May 21, 2007
Rumba Fades Away in Philly
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*It seemed like a sure thing - put a Spanish-language
format on an FM signal in PENNSYLVANIA's biggest market
and watch the ratings soar.
But
Clear Channel's experiment with Spanish tropical "Rumba"
on WUBA (104.5 Philadelphia) never quite caught fire after the
station signed on last fall, replacing the soft AC of "Sunny"
WSNI. WUBA languished at the bottom of the ratings, with revenue
to match, and the advent of the Portable People Meter in Philadelphia
this year confirmed that it wasn't just an issue with under-representation
of the Hispanic audience.
So on Thursday, "Rumba" disappeared from the big
full-market 104.5 signal, moving down to WDAS (1480 Philadelphia),
displacing black gospel from that frequency and its decidedly
less-than-full-market coverage. (WDAS had picked up Spanish-language
Phillies broadcasts at the start of the season, which should
have tipped us off that something was up.)
Replacing "Rumba" on 104.5 is Philadelphia's first
commercial modern rocker since the 2005 demise of the old "Y100"
(WPLY 100.3 Media) more than two years ago. "Radio 104.5"
is running jockless for now, with a logo (and programming) reminiscent
of the old WMRQ (104.1) in Hartford prior to its switch
to urban in 2003.
MANDATORY SUBSCRIPTION FEES?
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of life for many of the most popular radio and TV websites out
there. Just a few weeks ago, our pal Dave Hughes put part of
his excellent DCRTV.com site
behind a pay wall, and mandatory subscriptions are an established
way of life at LARadio.com
and reelradio.com, too,
just to name a few.
Here at fybush.com/North East
RadioWatch, we've managed to hold off from imposing a password
and mandatory subscription fee, but we depend on your support
- and that of our advertisers - to keep it that way.
If you still haven't subscribed
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*In other news from Philadelphia, there's a new morning show
on WWDB (860), as the syndicated Mancow show fills Don Imus'
old slot there. (Because WWDB is a daytimer, Mancow, like Imus
before him, will be heard for only a portion of morning drive
come winter.)
Dean Goodman's GoodRadio.TV group finally announced the full
roster of markets it's acquiring from Clear Channel, and we can
add a few more in Pennsylvania to the ones we already knew about
elsewhere (Bangor, Augusta, Burlington and Binghamton). According
to GoodRadio's FCC filings last week, the company will also pick
up standards WLAN (1390) and top 40 WLAN-FM (96.9) in Lancaster
and contemporary Christian WKAP (1340)/hot AC WRFY (102.5) in
Reading - plus the entire Williamsport cluster, which includes
talk WRAK (1400)/WRKK (1200 Hughesville), AC WKSB (102.7), country
WBYL (95.5 Salladasburg)/WBLJ (95.3 Shamokin), and top 40 WVRT
(97.7 Mill Hall)/WVRZ (99.7 Mount Carmel).
In Pittsburgh, there's more than just a call change at WLFP
(1550 Braddock) - the former WURP has shed G. Gordon Liddy and
Don & Mike as it becomes a fulltime affiliate of the Lifestyle
Talk Network.
The "Saturday Light Brigade" is growing; the Pittsburgh
institution is adding WIUP (90.1 Indiana) to its lineup of affiliates
around western Pennsylvania.
More notes from around the Keystone State: at WLMI (103.9
Kane), Connecticut native Paul Walker is the new midday jock,
voicetracked from his current home base at WABV (1590 Abbeville
SC), where he's operations manager. Up in the greater Erie area,
religious WCTL (106.3 Union City) adds two more translators to
its lineup: W64AT (100.7 Warren PA) and W254AQ (98.7 Jamestown
NY).
A call change that slipped past us a few weeks back: WHUZ
(94.3 Saegertown), the Meadville half of the "Wuzz FM"
classic hits simulcast that also includes WUUZ (107.7 Cooperstown/Oil
City), has changed calls to WUZZ, picking up those calls from
a sister station in Lima, Ohio.
Fans of the old WISL (1480 Shamokin) - and we know at least
one of them - will want to know that the station's being resurrected,
after a fashion, at next weekend's Anthracite Heritage Festival
of the Arts at Shamokin High School. John Treese has many of
the station's artifacts, and he'll be presenting them in a mock-up
of the WISL studios, complete with the original Gates Diplomat
board. There's more information at http://www.nccarts.com/festival.html.
And Pete Wambach, longtime host of the syndicated "This
is Pennsylvania" radio segment, died Thursday at 90. AllAccess.com
reports Wambach also worked at Harrisburg's WCMB and WKBO, as
well as at the old WTPA-TV.
*The post-Imus fallout continues to reverberate
in MASSACHUSETTS. At Imus' former Boston home, WTKK (96.9),
the Mike Barnicle show that's been a temporary replacement was
itself replaced last week, as WTKK picked up the David Gregory
show that originated for several days from MSNBC and was simulcast
over former Imus flagship WFAN (660 New York). Will the NBC White
House correspondent become the permanent replacement for Imus?
The buzz we're hearing suggests otherwise, which means WFAN and
WTKK are still trying to figure out what to do next.
Meanwhile, former Imus producer Bernie McGuirk will return
to the air later this week for a tryout on WRKO (680 Boston),
where he'll co-host with Tom Finneran from Wednesday through
Friday,
It's rare to see a public radio station team up with a commercial
station on programming, but with the huge amount of audience
that NPR news shares with commercial radio in Boston, it's no
surprise to find WGBH (89.7) and WBOS (92.9 Brookline) joining
forces to add 90-second news updates to WBOS' morning show. Dan
Tritle, local Morning Edition anchor for WGBH's Cape and Islands
stations (WCAI/WNAN/WZAI) will deliver the updates four times
an hour from 6:15 until 8:15 AM. For now, WGBH is providing the
newscasts without charge, but the stations are looking for sponsorship
opportunities.
Boston-area viewers with HDTV sets are seeing Natalie Jacobson
and her colleagues a little more clearly last week. WCVB-DT (Channel
20) was the first DTV signal in Boston, and when it began producing
"Chronicle" in HD last year, that was the first regular
local show to be offered in HD in the market. As of last Monday,
WCVB's newscasts are all in HD as well, for another market first;
no word on when WBZ/WSBK, WHDH/WLVI or WFXT will follow suit.
It may not be much more than emotional satisfaction for his
victims, but former WBIX (1060 Natick) owner Brad Bleidt is now
under a court order to repay more than $31 million he embezzled
from investors, plus $9 million in interest. Bleidt is scheduled
to be released from prison in 2016, and there's not much evidence
that there are any assets in his name for victims to seize. (The
station was sold at bankruptcy, and is back in the hands of previous
owner Alex Langer.)
There's a new afternoon host at Sandab's WQRC (99.9 Barnstable),
as Troy Smith takes on that role, along with production director
duties for the entire Sandab cluster. That's the same Troy who
was "Boy Troy" as PD at WFNX a few years back, and
more recently he was PD/ops manager at WDVT (93.5 Harwich Port,
now WFQR.)
AllAccess reports that WXKS-FM (107.9 Medford) music director
Chris Tyler is now the assistant PD at "Kiss 108."
Gus Saunders, veteran Boston Herald restaurant critic
and longtime host of "Yankee Kitchen" on the old Yankee
Network and later on WROL (950), died last Monday (May 14) at
his home in Newton. Saunders was on the air with his food show
for a remarkable 56 years, signing off for the last time in October
1999.
There's a death in the WRKO family, as well. Bill Todd was
on the air in WRKO's music days (1970-72) as "Johnny Williams,"
and later went on to work in Chicago and Los Angeles. He'd also
made stops in Philadelphia (at WIBG), Atlantic City (WMID) and
Trenton. He died May 13 in Phoenix, where he had been living.
*A new station in MAINE now has call
letters: mark down WFGO for the 1530 construction permit in Orono.
*Our top story in NEW YORK, technically,
isn't even a broadcast story. After all, Opie & Anthony are
still on the air at CBS Radio's WFNY-FM (92.3 Free FM) and their
other terrestrial affiliates, even though they're serving a 30-day
suspension from XM Satellite Radio, and rumors abound that they
won't return. The usually voluble hosts were eerily silent about
their XM suspension last week, though other hosts on Free FM
were talking about it. (And it didn't go unnoticed in New York
radio circles, especially by those pining for a return of oldies
to the city, that new CBS Radio boss Dan Mason pulled the plug
on San Francisco's version of "Free" last week, replacing
FM talk KIFR 106.9 with a revival of classic hits KFRC.)
We knew Clear Channel was spinning its Binghamton cluster
to Dean Goodman's Goodradio.TV group, but when the list came
out last week, we learned that the Hudson Valley cluster will
go to Goodman's group as well. The cluster includes country WRWD
(107.3 Highland)/WRWC (99.3 Ellenville), AC "Lite"
WRNQ (92.1 Poughkeepsie)/WCTW (98.5 Catskill), oldies WZCR (93.5
Hudson), top 40 "Kiss" WPKF (96.1 Poughkeepsie), hot
AC "Star" WBWZ (93.3 New Paltz) and standards WKIP
(1450 Poughkeepsie), WHUC (1230 Hudson) and WELG (1370 Ellenville).
As for the Utica cluster for which Clear Channel has yet to
announce a buyer, we're hearing strong buzzing that it's going
to Ed Levine's Galaxy group, which already has a strong presence
in the Mohawk Valley and would have to make some spins if it
picks up the CC stations.
Memorial Day is a week away, and in New York City, that's
become synonymous with "Rewound" on WABC (770), as
the erstwhile "Musicradio 77" returns from the mists
of time once more, through the magic of restored airchecks, for
a full day (6 AM-6 PM) of classic music. The day begins with
a 1981 montage, includes two hours of "The Top 100 of 1967,"
and wraps up with Bruce Morrow and Chuck Leonard from 1974, followed
by two hours of Rewound talk with Mark Simone. And this year,
sister station WLS (890 Chicago) gets into the act with its own
version of "Rewound," so we'll probably be flipping
between the two webcasts on Monday to catch all the action.
Two Long Island translators are changing hands: Communication
Ventures Ltd. is paying Michael and Tammy Celenza $152,000 for
W283BA (104.5 Selden) and W235BB (94.9 Hauppage), part of the
religious network based at WLIX-LP (94.7 Ridge).
Jim Harriott was best known for his work at KING-TV in Seattle
and at the Voice of America, but the veteran news anchor spent
much of the sixties in New York at WMCA, WNBC, WCBS and ABC News.
Harriott died a week ago in Seattle of complications from a stroke;
he was 71.
It's
become almost a tradition by now that nearly every time Clear
Channel changes format on its Rochester rimshot at 107.3 (currently
WSNP South Bristol), it stunts with country for a few minutes
before adopting whatever format it's really moving to. The latest
107.3 flip, which took place Friday afternoon, didn't include
that stunt - because this time around, the format du jour is,
in fact, country. "Country 107.3" is the new moniker,
and we'd note that the previous occupant, rhythmic AC "Snap
107.3," lasted all of eight months and change, which means
that maybe we weren't all that far off the mark, after all, when
we called it a stunt format last September. (Conventional wisdom
says putting country on 107.3 will serve as a flanker to shave
just enough ratings points off Entercom's market-leading WBEE
92.5 to put Clear Channel's WHAM at the top of the ratings; we'll
see how well that turns out.)
*An era has ended at CONNECTICUT's
big country station, as Floyd Wright exits afternoon drive at
WWYZ (92.5 Waterbury) after 20 years on the air there. Wendy
Steele moves from middays to afternoons, and the midday shift
is now being voicetracked from WGAR (99.5 Cleveland) by Kat Jackson.
An era has ended in Hartford TV, too - after 45 years of transmitting
from the Avon Mountain tower of WTIC-FM (96.5), Connecticut Public
TV flagship WEDH (Channel 24) has signed off for good from that
site. In what may be the last full-power analog site to be built
from scratch, WEDH has turned on its new facility over at Rattlesnake
Mountain, where the WTIC-TV (Channel 61) tower has been extensively
rebuilt for the coming of digital TV. Where's WEDH-DT? Still
hung up in proceedings over its final channel election, as its
tentative assignment of channel 45 conflicts with WABC-DT in
New York, so for now CPTV is using 45 at WEDN-DT in Norwich (eventually
to move to channel 9), while waiting for authorization to use
45 in Hartford.
Still more change on the way in the TV market: NBC's WVIT
(Channel 30) hopes to break ground in August on a new $20 million
studio/office building at its present site in West Hartford,
to replace the 1954-vintage building there that the station has
long since outgrown. The current building will be razed and will
become a parking lot for the new studios when the project is
completed in late 2008.
In Norwich, WCTY (97.7) morning co-host Shelly Martinez is
recovering from a car crash May 11 on Route 2 in Preston. Police
say Martinez' truck was hit from behind by a drunk driver. The
truck was pushed off the highway and rolled several times, leaving
Martinez in critical condition. She was airlifted to Yale-New
Haven Hospital, where her condition was upgraded to serious late
last week. (The drunk driver fled the scene, but was later caught
and charged.)
There's some good news from Arizona about Connecticut broadcaster
and station owner Dennis Jackson, who was in a motorcycle crash
in southern Utah a week ago. We're told he's making a strong
recovery, and was briefly able to breathe without assistance.
Initial reports of multiple broken bones proved to be unfounded;
in fact, he cracked five ribs in the crash. It's still a long
road back, but he's well on the way.
*Another venerable music station will be
celebrating its heritage next weekend. CANADA's legendary
CHUM (1050 Toronto) will mark the 50th anniversary of its 1957
flip to top 40 with a free concert May 26 featuring Gordon Lightfoot,
as well as an open house at its Yonge Street studios. The station
is also bringing back veteran DJs and celebrities for an "all-star
DJ week" starting this morning.
In Cobourg, the CRTC has granted CHUC-FM (107.9) a power increase,
from 1030 watts to just over 6 kW average ERP. The increase will
allow CHUC to shut down its AM transmitter on 1450, which has
remained on the air to solve some reception problems with the
FM signal; it comes over the objections of CJXY (107.9 Burlington),
which was concerned about ducting interference over Lake Ontario,
and CHUM Limited, which claimed CHUC wanted the power increase
to better serve the Peterborough market.
Out in Nova Scotia, another AM-to-FM move is about to take
place: CHER (950 Sydney) is testing its new FM signal on 98.3.
And in Hamilton and Haldimand/Norfolk, they're mourning Bob
"Sparky" Sherwin, morning host at CKNS (92.9) in Haldimand/Norfolk
since its debut last year, and longtime fixture on the Hamilton
radio scene before that. Sherwin was at CKOC (1150) for more
than two decades beginning in the mid-seventies, then at CHML
(900) before moving to CKNS. Sherwin died Wednesday (May 16)
after suffering a heart attack. He was 52.
*Our look at independent minor-league baseball on the radio
continues with the Can-Am League this week, just
ahead of the league's May 24 opening day:
The Brockton Rox stay on their flagship station under
new calls, as WXBR (1460 Brockton, ex-WBET) picks up all 94 games
this year. In Lynn, the North Shore Spirit return to WWZN
(1510 Boston), while the Worcester Tornadoes move to WTAG
(580), helping to fill the void caused there by the Red Sox'
move to WVEI (1440) and WCRN (830).
The New Haven County Cutters will have their Saturday-night
games on WAVZ (1300 New Haven), as that station enters its first
summer as an ESPN Radio outlet.
Les Capitales de Quebec will return to CHRC (800 Quebec
City) this season.
There's no local radio for the Atlantic City Surf (heard
last year on WLFR 91.7), the Nashua Pride, the New
Jersey Jackals or the Sussex Skyhawks.
One more independent league has two teams in NERW-land, both
in western Pennsylvania: the Frontier League's Washington
Wild Things will be heard on WJPA-FM (95.3 Washington), with
some games also on WOMP (1290 Bellaire OH), WSTV (1340 Steubenville
OH), WFGI (940 Charleroi) and WYJK (1340 Connellsville), while
we can't find any radio yet for the new Slippery Rock Sliders.
And we've been remiss in not mentioning the one South Atlantic
League single-A team in NERW-land: the Lakewood Blue Claws
in New Jersey play on WOBM (1160).
We'll wrap up our annual baseball preview with the New
York-Penn League when that short-season single-A league starts
play next month. (Go Muckdogs!)
From
the NERW Archives
(Yup, we've been doing this a long time now, and
so we're digging back into the vaults for a look at what NERW
was covering one, five and ten years ago this week, or thereabouts
- the column appeared on an erratic schedule in its earliest
years as "New England Radio Watch," and didn't go to
a regular weekly schedule until 1997. Thanks to LARadio.com
for the idea - and thanks to you, our readers, for the support
that's made all these years of NERW possible!)
May 22, 2006 -
- It's been an interesting week for WBAB (102.3) in Babylon,
NEW YORK. First there was the flap over a morning-show comedy
bit that we reported in our last issue, and now the station's
engineers are chasing a technically-adept prankster who interrupted
the station's "Roger and JP" morning show last Wednesday
by overriding the station's studio-to-transmitter link. For about
90 seconds, the pirate operator broadcast a rap song filled with
racial slurs - and because the station's transmitter control
was also handled over the STL link, engineers weren't immediately
able to turn off the transmitter and silence the unauthorized
broadcast. (Initial reports said the interrupting signal was
also heard over simulcast WHFM 95.3 on Long Island's east end,
but we haven't been able to confirm that.)
- "Clearly, someone has a bone to pick with WBAB, and
understands the broadcast business well enough, to know how to
hack into our signal, and has access to this equipment and obviously
was able to gain access to our broadcast," said a statement
from the station, which offered a $10,000 reward for information
leading to a conviction of the pirate. (NERW notes: there's a
long history of engineering pranks and practical jokes among
Long Island engineers; this, however, seems to go more than a
little beyond the bounds of good, clean fun. It also seems to
have required a fairly specialized knowledge of radio engineering,
which makes for a relatively small pool of potential suspects.)
- On the TV side of things, the new CW network signed two more
affiliates in the Empire State this week. In Elmira, it'll be
seen on a subchannel of WENY-DT (Channel 55), while in Watertown,
the CW will show up on a subchannel of WWTI-DT (Channel 21).
WWTI is a Clear Channel station; so is WTTX-CA (Channel 30) in
Elmira, the current UPN affiliate that will be left without a
network when UPN folds this fall. (My Network TV lands on new
WJKP-LP in the market, and it's not clear what becomes of WTTX
now.)
- Clear Channel is adding to its holdings in western MASSACHUSETTS,
acquiring WRNX (100.9 Amherst) from Pamal in a trade for several
yet-to-be-named stations elsewhere in New England. Pamal was
left as a single-station operator in the Springfield market after
its deal to buy WBEC-FM (105.5) from Vox fell through last year.
The spinoff of adult alternative WRNX will give Clear Channel
a fifth station in the market, adding to its existing cluster
of news-talk WHYN (560 Springfield), sports WNNZ (640 Westfield),
hot AC WHYN-FM (93.1 Springfield) and country WPKX (97.9 Enfield
CT). What will Pamal end up with in exchange? It's widely believed
that the other end of the deal will be up in VERMONT, where Clear
Channel's small holdings in the Rutland-Randolph area are in
competition with Pamal's WJEN/WJJR.
- In northern NEW JERSEY, Salem's WWDJ (970 Hackensack) is
applying for a power increase. As part of a coordinated interference
agreement with WAMD (970 Aberdeen MD), which will reduce its
power, WWDJ wants to boost day power from 5 kW to 50 kW, providing
more solid coverage of New York City from its existing three-tower
array in Hackensack. Night power would remain at 5 kW.
May 20, 2002 -
- MAINE gets digital public TV across most of the state tomorrow
(Tuesday), with the official launch of three of the planned five
DTV outlets for Maine PBS. WCBB-DT (Channel 17) in Augusta, WMEB-DT
(Channel 9) in Orono and WMEM-DT (Channel 20) in Presque Isle
will all transmit a four-channel digital multiplex that includes
the main Maine PBS service, PBS Kids, PBS YOU (the national network's
"how-to" channel) and PBS Plus. (It appears Maine PBS
plans to use the actual DTV channel numbers, instead of programming
the PSIP capability to mimic the old analog channel numbers,
which seems like an odd choice if the network eventually intends
to return Augusta and Presque Isle to their VHF analog channels;
we have no idea why.)
- MPBC says the remaining two transmitters, WMEA-DT (Channel
45) in Biddeford and WMED-DT (Channel 10) in Calais, will be
on the air by this fall, putting Maine far ahead of any of the
region's other statewide public broadcasters in the DTV race.
- NEW YORK could soon have a new classic rocker. WDRE (98.5
Westhampton) will soon break from its simulcast of modern AC
WLIR (92.7 Garden City) to become "the Bone". It will
join a crowded rock market in eastern Long Island, competing
against Cox's WHFM (95.3 Southampton, relaying WBAB Babylon)
and Barnstable's WRCN (103.9 Riverhead), not to mention AAA's
WMOS (104.7 Montauk), which is now targeting a cross-Sound audience
in Connecticut but still puts a solid signal across the East
End.
- In NEW JERSEY, the FCC gave the go-ahead to Millennium's
purchase of the Nassau stations in the Monmouth/Ocean market,
allowing Nassau to take control of standards WADB (1310 Asbury
Park) and WOBM (1160 Lakewood), modern AC WJLK (94.3 Asbury Park),
AC WOBM-FM (92.7 Toms River) and CHR WBBO (98.5 Ocean Acres),
despite market-concentration concerns. Millennium will have 64%
of radio revenues in the Arbitron-defined "market"
(where one end can't hear most of the stations from the other
end) when the Nassau stations are combined with its other recent
purchases, including WKXW (New Jersey 101.5) in Trenton, which
has a sizable audience in the area.
May 22, 1997-
- NERW went back to Boston this past weekend, only to find
yet another station added to the American Radio Systems megaopoly.
WNFT (1150 Boston) is ARS' newest acquisition, to the tune of
a reported $4.5 million from Greater Media. 1150 has been a troubled
spot on the Boston radio dial for more than a decade, including
stints as oldies WMEX (quashed by WODS's arrival on FM), business
WMEX (killed off by the recession of the early 90s), Spanish
"Radio Continental", leased-time ethnic brokered by
WRCA (1330), the recent brief run as KidStar's Boston affiliate
(which ended when KidStar went out of business), and plenty of
interim periods simulcasting WMJX 106.7 or WBCS/WKLB-FM 96.9.
- ARS isn't saying much about its plans for 1150, but rumor
has it that the station will pick up some of the sports conflicts
(Red Sox/Celtics, for instance) from WEEI (850). There's also
a pretty credible rumor that ARS will move 1150 to the WRKO transmitter
site in Burlington, demolish the three AM towers and the FM backup
tower on the WNFT site in Lexington, and build a taller FM tower
there that can be leased out by subsidiary American Tower Systems.
That could be profitable enough by itself to make WNFT's profitability
irrelevant, in fact...time will tell.
- And one more personnel note: Steve Murphy is heading west
after a five-year stint as PD and operations manager at classical
WBOQ (104.9 Gloucester). Steve started at classical WFCC (107.5
Chatham) in 1988, detoured into easy listening at WQRC (99.9
Hyannis) in 1990, then arrived at WBOQ in 1992. Now he's off
to classical WFMI in Milwaukee, where he'll be director of broadcast
operations. Steve may be taking his life in his own hands --
he's vowing to keep wearing his Patriots attire in the heart
of Packer country. Steve is also a past member of the board at
the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association, which has created
a new award to honor the state's best broadcasters. It's called
the Alan Okun Award, and it's named for the late owner of Webster's
WGFP (940) and WXXW (98.9). Okun was named posthumously as the
award's first recipient.
- It will be licensed to New Hampshire, but the story of WLPL
(96.3 Walpole) is really our VERMONT news this week: The Vermont
Environmental Board is hearing another appeal to the 110-foot
tower that WLPL owner Gary Savoie wants to build on Bemis Hill
near Athens VT. Two adjoining landowners, Sarah Ann Martin and
Veronica Brelsford, have kept Savoie tied up in appeals for several
years, and in the meantime WLPL remains on hold. Meantime, WMXR
(93.9 Woodstock) is crossing the border in the other direction,
moving its studios from Woodstock across the Connecticut River
to 52 Main Street in West Lebanon NH. And the next piece of the
WVMX (101.7 Stowe) mystery has revealed itself: Sage Broadcasting
has applied to sell the station to "Radio Vermont Classics,"
which could be related to the Radio Vermont that owns WDEV AM/FM
(550 Waterbury/96.1 Warren) and WLVB (93.9 Morrisville). Rumor
has 101.7 going classical eventually.
- Up in MAINE, a new station is about to make its debut. WHRR
(102.9 Dennysville) has been testing its transmitter, starting
back on May 12. Perhaps in response to the upcoming competition,
WQDY-FM (92.7) in nearby Calais has gone to 24-hour broadcasting.
Sister AM WQDY (1230) remains on a 7AM - 10PM schedule. And over
in Eastport, we're told high school outlet WSHD (91.7) is back
on the air after some recent weather-related antenna damage.
Advising the station is WQDY news director Tom McLaughlin, a
onetime Boston broadcaster on WBCN (104.1) and the old WTBS (88.1,
now WMBR). Moving down the coast, LPTV W20BN in Bangor has been
deleted by the FCC, in large part because it was never built.
As for the 830 in "Lorring ME" mentioned last week?
There's speculation that it's in the FCC database as a formality,
just to remind Canada that the US has a claim on that frequency
(much the same way the CRTC database contains all sorts of Canadian
allocations that may never be built, but must still be protected
on this side of the border).
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*It's here! As seen in the St.
Paul Pioneer Press, the Chicago
Sun-Times, and soon on WCVB's "Chronicle,"
Tower Site Calendar 2007 is not only now shipping - it's
close to a sellout! If you're waiting for the 2007 edition to
go on clearance sale, don't keep waiting - the word from the
shipping department is that only about 25 copies remain,
and we expect to sell them all in the next few weeks.
This year's edition
features what we think are the finest tower images yet - from
the cover image of WCCO Minneapolis all the way to the back-cover
centerfold of WBZ in Boston, and from KGO San Francisco to KOIL
Omaha to Philadelphia's famed Roxborough tower farm, captured
in a dramatic dusk shot with the lights all aglow.
This sixth annual edition once again contains plenty of historic
dates from radio and television history in the Northeast and
beyond, and as always, it comes to you shrink-wrapped and shipped
first class mail for safe arrival.
You can even get your 2007 calendar free with
your new or renewal subscription
to NERW at the $60 level.
Visit the Fybush.com
Store and place your order today - and be among the first
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