SALISBURY — After months of planning and setup, the town’s local cable access channel delivered its first live radio broadcast from its newly acquired station Thursday night.
“We started on the air from computerized playback on June 29, but last night was the first time we went live from our studio at 62 Elm St.,” Lance Wisniewski, executive director of Salisbury Community TV and Media Center, said Friday.
“It was an opportunity to bring together our staff and board members and the Tayles & Co. group to start actually using the studio,” he added.
SCTV announced the purchase of WXBJ Cool 94.1 FM from Good Neighbor Station Inc. for approximately $74,000 in March. Tayles & Co. broadcasts music and takes live callers each Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.
The transition of ownership came as part of a mutual agreement, with both parties applying to the Federal Communications Commission for the license transfer, according to a statement from SCTV.
The first live broadcast by SCTV was announced by DJ Chris Porter, who has volunteered at WXBJ for 10 years. The simulcast was hosted by John Housianitis, who has served on the SCTV board of directors since 2008 and as a part-time DJ at Cool 94.1 for several years.
Housianitis interviewed members of the SCTV board and staff before being followed by a live, on-air rehearsal conducted by Tayles & Co.
“It was very exciting and it went quite well,” Wisniewski said. “We have a challenge getting from the studio back through the internet to Town Hall and then from there to the water tower where we’re broadcasting, but that part went well.”
Wisniewski explained what it means for SCTV to now have its own station.
“We were created in 2008 as the Salisbury Community TV and Media Center, so the idea of other media was baked into the cake as they say,” Wisniewski said. “We think we can really extend the whole prospect of community service better through having this radio.”
SCTV Chairman Gil Medeiros thanked everyone for the work that went into making the first broadcast a success.
“Lance and his crew worked hard at getting it all set up and between that and Town Manager Neil Harrington got us the OK to use the water tower,” said Medeiros, the town’s newest selectman.
Wisniewski explained what to expect from the station.
“We’re really going to build on and depend on the format that was created by WXPJ Cool 94.1, which is primarily ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s music and that’s the vast majority of what we’ll do, but we’ll be able to punctuate that with a lot of good information about the community,” he said.
The new station also gives the nonprofit group more reach.
“With the antenna up on the water tower, we really have quite the range,” Wisniewski said. “It might even be better than the old WXBJ. So, we’re certainly an even broader community up and down on the coast and even out to parts of Haverhill and those neighborhoods.”
Matt Petry covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: mpetry@northofboston.com.