Are you mad for Mozart?

When you hear the name “Carmen,”  do you think of a New York politician, or a former Red Sox infielder? Or, do you immediately flash on a grand stage where a dashing but tragic hero named Don Jose pines for a beautiful, but two-timing cigarette girl, who left him for a bullfighter?

Did you shed a tear when WBACH radio pulled the plug? Do you really, really, miss your daily classical music radio fix?

Well, dear reader, have I got news for you.

Maine Public Radio is in the process of purchasing WTQX-FM 96.7, a “pure rock” station and adding it to their statewide stable of classical music stations.

Mark Vogelzang, the CEO of MPBN, says they will call it WBQA, Boothbay Harbor. 
The $550,000 deal is done, pending approval from the FCC. It is tentatively scheduled to begin broadcasting sometime around mid-October.

WBQA will be the sixth station acquired by MPBN to broadcast classical music. Plans call for the signal to travel through the Midcoast from Brunswick to Rockland and maybe as far off shore as Monhegan Island.

“That is great news,” said Patricia Inness Royall, CEO of the Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce, who, like the rest of us, did not know the FCC had licensed a radio station to Boothbay Harbor. “I wonder if there will be advertising opportunities on it for local merchants?” she asked.

Vogelzang explained the FCC assigns broadcast licenses to communities. For years, MPBN broadcast a mix of music, public affairs, and news. In May 2016, they removed the music offerings from the news and public affairs format. Then they began to develop an all-music format which they now broadcast from five stations from Portland to the north of Bangor. However, if you checked their broadcast coverage map, there was a big hole over the Midcoast, and we were right in the middle of it — until now.

Vogelzang said the network’s Capital Campaign provided the funding.

The daily lineup will begin with three hours of classical music with Robin Rilette. Other favorites will include Friday afternoon’s “Down Memory Lane” with Toby Leboutillier and Friday evening Jazz with Rich Tozier. And for those of you who correctly identified “Carmen” as an opera, and not as a politician or an infielder, each Saturday afternoon, MPBN Classical will broadcast New York’s Metropolitan Opera. This year’s Met lineup includes some of their greatest hits including Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” Puccini’s “La Boheme,” Bellini’s “Norma” and Offenbach's “Tales of Hoffman.”

Each hour, MPBN names the stations on which it is broadcasting. Soon, it will include the phrase, “WBQA, FM 96.7, Boothbay Harbor.”

Having the town’s name broadcast hourly on a classical music station should aid our economic development efforts in addition to boosting the region’s cultural landscape, said Vogelzang. He explained that having a local classical radio station is just another selling point for folks who want to locate a business or home in the area. It should also help boost the Boothbay Harbor Opera House and the DaPonte String Quartet.

MPBN Classical music programming will originate in their studios in Portland and Bangor and be broadcast from a 427-foot-tall tower located on the north side of U.S. Route 1 just southwest of Newcastle. Although the station will be based in Boothbay Harbor, there are no current plans to open a local office.

“We think we will have strong coverage, out to the islands and to boats at sea,” he said.

When the MPBN classical music service began, about 5,000 to 10,000 listeners tuned in. Now that is up to more than 45,000 a week, the radio executive said. The new Boothbay Harbor station is expected to provide classical music along peninsulas from Pemaquid Point and Bristol, down to Georgetown, and up to Augusta.

“I was driving near Waterville the other day and the signal came in loud and clear,” said Vogelzang.

So, if you were raised on classical music and missed your Beethoven, Bach and Brahms, or wondered if you would ever hear the old, but oh so goofy, novelty tunes of early pop music from  our old friend Toby Leboutillier, or missed the patter songs of Gilbert & Sullivan, you are in luck.

Around the first week of October, MPBN will send a classical musical signal to your radio.

Sure, you can expect the regular breaks for fund drives seeking donations to their capital campaign. After all, some one has to pay the piper (That is a plug for their campaign, folks). But, most of us won’t mind, and will probably donate, for, once again, MPBN will send classical music streaming from your radio into your heart.

I can’t wait.