSUS-FM in Sussex, N.J.; WNNJ-AM/FM in Newton, N.J.; WHCY-FM in Blairstown, N.J.; and WVPO-AM/WSBG-FM in Stroudsburg, Pa. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
