WHOU radio station sold to Houlton entrepreneur

HOULTON, Maine — Anyone who has grown up in southern Aroostook County knows that WHOU has been the radio station of choice for listeners for decades.
So when local businessman Fred Grant learned that the radio station was for sale, he took a closer look at the company and decided it was something he wanted to pursue.
    Grant purchased the radio station from County Communications on Monday. County Communications was owned by Bob Anderson and Dave Moore and was formed in 1996 when the two purchased the license for WHOU.
Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Grant, who operates two national web sites – www.collegehelpers.com and www.highschoolhelpers.com, — said he had been looking to invest in a local business since his return to Houlton in 2005, but had not found the right opportunity until now. His purchasing company will go by the name of Northern Maine Media.
“I learned Bob and Dave were interested in selling the station for a while now, so I spoke with them,” Grant said. “My initial reaction was ‘No’ because I have no history in broadcasting. But one of the things I have been interested in is getting involved in the local Houlton business market.”
WHOU is an adult contemporary radio station located in the U.S. Post Office building on the corner of Court and Military streets. In addition to music, the station carries ABC news, local weather, Boston Red Sox baseball, local high school basketball games and a daily Community Calendar. The station services southern Aroostook County and Western New Brunswick. Its signal reaches from Millinocket to Presque Isle and can reach as far as Ashland and Fredericton, New Brunswick depending on atmospheric conditions.
Both Moore and Anderson will remain at the station in short-term, until all of the FCC licenses change hands.
“The radio station was a significant part of growing up here in Houlton,” he said. “Over time, what Bob and Dave did was bring back the station after it had gone dark. That impact for the town was significant and it was something that I wanted to be a part of. After talking with (Anderson and Moore), it became clear to me that the work wasn’t that much different from what I do with my Internet businesses.”
The legality of purchasing the radio station has been several months in the works and will continue for some time, due to the Federal Communication Commission regulations.
“Purchasing a radio station is incredibly complicated due to the FCC requirements,” Grant said. “The license process takes about a year to complete.”
Grant is a former Houlton Town Councilor and current member of the SAD 29 school board. He graduated from Houlton High School in 1988 and the University of Hartford in 1993. He worked for four years in the Office of Residential Life at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y. as a residence hall director and later as the Assistant Director of Residence Life. While there he earned his master’s degree.
In 1997, he moved to the Boston area to work as the Associate Director of Campus Life at Babson College. He was later promoted to the Director of Campus Life and left his position in 2005 to run his company, CollegeHelpers.com, full-time and moved back home to Houlton. Grant was also president of the Houlton Rotary club in 2008-2009.
For several years, Grant has run www.collegehelpers.com website, which provided the framework for creating the high school version of the website. Highschoolhelpers.com focuses on both current high school students and alumni of high schools. Some of the popular types of job postings, according to Grant, are: childcare, retail, fast food, yard work, painting, computers, agriculture, marketing, customer service, cooking, receptionist, web design, moving, landscaping, snow removal, tutoring, animal sitting/walking, seasonal staff, cashiers, cleaning, filing and typing.
He will continue to operate those websites and is also looking to expand to a Chamber of Commerce national website in the future.
Grant said some changes could be in the works for the radio station.
“The impact of the station on our local environment is something I really looked at,” he said. “We will be making some program changes. We will be adding a live DJ in both the morning and afternoon.”
Ryan Hill will serve as the afternoon DJ from the 4-7 p.m. The station will be looking for a morning DJ in the near future.
“Ryan’s focus will really be about what is going on in the community that night or over the weekend,” he said. “We are trying to bring some of the excitement of local radio back to the area. The music will focus on the type of music people like to listen to when the day is done.”
The station currently has a satellite feed for its music, but there is little choice in what songs play when, Grant said. With the adult contemporary format, the songs feature a wide array, but he admits sometimes there can be too many songs in a row from a certain era.
The format change will allow people to call in and request songs. In the future, those call-ins will be able to be broadcast on the air.
“We really want to have a more interactive nature with the radio station,” he said. “It will still be a satellite stream, but the live DJs will be able to have a say in what songs are played next.”
Some things that won’t change are the ABC news at the top of the hour, local weather and local coverage of high school basketball with Ken Holck.
“Moving in the direction I would like us to move in will give us an opportunity to hone in on what people really want to listen to,” Grant said. “What the radio station really means is, we are a marketing vehicle that can drive customers to a business.”