merrimack valley branding 980 wcap slogan the voice of the valley everybody gets it frequency 980 khz first air date june 10 1951 format full service talk oldies power 5 000 watts class b facility id 49416 transmitter coordinates 42 39 16 n 71 21 43 w 42.65444 n 71.36194 w 42.65444 ; 71.36194 wcap affiliations abc news radio owner merrimack valley radio llc webcast listen live website www.980wcap.com wcap 980 am is a radio station licensed to serve lowell massachusetts usa . the station is owned by merrimack valley radio llc . the station s studios are located on central street in lowell . contents 1 history 2 programming 3 references 4 external links history edit wcap began commercial broadcasting in 1951 after a five year licensing odyssey that saw the station s city of license proposed hours of operation output power and call letters changed at various points during the proceedings . originally station head israel ike cohen sought a license at 1210 khz in lawrence and was granted the call letters wabw . however when the call letters wcap became available cohen took those calls and later won approval to amend his application to seek 980 khz which was ultimately granted a construction permit in the spring of 1949 as part of a regional arrangement under which the brockton enterprise won approval to increase the power of its wbet from 250 to 1000 watts at 990 khz the station later moved to 1460 to add nighttime service and a mutually exclusive application for 980 in newport rhode island was denied and dismissed for reasons including lack of candor on the part of that applicant . when the family that owned the lawrence daily eagle and evening tribune newspapers appeared poised to win approval for an upgrade of its station wlaw to 50 kw on 680 khz now occupied by wrko cohen sought and received approval to move the station license from lawrence to lowell which at the time was home to only a 250 watt station wllh . the original investors in wcap were cohen and his brothers theodore and maurice each with 20 % ray goulding of bob and ray fame and his brother philip an announcer at wmgm in new york city where israel cohen worked as an engineer each with 5 % and engineer ralph floyd 30 % . ray goulding was station manager and phillip goulding served as program director . ray hosted occasional afternoon programs . ray goulding was active in working to get the station on the air appearing at a meeting of the lowell planning board to advance an argument in favor of a transmitter and studio location that was rejected . the gouldings were ousted from their positions in a stockholders meeting on september 10 1951 three months after the station went on the air . phillip goulding was quoted by the lowell sun newspaper of sept. 11 1951 as saying the ousters came as a shock and the brothers planned to contest it however they sold their interest in the station to the cohen brothers . 1 the newspaper reported that the day following the firing of the gouldings the daytime only station signed on two hours late as employees staged a sick out . ray who had been born in lowell pulled the first air shift on wcap and ike cohen kept a signed copy of the program log in his office for the rest of his life . it was goulding s first on air appearance on a lowell station under his real name ; he had previously worked at wllh as dennis howard taking the air name to avoid confusion with phillip who was an established news announcer in boston at the time . the station was the third to bear the call letters wcap the original sign on for both of the others in asbury park new jersey now wadb and in washington d.c. now defunct were voiced by sportscaster ted husing . israel cohen at the time a broadcast engineer at wmgm in new york secured husing s services for the third wcap sign on . israel cohen ran the station until his death in 1998 and was succeeded by his brother maurice . a deal to sell the station was made in august 2007 approved by the federal communications commission fcc on september 25 2007 and the transaction was consummated on november 21 2007 . 2 the station is now owned by merrimack valley radio llc . 3 in early 2011 the two primary partners in the station clark smidt and sam poulten were involved in a legal dispute over operation of the station with both claiming that the other partner put wcap in financial danger . 4 the dispute ended on june 28 when poulten agreed to purchase smidt s 55 percent stake in the station giving him full ownership . 5 programming edit during the week wcap broadcasts a news talk radio format including both local and national talk programs . 6 wcap s seasonal programming also includes live broadcasts of lowell spinners baseball high school football and basketball matchups and umass lowell river hawks hockey . from january to june 2015 the station broadcast the howie carr show weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m the station dropped the show in favor of progressive talk radio host jeff santos . nights and weekends the station broadcasts an oldies format called beatles & before . references edit http newspaperarchive.com lowell sun 1951 09 11 page 24 application search details bal 20070810aal . fcc media bureau . november 21 2007 . http www.broadcastideas.com wcap news.htm savard rita february 4 2011 . wcap partners take station battle to court . the sun . retrieved february 7 2011 . myers jennifer august 11 2011 . wcap to get new owner sam poulten . the sun . retrieved august 11 2011 . station information profile . arbitron . external links edit official website query the fcc s am station database for wcap radio locator information on wcap query nielsen audio s am station database for wcap v t e radio stations in boston including eastern massachusetts by am frequency 590 650 680 740 800 850 890 950 9802 10301 10602 1090 1120 1150 1200 12302 1260 1300 1330 1360 13902 1410 1430 14602 3 1470 14902 1510 1550 15702 1600 by fm frequency 88.1 88.9 89.7 90.3 90.9 91.5 91.5 91.52 91.5 91.7 91.9 92.52 92.9 93.7 94.5 95.3 95.92 96.9 97.7 98.5 99.12 99.5 99.9 100.1 100.7 101.7 102.5 103.3 104.1 104.52 104.92 104.9 105.7 106.7 107.32 107.9 via fm subcarrier 67 khz radio maria estados unidos spanish talking information center radio reading service tnt radio boston vietnamese 92 khz radio voie du salut haitian creole english religion by noaa weather radio frequency 162.425 162.475 digital radio by frequency & subchannel 1030 1430 88.9 1 89.7 1 89.7 2 89.7 3 90.9 1 92.9 1 92.9 2 94.5 1 94.5 2 96.9 1 96.9 2 97.7 1 97.7 2 97.7 3 98.5 1 98.5 2 98.5 3 100.7 1 100.7 2 100.7 3 102.5 1 103.3 1 104.1 1 104.1 2 104.1 3 104.1 4 105.7 1 106.7 1 106.7 2 107.3 1 107.3 2 107.3 3 107.9 1 107.9 2 by callsign khb35 waaf2 wamg watd2 watd fm2 wazn wbix wbmx wbnw2 wboq2 wbos wbqt wbrs wbur fm wbwl wbz wbz fm wcap2 wcec2 wcrb weei weei fm wers wesx2 weze wgbh whhb whrb wild wjda wjib wjmn wkaf wklb fm wkox wlyn wmbr wmex wmfo wmjx wmln fm wmvx2 wmwm wng574 wntn wods wplm2 wplm fm2 wqom wrbb wrca wrko wrol wror fm wsro wumb fm wuml2 wunr wwdj wxks wxks fm wxlo2 wxrv wzbc wzbr wzlx wzly internet stations wbcn radiobdc defunct stations wdis wfnx wgi warc massachusetts radio markets boston cape cod new bedford fall river springfield worcester other massachusetts radio regions pittsfield see also list of radio stations in massachusetts manchester radio 1 clear channel stations with extended nighttime coverage . 2 a station from a neighboring market that serves boston and area and is considered a boston station by nielsen radio . 3 station is silent . v t e news talk radio stations in the state of massachusetts by callsign wbec wbix wbmx hd4 wbnw wbsm wbz wcap wcrn wgaw whmp whmq whnp whyn wmex wpkz wrko wsar wtag wvbf wxks wxtk by frequency 560 580 680 830 980 1030 1120 1200 1240 1260 1280 1340 1400 1420 1420 1480 1510 1530 1600 95.1 104.1 4 by community of license boston boston boston boston boston concord east longmeadow fall river fitchburg gardner greenfield lowell middleborough center new bedford newton northampton pittsfield springfield west yarmouth worcester worcester see also adult contemporary classic hits college country news talk npr oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in massachusetts retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wcap am & oldid 717944461 categories radio stations in massachusettsnews and talk radio stations in the united statesradio stations established in 1951media in middlesex county massachusettslowell massachusetts navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export 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