From the Cape Cod Times, February 1998

WOODS HOLE - Five years ago, Jay Allison walked into a print shop on Water Street and saw the shop owner struggling to get a public station on his radio.

Allison, a veteran radio producer and Woods Hole resident, remembers saying to the shop owner, "What Cape Cod needs is its own public radio station."

On Tuesday, Allison, standing in that same building that housed the shop and surrounded by a throng of supporters, saw his dream come true. His fledgling station, Cape and Islands Community Public Radio (CICPR), cemented a five-year partnership with WGBH-FM Boston by transferring an FCC transmission license to the larger station and accepting its financial support.

The transaction means sometime by late summer Cape and islands listeners will hear public radio programming broadcast from the Woods Hole station to a 6,500 watt transmitter on Martha's Vineyard and a 2,000 watt transmitter on Nantucket.

The signal will be strong enough to cover all of Cape Cod.

"There's a lot of excitement for this on Nantucket because we don't get any service from public broadcasting," said Gregory Whitehead, a resident of Nantucket and president of CICPR.

Listeners on Martha's Vineyard should tune their radio dials to WCAI 90.1 FM to hear CICPR broadcasts. Nantucket residents can turn to WNAN 91.1 FM.

The partnership is a first for WGBH-FM Boston, according to Marita Rivero, vice president of Radio WGBH Educational Foundation. Rivero said there is a strong base of public radio support on the Cape and islands which led to the decision in 1997 to team up with CICPR. But don't expect a re-broadcast of WGBH-FM's trademark classical and jazz.

"We're really working to create a new service. It won't be what's on (WGBH-FM Boston) 89.7," said Rivero.

She said listeners will hear local material, including public affairs, call-ins, documentary, science and cultural programming. One such local project will include an oral history pilot project working with island folklorists and oral historians. The project is being considered for funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

National Public Radio programs, such as "All Things Considered" and "Talk of the Nation," will air, so will Public Radio International's "The World Marketplace," "This American Life" and "A Prairie Home Companion."

Allison and Whitehead, also a veteran radio producer, had earlier secured a an FCC license and a $180,000 grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for the purchase of equipment and the transmitters.

For its part, WGBH will act as "stewards of the (FCC) license" and contribute $500,000 for start up costs and renovation of the leased 154-year-old Water Street building overlooking the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority.

"There's going to be a lot of ups and downs," predicted Rivero, "and I look forward to that."