"The Legends" AM 1450 WNBP has been serving the Greater Newburyport area since 1957. Today it is owned and operated by Port Broadcasting, LLC. The
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e company is made up of three partners, Carl Strube, Peter Falconi and Bob Couture. Both Strube and Falconi have extensive backgrounds in the broadcating industry. Their stories are told below. Bob Couture is a successful, local businessman. There is a lot of history behind WNBP and some of it is covered on this page.
WNBP signed on the air in 1957 as a daytime only station at 1470 AM, owned by Puritan Broadcasting of Lynn Massachusetts. In 1982 the station moved to 1450 on the dial, added nighttime operation and changed call letters to WCEA. In 1987 the call letters were changed to WNCG and finally returned to WNBP in 1991.
There were a few different owners of WNBP throughout 70's, 80's and 90's. None made a bigger impact on WNBP than Radio Newburyport, LLC owned by Newbury native Robert "Doc" Fuller. Fuller along with partner J.J. Jeffries owned several other stations under their company name Fuller-Jeffries Broadcasting. In 1998 WNBP was a sole venture of Fuller with his longtime friend Al Mozier as General Manager. WNBP held a special spot in Fuller's heart. Bob was one of the very first disc-jockeys on the station when it originally signed-on 1957. After a tremendously successful career in national radio ownership and management, "Doc" Fuller was truly home again with his purchase of WNBP. From 1998 to 2001, many improvements to the station were made by Fuller and Mozier including purchasing all new studio equipment, a new transmitter and installing a new tower and ground system at the transmitter site on Ferry Road in Salisbury.
In September 2004, Fuller announced a deal had been reached to sell WNBP to Westport Communications. At the time of the sale, Westport Communications owned one other station, WBOQ-FM, Northshore 104.9. WNBP's studios were relocated to Beverly at the site of Westport's FM station.
In March of 2009 WNBP was sold by Westport Communications to it's current owners, Port Broadcasting, LLC. The station began broadcasting from it's new downtown Newburyport studios on March 13. The managing partners of Port Broadcasting knew the first order of business was to bring WNBP back to it's home... Newburyport.
Port Broadcasting's Carl Strube began his radio career in Maine when he was still in grade school. In fact, with his father's help, Carl started broadcasting from his homemade radio station located in his bedroom. Those humble beginnings lead Carl to a real career in radio and on the air in Portland, Maine. Through the years, Strube was a radio personality and eventually became a well respected industry consultant working with radio stations all over the United States. When he wasn't in radio, Strube was in the music business and owned a record company that produced several worldwide chart-topping songs, including number one hits in the US and Europe. Even with that outstanding success he never lost his love for radio and has come full circle as a partner in ownership of WNBP.
The other managing owner is Pete Falconi who is no stranger to the world of radio broadcasting. Like Strube, Falconi began his career while still in high school and became a DJ on a local station near his home in Southborough, Mass. After ten years as a popular Top 40 DJ in Boston, Pete moved into the management ranks of radio, first in Portland, Maine, then Portsmouth, Worcester and back to Boston. Through the years Pete has gained the respect of radio industry leaders throughout the country and has won various awards and citations for radio programming and operations. Just prior to his purchase of WNBP, Falconi was Program Director of an FM station for CBS Radio and led the station to a number one ranking in Boston.
Both Strube and Falconi believe that the best radio is local radio and are thrilled to be part of the WNBP team.
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