December 3, 2007

Star & Buc Wild Return, Whoopi's Gone

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

*The NEW YORK morning radio dial is spinning this week, in ways both predictable and not.

The predictable first: this morning marks the return of Don Imus to the radio, with flagship WABC (770 New York), radio syndication through WABC parent Citadel Broadcasting, and TV coverage via RFD-TV, which is still chiefly available to viewers with direct-to-home dishes, though the network is working on expanding its cable footprint.

(With Imus coming to WABC this morning, last Friday marked the finale of the station's very successful "Curtis & Kuby" morning show, albeit without Ron Kuby, who was sent packing from WABC a few weeks earlier. While the station had made noises about keeping Curtis Sliwa on its schedule in another slot, Sliwa didn't sound all that certain about his future in the Friday broadcast.)

Almost as inevitable as Imus' return was the eventual demise of Whoopi Goldberg's syndicated morning show. "Waking up with Whoopi" made an initial splash with big-market affiliates that included Chicago's WLIT, Philadelphia's WISX and New York's WKTU. But the show failed to catch on in most of those markets, disappearing from both Chicago and Philadelphia earlier this year.

Last week, Whoopi lost her New York flagship, when WKTU abruptly pulled the show after its Wednesday airing, with no replacement in place. Syndication of the show (which actually originated from a studio at sister station WWPR in Manhattan, rather than at WKTU's Jersey City studios) continues for now, but it's hard to imagine that Goldberg, with other committments that include a co-host role on ABC's "The View," will continue to do the show for very long for a network that now numbers fewer than a dozen stations, the largest in Norfolk, Virginia.

(In NERW-land, Whoopi is also heard on Binghamton's WMXW and Utica's WUMX.)

What will KTU do next? Whoopi's co-host, Paul "Cubby" Bryant, is a versatile talent who loyally gave up his afternoon slot on Clear Channel's WHTZ (Z100) to smooth Goldberg's transition to radio. That should make him a strong candidate for the KTU morning slot - or for afternoons there, if former KTU morning guys Hollywood Hamilton and Goumba Johnny return to mornings there.

And then there's the biggest surprise in the New York morning arena: Star and Buc Wild, ousted from WWPR in a blaze of negative publicity in May 2006 after Star (real name: Troi Torain) engaged in a nasty on-air feud with jocks at rival WQHT, are planning a January return to the city's airwaves. In itself, that's not all that surprising - but it's where they plan to return that's of particular interest.

That's WNYZ-LP, the low-power TV station broadcasting from Long Island City on channel 6. As we've reported previously here on NERW, it's not WNYZ's video signal that's of interest to Star. It's the audio carrier at 87.76 MHz (which migrated, briefly and not necessarily legally, up to 87.88 MHz), right at the bottom of the FM broadcast band. The signal's been on the air for more than a year now, broadcasting in Russian. Last week, Mega Media, which is leasing WNYZ from owner Island Broadcasting, announced that it will relaunch the frequency on January 15 as "Pulse 87," an English-language top-40 station, with Star and Buc Wild and the rest of their crew in morning drive.

There are plenty of unanswered questions here, beginning with the legality of a low-power TV station broadcasting as a radio station, not to mention the unusually strong reach of what's supposed to be a fairly weak, very directional signal. Even if those are resolved in WNYZ's favor, there's the question of ratings: it's Arbitron policy not to rate TV stations' audio, and that's not a policy that's likely to change, especially given the shaky relations between the ratings company and the commercial broadcasters who pay its bills right now. Then there's the analog sunset: even though WNYZ, as an LPTV license, won't be forced to go digital in 2009, when its full-power brethren switch, the FCC has said there will be an end to analog LPTV at some point fairly soon - and with no analog TV signal, there's no analog audio carrier to hear on FM radios, either.

IT'S THE 2008 TOWER SITE CALENDAR! Think the arrival of the new phone book is an exciting time of year? (We do, actually, with apologies to Steve Martin, but that's not the point.) Here's a really exciting spot on the calendar - in fact, it is the calendar. Yes, the 2008 Tower Site Calendar is back from the printer and ready for shipping all over the US and beyond. This year's edition is a particularly fine one, if we do say so ourselves. From the cover photo of KAST in Astoria, Oregon to the back cover shot of the Blaw-Knox diamond tower at WBNS in Columbus, this year's calendar features 14 all-new full-color shots of famous broadcast sites far and wide. There's KROQ in Los Angeles, KFBK in Sacramento, WESX in Salem, WGAN in Portland, Black Mountain in Vegas, Mount Spokane in Spokane, and many (ok, several) more. If you've been following our adventures, you know that the 2006 and 2007 editions of the calendar sold out. If you've been following postal rates and the cost of printing, you know they've both gone up. Even so, we still think this year's edition is a bargain - just $18 with shipping and handling included. Or better yet, beat our move to mandatory subscriptions (also coming later this fall) and get a free calendar with your $60 subscription to NERW for 2008. (Remember, the proceeds from both the calendar and the subscriptions help keep NERW right here on the web, as we head into our fourteenth year of news and analysis.) So click right here and you can be one of the first to have your very own Tower Site Calendar 2008! (And thank you!) The 2008 Tower Site Calendar is dedicated to the memory of Robert Eiselen (1934-2007), whose digital imaging skills made even a bunch of pictures of radio towers look almost like art. His contributions were essential to the calendar's evolution from 2003 to the current edition, and he will be missed dearly.

There was big news from New York radio's executive suites, too: Bob Bruno is retiring from Buckley Radio's WOR (710) at the end of the year, closing out a 29-year career with the station. Bruno was PD of WNEW (1130) from 1975-1978, when he joined WOR as its program director. A decade later, he was promoted to general manager, and he's led the station ever since. No replacement has been named.

There's a PD opening at Spanish Broadcasting: WSKQ (97.9 New York) PD Jorge Meir has departed, with WPAT-FM (93.1) PD Tony Luna handling programming at "Mega 97.9" on an interim basis.

*Here in Rochester, it was a trying week for employees and listeners at the now-former CBS Radio cluster.

As we told you last week, the FCC finally came through with its long-delayed approval of the sale of CBS Radio's Rochester signals (as well as stations in Cincinnati, Memphis and Austin) to Entercom, and it took only a few days for Entercom to close on the deal and take over operations of the stations.

In Rochester, that meant a weekend shuffle of studios, as rocker WCMF (96.5) and top 40 WPXY (97.9), which will stay in the Entercom stable, moved from CBS Radio's facility in the HSBC Plaza tower downtown to Entercom's High Falls studios, while "Fickle" WFKL (93.3 Fairport), which is being sold, joined fellow spinoffs-to-be "Warm" WRMM (101.3) and "Zone" WZNE (94.1 Brighton) at HSBC Plaza.

But the studio moves were only a small piece of the story, as Entercom decided to save money by not hiring several fixtures on the WCMF and WPXY airstaffs. While both stations keep their veteran morning men - Brother Wease on WCMF and Scott Spezzano on WPXY - their new Entercom incarnations will be missing many other familiar voices.

On WPXY, midday jock Pete "The Mayor" Kennedy, a 20-year veteran of the station, wasn't picked up by the new ownership. In typical radio fashion, Kennedy was simply missing from the airwaves beginning Thursday morning.

Over at WCMF, meanwhile, the end of the line for 27-year veteran midday jock Dave Kane, 20-year night jock Dino Kay, weekender/production director Marc Cronin and Wease producer J.P. Lacey was the talk of the station beginning Thursday morning on Wease's show. (Behind the scenes, Entercom also declined to bring over several other CBS personnel, including a receptionist, a sales manager and programming VP Stan Main, who's increasing his involvement with consulting firm The Randy Lane Company, where he's now VP/research and development.)

Kane was off the air Thursday, but in a classy move, WCMF allowed him back on the air Friday for a final edition of his "Midday Mambo," taking phone calls from listeners and playing his own choice of farewell music. (In an equally classy move, Kane frequently noted on the air that he has no ill will toward Entercom.)

Before Kane took the airwaves for his last shift, Wease and his crew held what amounted to an on-air wake for the old studio and the departing jocks, with well-wishers stopping by, mountains of food, appearances by former co-workers and even past station owner Ted Nixon, and even donated T-shirts proclaiming "End of an Era" and "Bro, Where's My Window?" (read on for the joke...)

What now for WCMF? The station's new era kicks off this morning with Brother Wease in his new High Falls studio, where we'd expect to hear plenty of complaints about the lack of the panoramic 17th-floor view he enjoyed at HSBC (and indeed, as the T-shirts bemoaned, the lack of any windows at all). After that, nobody's saying yet what will occupy Kane's former midday slot, or Dino's former night slot following afternoon jock "Big Marc," who does make the move to High Falls.

Will Entercom rework some of its lineup on its other stations, particularly classic hits WBZA (98.9 the Buzz), whose playlist significantly overlaps WCMF's? (We're hearing rumblings about a "wall of men" strategy building on WCMF's strength among male listeners.)

Will Clear Channel move to strengthen its competing stations, classic rock WFXF (95.1 the Fox) and top 40 WKGS (Kiss 106.7) with some strategic hires?

And will Entercom, which has been looking for buyers for WRMM, WFKL and WZNE for more than a year already, find someone to meet its price within the six months the FCC and Justice Department have allowed for a sale? (The conditions of the approval require Entercom to operate WRMM and WZNE completely separately from the High Falls stations, and to put the signals into trust if no buyer emerges in the six months.)

There were holiday-time layoffs downstate, as well, at Cumulus' WFAS-FM (103.9 Bronxville) and WFAS (1230 White Plains), as budget cuts claimed the jobs of news director Pam Pusso, afternoon news anchor Jim Cleefield and AM 1230 morning host Chris Clarke. Bob Barnum will move from afternoons to mornings on the AM side of the building, with automation taking care of afternoons. (How long, we wonder, until WFAS-FM completes its move closer to New York City, with a sale likely to follow?)

The new Imus show will be back on its former Utica-market affiliate - and that means some big changes are coming to WXUR (92.7 Herkimer) for the second time in just a few weeks. In late October, the oldies station became the new home for Bill Keeler's leased-time morning show, which vanished from WSKS (97.9 Whitesboro)/WSKU (105.5 Little Falls) as those stations changed hands from Clear Channel to Ken Roser. At the time, it looked like a nice fit: Keeler's high visibility would bring some attention to WXUR, a perpetual second-tier player in the market, and there was even talk of moving WXUR's entire operation to Keeler's Utica studio.

Then came Imus, who had been a popular fixture on WXUR. Station owner Mindy Barstein tells the Utica Observer-Dispatch that she'll put Imus back in morning drive today, shifting Keeler to 3-6 PM. The rest of WXUR's broadcast day will see changes, too, as oldies give way to classic hits under the new name "92.7 the Drive." (The format sounds similar to another casualty of the Clear Channel sale, the former "93.5 the River," WOKR Remsen, which is now an EMF Broadcasting "K-Love" outlet.)

Speaking of Utica, and of WSKS/WSKU, it has a new address, as Roser moves both "Kiss" and WUTQ (1550 Utica)/WADR (1480 Remsen) from the old Clear Channel digs at 239 Genesee Street to its own studios (shared with "Bug Country" WBGK/WBUG) at 180 Genesee Street. We hear WUTQ/WADR are now running a standards format, having flipped from a temporary simulcast of Bug Country.

Calvary Chapel of the Finger Lakes (WZXV 99.7 Palmyra/Rochester) has been busy selling some translator construction permits. W283BF (104.5 Bristol, with a CP to move to 104.3) goes to Finger Lakes Radio Group for $5,000 (leading us to wonder if an AM-on-FM translator is in the works for FLRG's Canandaigua daytimer, WCGR 1550), while the ever-growing Family Life Ministries picks up three translators surrounding Buffalo (W239BA 95.7 Lockport, W243BW 96.5 Clarence and W279BO 103.7 Gainesville) for a total of $15,000.

In the Elmira/Corning market, Paul Lyle departs as general manager of the Route 81 stations (WENY/WENI, WENY-FM/WENI-FM, WGMM); he's headed to Kansas to work with American Media Investments, with Jamie Evans replacing him in Corning.

And up north, a format shuffle is underway in Ogdensburg: top 40 "Border" WBDB (92.7) has dropped its simulcast with Watertown-market WBDI (106.7 Copenhagen); it's flipping to talk under new calls WQTK, while sister station WSLB (1400 Ogdensburg) flips from talk to ESPN sports.

There's also a new local TV station coming to the North Country. "WNTS-TV" will launch next year in Ogdensburg, operating from 6 AM-7 PM on leased channel 97 on the Time Warner cable system there. Station founders Robert and Daniel Girard say the new cable channel will include a local morning show and classic sitcoms.

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*A veteran MASSACHUSETTS radio newsman is back in the Bay State. Rod Fritz went down to New York and Fox News Radio after WRKO (680) pulled the plug on the news department he led last year. Now Fritz has returned to Boston and to WBZ (1030), where he'd worked as an anchor a decade or so ago. He's being heard on weekends right now, but we suspect there are bigger things in his future there.

Another veteran name in Boston media circles has a new gig: when the Imus show returns to WTKK (96.9) this morning, it will include a five-minute Mike Barnicle commentary, to be heard twice each day.

Out on Cape Cod, WOMR (92.1 Provincetown) has calls for its new relay in Orleans. The 91.3 signal will be WFMR, calls last seen on the former classical station in Milwaukee, which itself had a Cape connection, having been programmed by former WFCC (107.5 Chatham) PD Steve Murphy.

*The revived Don Imus show will have a charter affiliate in RHODE ISLAND. Today's launch will be heard on Citadel's WSKO (790 Providence), which had been simulcasting Opie and Anthony with sister station WSKO-FM (99.7 Wakefield-Peace Dale), where they'll continue to be heard. Imus' previous affiliate, WHJJ (920 Providence), now carries Pittsburgh-based Quinn and Rose from 6-8 AM, followed by local host Helen Glover at 8.

*The eyes of the news world (well, at least cable TV news, for a few hours) were focused on Rochester, NEW HAMPSHIRE Friday afternoon, when a man took several Hillary Clinton campaign staffers hostage in her downtown storefront office there. That office happens to be right across the street from the studios of WMEX (106.5 Farmington), which ended up with a bird's-eye view of the whole situation, interrupting its usual programming for a combination of its own local coverage and simulcasts of WMUR-TV newscasts until the hostages were finally free and the man surrendered that evening.

Over in the Connecticut River Valley, the Imus show returns to its former affiliate today: Nassau's WHDQ (106.1 Claremont), which had switched to the "Free Beer and Hot Wings" show after Imus went off the air, will pick up the new Citadel Imus show. No word yet from other former Imus affiliates, including the Seacoast's WQSO (96.7 Rochester).

And a familiar Granite State callsign has reappeared: WKBR, the calls that were on 1250 (and 1240 before that) in Manchester from 1946 until September 2007, when the station became WGAM, is now the callsign for Barry Lunderville's construction permit on 1450 up in Lancaster.

*In MAINE, Randi Kirshbaum celebrated a milestone last week: 25 years on the air in the Portland market. She started in 1982 at WMGX (93.1), doing middays, and today she's programming WMGX (now hot AC "Coast 93.1") and holding down middays at oldies WYNZ (100.9 Westbrook). Congratulations!

*VERMONT's Fox affiliate launches its 10 PM newscast tonight. Burlington's WFFF (Channel 44) signs on with a staff of 22 under news director Kathleen Harrington. The half-hour broadcast is the first alternative to the Champlain Valley's two established newsrooms (CBS affiliate WCAX and NBC affiliate WPTZ) since the 2003 demise of the news operation at ABC affiliate WVNY (Channel 22). Since WVNY is now operated in tandem with WFFF, will the news staff there be producing product for WVNY as well, eventually?

*There's TV news from PENNSYLVANIA as well, but in the opposite direction. Peak Media announced last week that it will shut down the news operation at Fox affiliate WWCP (Channel 8) in Johnstown and WATM (Channel 23) in Altoona in January. Beginning January 14, the single newscast that airs at 10 PM on WWCP and 11 PM on WATM will be replaced by news from Cox's WJAC (Channel 6) in Johnstown, which will produce a 10 PM show for WWCP and simulcast its 11 PM show on WATM. WJAC says it may add about three people to its 37-person news staff; there were 17 people on the WWCP/WATM news team, which has long been mired deep in third place in the market, behind both WJAC and Altoona's WTAJ (Channel 10).

A veteran Philadelphia news anchor retired Friday. Marc Howard's career began at the age of 16 in Sharon, when he became an announcer at hometown WPIC (790). He later worked in Hartford (at WFSB) and in New York (WPIX and WNEW-TV) before coming to Philadelphia in 1977 to anchor the news at WPVI (Channel 6). Howard decamped to KYW-TV (Channel 3) in 2003, and was most recently the anchor of the station's 4 PM newscast. The 70-year-old anchor says he's ready to spend some time traveling and "pursuing personal interests."

*Citadel has completed its PD shuffle in southeastern CONNECTICUT, moving Julie Johnson from WMOS (104.7 Montauk NY) to WQGN (105.5 Groton), where she replaces Kevin Palana as PD. He's now doing fill-in work at Citadel's WFHN (107.1 Fairhaven MA) in the New Bedford market, as well as at Hall's WCTK (98.1 New Bedford MA) in the Providence market.

In Hartford, WPHH (104.1) has made its first hire for its new modern rock format. Becky Pohotsky has signed on as assistant PD, moving south from the afternoon shift at WGIR-FM (101.1 Manchester NH), and from WLZX in Northampton, Mass. before that.

*Another market in CANADA is about to go FM-only. CTVglobemedia won CRTC approval last week to move CJCH (920 Halifax), that city's last remaining AM signal, to 101.3 on the FM dial, where it will operate with 100 kW. CTV will have to divest its 50% interest in CKUL (96.5), which is currently jointly owned with, and operated by, Newcap.

Halifax had three AM signals as recently as a year ago. Since then, MBS Radio's CHNS (960) has moved to FM at 89.9, while Newcap's CFDR (780) will soon move to 88.9. And we'd note that CJCH's move to 101.3 will put the station on a third-adjacent channel to another 100 kW outlet, CHFX (101.9), an interesting counterexample to the claims being made by the NAB and others on the US side of the border fighting against third-adjacent spacing for low-power FM signals.

In Ontario, the CRTC has quashed regional expansion plans by Burlingham Communications' CIWV (94.7 Hamilton). The smooth-jazz signal was already denied a relay transmitter in the resort town of Meaford. Now CIWV's plans to expand to Ottawa (on 99.7) and Peterborough (on 100.7) have been turned down as well. Burlingham had argued that CIWV's format was uniquely deserving of province-wide distribution. The CRTC says the distance between Hamilton and Ottawa and Peterborough means that there's no "direct affinity" between the communities, and thus no justification for the relay signals, especially since there's nothing binding CIWV to its current format.

There's a new FM signal in Kingston: CTVglobemedia's new CKLC-FM (98.9) is on the air as "98.9 The Drive," programming a "classic alternative" (or "essential alternative," as they put it) format drawing heavily on modern rock from the mid-seventies through the nineties. CKLC (1380) will simulcast for a few months, then go silent, leaving Kingston as an FM-only market.

And we're sorry to report the passing of longtime Toronto morning host Keith Rich, whose career included stops at CFRB, CJCL and 22 years at CKEY, beginning in 1964. Rich also spent some time at New York's WNBC. He died Nov. 19, at age 80.

NEXT WEEK IN NERW: We complete our look at the noncommercial FM window applications in the region with a profile of the hundreds of proposals from across New England. Coming in the Dec. 10 issue - don't miss it!

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.