“He publishes every Christmastime a new calendar — a beautiful, handsome 8×10 collection of full-color photographs for each month of the year and each benefits from Scott’s photographic artistry…”
Those are the words of the late Paul Harvey in 2002, eloquently describing the artwork that found its way onto the walls of more than a few broadcast engineers, managers and radio enthusiasts over the last 25 years.
But the 2026 Tower Site Calendar, published by Scott and Lisa Fybush, will also be the last.
Fybush, the Rochester, N.Y, native, cited the increasing costs for printing and mailing the calendars. He and wife, Lisa, have used local businesses for design and production.
With more than 30 years as a writer and proofreader, Lisa handles the calendar’s editing and has accompanied Scott on many of his broadcast site visits.
The calendars have featured approximately 300 different tower sites across the U.S. and Canada, each with a historical tidbit or note behind the site.
Notable dates in broadcast history, from sign-ons to sign-offs, are also included on various days of the month.
It is the ultimate calendar for the radio enthusiast. But all good things must come to an end.
Memorable moments
When Fybush, 53, started working on the calendar, his photos were still film-based. In fact, his first Tower Site calendar consisted of scans of 4×6 one-hour photo prints from his Pentax camera, he told us.
In 2003, the calendar went digital, via a Nikon D70.
Now, Fybush is on just his second Nikon, a D7000 that he describes as quite battered.
“But a few of the recent shots have come from the phone, because the quality has gotten so good and the wide-angle lens is wider than I can get with my current setup,” Fybush told Radio World.
This year’s cover features the Black Mountain tower farm outside Las Vegas, a site Fybush gets to see every year on the approach to Las Vegas International Airport for the NAB Show.
But which cover photo is his favorite?
“I’ve had a few I’ve really loved,” he said. “2023 showed KWRK(FM), one of the Navajo Nation stations atop a dramatic rock formation near their headquarters in Arizona. 2021 was another favorite, showing the WEJL tower atop the old Scranton Times building lit up with the Christmas lights they string on it every year.”
In 2022, Fybush even had the thrill of flipping the big switch to turn those lights on for the season.
Several of the older calendars are still available for purchase on his website.
An epic shout-out
Harvey’s on-air mention of the calendar, Fybush said, helped it as a fixture.
“It was the first year we had done it, in 2002,” he recalled. “At that point we didn’t know if it would just be a one-off or an annual project.”
But the venerable Harvey was in Rochester for the 80th anniversary of WHAM(AM). Fybush never worked for the station, but he had friends there who invited him to come over and hear Harvey speak.
There was a reception afterward and as he is wont to do, Fybush slipped Harvey a calendar in an envelope.
“A few days later, Jeff Howlett called me from WHAM and told me that I had to listen to Harvey’s noon show that day,” Fybush remembered.
And so there it was, Harvey exalting Fybush’s photo mastery. It sparked quite a bit of interest and orders, which ensured the calendar would become an annual tradition.
A face of radio
You don’t have to be connected to Western New York to know how wide-reaching Fybush’s contributions are to the radio industry, from journalism to station buildouts.
His Northeast Radio Watch has been a must-read for 30 years. He reported and hosted for Rochester’s WXXI(FM). He’s worked as a broadcast station broker and performs plenty of hands-on engineering work, too.
In fact, he told us he just installed two new transmitters at WLNG(FM) and WLIE(FM) on Long Island.
This year, his career entered the sales aisle — as since May, Fybush has worked as a North American sales and marketing representative for the UK-based Broadcast Radio’s Myriad software, spreading the word to U.S. and Canada broadcasters about its suite of tools.
“I never expected a career that started in radio and TV news to take the turns it has,” Fybush said.
You might even see him perform at an Empire State nightclub near you — he and Lisa produce “Comedy on Deck” shows.
At its core, though, he said it is all about getting to know station owners and managers and figuring out how to help them be more efficient.
But he won’t be leaving the calendar production business completely. Fybush Media is also selling The Radio Historian’s calendar, supplied by John Schneider’s collection of vintage photos.
There’s also been some talk, Fybush said, of a coffee-table book, which he felt would be the perfect way to put a cap on 25 years of photography.
For now though, try to get your hands on the last chance for the radio fan’s ultimate Christmas gift.
Leave it to Harvey to summarize things best.
“A collection of transmitter towers, a tower site calendar, which everybody admires, though perhaps only a fortunate few of us fully appreciate.”
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