Dennis Jackson provided Radio World with details about a new “pop-up” radio experiment targeting Vermont’s Champlain Valley.
102.9 WEXP(FM), licensed to Westport, N.Y., resumed broadcasting on Nov. 22. The station targets the Burlington, Vt., market across Lake Champlain. It’s owned by Jackson’s Sun Signals.
Formerly known as WCLX, the station had been silent for 11 months and filed multiple STAs with the FCC during that time. Jackson explained that Chip Morgan, the former general manager, and Maria Slattery, the station’s former assistant general manager, left to acquire 101.5 FM in Brandon, Vt., which had the call sign WEXP at the time and is now WMUD(FM). 102.9 returned to the air with the WEXP calls on Nov. 22.
WEXP’s transmitter is a Harris Platinum Z5 driving a Shively 6813-3R antenna array on Ainger Hill on the west shore of Lake Champlain in Westport. Jackson says from the center of radiation 700 feet above the lake, you can see Burlington. The Class A FM signal runs 6 kW ERP.
Jackson says the station is using light, tri-band audio processing via a Nicom Jupiter on the gentlest setting. “It’s barely doing any work, just controlling peaks,” he told Radio World. “We find that leaving sharp rise times intact, particularly of percussive waveforms, generally leads to a perception of greater loudness than squashing and clipping everything in multiple segments of the audible spectrum.”
Jackson said he identified eight different genres he feels are underrepresented on Burlington radio, including free-form album rock, classic country, retro oldies and standards. Vermont Broadcasting Hall of Fame member Russ Kinsley is heard in the mornings with his “Album Station” program, originating from Musicheads.net at his home in Middlebury, Vt. Most other WEXP programming is produced remotely, fed into its StationPlaylist automation software from Jackson’s home in Wilton, Conn.
He described the station’s ninth format as silence. WEXP signs off from 1 a.m.–6 a.m. each night to help reduce its environmental footprint.
His ultimate goal with the experiment is to attract the attention of a prospective buyer. “You can’t touch a small home in Burlington for what it will sell for, so it’s ideal for a solo entrepreneur who wants to get into radio,” he said. Jackson can be reached via email at wwdj@mail.com for more details.
