Hello, WFNX; Goodbye, WJDA and WESX

Readers of these photo essays will be aware of the correlation between the appearance of new photo galleries and the travels of a certain Mr. Fybush. So it is with this brief jaunt around the Boston area. Scott's 30-month-old daughter, Ariel, is a big fan of Clifford, the Big Red Dog. A licensed stage production, "Clifford the Big Red Dog Live!", is presently touring the continent, and stopped at Boston's Opera House for the weekend of March 25th. Scott and Lisa decided to come to Boston so Ari could see her favorite character on stage.

It turned out to be an auspicious time: in February, it was announced that two long-time locally-owned suburban stations, WJDA and WESX, were to be sold to Principle Broadcasting Network, a new company controlled by Charlie Banta's Mercury Capital Partners, for $4,000,000. Just a few weeks later, we learned through our friend Mike Fitzpatrick of NECRAT that WFNX's new antenna had been sighted atop One Financial Center. So Scott made a few calls, and set us up on Friday to see WJDA and WESX, courtesy of majority owner Jay Asher, and all three WFNX sites (new transmitter, old transmitter, and studios) with chief engineer Chris Hall. Thanks as always to Messrs. Asher and Hall for their hospitality.