WOCB: The Cape's First Radio Powerhouse - Cape Cod History

Typically when you’re the first of something, there tends to be a lot of room for improvement. Several years ago I wrote about Cape Cod’s very first radio station, WSCG. You can read about it in full here: Cape Cod’s First Radio Station. I’ll give a quick refresher for those unfamiliar.

In 1903, the first transatlantic wireless communication took place in Wellfleet thanks to the invention of Guglielmo Marconi. It was the beginning of radio. On November 2, 1920, Pittsburgh radio station KDKA aired the first commercial broadcast. Within four years, there were 600 commercial radio stations in the country, including WNAC in Boston, the future WRKO, and WEEI. The rising popularity and profitability of radio led to Cape Codders longing for their own local station.

In July 1926, a station was created in Osterville by James Henderson. It was a 200-watt station located at the Seapuit Golf Course, along South County Road. The station debuted with the letters WSGC, possibly as a nod to the Seapuit Golf Course. Its opening night was July 24th.

Program Listing for WSGC's Opening Night, courtesy of Boston Globe Archives

The station was on the air six nights a week, from 7:30 - 11 p.m. They went dark on Mondays. In August 1926, the call letters were changed to WJBX. It was announced that as Labor Day passed, the radio station would cease operating until the following spring. Unfortunately, the relaunch never came, and WSCG/WJBX became nothing more than a flash in the pan. Cape Cod and radio would not reunite for well over a decade.

That is where we pick up the story.


In January 1937, a new company was formed. Cape Cod Broadcasting Company was the brainchild of a pair of highly successful women. Harriet Alleman and Helen MacLellan, both of Osterville. They had been successful working in real estate together for the previous ten years. Their goal was to open a new radio station on Cape Cod, the first since WSCG/WJBX closed eleven years earlier. The women even planned to build the station in Osterville.

The process was slow, with several changes and roadblocks overcome for the new company to even be licensed. Next came the prospective station’s band location being challenged by the Fall River Herald News Publishing Company in June 1937. They wanted the same spot on the radio dial but were rebuffed.

Harriet and Helen’s radio station was not authorized by the Federal Communications Commission(FCC) until May 13, 1938, roughly two years from Cape Cod Broadcasting’s inception. The estimated cost of the station was $19,750 ($472,754 in 2026), with operating expenses projected to be $1,365 ($32,673) monthly. Cost was one thing they were not worried about with investors and advertisers. However, the planned Osterville location did not end up happening. What was thought to be a three-month plan to go from authorization to up and running would end up being over two years.

A location was found in June 1939 when Cape Cod Broadcasting purchased a fifty-year lease of an 8 ½ acre plot of land known as the Barr estate. This was located at the end of South Sea Avenue in West Yarmouth and was owned by trustees of the Christian Science church. An announcement was made in the Barnstable Patriot newspaper.

The call letters WOCB were selected for the new station, standing for Only Cape Broadcasting. A nearly 200-foot-tall antenna tower was built on the site with 250 watts of power, including roughly sixteen miles of copper wiring located underground. This allowed the station to be heard as far as fifty miles away.

A postcard of the original WOCB station.

The entire WOCB station was located at the South Sea Avenue site. Plans for the property were drawn up by Hyannis architect Walter Gaffney. It included the control room, three studios, a transmitting room, reception room, and office space. The building housing all of it was a story-and-a-half Colonial design, giving it more of a Cape Cod home look rather than a radio station.

Talent auditions were opened to Cape Cod artists to be featured on WOCB upon its debut. The station, despite being new, was staffed with experienced radio personnel. This included Program Director Harrison Flint, Commercial Manager Arthur Newcombe, Director of Music Ralph Lawton, and Chief Engineer Rodney Merrill.

Opening day for WOCB was October 2, 1940. When it went on the air, 1210 on the AM dial, it gave Cape Cod its first radio station in fourteen years. For residents, the station was welcomed and also a relief. During the previous years without a station of their own, Cape Codders were forced to suffer with poor reception on their radio dials, especially at night.

In the early 1940s, radio was the dominant form of entertainment. By 1940, 83% of American homes had a radio, as compared to approximately 40% in 1930. Program listings were found in every daily newspaper, much like television listings would be in the decades to come.

WOCB ran new programming daily, with the schedule being from approximately 8am to 11pm. This could change slightly day to day but usually stayed fairly uniform. The program lineup fell into the typical categories of early radio. There were soap dramas, news programs, talk shows, and of course lots of music.

Nationally syndicated programs might be heard on WOCB, but there was no shortage of local offerings. During the first few months on the air, those within the signal radius might hear some very Cape Cod-centric programs.

The first week of programming on WOCB included: Girl on the Cape, Cape Cod Extension Service, Cape Quiz College, multiple orchestral music programs, and news programs in addition to hourly news updates.

In the coming months, new programs were added. Program Director Harrison Flint had a piano show. There were Cape news programs like Hyannis Patriot News. You might find a few interesting-sounding shows like Harwich Hillbillies Fridays at 9:05pm, or Dennis Hillbillies on Wednesdays at 9:05pm. If you enjoyed opinion-based shows, there were several shows featuring Cape Cod towns ‘speaking their mind.’

Reviews were overwhelmingly positive for the fledgling station upon its launch. One local who became a fixture on WOCB in its initial run was Brewster resident Hope Constance Molestad. She had three programs that aired daily in the beginning. These were her household tips show that aired at 9:30 am, Little Red Schoolhouse, which was an early afternoon show, and finally a short collection of children’s stories each evening at 5:45 pm.

WOCB did well during its first year on the air. However, with World War II exploding, things began to change. A warning sign of what was to come came in November 1941. Station Manager Harriet Alleman offered a 15-week radio operator course for the cost of $7.50($172.20 in 2026). This was due to a lack of qualified personnel in the industry.

A lack of qualified personnel was only the beginning of a larger issue, that being a lack of funding. The rationing of rubber and gasoline for the war effort made the 1942 tourist season smaller than usual on Cape Cod. Less money coming in created problems all over the peninsula.

In October 1942, Ralph Lawton left his position as Director of Music at WOCB, marking the first high-profile defection. In public, it was business as usual at WOCB. During the second year on the air in 1942-43, Cape Codders tuned in to such programs as: Cape Cod Extension Service, E.A.C. Variety Show from Camp Edwards, Victory Vespers from the Federated Church in Hyannis, and Cape Cod Special.

Loyal listeners were shocked to wake up on the morning of May 12, 1943, to the sound of silence where WOCB once was. So out of left field was the announcement that the local newspapers still posted the station’s programming schedule despite there being no station. What happened?

Aerial view of the WOCB radio station(Historical Society of Old Yarmouth)

In short, the station ran out of money. Not wanting to forfeit the station license, Harriet Alleman and the rest of the WOCB management petitioned the FCC for a grace period of thirty days. During that time, WOCB went dark, including the red light on top of the station’s antenna. The plan was to figure finances out and return to broadcasting sometime in June.

A Boston-based group was first to be interested in buying the beleaguered station in mid-May, but nothing came to pass. During the summer of 1943, several other prominent Cape Cod businessmen at least considered making a play for the station.

Months passed, and WOCB remained dark. In early November, E. Anthony & Sons, who published newspapers in New Bedford and Hyannis, put in a bid to take over the station.

It was written at the time that it would take a payment of $20,000($390,000 in 2026) to cover all of the debt incurred by WOCB, including the mortgage on the property. E. Anthony & Sons accepted, and on November 10, 1943, they paid $10,000 up front of the $20,000 owed to take ownership of WOCB. The question still remained as to whether the station would go back on the air.

One thing that was not in question was the end of the original Cape Cod Broadcasting. Both Harriet Alleman and Helen MacLellan left their company and the radio station behind to begin new chapters of their lives on Cape Cod.

After seven months of new ownership, and a full year after going dark, WOCB returned to the air with much fanfare on May 7, 1944. This time it had a far longer stay.

Some things stayed the same, including the choice of programming like soaps, orchestral blocks, and news. However, some things were different in this second incarnation of WOCB. First off, they were now an affiliate of the Blue Network, later known as ABC. Second, they expanded to become Cape Cod’s first FM radio station in May 1948, broadcasting at 94.3. FM stations have clearer sound than AM, which is prone to static. However, AM signals can travel farther than FM.

For decades, WOCB was the prominent radio station on Cape Cod. It simulcast its content on both AM and FM for most of the time before changing things up in the 1970s.

The end of WOCB did not come from anything on-air related. It was a natural disaster that did them in. Hurricane Bob roared across Cape Cod in August 1991. The Category 2 storm knocked the antenna to the ground. Unable to afford the cost to rebuild the tower, the owners sold the station to Ernie Boch Sr. of Boch Broadcasting.

It was the end of an era. WOCB did not come back. Instead, Boch eventually changed the name to WXTK and turned the station into an all-talk radio format. It is still on the air to this day. It was, however, sold to Quantum Communications in 2005 and moved to Hyannis. The antenna tower still stands near the former station property. 

The WOCB antenna at sunset in January 2026

The Cape Cod Broadcasting company started by Harriet Alleman and Helen MacLellan is not related to the company of the same name that is in operation today. Both founders had success after their radio experience.

Alleman spent her years after WOCB working on the Cape Cod Compass magazine with longtime friend Frances Blake. She died on November 12, 1966, at age 82.

MacLellan had a successful chapter after Cape Cod Broadcasting. She ended up spending years as a life insurance and real estate institution on Cape Cod. She died on December 4, 1981, at age 86. Her other ventures were so successful that her obituary bore no mention of WOCB or Cape Cod Broadcasting.

Despite being off the air for thirty-five years, WOCB still holds an important place in Cape Cod media history. It took the torch from WSGC, and although it stumbled initially, it ended up having a long and highly impactful run on the air. For many longtime residents of Cape Cod, WOCB ranks right up there with 106 WCOD and Pixy 103 as the defining sounds of their childhoods.