On Tuesday afternoon WMVY turned to the Beatles for help on an emotional day as the local, independent radio station moved its location from Vineyard Haven to West Tisbury.
The final song played from 121 Carroll’s Way, the station’s home since it began in 1983, was The End by the Beatles. And then the switch was flipped and The Beatles sang Hello, Goodbye from the new location at 489 State Road in West Tisbury, signalling that a new chapter had begun.
Executive director PJ Finn was in the deejay booth at the new location. He said the move comes after years of searching and planning. The West Tisbury property was purchased in the fall of 2019 and construction began in February 2020, just before the onset of the pandemic. During the past year, the station crew has been moving in and getting the studios ready for use.
“It was a real long and collaborative process because there were a lot of people who [had] a lot of ideas and a lot of needs,” Mr. Finn said. What everyone agreed upon, though, was that the station needed more space, he said.
Staff members had to share offices and if someone wanted a private conversation, they had to have it in their cars, he said. “I can remember days when we would have a band come to the radio station and you would have to put the drummer out in the hallway.”
Despite the physical constraints, Mr. Finn described the old station as being a special place.
“Great stuff happened in that building,” he said. “Summer 2001, I was leaving for the day and Barbara Dacey [former station director] introduced me to some guy. I thought he was like the landscaper, but it was John Mayer who had just put out his record. Nobody had heard of him. He was just a guy that the record company had sent in to the radio station. My hope for this new building is that even though it doesn’t have the history of the old building, it has the spirit of the old building.”
That spirit was alive and well at the old location today as present and past deejays stopped by to say goodbye, including Shawn Taylor who began working as a deejay at the station in 1987.
“I think the thing that is most important to me in the memory of this station is the people that I’ve met here, that are no longer here too,” Ms. Taylor said. “A lot of people have come through here and gone, but they made a huge impact on this station.”
Laurel Redington, deejay and community outreach director, said working at the station is like being a part of a family. She even met her husband, deejay Ray Whitaker, while working together.
“You don’t often get that in radio,” she said. “Shawn and I, we’ve been at a lot of radio stations but that’s not always the case, you don’t always get a family.”
George Davis, superior court clerk and Saturday evening deejay, also came by to pay his respects and give thanks.
“I want to thank . . . the listeners because without the listeners we don’t exist, we don’t do any of this,” he said. “It’s a community between us and you and I’m glad that you’re out there for us and we’re there for you and you appreciate what we do.”
During the last station break in the old studio, the mood was lively, bittersweet and filled with memories as the current and former deejays maneuvered around the tight hallways still cluttered with cds, paper, posters and technical equipment. And then Laurel Redington and Alison Hammond gave their final send-off from Carroll’s Way, but not without one last technical glitch.
“I did that on purpose,” Ms. Redington said with a laugh. “It’s the last technical glitch in the old building.”
There were no technical glitches in the new location or tight maneuvering in the hallways of the three-story building, which includes a large multipurpose room and five recording studios. Mr. Finn said he hopes this will allow MVY to give back to the Island community.
“We couldn’t have our board meetings at the old building because there was no room for people, so we had our board meetings at the West Tisbury library,” he said. “Now we’re hoping that people will do the same; if they have to have a meeting they can hold it here.”
Deejay Jess Phaneuf live streamed the changeover to fans around the world, soliciting song suggestions to capture the mood of the moment.
Mr. Finn had the honor of addressing the listeners first from the new location.
“This is independent listener supported MVY radio, West Tisbury, Martha’s Vineyard,” Mr. Finn said over the airwaves, putting extra emphasis on the new town address. “We are broadcasting from our new facility at 489 State Road in West Tisbury.”
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