July 2, 2007

Emotional Signoff for WBZ's Sullivan

• MAINE
• NEW HAMPSHIRE
• MASSACHUSETTS
• VERMONT
• RHODE ISLAND
• CONNECTICUT
• NEW YORK
• NEW JERSEY
• PENNSYLVANIA
• CANADA
• CLASSIFIEDS
• FROM THE ARCHIVES

*The radio side of the newsroom at WBZ (1030 Boston) is normally a pretty quiet place after about 6 most evenings, but it was a different story last Thursday, as VIPs from all over eastern MASSACHUSETTS joined WBZ staffers past and present, along with dozens of family members, to bid farewell (for now) to evening talk host Paul Sullivan.

The Lowell native had been off the air for several weeks as he recovered from a fourth brain surgery for the melanoma that he's been fighting for more than two years, but he returned for one final show to say goodbye to his listeners.

Two hours before the show started, Sullivan was already the center of attention, holding a press conference in his studio in which the serious answers about his illness and treatment were leavened by a strong dose of the humor for which Sullivan is known.

That mood continued into the two-hour broadcast, in which co-host Jordan Rich played ringmaster, introducing in-studio guests that included Boston mayor Tom Menino, Sullivan's doctors, and recent 'BZ retiree Gary LaPierre, who looked tanned and relaxed, reporting that he's learned very easily to sleep in now that he's no longer doing morning drive.

The show also featured a roster of telephone VIPs that included Mitt Romney, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, whose barking dog prompted a flurry of Sullivan jokes. ("Is that Dick Cheney?," Sullivan asked the senator.)

Sullivan's wife Mary Jo sat beside him throughout the broadcast, while his children joined him for parts of the show and his parents, as well as numerous aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, in-laws and others watched and listened outside the studio window.

At the end of the show, the last word on Sullivan came from producer Rick Radzik, whose usual stoic demeanor broke as he read a letter he'd written to Sullivan about how difficult it's been to work through the illness and death of Sullivan's predecessor David Brudnoy, followed by Sullivan's own illness.

Rich had to take over reading the last part of the letter, which gave Sullivan an opening for one more joke as he said his own farewell moments later. "This is Rick Radzik speaking," Sullivan said after his own voice cracked as he thanked the audience.

At night's end, Sullivan continued a 'BZ tradition begun with LaPierre's retirement, taking a ceremonial walk down the station's main hallway to the waiting limousine, a fitting sendoff for a host who saw WBZ through the challenges of the Brudnoy transition, only to find a style and an audience all his own.

Sullivan says he'll still have plenty to say about Bay State politics, especially as the 2008 presidential campaign cranks into high gear, and we expect to hear plenty from him in whatever role he ends up taking at 'BZ in the months to come.

A few words from this end (and no, this isn't Rick Radzik speaking): Sullivan is, and has always been, a class act. While he'll be the first to admit that he's not your usual sort of radio voice, he follows in a long tradition of evening talkers on WBZ who are interesting people first and radio people second. Sullivan noted that he takes a great deal of pride in steering his own political course, and avoiding the shouting and anger that characterize so much talk radio these days. David Brudnoy was a tough act to follow, and Sullivan pulled off that difficult task. Now a new host will get to take on an even tougher act. We're looking forward to hearing how it all comes together - and to the next chapter in the Paul Sullivan story, too.

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Sullivan, it turns out, wasn't the only Boston talk host saying his farewells Thursday night. Despite a successful fundraiser, Christopher Lydon and his "Open Source" staff announced last week that they're putting the show on hiatus. In recent months, the show had lost its network carriage via Public Radio International and its Boston home base at WGBH. Lydon and producer Mary McGrath say they're taking the summer off to "regroup and think realistically about a new program for the fall." They'll keep a conversation going at radioopensource.org.

With the departure of "Open Source" from the old WGBH studios at 125 Western Ave. in Allston, and last week's move of WGBH-TV's master control, the building that housed public TV and radio in Boston for more than 40 years is now almost empty. Only "The World" on the radio side and "Greater Boston" on the TV side have yet to make the move to the new digs at 1 Guest Street, and they'll do that in three weeks' time.

One prominent signature of WGBH's Western Avenue era will disappear starting today, as the pedestrian bridge that carried staffers between the two main buildings on the WGBH campus is scheduled to be demolished.

A few more WBZ tidbits before we move on: not only did Gary LaPierre make an appearance at the Sullivan farewell - the veteran morning man is also back on the air. He's being heard in promos for the station's coverage of the Boston Pops July 4 festivities, and he tells NERW that he'll be doing more promotion and voice-over work for the station in months to come. WBZ also welcomes a new reporter to its news staff today, as Lisa Meyer, who has a long history of network radio work, joins the local crew at 1030.

Sad news from Milwaukee: the demise of yet another commercial classical station, WFMR (106.9 Brookfield WI), also put a former New Englander out of work. Steve Murphy went to Milwaukee in 1998 from WBOQ in Gloucester; he'd also worked at WFCC on Cape Cod. (WFMR flipped to smooth jazz last Tuesday, picking up the format dropped across town when WJZI 93.3 went to AC.)

In Marshfield, WATD (95.9) owner Ed Perry has lost his appeal of an FCC decision awarding a new signal on 91.7 to the University of Massachusetts. The FCC granted UMass a "tentative preference" for the frequency after determining that the other applicant, the Talking Information Center radio reading service, was ineligible for a preference given to applicants with no existing broadcast interests.

TIC was denied that preference because Perry sits on its board - but in its appeal, TIC argued that Perry had agreed to step down from the TIC board, offering a resignation letter retroactive to the application date.

The FCC rejected that argument. It says because Perry has continued to be involved in TIC's operation (including putting TIC on a WATD subcarrier and providing studio space for TIC in WATD's building), the decision granting 91.7 to UMass stands. (We suspect the new Marshfield signal will be used to extend the Boston-based WUMB folk radio network, which isn't a bad use for the frequency, either.)

Some changes on Boston's TV dial: we'd overlooked a recent schedule shift that moves WSBK (Channel 38)'s WBZ-produced newscast from 9:30 PM to 9 PM. Meanwhile, the market's big prime-time newscast, WFXT (Channel 25)'s 10 PM show, is adding another half-hour. The new "Fox 25 News at 11" will debut later this month, adding another layer of competition to the fierce battle at that hour between WCVB (Channel 5) and WHDH (Channel 7) - and, oh yeah, WBZ-TV (Channel 4) as well, though it's fallen far behind the other two in recent years. Will WFXT have any better luck at 11 than WHDH has had at 10, where its newscast on new sister station WLVI (Channel 56) has failed to improve much on the ratings of WLVI's former newscast?

One more Boston TV note: Boston Catholic TV (now just "CatholicTV"), which traces its origins back to WSBK's predecessor, WIHS (Channel 38) in the early sixties, has a new home. It's spending the summer moving from its rented quarters in Newton to a new studio/control room complex, the Msgr. Francis T. McFarland Television Center, a former convent in Watertown.

*A familiar New England voice has resurfaced in downeast MAINE. Bruce Stevens, late of WBZ and Portland's WGAN, and more recently of WTIC in Hartford, has joined the crew at WNSX (97.7 Winter Harbor), where he'll do sales and some air work.

NERW wasn't in Portland for last Thursday's FCC "localism" hearings, and because we were traveling, we weren't parked in front of a computer listening to them, either.

It didn't sound like we missed much, though - this particular dog-and-pony show has been making the rounds all over the country for a few years now without bringing about much of anything in the way of alterations to the FCC's rules, and that's unlikely to change under the current Washington political climate. Those who did attend the hearings report that they went pretty much the way they've been going in other cities: local broadcasters told the Commissioners who attended about the charitable contributions they make to their communities, opponents of corporate radio took the mike to rail against injustices real and perceived, and no minds were visibly changed. At least Portland's a pretty place for the Commission to visit in late June, anyway...

(We'll throw this question out to those who complained, with considerable justification, that some parts of Maine, especially the mid-coast area, have lost their local radio voices to consolidation - now that some of the big broadcasters, including Clear Channel and Citadel, are selling off Maine holdings, will those local situations improve in the next few years? We'll be watching, even long after the FCC's moved on to Boise or Amarillo or wherever's next on their agenda.)

*Speaking of those spinoffs, more Clear Channel stations in Maine and NEW YORK went into the "Aloha" trust last week: the rest of the Utica cluster (WUTQ/WRNY/WADR, WOKR, WOUR, WUMX and three translators), WWDG (105.1 De Ruyter) from the Syracuse cluster (plus a translator there), the entire northwestern New Jersey cluster (WNNJ, WNNJ-FM, WSUS, WHCY and a translator) and the entire Bangor cluster (WABI, WKSQ, WWBX, WFZX, WGUY, WVOM and WBFB.

Clear Channel's still not saying much about the trust, but here's what we think is happening: Bangor is being sold to GoodRadio.TV, which will end up having to spin several signals there to stay under the ownership cap. The Utica stations are for sale, too, and whoever buys those will have to do some spinning. Syracuse would have been over the cap, if Clear Channel were keeping WSYR-TV (Channel 9) there, and even though the TV station is in the process of being sold, this way there's no question at all about ownership limits as Clear Channel prepares to go private.

And as for northwest New Jersey? Now we're deep into speculation...but it seems like a reasonable guess that the lawyers want to make absolutely, completely certain that there's no possible way those stations can count against Clear Channel's New York City cluster.

There's no possible way that "Joann Nicola Lutz Distefano Phillips" is getting the license of WJJL (1440 Niagara Falls), either. It's been a couple of years since someone using that name and claiming to be the ex-wife of the station's owner began posting on message boards (harmlessly) and filing renewal applications with the FCC (not so harmlessly), and it's taken that long for the Commission to figure out what most of us have known for a while: the only legitimate renewal application that was filed for WJJL was the one filed in February 2006 by the real licensee, M.J. Phillips. Next question: will Phillips, or the FCC, take any action against the "Joann" applicant for the fraudulent application, which certainly must have cost some legal time, if nothing else, for Phillips.

There's a new set of towers in the Hudson Valley: WGNY (1220 Newburgh) has completed construction on its new three-tower array off Route 17K just north of Stewart Airport, which will replace the "temporary" antenna that the station has been using for the last dozen years or so. WGNY will run 5 kW days, 180 watts at night from the new sticks.

Not Dead Yet: Up the Hudson Valley a bit, WCKL (560 Catskill) has become a radio version of "Brigadoon," emerging from the mists of its usual off-air status once a year around this time to broadcast for a few days and keep its license alive. This year, July 1 would have marked a year of silence for WCKL - and once again, just in time, the station was active over the weekend with a simulcast of former sister station WZCR (93.5 Hudson).

In Binghamton, the Senators' hockey broadcasts will return to WINR (680) next season, after a year on FM at WRRQ (106.7 Windsor). Games will also be simulcast on WINR's sister station WENE (1430 Endicott) when they don't conflict with Yankees games. (Which means, we think, that the Sens should have a full simulcast schedule this October...)

An update on this year's Binghamton Broadcasters Reunion: the winner of the "Broadcaster of the Year" award has been chosen, and it's veteran WNBF (1290) PD/morning man Roger Neel. He'll receive the honor at the reunion, which will take place Oct. 20 in Endwell. (And, yes, NERW will be there once again...)

It's not necessarily breaking news, but on our drive to and from Boston over the weekend, we noted a few morning-show shifts in central New York: Syracuse's "Nova" (WWDG 105.1 DeRuyter) is now taking the Los Angeles-based "Valentine in the Morning" show, while Utica's "Rock 107" (WRCK 107.3) has replaced the Bill Keeler morning show with the Syracuse-based "Gomez and Dave" show from Galaxy sister station WTKW (99.5 Bridgeport).

In New York City, the week's big news was the 20th anniversary of the all-sports format at WFAN, which pioneered the format with its July 1, 1987 sign-on over the former WHN (1050). WFAN marked the anniversary with a weekend full of special guest hosts, including many of the original 1050 staffers and the voices heard over the years since WFAN's move to 660 in 1988. As for perhaps the most famous of those 660 voices, WFAN couldn't let the anniversary go without acknowledging Don Imus - but only via "best of" taped segments.

And on Long Island, a very happy 30th anniversary to WUSB (90.1 Stony Brook), which marked the occasion (the actual anniversary was June 27) with an anniversary luncheon on Sunday.

On the TV front: Schenectady's WRGB (Channel 6) is looking for a new news director, as Beau Duffy becomes the latest departure from the Freedom Communications CBS affiliate. Meanwhile in Rochester, WROC-TV (Channel 8) debuts a new morning show today. We'll have more next week on the new "News 8 at Sunrise."

*A format change in southern NEW JERSEY: WTAA (1490 Pleasantville) is now programming Air America talk for the Atlantic City market, having flipped last week from its simulcast of oldies WTKU-FM (98.3 Ocean City). Owner Access.1 already has a relationship with Air America, since it leases airtime on WWRL (1600 New York) to the progressive talk network.

There's a new afternoon jock at WJLK-FM (94.3 Asbury Park), as Justin Louis joins "The Point" from WMHX (106.7 Hershey PA), where he was doing middays.

And there's a new general manager at WWFM (89.1 Trenton), as Peter Fretwell comes in from Spokane, Wash. to replace Jeffrey Sekerka.

*We can now put a price on WXPN's big deal to improve its signal in central PENNSYLVANIA. The University of Pennsylvania-owned station will end up paying out $3,085,000, plus the license of WXPH (88.1 Harrisburg), in exchange for the license of Four Rivers Community Broadcasting's WZXM (88.7 Middletown).

Up north, WHLM-FM (103.5 Berwick) has signed on a new translator near Nanticoke, extending its reach deeper into the Wilkes-Barre area. W265BM (100.9 Folstown) is transmitting from just south of Nanticoke on the Penobscot Mountain ridge.

Heading west on I-80, WDBA (107.3 DuBois) is getting new owners, as Family Life Ministries pays the Brownlee family $1.5 million for the big-signal religious outlet. Expect WDBA to become part of the Bath, N.Y.-based Family Life Network, which already reaches into parts of WDBA's territory via several smaller transmitters and translators.

A call-letter mystery: a few months ago, WBXQ (94.7 Cresson) and WBRX (94.3 Patton) applied to swap their calls, returning WBXQ to the 94.3 dial position where it lived for many years before Cresson and Patton swapped frequencies some years back. That call swap was never implemented, and it disappeared completely from the FCC's database, leading us to speculate that someone had made a typo somewhere. Now the swap's been filed again, appearing in FCC records last Thursday. Any Altoona-area readers want to weigh in on whether the two stations have indeed swapped calls?

*As we wish our Canadian readers a slightly belated happy CANADA Day, just a few bits of news to pass along from north of the border: in Haldimand, Ontario, CKNS (92.9) has changed calls and format. As of last week, it's now CKJN, the first outlet for the new "Jayne FM" hot AC format.

So long, "Joe" - in Kingston, CFMK (96.3) has dropped the adult hits "Joe FM" format after three years, flipping to classic hits as plain old "FM 96 Kingston."

Hamilton's "Wave" (CIWV 94.7) is applying for a second transmitter to serve its listeners in "cottage country" up near Georgian Bay. The new transmitter at Meaford would operate with 17.5 kW/110 m DA on 102.9.

The CBC is extending its service way up north in Timmins, Ontario: the CRTC has granted a license for a new 37.8 kW signal on 105.7 to carry Radio-Canada's "Espace Musique" service, rebroadcasting CBBX (90.9 Sudbury).

Over in eastern Ontario, on the Quebec border, Ottawa Media's been granted a license for a new 875-watt easy listening signal in Hawkesbury.

In New Brunswick, Wayne Harrett's CFEP (94.7 Eastern Passage) is applying for a big power boost, from 50 watts to 1400 watts/27 meters. The move would make CFEP a full-market player in Metro Halifax.

And we'll close with some sad news from CBLA (99.1 Toronto) morning host Andy Barrie: the veteran Toronto broadcaster and 12-year host of CBC Radio One's "Metro Morning" told listeners last week that he's in the early stages of Parkinson's disease. Barrie says he first began to notice symptoms a year or so ago, and recently was diagnosed with the disease. He's on vacation through August, but Barrie says he'll be back on the air this fall, and for as long as his health permits.

*If you were waiting for Tower Site Calendar 2007 to go on clearance sale - sorry! As of June 1, the shipping department (which would be Mrs. Fybush, with an occasional assist from Ariel) informs us that the 2007 edition is now SOLD OUT.

Many thanks to all of you who've supported the calendar over the past six years, and stay tuned for details on the even better Tower Site Calendar 2008, for which ordering will begin later this summer. (You can be first on the list for the new edition, which will be back from the printer in early August, by subscribing or renewing at the $60 professional level!) And in the meantime, visit the Fybush.com Store for information on remaining back issues of the Tower Site Calendar.

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 2007 by Scott Fybush.