December 20, 2004
Happy Holidays from NERW!
*It's a long way from NERW-land, but we can't help but start
our update this week with a rather big news item from southern
CALIFORNIA, where the 760-foot tower of KFI (640 Los Angeles)
came crashing down Sunday morning after it was struck by a small
private plane.
Both the pilot and the passenger of the Cessna were killed,
but amazingly enough, the tower didn't hit any of the industrial
buildings that surround its base, nor was anyone on the ground
killed by the impact.
KFI was back on the air within about an hour, running 5 kW
(later boosted to 20 kW) into the auxiliary tower at the site
in La Mirada, on the Orange/Los Angeles county line adjacent
to I-5. We'll be following closely as this historic and important
station works to rebuild this facility, which has been on the
site since the thirties and has used this tower since 1947, when
it replaced an earlier flat-top antenna. (Ironically, the guy
wires on the tower had just been replaced this past spring.)
 *Back
to our home region we go, and we start in southwestern PENNSYLVANIA,
where WRRK (96.9 Braddock) is spending the holidays in stunt
mode, playing music test tapes (a la Syracuse's "Quick
108", circa 1996) and other out-of-format material. The
stunting will end January 5, the station says, and the word is
that a new format will replace "Channel 97"'s classic
rock at that point. (NERW notes: WRRK lost a lot of steam when
morning man Jim Quinn departed for the new WPGB 104.7 a year
ago, and it gained some unwanted competition when Infinity flipped
the former WBZZ to rock as WRKZ earlier this year. The rock market
is a crowded one indeed in Pittsburgh...)
There's been a lot of buzz on the message boards about Keymarket's
"Froggy" WOGF (104.3 East Liverpool OH), which already
transmits from a tower in Beaver County, PA, making a move closer
to Pittsburgh, and here's what we can report: Keymarket filed
back in August 2003 to move the East Liverpool application to
Moon Township, PA, best known as the location of the Pittsburgh
airport. The FCC tossed the petition back, citing short-spacing
to WPGB, but Keymarket petitioned for reconsideration this past
May, pointing out (correctly) that WPGB and WOGF are both pre-1964
allocations and that there is no short-spacing, by definition,
between second-adjacent pre-1964 facilities. And there it sits
at the FCC for now. We'll keep an eye on it.
 Over
on the other side of the state, WYCR (98.5 Hanover) closed the
book on three decades of top 40 last week, flipping to classic
hits as "The Peak, 98.5." The station's running jockless
now, we hear, though it sounds as though at least some of the
98YCR airstaff will stay with the family-owned station when jocks
return to the air early in 2005.
In Philadelphia, WDAS-FM (105.3) reacted to the impending
loss of the Tom Joyner morning show (strongly rumored to be heading
to the new 107.9) by reassembling a morning team last heard in
the market on WUSL (98.9). Brian Carter has spent the last three
years at XM, while Dave Sanborn's in the Clear Channel family
at WJJZ (106.1); they'll reunite as "Carter and Sanborn"
early next year on 'DAS.
Speaking of 107.9 (legally still WPPZ Pennsauken NJ, though
it uses the "WRNB" calls almost exclusively), Radio
One's applying to boost its power slightly. 107.9 would go from
its present facility (550 watts/252 meters) on the Alford master
antenna on the One Liberty building in Center City Philadelphia
to a new directional antenna at the very top of the One Liberty
spire, using 780 watts at 276 meters from just above the WMMR
(93.3) panel antenna that now crowns the building. (The directional
antenna would have just a slight notch to the southwest to protect
co-channel WFSI 107.9 Annapolis MD.)
*In NEW YORK, WBLS (107.5 New York)
gave Rick Party an unwanted entry in the history books last week,
under the "Shortest Morning Show" category, when it
cancelled his show after just over five months on the air. Middayer
Adimu is handling mornings for now, and WBLS GM/VP Deon Levingston
is telling the papers that the station will refocus its image
early next year with a new morning show and a new musical direction.
 Across
town at WEPN (1050 New York), it's curtains for the "Wally
and the Keeg" afternoon show, as the ESPN outlet pulls Tom
Keegan off the broadcast. Wally Matthews will now handle afternoon
drive solo.
In the Glens Falls market, WNYQ (105.7 Queensbury) stopped
stunting last week and went to satellite-delivered classic hits
as "Q105.7;" it still appears to be an interim step
before the station moves south to Malta, in the Albany market.
Here in Rochester, an unexpected side effect of media consolidation:
Kevin Williams, the chief meteorologist at WHEC (Channel 10),
is leaving his longtime second home at Clear Channel's WHAM (1180
Rochester) after nearly two decades. Why? Well, it's one thing
for WHAM radio to feature one of WHEC's best-known personalities
right now - but it'll be another situation altogether after the
first of the year, when Clear Channel's WOKR (Channel 13), WHEC's
most formidable competitor, changes its calls to WHAM-TV and
begins emphasizing its relationship with WHAM radio, including
the use of channel 13's meteorologists on 1180. Williams says
the move won't affect the other radio clients he serves through
his Weather-Track, Inc. - and NERW expects to hear him back on
the radio somewhere else in town sooner or later.
 And there's a station
sale to report this week, in a corner of the state that rarely
gets much mention here (or elsewhere, for that matter), as Reynolds
Communications sells WSUL (98.3 Monticello) to Watermark Communications,
a partnership between Scott Kaniewski of Illinois and Robert
Berman, owner of the Monticello Raceway.
Watermark's also reported to be sniffing around WVOS (1240/95.9
Liberty), WSUL's main competitor up there in the Catskills. Purchase
price for WSUL is $2,500,000, and it doesn't include W239AC (95.7
Middletown), the WSUL translator that's owned by John Katonah.
(It also doesn't include the WSUL transmitter site, which Watermark
will lease from Reynolds.)
 *In CONNECTICUT, it's the end of the line
for the "Vinnie and Mary Show" on WKCI (101.3 Hamden);
the New Haven-market top-40 station pulled the plug on Vinnie
Penn and Mary Scanlon's morning show last week, with no replacement
yet named.
KC101 also turned on the IBOC digital ("HD Radio")
signal this past week. HD Radio was recently activated at WSRS
(96.1 Worcester MA), and we hear it's also en route to WEOS (89.7
Geneva NY) within the next few days. Progress marches on, or
something to that effect...
*In RHODE ISLAND, Citadel is paring
its Providence cluster a bit, spinning off WAKX (102.7 Narragansett
Pier) and WKKB (100.3 Middletown) to Davidson Media Group, the
Virginia-based owner of WALE (990 Greenville), WXCT (990 Southington
CT) and a chain of mostly Spanish-speaking stations down south.
WAKX has been the southern half of the "Kix" simulcast
with WWKX (106.3 Woonsocket), which will keep its R&B/Howard
Stern format, while WKKB has been operated out of Citadel's New
Bedford, Mass. facility with classic rock and Stern. No word
yet on what Davidson plans to do with the two stations, for which
it will pay $7.5 million.
We're sending our holiday sympathies to Jim Taricani, the
WJAR (Channel 10) reporter who was sentenced last week to six
months of home confinement for refusing to divulge the name of
a confidential source in the investigation into corruption at
Providence City Hall. Even though the source eventually revealed
himself (and claimed, against Taricani's denials, that he had
not sought confidentiality), and even though Taricani's a heart-transplant
recipient in shaky health, a federal judge ordered Taricani to
spend the next six months inside the walls of his home, without
the use of the Internet and with visitors permitted for only
four hours a day. Taricani can apply for early release after
four months - and in the meantime, we hope he'll be in your thoughts,
as he is in ours, for his heroic stand on behalf of journalistic
freedom.
*A belated mention of a format change in
western MASSACHUSETTS: WMAS (1450 Springfield) dropped
most of the Music of Your Life from its schedule just before
Thanksgiving, going to talk with a schedule that includes morning
guy George Murphy, Stephanie Miller 9-noon, Neal Boortz noon-3,
Ed Schultz 3-6 PM (and we'd love to find the listener who stays
with WMAS for both of those ideological polar opposites!),
Air America's Randi Rhodes 6-10 PM and Phil Hendrie 10 PM-1 AM.
Music of Your Life, the format WMAS helped to pioneer decades
ago, will remain on AM 1450 overnight.
And we've also been remiss in welcoming "Leslie and Omelette"
to WLZX (99.3 Northampton), where the native New Englanders replace
the departed Quinn and Cantera morning show.
*Up in MAINE, construction is underway
on a replacement for the Portland tower that once carried WMGX
(93.1) and WYNZ (100.9 Westbrook). ERI has already poured the
foundation for the new 528-footer, which will replace the old
528-foot tower on Presumpscot Street near the I-295 bridge. WYNZ
has been operating from the WGAN (560 Portland) site in South
Portland, where it may stay put; WMGX had been operating from
the WPOR-FM (101.9 Portland) tower with 10 kW, then with 50 kW
from the WBAE (1490 Portland tower), until it can return home.
*And in CANADA, Ottawa's CHRI (99.1)
gets CRTC permission to add a 50-watt relay transmitter on 88.1
in Cornwall, spreading its Christian hits format to the St. Lawrence
Seaway.
*With that, we get ready to start closing out another year
- our tenth, believe it or not - here at NorthEast Radio Watch!
We're hard at work on our 2004 Year in Review special, which
you'll find here at fybush.com by Thursday, December 30. And
while all those other radio trades take their (well-deserved)
vacations this time of year, we'll be right here in front of
the keyboard. Even if there's not enough news for a full-fledged
column next Monday (Dec. 27), be sure to click back here that
morning - we'll at least have a headline update at the top of
the page. We're still cranking out new episodes of Tower
Site of the Week, too, as we continue our look at Los Angeles
and its fascinating sites with an update this Friday (Dec. 24).
Whether you're checking us out at the office or at home - or
catching up after the fact - all of us here at fybush.com (even
Freckles the NERW Wonder Dog) wish you a safe, healthy and very
happy holiday, and we look forward to serving you even better
in 2005.
 *We're
busy shipping out the Tower Site Calendar 2005 to
radio fans from coast to coast and far beyond (would you believe
New Zealand?)
It's still not too late - just barely - to have yours in hand
by Christmas Eve, if you order right now. We're shipping them
out daily, and we'd be delighted to set one (or two, or three,
or 30) aside for you.
This year's calendar begins with WSTW/WDEL in Wilmington,
Delaware on the cover, ends with Sutro Tower in San Francisco
on the inside back cover - and along the way makes stops at WNBF
in Binghamton, CFNB in Fredericton, Poor Mountain in Roanoke,
KXNT in Las Vegas, WBBR in New York, Gibraltar Peak above Santa
Barbara, WDEV in Waterbury, Vermont, WRIB in Providence, WOOD
in Grand Rapids, KFJZ in Fort Worth, KYPA in Los Angeles and
the top of Chicago's Hancock Tower.
(You can see some previews of this year's calendar images
at Tower Site
of the Week - this week, it's Miss November, KYPA Los Angeles...)
We're holding the price from last year, notwithstanding increases
in printing costs and PayPal fees - just $16 postpaid ($17.32
including sales tax to New York addresses). And as always, it's
free with your $60 or higher subscription to NorthEast Radio
Watch/fybush.com. You can use PayPal, below, or send your check
or money order, payable to Scott Fybush, to 92 Bonnie Brae Avenue,
Rochester NY 14618. (Please note that the prices below are valid
for U.S. and Canadian orders only; please e-mail for information
about overseas shipping.)
And here's an even better deal - We still have
plenty of 2004 calendars left, so how about this? For just $20
postpaid ($21.65 in New York), we'll send you both the 2005 and
2004 editions. It's almost like getting an extra calendar free!
(Or, if you just need the 2004 edition, that's still on clearance
at $8 - and if you buy two 2004 calendars, your third is free!)
Don't want to order by credit card? You know the drill by
now - make those checks payable to "Scott Fybush,"
be sure to include sales tax (8.25%) for New York state calendar
orders only, and send them along to 92 Bonnie Brae Avenue, Rochester
NY 14618. (Sorry - we can't take orders by phone.)
Thanks for your support!
NorthEast Radio Watch is made possible by the generous
contributions of our regular readers. If you enjoy NERW, please
click here to
learn how you can help make continued publication possible. NERW
is copyright
2004 by Scott Fybush. |