Efforts to resuscitate WHWH continue after station goes off air

Decision awaited by Federal Communications Commission

By: Lauren Otis
   For nearly a week now, listeners tuning in to 1350 on the AM dial, hoping to catch some local business or community programming, or a Princeton University sports event, have encountered only static.
   The station was abruptly shut down at midnight April 7 by its owner, Multicultural Broadcasting, leaving Nassau Broadcasting Partners LP — the producers of the station’s area programming — in limbo. Whether Nassau Broadcasting’s MoneyTalk 1350 programming will get back on the air is still an open question.
   Ed Palladino, Nassau Broadcasting’s operations manager, said his organization hopes to be up and broadcasting on the 1350 AM frequency imminently. He said Nassau Broadcasting is awaiting a decision by the Federal Communications Commission, which could come at any time.
   Mr. Palladino said the whole situation arose out of an expansion by WHWH to another frequency — 1680 on the AM dial — five years ago, at the behest of the FCC, to relieve congestion at it’s 1350 slot as well as to open up space for different types of programming. The FCC gave the station the new slot with the provision that in five years it had to close down broadcasts at 1350. Unfortunately, at some point the FCC reassigned the 1680 AM slot to another station in Southern New Jersey, leaving WHWH nowhere to go.
   Mr. Palladino said there was apparently a misunderstanding between Nassau Broadcasting and Multicultural Broadcasting over exactly when the five years was up.
   "We thought June 1 was the date," said Mr. Palladino, whereas Multicultural Broadcasting "thought it was April 7, and shut down the station then. To my knowledge Nassau Broadcasting is cooperating with Multicultural Broadcasting."
   Both parties are awaiting word from the FCC and "from what I understand most recently it (an FCC official ruling enabling resumed broadcasting at 1350) is imminent, it could be as early as today," Mr. Palladino said Wednesday.
   Calls to Multicultural Broadcasting officials in New York were not returned.
   Mr. Palladino said Nassau Broadcasting potentially would have another year where it could continue to run WHWH. Asked about reports that the station might be sold, he replied, "I don’t know, that is absolutely undetermined at this point. There are many, many facets to this whole expanded band situation. We will wait on the FCC before sorting it out," he said.
   "I think that’s too bad," said Herb Hobler, WHWH’s founder, of the news that the station might fall silent permanently. Mr. Hobler founded the 5,000-watt WHWH in 1963, acting as principal owner along with several other area investors. "We had a great run for the 25 years that I owned the company," he said. Mr. Hobler said the station was sold to Nassau Broadcasting in 1986, which in turn sold it to Multicultural Broadcasting.
   Although WHWH has lost listeners over the years because of the rise of FM radio, it still serves a valuable community purpose for residents of the greater Princeton area, said Mr. Hobler, who also founded, and subsequently sold, WPST on an FM band he acquired from the Trenton Times newspaper in the 1960s.