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June 20, 2005
Burlington TVs Join Forces
*If you're looking to buy TV ad time on a
full-power station in VERMONT, you're down to just three
choices after the recent sale of ABC affiliate WVNY (Channel
22) in Burlington and a subsequent joint sales agreement with
the owners of crosstown Fox affiliate WFFF (Channel 44).
Here's what's going on down by the shore of Lake Champlain:
C-22 License Subsidiary, the owner of WVNY, recently won FCC
permission to sell the station to a company called Lambert Broadcasting
of Burlington, controlled by Michael Lambert of Beverly Hills,
California. Under the terms of the $10.5 million deal, Lambert
will then enter into the joint sales agreement with Smith Media,
part of the Smith group that already owns WFFF.
 While the deal will
keep Smith from having an attributable ownership interest in
WVNY (which would be illegal in a market as small as Burlington,
with just four commercial TV stations and thus no possibility
of a legal TV duopoly), it will put Smith in charge of most of
the operations of WVNY. Smith will handle WVNY's ad sales (though
with a provision barring it from forcing ad buyers to buy WVNY
and WFFF in combination), publicity, routine engineering functions
and will provide no more than 15% of WVNY's programming.
That programming is expected to include at least some local
news, which is one area in which the deal could benefit viewers
in the Burlington market. WFFF has never offered local news,
and WVNY's history with news has been a troubled one; the station
cancelled its last (and most ambitious) attempt at local news
last year after failing to make enough of a dent against market
giants WCAX (Channel 3) and WPTZ (Channel 5). The hope, apparently,
is that WVNY and WFFF together might be more of a contender than
either station would have been alone. (The prospect of local
news on WFFF raises questions, too: the station currently serves
as both the Fox and WB outlet in the market, delaying WB's 8-10
PM primetime offerings to a "WB Time" block that runs
from 10-midnight each night; would a 10 PM WFFF newscast get
in the way of that?)
Operations of both stations will apparently be consolidated
at WFFF's facility in Colchester, sooner or later.
*The FCC's had a busy week digging through the hundreds of
applications for new AM stations and major changes to existing
AM stations that were filed during last year's window - and now
it's ready to begin dealing with many of those applications,
including a whole bunch from NERW-land. The key word to keep
in mind as we run through some of those applications this week
is "mutually exclusive." That's the category into which
the FCC has put many of those applications, and the burden is
now on the applicants in each "MX group" to find a
way to resolve that mutually-exclusive status. The FCC has opened
a settlement window (through September 16) in which certain applicants
- generally those proposing major changes to existing stations
or new applicants MX'd to major changes - can legally attempt
to buy out rivals (thus sparing the FCC the need to choose a
winner in each group); it's also asking applicants to provide
information on the communities they propose to cover in the event
that settlements can't be reached.
We'll review the "MX groups" state by state, and
since we're already in Vermont, we'll note that there are two
rival applications for 1590 in the Burlington area - one from
RAMS IV in Essex Junction, the other from Jet Fuel Broadcasting
in Winooski.
 *A
call letter change in NEW HAMPSHIRE: WVFM (105.7 Campton),
the ski-country relay of WXRV (92.5 Haverhill MA), has requested
new calls WUSX.
One MX group in the Granite State: Barry Lunderville's application
for 1340 Kearsarge goes up against Mt. Washington Radio and Gramophone
Inc's application for 1340 in Conway.
*The rumor mill keeps churning in MASSACHUSETTS
over a new radio home for the Boston Celtics, whose deal with
WWZN (1510 Boston) ended at the close of the season. Mark Shneyder's
Boston Radio Watch
(no relation) says the team is headed to Entercom's WRKO
(680), but the station itself hasn't confirmed any deal, though
it acknowledges that negotiations have taken place.
(NERW's take: a Celts/WRKO deal would make sense, especially
given the cross-promotion that Entercom could provide on sister
station WEEI and on its network of stations in Worcester and
Rhode Island. Some of the other possibilities mentioned - Infinity's
WBZ or WBCN and Greater Media's WTKK - seem far less likely for
a variety of reasons. Interesting that the new "ESPN 890/1400"
- which had still yet to launch at press time Sunday night -
hasn't been mentioned much as a contender.)
 On
the TV side, it marked the end of an era - not just in Boston,
but in local TV everywhere - when WCVB (Channel 5) president/general
manager Paul LaCamera announced last week that he's stepping
down as general manager on August 1 and as president at year's
end.
LaCamera has been with WCVB since its 1972 sign-on, and he's
managed the station since 1988. Under his leadership, the station
won a well-deserved reputation as one of the best local TV outlets
in the country, and it will be interesting indeed to see whether
his successor, Bill Fine of Hearst-Argyle's WBAL-TV (Channel
11), will be able to maintain that reputation. (NERW wonders,
in particular, whether WCVB icon Natalie Jacobson will be inclined
to stick around for a new contract after the departure of LaCamera,
to whom Jacobson and other station veterans are personally loyal.)
In any event, we join the rest of the industry in saluting
LaCamera for his work over the decades at WCVB, and we wish him
well on his retirement.
There's one MX group with a Bay State connection: Alex Langer's
application to move WSRO (650) from Ashland to Lexington, with
a transmitter way down near Foxboro, is MX'd with Steven Wendell's
application for a new 650 in Raymond, Maine.
(And one correction from last week: Dan Kennedy's moving from
the Phoenix to Northeastern University to teach.)
 *Speaking
of MAINE, veteran Portland morning man Mark Persky is
returning to the airwaves next month, but not at his longtime
home of WBLM (102.9 Portland), where he suddenly disappeared
from the morning show in January. (The station formally announced
his departure in April, leaving Herb Ivy, his co-host of 18 years,
as the show's anchor.)
When Persky signs back on (presumably after working out a
non-compete deal with WBLM), it'll be at Nassau's WFNK (107.5
Lewiston), which has been making ratings waves with its "Frank"
classic rock format. There's a nifty irony here - that 107.5
frequency is the same one on which Persky started all those years
ago, when WBLM was broadcasting from the now-famous "little
trailer in the woods in Litchfield."
Up in Farmington, WKTJ (99.3) is being sold, as Steve White's
Clearwater Communications pays Marc Fisher's Fisher & Doak
$450,000 for the fine little community station.
*It feels anticlimactic, somehow - but there's
an end to the saga of RHODE ISLAND's public radio stations
and Boston University's WBUR. As expected, WBUR management announced
last week that WRNI (1290 Providence) and WXNI (1230 Westerly)
are no longer on the market, closing the turmoil that began last
fall when now-ousted WBUR leader Jane Christo placed the stations
with a broker.
The move prompted an outcry in Rhode Island that helped precipitate
Christo's exit, and it was little surprise that the end of a
review by WBUR's new management led interim GM Peter Fiedler
to declare last week that "we are making a long-term commitment
to the listeners of Rhode Island," including the hiring
of a new Providence-based general manager for the stations.
*A CONNECTICUT program director
is moving on to bigger things: Charley Connolly is leaving the
PD chair at WEZN-FM (99.9 Bridgeport) to take on PD duties at
Infinity's smooth jazz KOAI (107.5 Fort Worth TX).
*In NEW YORK, the outcry over the
abrupt format change at WCBS-FM (101.1 New York) continues, at
least among the devoted fans of the oldies format that was replaced
by "Jack FM" a couple of weeks back.
This week's developments: CBS-FM fans are planning a rally
on Tuesday (June 21) outside Viacom's corporate offices at 1515
Broadway (which is also home to the WCBS-FM studios). In the
meantime, Big Apple oldies listeners are seeking out alternatives,
and in the absence of a full-coverage New York signal picking
up oldies, the suburban stations are stepping in. WMTR (1250
Morristown NJ) began streaming last week at www.wmtram.com,
hoping to get some New York office listeners. Meanwhile out on
Long Island, WBZO (103.1 Bay Shore) opened its morning show mikes
to some of the displaced WCBS-FM jocks last week, giving them
a chance to say the farewells that they never got to offer on
101.1.
Speaking of Long Island, WHLI (1100 Hempstead) is reportedly
back to full power (10 kilowatts), with the completion of its
rebuilt two-tower array.
Upstate, Kevin Murphy has departed Infinity's Rochester cluster,
where he was VP/GM/market manager. He takes the same title at
Infinity's WOMC (104.3) in Detroit, with no replacement named
yet in Rochester.
A heritage set of Rochester calls has resurfaced in Buffalo,
where Citadel flipped WMNY (1120) to WBBF last week. (No change
to the gospel/leased-time format on 1120, ex-WHTT, ex-WNYS, ex-WWOL
- but isn't it just odd that WBBF is now in Buffalo and WYSL
is now in the Rochester market?)
Rochester listeners are hearing a bunch of new signals on
the FM dial. South of town, the region's first LPFM has signed
on (religious WNYL-LP 104.9 Lima, which puts a listenable signal
into southern Monroe County), and all over town, Family Life
Network's translator network is growing, with the latest addition
being 92.9 in Webster, making five FLN signals on the dial here
at NERW Central (and a sixth to come, when 95.9 in Spencerport
takes air soon.) Over on the west side, WMJQ (105.5 Brockport)
was granted a CP last week to move to 104.9, edging closer to
Rochester from a new transmitter site on a Cingular tower in
Ogden. (The station is operated, under an LMA-to-buy, by EMF
Broadcasting.)
 Speaking of heritage
calls, we'd have spent last Sunday night in Syracuse if we'd
known that Clear Channel was going to make the call change on
WIXT (Channel 9) at 2:00 last Monday morning (June 13). As previously
reported, the new calls on channel 9 are WSYR-TV, tying the ABC
affiliate in with CC's WSYR (570 Syracuse).
(A NERW historical note: the WSYR-TV calls were on what's
now WSTM, channel 3, from 1950 until 1980. But WSYR-TV was actually
on channel 5 for the first few years of its life, which means
Syracuse viewers with exceptionally long memories might recall
the WSYR-TV calls appearing on every VHF channel now in use in
the city - 3, 5 and now 9 - over the years. The present channel
5, WTVH, is the old WHEN-TV, which operated on channel 8 from
1948 until it moved to 5 in 1962.)
 In Ithaca, Saga took
over operation of the former Eagle cluster last week, and wasted
no time making a Monday-morning flip of oldies WTKO (1470 Ithaca)
to progressive talk as WNYY.
Down the road in Elmira/Corning, Scott Free (formerly of WWCK
105.5 in Flint, Michigan) is the new PD/morning man at Backyard
Broadcasting's WNKI (106.1 Corning), replacing J.J. Morgan, who's
now in Wichita at KFBZ.
From the MX-group files: Bob Savage's application for a new
1220 at Lakeville goes up against Cleo Broadcasting's application
for 1220 in Greece; RAMS III's 1040 Menands against God Radio
Group's 1040 West Simsbury CT; and Michael Celenza's 1120 Little
Falls against Advanced Modulation Broadcasting's 1120 Hughesville
PA.
*In PENNSYLVANIA, Dee Snider has departed
the night shift at WMMR (93.3 Philadelphia), clearing the way
for the full-time return of Matt Cord, who'd been doing part-time
work at WMMR after a few years in afternoons at the now-defunct
WPLY (100.3 Media). With the return of Preston and Steve to mornings,
that makes two WMMR airshifts filled by former Y100 personalities...
In Lancaster, WLPA (1490) picks up Fox Sports next month,
reimaging as "Fox Sports 1490" and replacing the current
Sporting News Radio programming there.
There's word that Jim Loftus has departed the GM chair at
the Shamrock stations in Scranton (WEJL/WBAX, WEZX/WPZX, WQFM/WQFN)
after an eight-year run. More on this one next week...
(Monday afternoon update: Inside Radio reports that
Loftus is headed to Philadelphia as GM of Infinity's oldies WOGL
98.1.)
Out west, Michael Horvath is selling WZUM (1590 Carnegie)
to Starboard Media for $435,000. Starboard has been leasing WZUM
to program its Catholic format.
And up on the Ohio border, Michael Arch has filed with the
FCC to transfer control of Beacon Broadcasting, which owns WGRP
(940 Greenville), WEXC (107.1 Greenville) and WANR (1570 Warren
OH), to Harold Glunt, who already owns a third of Beacon. Under
the deal, Glunt will pay Arch $5,000 and assume Beacon's debt.
Arch will stay on as station manager, and the deal calls for
the stations to be programmed to appeal to Christian teenagers.
(What does this mean for the previously-announced deal to sell
WGRP to Vilkie Communications, which was operating the station
as a simulcast of its WMVL 101.7 Lineville-Meadville? We don't
know yet. Stay tuned!)
Lots of MX groups in the Keystone State: four applicants for
1490 along I-80 (Advance Acquisitions in State College, Cary
Simpson in LeMont, RAMS I in State College and Priority in Du
Bois); two for 1360 around Pittsburgh (SW Pennsylvania Community
Radio in Geistown, against WAVL's application to move from 910
to 1360 in Apollo - meaning Renda's proposed move of WPTT McKeesport
from 1360 to 910 also hinges on this MX group's resolution);
1390/1400 near Philadelphia (Four Rivers Community Broadcasting
on 1390 in Morrisville against Andre Mondelus on 1400 in Philadelphia);
850 in central Pennsylvania (Ed Schober in Enola, Hill &
Glover in Enola and Romar in Archbold); and 1190 in western Pennsylvania
(Mark Himmler in Waterford, Priority in Du Bois, WANB 1580's
application to move to 1190 in Waynesburg, WTBZ 1260 Grafton
WV's application to move to 1190, and an application in North
Carolina).
*There are two interesting MX groups with
NEW JERSEY connections: the application to move WNYG (1440
Babylon NY) to 1530 in Elizabeth (replacing WJDM) is MX'ed with
an application for more power at WNWR (1540 Philadelphia). And
an application to move WWJZ (640 Mount Holly) over to Horsham
Township PA is MX'd with applications for 650 in North Carolina
and Virginia.
*The big story from CANADA was the
CRTC's grant of all three applications for subscription digital
radio services. Two of the applications came from the big U.S.-based
satellite radio players - both Sirius Canada and Canadian Satellite
Radio (partnered with XM) will be required to offer at least
eight Canadian channels (with 85% CanCon on the English channels,
and 65% CanCon on the minimum three French-language channels),
while CHUM will offer up to 50 channels transmitted over the
Eureka-147 terrestrial DAB system, starting in Ottawa, Toronto,
Hamilton, Montreal and Vancouver, where free-to-air DAB is already
on the air.
CHUM was hoping its system would help give the struggling
DAB operations a kick-start, since its plan included offering
subsidized low-cost radios that could tune both the subscription
channels and the free DAB offerings; it's already vowing to challenge
the approval of the two satellite systems, which it says will
doom its plan.
 Elsewhere
on the dial, Mike Bendixen departs his gig as morning-show producer
at CFRB (1010 Toronto) to become PD/news director at Standard
sister station CJAD (800 Montreal).
And over at CHFI (98.1 Toronto), the morning team of Jay and
Billie departs after Monday's "best-of" show, eventually
to be replaced by Erin Davis and Mike Cooper, who are moving
over from CJEZ (97.3).
*Our special clearance pricing continues
for fans of the Tower Site Calendar 2005. We're well aware
that many of the calendar's fans buy it for the pictures, not
the actual calendar pages...but that doesn't change the fact
that by this time of the year, we're not exactly shipping 'em
out the door at a breakneck pace, and Mrs. NERW would very much
like a corner of her living room back.
So while she rediscovers the floor beneath those boxes of
calendars and we begin to line up the images for Tower Site Calendar
2006, you get the very first crack at our Calendar
Clearance Deal for 2005.
 Here's how it works:
instead of our list price of $16 for this fabulous, full-color,
glossy calendar, you can now pick one up for just $8,
postpaid. ($8.66 to New York State addresses.) Better yet, if
you order two calendars at this special clearance price, we'll
throw in a third for free - $16 for THREE calendars, with nine
exciting months of 2005 yet to go. (That's $17.32 in NYS.)
Maybe you've already hung your original 2005 calendar on the
wall, and you're thinking it would be nice to have another copy
to stick away in pristine condition. Maybe you really want to
frame that spectacular September page right now - but you still
need a calendar later this year. Maybe you just want to help
Mrs. NERW clean out the living room and give happy NERW baby
Ariel more space to practice walking.
Whatever your motive, now's your big chance, because while
there are still 2005 calendars left, there may not be any in
a few weeks. (Remember, the 2002 and 2003 editions were total
sellouts, and I've had to turn away several of you who were hoping
to add these now-rare calendars to your collections.)
And we've got two more great deals for you, too. We still
have a few 2004 calendars left, and while they're getting rare,
Mrs. NERW wants them gone - so they're yours, in pristine condition,
for just $5 postpaid. (Buy two and the third is free!) Or order
the 2004 and 2005 calendars together for just $10, postpaid.
(What a deal!)
(New York orders pay $5.41 for the 2004 calendar, $10.83 for
the 2004 and 2005 together.)
And as always, the calendar's free with your $60 or higher
subscription to NorthEast Radio Watch/fybush.com. In fact, we've
got a great deal for new or renewing $60 subscribers: we'll send
you two 2005 calendars if you subscribe now. Or,
if you'd prefer, we'll hold a brand-new Tower Site Calendar
2006 for you with your subscription, and you can be among
the very first to see the 2006 edition when it's released this
summer. Remember, we count on your subscription dollars to keep
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