WXEX-FM
WCDQ's logo from their website c. 1998
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| City | Sanford, Maine |
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| Broadcast area | Portland, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire areas |
| Branding | Classic Rock 92.1 |
| Slogan | Your Classic Rock Station |
| Frequency | 92.1 MHz |
| First air date | October 10, 1975 (as WSME-FM) |
| Format |
Classic Rock (WXEX simulcast) |
| ERP | 1,800 watts (Equivalent Effective Radiated Power = 6,000 watts) |
| HAAT | 156 meters (512 ft) |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 74067 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°25′11″N 70°48′9″W / 43.41972°N 70.80250°WCoordinates: 43°25′11″N 70°48′9″W / 43.41972°N 70.80250°W |
| Callsign meaning | taken from sister AM station WXEX, based out of EXeter |
| Former callsigns | WSME-FM (1975-1983) WEBI (1983-1986) WCDQ (1986-1999) WPHX-FM (1999-2011) |
| Owner | Aruba Capital Holdings, LLC (operated by Port Broadcasting LLC under a Local Marketing Agreement)) |
| Sister stations | WXEX |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wxexradio.com |
WXEX-FM (92.1 FM) is a radio station licensed to Sanford, Maine, United States, the station serves the Portland, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire areas. The station is currently licensed to Aruba Capital Holdings (based in Newburyport, Massachusetts) and currently simulcasts with WXEX 1540 AM from Exeter.
The station originally went on the air October 10, 1975 as WSME-FM, with an automated Drake/Chenault adult contemporary/oldies hybrid format. Later in 1986, WSME-FM became WCDQ, well known for its on-air staff, as well as creative programming. One such program was "Dead Tracks", an all-Grateful Dead program broadcast on Thursday nights at 10 PM. Another program was "Blue Monday", featuring all Blues music hosted by "The First Lady of Mt. Rialto" Sharon Small. Two other groundbreaking programs were "Mt. Rialto Redemption" a Reggae music show and "Local Chords" an opportunity for local, unsigned bands to get their material played on the radio hosted by Steve Biron, who also did afternoons. The show would later be hosted by Pete Casper "The Friendly DJ".
The station claimed that it broadcast from "The Summit of Mt. Rialto", a reference to the common name for movie theaters, popular in the 1930s through the '50s. It was sometimes called Mt. Rialto Radio. Another fictional locale often referenced by the station was "The Elegante Ballroom", a cavernous hall from which the station's lunch time show was supposedly broadcast. The ruse of the station's broadcast locale was so well done (complete with summit ski and weather reports) that occasionally students from the University of New Hampshire would travel to Sanford with the intent of hiking the fictitious mountain.
The weekend's arrival was heralded every Friday at 5 PM by playing "Switchin' To Glide" by The Kings.
The secondary tag line for the radio station was "The Theater of the Mind". This was based on the fact that WCDQ produced its own original radio plays, similar to "The Shadow" and "The Lone Ranger" radio shows from the 1930s and 1940s, before televisions were a common household item. WCDQ staff wrote original plays, together with original music, and performed them on the air. Radio plays included a Christmas story entitled "The Miracle of Mt. Rialto", a 1950s high school drama called "Young Lust", and a soap opera-style story called "The Web of Fate".
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Wikipedia