The Man Who Started Up Fun 107

With Fun 107's birthday coming up this month, here's the story about how the SouthCoast's best radio station got its start.

The year was 1989. Wes McShay had just been fired from a radio station in Billings, Montana, so he did what every out-of-work radio DJ did back in those days: he picked up a copy of Radio and Records magazine (known as R&R to industry insiders) and started scanning the help-wanted ads.

"It was actually kind of a nice thing because it was a horrible job anyway," he said. "I called after seeing an ad for the Program Director's job in New Bedford, and they called me back. That job was hiring to launch Fun 107."

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Wes was in his early 30s when he was brought in a few weeks prior to the station's March launch. He needed to hire an airstaff, organize the music and jingles, and figure out how to spread the word about what would become "Bristol County's Hit Music Station."

"I was the very first Program Director for Fun 107. In fact, I was the very first DJ. I signed it on the air," he said. "It was a low-power FM back in those days, but yeah, it caught on like wildfire. We had a lot of fun."

We stumbled across this photo of Wes McShay on the internet last week and couldn't resist reaching out to him at his current home in northern Idaho, where he originally came from. McShay said he is "pretty much retired now."

We asked him about this picture of him in front of the very first Fun 107 van. He didn’t remember where the picture was taken, but he recalled having to duct tape the Fun 107 banner to the side of it.

"I know that was actually the WBSM van. We didn’t have our own van, so we had to use that banner to cover up the WBSM logo," he said.

Back then, Fun 107 was just the little kid brother of WBSM.

Is McShay Surprised That Fun 107 Is Still on the Air 36 Years Later?

"Oh no! That doesn’t surprise me at all. We were successful right off the bat. For a little low-power FM, we just dominated locally," he said.

In the 36 years Fun 107 has been on the air, there have only been four Program Directors: Wes McShay, Joe Limardi, J.R. Reitz, and myself, Michael Rock.

McShay said he was surprised when he got fired a few years later.

"I think it was mostly political," McShay said.

After being let go from Fun 107, McShay stayed in New Bedford and took a job with the city, putting together programming for New Bedford Cable Access.

McShay later programmed radio stations in Nashville and Kansas City and was even nominated for R&R National Radio Program Director of the Year.

"I’ve lived in all four time zones," he said. "I had some great times."

McShay shared this picture of the 1992 Fun 107 airstaff, including (from left to right) Joe Limardi, Wes McShay, Kevin Matthews, Kristie McIntyre (middays), Mike Kelly, and Jesse Garcia (nights). Not pictured is Fun 107’s first morning man, Greg Evans, who was later replaced by Joe Blaney.

For the record, Greg Evans reached out and shared that he was not hired by West, but instead by station managers Doug Shackett and Anita Robinson.  He also says that as the station's first morning man, he was the first person on the air at Fun 107.  We'll have to settle this the only sensible way...with a linguica eating contest at the feast!