City Brandon, Vermont Frequency 101.5 MHz | Branding 101 The One First air date 1999 | |
Broadcast area Greater Rutland County, Vermont Slogan "Welcome home to the music you love." | ||
WEXP (101.5 FM) is a radio station licensed to Brandon, Vermont, that broadcasts a full service adult contemporary format with an effective radiated power of 350 watts with a directional antenna located atop "Grandpa's Knob" near Castleton, Vermont. It brands "101 The One." WEXP is owned by Radio Vermont Group, which is controlled by former NASCAR broadcaster Ken Squier. 101 The One is also broadcast on WCVT.
Contents
Programming
101 The One airs a variety of music programs that are produced by the station, and play classic hits and album cuts from the 70s, 80s and early 90s. The station's morning show is called Wake Up 101 with Lana Wilder. That is followed by Allentown with Frankie Allen, The Edge of Knight with Jim Knight, and Chill Out 101 with Mister Mellow. The One's weather comes from meteorologist Roger Hill, who is also the forecaster for WEXP's sister station, WDEV. 101 The One features news updates at 7:00 and 8:00 AM, as a part of the Radio Vermont News Network, which broadcasts for seven minutes on all Radio Vermont Group Stations (WEXP, WCVT, WDEV, and WLVB). 101 The One's weekend programming consists of 101 Weekends with Matt Kelly, who plays music that is similar to what is heard on weekdays.
History
The station's construction permit was originally owned by Tim Hoehn, Gary Savoie, and local resident Michael Carr who wound up selling a controlling interest to Jeff Shapiro. Although the transmitter is located a distance from Brandon, the tower site on Grandpa's Knob, in Castleton, Vermont, was the only place that would suffice to get a city grade signal over the majority of Brandon. An FCC waiver permitted this operation. A story in the Rutland Herald depicted a large type balloon being raised over a hilltop in Pittsford to depict how high a proposed tower could be. What made the story enticing was that a series of hunters shot the balloon down, since the people there did not want a tower erected in their town.
WEXP went on the air in April 1999 under "Program Test Authority" from the FCC with no sales staff, no disc jockeys and only a Technics CD player play the same constantly repeating dance music CD with a legal ID imbedded, calling itself "Express 101". A contract engineer, Neil Langer, was the keeper of the operation, and kept the stations public file at his residence. Langer built the facility where the station is currently housed in the Howe Center complex in Rutland. In October 2000, WEXP began to simulcast its signal over WVAY 100.7 (now WTHK) in Wilmington, Vermont and its translator W284AB Jamaica, Vermont.
On May 16, 2000, at noon, WEXP, 101.5 FM in Rutland, VT, became Classic Rock 101, The Fox. The very first song played was "Long Live Rock" by The Who.
The station's initial lineup included the syndicated Imus In The Morning show. Alicia Ty hosted the midday slot. Baker (from the famous Mason and Sheehan Show in Albany NY) was the first program director and afternoon host. John Roberts was hired a bit later, and handled the nighttime programming. "The Janitor" was around for the overnights, and was platooned with "Rachel Lee" in the overnight lineup. "Blade Michael" was the stations first part time announcer hired, and remains with the station to this day. The station became very popular in a short amount of time. A $1.01 Gas promotion at a Citgo gas station in Fair Haven, Vermont that brought in hundreds of vehicles, and lots of traffic in a three hour time span was a major catalyst in establishing the station quickly as a major player in the local marketplace.
Several early disc jockey's at the station have moved on to other stations such as Baker going to launch the former WRCZ, "Moose" Waters KAZR Des Moines, Iowa and "Sloppy" Joe going to KDAT in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The station's signal is directional to the southwest since it is short spaced to WNYQ 101.7 Glens Falls, NY and slightly to the southeast to protect WRSY 101.5 in Marlboro, Vermont. At one time, all three radio stations were owned by Vox Radio Group. The original allocation for the Brandon, Vermont frequency was 101.9 FM, and was moved to its current 101.5 frequency when WCVR-FM in Randolph, Vermont upgraded from a class A at 102.3 FM to a class C3 at 102.1. The original call sign for WEXP was WADT, which was used from 1993 to 1998, though the station never made it on the air under the WADT calls. The WEXP calls were previously used on WKOL Plattsburg, New York until 1995, and on WSGN-FM in Gadsden Alabama from 1975 until 1984.
WEXP, along with 29 other Nassau stations in northern New England, was purchased at bankruptcy auction by Carlisle Capital Corporation, a company controlled by Bill Binnie (owner of WBIN-TV in Derry), on May 22, 2012. The station, and 12 of the other stations, would then be acquired by Vertical Capital Partners, controlled by Jeff Shapiro; however, as this would put Shapiro over the Federal Communications Commission's ownership limits in the Lebanon-Rutland-White River Junction market, WEXP and WWOD would be acquired by Electromagnetic Company, a company controlled by William and Gail Goddard. Simulcast station WTHK was not included in this deal and would remain with Shapiro. This transaction was consummated on November 30, 2012, with the WEXP/WWOD portion valued at a price of $600,000. On December 10, 2012, Scott Fybush reported that Radio Vermont paid $475,000 to buy the station. WEXP's simulcast on WTHK ended on January 22, 2013; that station now simulcasts WXXK. The sale to Radio Vermont was completed on March 15, 2013.
On June 12, 2014, Radio Vermont announced that WEXP would drop the classic rock format and launch an undisclosed music format branded as "101 The One" on July 1. The newest format is simulcast with WCVT (101.7 FM) in Stowe, and features what Ken Squier describes as "a new adult service local to Vermont."