{"id":82279,"date":"2020-11-21T07:41:24","date_gmt":"2020-11-21T12:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=82279"},"modified":"2020-11-22T09:17:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T14:17:10","slug":"wats-wavr-in-sayre-welcomes-new-owners-says-farewell-to-chuck-carver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/11\/21\/wats-wavr-in-sayre-welcomes-new-owners-says-farewell-to-chuck-carver\/","title":{"rendered":"WATS-WAVR in Sayre welcomes new owners; says farewell to Chuck Carver"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WATS-WAVR radio stations in Sayre are being sold to David and Irene Radigan of Radigan Broadcasting, LLC once the Federal Communication Commission hands down its approval, which is expected around the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The sale of WATS Broadcasting, Inc. was celebrated on Tuesday, Nov. 10, with a ribbon cutting ceremony that welcomed the Radigans to their new business, and signified the end of current owner Chuck Carver\u2019s 44-year tenure at the Choice 102 station once it is complete.<\/p>\n

Carver told The Daily Review that he never thought he would retire. He felt that he was good at what he did at both stations and lived three blocks away from the Keystone Avenue location in Sayre for most of his career.<\/p>\n

He thanked the community for supporting him ever since he first arrived in Pennsylvania as a recent college graduate.<\/p>\n

Carver came to the Valley right out of Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism in 1976. He chuckled as he remembered his original plan of being there for a year to get some experience and then to go back to his \u201cbeloved home state of Ohio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Career opportunities kept popping up for Carver and kept him in the area; he was soon named the news director and then the station’s general manager.<\/p>\n

As the owner retired in 1986, he was given the chance to buy the WATS-WAVR stations with three coworkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the years went on, I bought them out, and it ended up just being me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For 44 years, Carver was up at 4 a.m. every morning giving the news.<\/p>\n

\"WATS-WAVR<\/a>

David and Irene Radigan gave an acceptance speech to take on WATS-WAVR to a crowd on Nov. 10 outside of the Choice 102 station. Photo credit: Samantha Latos, The Daily & Sunday Review.<\/p><\/div>\n

The WATS (960 AM) station licensed to Sayre and the WAVR (102.1 FM) station licensed to Waverly simultaneously play the same radio broadcast. Due to being located on the state line, WATS-WAVR is eligible to accept awards from Pennsylvania and New York.<\/p>\n

Under Carver\u2019s leadership, Choice 102 won 109 first-place state and\/or national awards for programming excellence. The station\u2019s newscast won best in the state 13 times, and the quiz show that he created, “Scholarship Challenge,” has won almost 30 times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been very successful in that regard, but it all goes back to the community,\u201d Carver said, \u201cIf you don’t have the advertisers and the listeners to keep you going, it doesn\u2019t matter how good the programming is, you\u2019re not on the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last year, Carver and his wife moved out to Lititz, Pennsylvania to be close to their children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, technologically, nowadays you can broadcast from the moon if you want, so I kept doing the morning show and the news,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"WATS-WAVR<\/a>

David and Irene Radigan laughed alongside Chuck Carver as baby Emily grabbed onto the ribbon moments before they cut it in front of Choice 102 station. Photo credit: Samantha Latos, The Daily & Sunday Review.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Radigans noted that they came to Carver interested in buying the stations from him. He wasn\u2019t interested at first, but was impressed with the way they spoke so passionately about serving the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir commitment was important to me because we\u2019ve had other potential suitors before who were only interested in our license,\u201d Carver said, \u201cThey didn\u2019t want the people, the building, or our equipment, they just wanted to take our license to another community.\u201d<\/p>\n

He felt good about handing the stations over to business owners who will continue the legacy and expand upon the work he has done for years.<\/p>\n

Their admirable track record from owning the WEBO station in Owego since 2006 was a big plus as well. Carver noted the Radigans were \u201chead and shoulders\u201d above the other potential buyers who popped up after hearing that they were interested in purchasing the stations.<\/p>\n

\"WATS-WAVR<\/a>

People posed at the WATS-WAVR ribbon cutting ceremony outside of the Choice 102 station on Keystone Avenue in Sayre for a photo on Nov. 10. Photo credit: Samantha Latos, The Daily & Sunday Review.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cLocal radio and serving the community is what we\u2019re all about. Being the owners and operators of radio stations in town and not far away is so important to us. I wish I could come up with as great ideas as ‘Scholarship Challenge’ and ‘Christmas is for Kids,’ but I am proud that we will take on those programs and keep doing them here,\u201d David Radigan said in his remarks, and just before the ribbon cutting ceremony.<\/p>\n

He thanked the people of Sayre and gave a shout out to he and Irene\u2019s children who were in school, except for baby Emily who was present and in Irene\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n

David has been in broadcast journalism since he was 13 years old and has been on the radio for 25 years. He and Irene said that they are \u201cradio people\u201d and that their job is to maintain Carver\u2019s programs and keep the news station going for those in the community.<\/p>\n

\"WATS-WAVR<\/a>

A crowd gathered in front of the Choice 102 station on Keystone Avenue in Sayre on Nov. 10 for the ribbon cutting passing the station on to David and Irene Radigan. Photo credit: Samantha Latos, The Daily & Sunday Review.<\/p><\/div>\n

The couple and business partners will continue to run WEBO at its current location on North Avenue in Owego as they take on the WATS-WAVR stations.<\/p>\n

They told The Daily Review that they look forward to learning more about the local community and how they can better serve their listeners and advertisers, one step at a time.<\/p>\n

Their shared goal is to keep the WATS-WAVR stations as a \u201ccommunity resource, now and always.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The WATS-WAVR radio stations in Sayre are being sold to David and Irene Radigan of Radigan Broadcasting, LLC once the Federal Communication Commission hands down…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":82280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWATS-WAVR in Sayre welcomes new owners; says farewell to Chuck Carver - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/11\/21\/wats-wavr-in-sayre-welcomes-new-owners-says-farewell-to-chuck-carver\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WATS-WAVR in Sayre welcomes new owners; says farewell to Chuck Carver - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The WATS-WAVR radio stations in Sayre are being sold to David and Irene Radigan of Radigan Broadcasting, LLC once the Federal Communication Commission hands down...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/11\/21\/wats-wavr-in-sayre-welcomes-new-owners-says-farewell-to-chuck-carver\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/The-Owego-Pennysaver-49179420591\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-21T12:41:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-22T14:17:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2020\/11\/Radio1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/11\/21\/wats-wavr-in-sayre-welcomes-new-owners-says-farewell-to-chuck-carver\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/11\/21\/wats-wavr-in-sayre-welcomes-new-owners-says-farewell-to-chuck-carver\/\",\"name\":\"WATS-WAVR in Sayre welcomes new owners; says farewell to Chuck Carver - Owego Pennysaver Press\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/11\/21\/wats-wavr-in-sayre-welcomes-new-owners-says-farewell-to-chuck-carver\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/11\/21\/wats-wavr-in-sayre-welcomes-new-owners-says-farewell-to-chuck-carver\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2020\/11\/Radio1-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-21T12:41:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-22T14:17:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/e03684194434956dfb61f5ffcbc19492\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/11\/21\/wats-wavr-in-sayre-welcomes-new-owners-says-farewell-to-chuck-carver\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/11\/21\/wats-wavr-in-sayre-welcomes-new-owners-says-farewell-to-chuck-carver\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/11\/21\/wats-wavr-in-sayre-welcomes-new-owners-says-farewell-to-chuck-carver\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2020\/11\/Radio1-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2020\/11\/Radio1-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1700,\"caption\":\"David and Irene Radigan pose with Chuck Carver for a photo just before David cut the ribbon outside of the Choice 102 station on Nov. 10. 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