Gary Sapiane, the president and general manager of WLNG Radio, 92.1 FM, in Sag Harbor, confirmed on Tuesday that he has been part of discussions with Sandra Foschi, a Sag Harbor resident and owner of Health SOS (a physical therapy practice with offices based in Babylon), about buying the station and its related real estate.
The sale price has been reported as $3.9 million and includes the Redwood property where the station is located, along with another property in Noyac on Millstone Road where the station’s tower is located.
Ms. Foschi was not immediately available for comment. According to the website, radioinsight, the $3.9 million purchase, made by Ms. Foschi under the limited liability corporation Bark Out Loud Dogs Media, includes $3.2 million for the purchase of the waterfront property on Redwood Road in Sag Harbor, $125,000 for the station’s tower site on Millstone Road in Sag Harbor and $525,000 for WLNG’s license and station assets.
The station’s previous owner was Robert King, who passed away eight years ago. Since then, the station has been in the King-Nelson family trust with the intent to sell the station eventually. According to Mr. Sapiane, it was his understanding the station would continue to operate as it has for the last 55 years.
“We have been looking for all these years for the right person and I believe we found that in Sandra Foschi, who will be the sole owner of the station,” said Mr. Sapiane in an on-air interview Wednesday morning with Sag Harbor Expressadvertising director and co-publisher Gavin Menu.
Ms. Foschi is married to Bill Evans, a senior meteorologist for WABC-TV, the ABC affiliate in New York City. According to Mr. Sapiane, Mr. Evans and Ms. Foschi were fans of the storm coverage — one of the mainstays of WLNG coverage — the station did during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The team at WLNG — including Mr. Sapiane, the retired Rusty Potz, Brian Bannon, Chris Buckhout, Chuck Makin, Bill Thomas, Scotty Hart, Mark Edwards, Cool Bobby B, Chris Brinka, Dana Kallio, Dick Robinson and Ed Wright — kept coverage going throughout the storm, despite massive power outages throughout the East End, and storm surge that saw ankle deep water in the studio on the Redwood Causeway in Sag Harbor. The station would go off-air for only a few hours during Hurricane Sandy, a testament to its commitment to storm coverage that was a priority for the former station president, general manager and host, Paul Sidney, who died in 2009.
WLNG first went on air on August 13, 1963, on the radio signal 1600 AM, broadcasting from 92.1 FM in 1969. In addition, comprehensive storm coverage, community news and daily shout-outs to residents celebrating their birthdays across the East End, the station is known for broadcasting oldies from the 1950s through the 1980s from Montauk to listeners as far away as Brookhaven and coastal Connecticut.
on Oct 30, 2018