LPFM Applicant, WHAV, Launches ‘Hyperlocal’ News Site

HAVERHILL, Mass. (6/27/2014) –WHAV, a long-time Internet and cable radio station and an applicant for a low power FM license (LPFM) formally launched its comprehensive local news website this week.

The site at www.WHAV.net provides hyperlocal coverage of Haverhill, a city of more than 60,000 people without any other locally based news outlets. WHAV, whose roots date back to a terrestrial AM radio station built in 1947, also covers communities that carry its cable television broadcasts, including Andover and Methuen, Mass., and Plaistow and Sandown, N.H.

“WHAV recognizes its responsibility as the only Haverhill-based news source to provide accurate, objective and original reporting,” said Tim Coco, a local advertising agency owner who serves as the station’s volunteer president and general manager. “The website naturally follows the hiring of News Director Dana A. Esmel last March and the previous dedication of the Edwin V. Johnson Newsroom.”

Johnson, a local news luminary, served as WHAV’s news director for 34 years. He died in 2003.

The news site offers expanded local news coverage, quick view of trending stories, improved ability to print and share content, ability to comment on news stories, easier-to-use audio player, improved mobile phone compatibility and better search feature.

If approved, WHAV’s FM station will be the only FM licensed to the city of Haverhill.

The WHAV call letters have been associated with local broadcasting since 1947. WHAV is today operated by Public Media of New England Inc., a not-for-profit corporation. Since 2004, the call has served the Merrimack Valley’s pioneer Internet radio station at WHAV.net and a number of public access cable television stations in Andover, Haverhill and Methuen, and Plaistow and Sandown, N.H.