June 30 & July 7, 2008
Harrisburg's Bruce Bond Charged in Fraud Scheme
TOWER SITE CALENDAR 2008 - ALMOST SOLD OUT!!!
*The last time PENNSYLVANIA DJ Bruce Bond found himself
in court, it was 2002. Bond, an institution at Cumulus' WNNK
(104.1 Harrisburg), had been cut loose from that station during
a late-2001 format change, and when he returned to the airwaves
the following spring on then-WRKZ (102.3 Carlisle), Bond was
promptly sued by Cumulus for breaching his noncompete agreement.
 Bond's
new job on WRKZ ended in January 2004, and in the years since
then he'd faded into obscurity - until last Thursday, anyway.
That's when Bond was indicted in New York City, charged with
65 counts of forgery, attempted grand larceny and identity theft.
Prosecutors say Bond was part of a scheme in which he sent
bogus corporate checks to people who had responded to "work-at-home"
ads on Craigslist. The scheme apparently started early in 2007,
and involved conspirators in Nigeria and Europe who received
most of the money after the fraud victims cashed the phony checks.
(Once the checks had been cashed and the money sent abroad, the
victims found out the checks were bad, leaving them on the hook
to their banks.)
Those overseas accomplices allegedly paid Bond $1,500 a week
for his role, which prosecutors say involved printing the checks
in his Manhattan apartment and mailing them. When Bond was arrested
in May, investigators said they found check paper and printers
in the apartment.
Bond's lawyers say he was just "a cog" in a much
larger operation, but he's in deep legal trouble nonetheless.
At his arraignment on Friday, Bond pleaded not guilty and was
ordered held on $250,000 bond. He'll be back in court July 23.
*Elsewhere in the Keystone State, it didn't take long for
KYW-TV (Channel 3) in Philadelphia to cut its ties with anchor
Larry Mendte after he was accused of snooping in former co-anchor
Alycia Lane's e-mail. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports
that Mendte installed a keystroke logger on Lane's office computer.
Mendte has not been charged with any crimes, and his agent tells
the paper he expects to be back on the air soon.
A longtime classical music host at public radio WITF (89.5
Harrisburg) is out after his job was eliminated. Dick Strawser
had spent 18 years at WITF, most of them as music director and
evening host.
In Pittsburgh, John Nene is departing WRRK (96.9 Braddock),
where he'd been doing afternoons. But "Bob FM" listeners
haven't heard the last of Nene - even though he's moving to Minneapolis
to get married, he'll voicetrack weekend shifts for the Steel
City Media station.
In Erie, PBRTV.com's Tom
Lavery reports that Johnny Marx has moved from middays on "Wolf"
WTWF (93.9 Fairview) to rival country outlet WXTA (97.9 Edinboro),
where he replaces former afternoon host Rick Peters.
After four years on the Saturday night shift at WZZO (95.1
Allentown), Bob Stei is heading south for a new challenge: he'll
be doing Sunday evenings at Clear Channel sister station WRFF
(104.5) in Philadelphia.
In Shamokin, it's the end of the line for WISL (1480): after
several years of silence, the station's license has finally been
deleted from FCC records.
And returning to Philadelphia, longtime Channel 3 sports anchor
and children's host Bob Bradley died June 16. Bradley, born Robert
Bouwsma in Michigan, began his broadcast career in Cleveland
at WNBK (Channel 4), then moved to Philadelphia in 1956 when
NBC took over Channel 3, which became WRCV-TV. He stayed with
the station into its KYW-TV era, appearing as children's host
"Buckskin Billy" and anchoring sports reports. He also
hosted Phillies pre- and post-game shows at WPHL (Channel 17)
and taught at Temple University. After his retirement in 1987,
Bradley moved to Clearwater, Florida, where he suffered a stroke
earlier this month. Bradley was 86.
|
GETCHER 2008 TOWER SITE CALENDAR
- BEFORE THEY'RE ALL GONE!
Still haven't ordered your 2008 Tower Site Calendar?
You do realize that it's now...er...2008, don't you? We're already
down to the last 35 or so calendars, and they're going
fast. The 2006 and 2007 editions of the calendar sold out, and
this one will do so as well, possibly as soon as this month.
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.
The calendar is just $18 with
shipping and handling included - or better yet, beat our move
to mandatory subscriptions later this year 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 sure 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's a morning show change on the way
in NEW YORK next month, as Emmis' WQHT (97.1 New York)
parts ways with morning host Tarsha Jones, aka "Miss Jones."
 Jones
is scheduled to remain on the air this week to say goodbye to
her New York listeners, but beginning July 21 her morning timeslot
will be filled with two shows. From 5-7 AM, Hot 97 listeners
will hear a local morning show hosted by WQHT swing jocks Cipha
Sounds and Peter Rosenberg - and then, from 7-10 AM, they'll
hear the Big Boy morning show from Emmis sister station KPWR
(105.9) in Los Angeles.
Miss Jones will remain on the air on her Philadelphia affiliate,
Radio One's WPHI (100.3 Media PA), moving production of her show
to WPHI's studios in the Philadelphia suburb of Mequon beginning
July 7. Speaking of WPHI, it's named a new assistant PD/music
director, Johnnie Glover.
*We know a bit more about the job cuts at Newport Television's
stations across the region: here in Rochester, there were two
on-air cuts at WHAM-TV (Channel 13): health reporter Jen Markham
and part-time reporter Susan Ashline. Behind the scenes, several
full-time employees lost their jobs in the cutbacks. At Syracuse's
WSYR-TV (Channel 9), buyouts were offered to some back-office
staffers, eliminating the need for on-air cuts. We still haven't
heard about the extent of cuts, if any, at Newport's Elmira,
Binghamton or Watertown operations.
It's been fifty years since Buffalo's WKBW (1520) flipped
to top 40, inaugurating a quarter-century of some of the most
legendary radio our region has ever heard, and that anniversary
will be honored on Thursday night (July 3) at the old 1430 Main
St. studio location. That building is now vacant, and its parking
lot was being used to store moving trucks when last we drove
by, but for a few hours it will be the scene of a sock hop sponsored
by ForgottenBuffalo.com.
There will be a display of vintage cars and even appearances
by a few of KB's air talent...and yes, we sure do plan to be
there ourselves.
 Here
in Rochester, a delayed format change finally took place a few
minutes after midnight this morning, as Crawford Broadcasting
flipped WRCI (990 Rochester) to religion, replacing the simulcast
of oldies WLGZ (Legends 102.7).
A clarification on our story last week about "God's Country
Radio" on EMF Broadcasting's WOKR (93.5 Remsen): this is
not a new network from EMF, as it turns out, but an LMA with
an existing network down South. The "God's Country"
folks are leasing time on about half a dozen of EMF's surplus
signals around the nation, including WOKR - but not including
translator W231BI (94.1 Utica), which is now relaying "Air
1" affiliate WRCK (107.3 Utica).
Up north, Randy Michaels' RadioActive LLC is selling Watertown-market
WBLH (92.5 Black River), which quietly started stunting a few
weeks ago. Intrepid Broadcasting will pay RadioActive $210,000;
Intrepid president Michael Stapleford is also president of Pennsylvania's
Magnum Broadcasting.
*There could be a digital TV channel moving
from CONNECTICUT to New York City, if Arthur Liu's Multicultural
Broadcasting gets its way. It's applying to move WSAH-DT (Channel
42) from its present site in Seymour, Connecticut to...the Empire
State Building, where WSAH-DT would operate with 990 kW into
a directional antenna. WSAH would remain licensed to Bridgeport,
where its calculations show it would just barely deliver the
required (very) minimal signal levels; to preserve its existing
coverage deeper into Connecticut, WSAH has arranged to lease
a DTV subchannel from LIN's WTNH-DT in New Haven.
*There's a format change coming to northwest
NEW JERSEY on Tuesday: Clear Channel will flip WNNJ (1360
Sussex) to ABC's True Oldies Channel, under new calls WTOC. (Those
calls have long been in use in Savannah, Georgia on WTOC-TV,
and were once on radio there, too, on what's now WTKS 1290 and
WQBT 94.1.) WNNJ had been running ABC's "Timeless Classics"
standards service since dropping locally-programmed oldies last
August.
 *Like
everyone else in MASSACHUSETTS this time of year, our
attention this week is focused out on the Cape and Islands. Thats's
where WRZE (96.3) has hopped the ferry from its longtime Nantucket
home to the mainland. The Qantum-owned station lost the lease
on its Nantucket tower site, and it's temporarily downgrading
from class B to class A with a new city of license of Dennis,
running 6 kW from the tower of sister station WCOD (106.1 Hyannis)
until a new tower can be built for both stations, at which point
"The Rose" will go back up to class B1 status with
25 kW.
The death last week of George Carlin brought a reminder that,
long before he became an acclaimed comedian, Carlin had a brief
fling with radio in Boston. After his discharge from the Air
Force in 1959, Carlin spent a few months as an announcer at the
old WEZE (1260), and he later mined some of his experiences there
for his classic "Wonderful WINO" take on smarmy DJs.
(And Carlin had another connection to Northeast radio, of
course; it was the broadcast of his "Seven Dirty Words"
routine over Pacifica's WBAI in New York that brought broadcast
indecency and obscenity regulations before the U.S. Supreme Court
in the seventies.)
*In RHODE ISLAND, Tim Leary is the
new morning man at Hall's Providence-market WCTK (98.1 New Bedford
MA), effective July 21. He comes to the country station from
KUUB in Reno, where he was known as Tim Lynah.
Where are they now? Former Clear Channel Providence programmer
Bill Hess is heading to Air America Radio as senior vice president
for programming, starting later in July. Hess had been operations
manager of Clear Channel's AMs in the Washington, DC market,
which are being sold to Red Zebra Broadcasting, and PD of its
WASH-FM and WBIG-FM there as well.
 *In VERMONT, there's some stunting going
on at Northeast Broadcasting's WUSX (93.7 Addison), which has
dropped its "US 93-7" country format and is playing
nothing but Phish songs for the moment. Whatever's happening
at WUSX, it will happen Tuesday at noon - and given that Northeast's
"Point" network, which blankets much of Vermont over
WNCS (104.7 Montpelier) and its simulcast stations, has always
been heavy on Phish...could 93.7 end up as the latest addition
to the "Point" simulcasts?
(There's no local airstaff at WUSX to be affected by the move;
the station simulcast Louie Manno's morning show from sister
WLFE 102.3 St. Albans, then ran ABC's Real Country for the rest
of the day.)
*A call change in NEW HAMPSHIRE: when
EMF Broadcasting bought the former WMEX (106.5 Farmington) from
Dennis Jackson, it evidently intended to put its "K-Love"
format on the signal, which it renamed WKHL. But the station
ended up on EMF's "Air 1" network, instead, and now
it has calls that go with that network - WNHI. (Those calls used
to be on 93.3 over in Belmont, now WNHW.)
*There's a new callsign in MAINE:
the University of Maine's new signal on 91.7 in Machias will
be WUMM.
*CANADA's regulators have ruled on
the controversial proposal by Remstar Diffusion Inc. to acquire
the TQS television network in Quebec. Citing TQS' economic difficulties,
Remstar asked the CRTC to allow it to essentially drop local
news from the local stations in Montreal, Quebec, Trois-Rivieres,
Sherbrooke and Saguenay. That provoked intense reaction at four
public hearings the CRTC held earlier this month, and now the
commission has approved a modified version of Remstar's proposal.
While the local newsrooms will still be largely shuttered, TQS
will be required to provide several hours a week of local informational
programming in Montreal and Quebec and one hour weekly in the
other markets, and the CRTC will revisit its approval in 2011,
when it will hold a new set of hearings on TQS' performance.
There's a missing voice in morning drive at Toronto's CHUM-FM
(104.5) - after two decades as part of the "Roger, Rick
and Marilyn" morning show, Rick Hodge is out, with no replacement
named.
 Tuesday
is Canada Day, and it's also the official launch day for Corus'
new "Greatest Hits" format on CINW (940 Montreal).
We're hearing that the new morning man on "AM 940"
will be none other than Montreal radio veteran Marc "Mais
Oui" Denis, who's already in the Corus Montreal family as
a weekender on CFQR (Q92.5).
In Granby, Quebec, CFXM (104.9) is applying for more power
- it wants to go from class A (200 watts) to B (5.5 kW DA/356
m) from a new transmitter site. Up in Saguenay, Carl Gilbert
has found a frequency for the new station he was recently granted
by the CRTC - he's asking for 103.3, with 6 kW. And Radio-Canada
hopes to add a new rebroadcaster for its premiere chaine service
at St.-Donat, with 11.6 kW DA/242.5 m on 89.7.
 There's
a new signal on the air on Cape Breton Island: CKCH (103.5 Sydney
NS) signed on last week as "The Eagle," playing country
and competing with MBS Radio's CJCB (1270 Sydney), the city's
last remaining commercial AM outlet.
And over in the Halifax market, Wayne Harrett has found a
new frequency for his "Seaside FM," CFEP (94.7 Eastern
Passage). CFEP's plans to boost power on its existing frequency
were thwarted when adjacent-channel CKWM (94.9 Kentville) complained;
now Harrett has applied for 1360 watts on 105.9, instead.
NERW programming note:
Barring major news developments, we're taking a break for the
holidays (Independence Day in the US, Canada Day up north). We'll
be back with our next regular issue of NERW on Monday, July 14
- and of course we'll post any urgent updates here right away
in the meantime. A very happy and safe holiday to all our readers
on both sides of the border!
|
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!)
July 2, 2007 -
- 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. (Sadly,
Paul Sullivan succumbed to cancer in September 2007. He is still
dearly missed.)
- 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).
- 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.
June 30, 2003 -
- It's been quite a few years in the making, but NEW YORK's
newest radio station finally made it to the air last week. WWHL
(92.9 Southampton) signed on June 26, with a signal that blankets
the East End of Long Island and is already getting good reports
across Long Island Sound from the coasts of Connecticut and Rhode
Island. The format should sound very familiar to many of those
listeners: AAA Entertainment is simulcasting the AAA format of
WEHM (96.7 East Hampton) on 92.9, and will soon move WEHM's calls
down there as well. 96.7, in turn, will soon switch to Bloomberg's
business news network under new calls.
- In New York City, the big buzz this week concerned the new
hire at "Blink," WNEW (102.7): Lizzie Grubman, the
publicist-turned-hit-and-run-driver-slash-celebrity-of-the-second,
will be providing gossip reports from the Hamptons beginning
next weekend. Down on the AM dial, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has
followed former morning co-host Peter Noel out the door of WWRL
(1600), ending what had been one of the more interesting (or
at least unpredictable) morning shows in recent memory. And WLXE
(1380) is dropping the regional Mexican programming that Mega
had been running there; as Arthur Liu's Multicultural takes over,
so does the usual leased-time ethnic fare that Liu ran on 1380
(as WKDM) the last time he owned the station.
- In NEW JERSEY, the FCC gave Ed Seeger's group the go-ahead
to move WSNJ-FM (107.7 Bridgeton) into the Philadelphia market
under the guise of providing "first local service"
to Pennsauken. WSNJ's allocations move, which will transform
its class B signal on 107.7 into a class A on 107.9, spells trouble
for two high school stations. WWPH (107.9 Princeton Junction
NJ) and WHHS (107.9 Havertown PA) aren't expected to be able
to find new spots on the dial, and as unprotected class D stations,
that means they'll likely have to go dark once WSNJ moves. In
WHHS' case, that means the end of fifty years of student broadcasting,
something the FCC noted in its rulemaking reallocating the Bridgeton
facility - but rules are rules and WSNJ takes priority in the
Commission's eyes. Ever wonder how much one one of these move-ins
is worth? Consider this: Seeger and his group paid Ed Bold and
his family $20 million for WSNJ AM/FM, and we've heard from a
couple of sources in Philly is that the asking price for the
FM once it's moved will be in the $50 million range.
- In NEW HAMPSHIRE, Nashua's WOTW (900) is changing hands.
Ernie Anastos' Anastos Broadcasting is selling the station to
"Balanced View LLC," an investment consortium that
includes the husband of Governor Jeanne Shaheen. Balanced View
says it plans to hire 12-14 people and replace the satellite
talk now heard on WOTW with local full-service programming. (They're
also talking about changing the call letters, which makes no
sense to us; why ditch - for a second time - calls that have
been recognized in the community for more than half a century?)
No purchase price was announced.
- In VERMONT, the FCC paid a call on Tuesday to "Radio
Free Brattleboro," the unlicensed community station that
had been operating very openly in town for nearly five years,
initially on 88.1 and more recently on 88.9 (to avoid interfering
with the new 88.1 Norwich signal that Vermont Public Radio will
soon be signing on) with a few watts that covered the town quite
well. One of the station's DJs gave the Brattleboro Reformer
a video of the visit, in which an FCC field agent ordered the
jock on duty to turn off the mixing board and transmitter and
threatened penalties if broadcasts were resumed. The shutdown
was apparently prompted by two interference complaints, one from
WFCR (88.5 Amherst MA) and the other from a local resident; it
doesn't appear that any of the station's equipment was seized,
though the station's Web site has been down ever since.
- RHODE ISLAND now has DTV on the air, becoming the very last
of the 50 states to get an operating digital outlet when WPRI-DT
(Channel 13) came on the air last week, with WNAC-DT (Channel
54) soon to follow. (A technicality here: WPRI's transmitter
is in Rehoboth, Mass., so a nitpicker could argue that there's
still no DTV in Rhode Island itself - but then, neither of the
operating DTVs licensed to Delaware operate from within its state
limits, either.)
June 30, 1998-
- Rumors are flying at Boston's WBZ-TV (Channel 4), after a
visit last week from Joel Cheatwood, the news impresario who
turned things around at WHDH-TV (Channel 7) a few years back
before leaving for a controversial tenure at WMAQ-TV (Channel
5) in Chicago. 'BZ honcho Ed Goldman tells the newspapers that
he was just picking Cheatwood's brain while Cheatwood was in
town taking his son to an orthodontist's appointment...but nobody's
failed to notice that Cheatwood is currently an NBC consultant,
while WBZ is a CBS O&O. Could Cheatwood be returning to Boston
to try to boost 'BZ's plummeting ratings? We'll see...
- We mourn the passing of John Burgomaster, better known as
John Masters, the voice of WRKO news for 28 years until his retirement
in 1994. Masters' booming voice defined RKO's "20/20 News"
during its top-40 years, and he remained with the station for
most of its years in the talk format as well. Burgomaster succumbed
to cancer last week.
- NEW HAMPSHIRE is about to get a new nightly newscast. Derry's
WNDS (Channel 50) has hired longtime WMUR news director Jack
Heath to put together a nightly half-hour to debut in September.
WNDS is one of several New Hampshire stations that used to have
a daily newscast, along with WNHT (now WNBU, Channel 21) in Concord
and WGOT (now WPXB, Channel 60) in Merrimack.
- Congratulations to Lisa Garvey, who's leaving Manchester
rocker WGIR-FM (101.1) for a big move up in market size -- all
the way to number one, with a night shift at WNEW-FM (102.7)
in New York. NERW hears longtime 'GIR personality Fil Robert
Kaye has left the airwaves as well, to become a salesman for
the Capstar station.
- In MAINE, it seems NERW missed a call-letter change by just
days. We visited the area on Friday the 19th -- and on Monday
the 22nd, Scarborough-based WPKM (106.3) finally became WBQW,
simulcasting classical WBQQ (99.3) from Kennebunk as "W-Bach."
Oh well, now we have an excuse to go back...
- A call letter change in upstate NEW YORK became official
while we were away; Rochester's AM 950 is now WEZO, and 98.9
FM has changed from WKLX to pick up the WBBF calls from the AM
side. The WBBF calls had been on the AM side since 1953; AM 950
is now the fourth area home for the WEZO calls, whose heritage
use was on 101.3 FM (now WRMM) from 1971 until 1987. The calls
also appeared on AM 990, now WDCZ, for a few years in the late
eighties, and then on Avon's 93.3 FM, now WQRV, for a few years
after that.
- Another PBS station is going commercial. Schenectady's WMHQ
(Channel 45) is being sold to Sinclair Broadcasting, which will
turn it into either a UPN or WB affiliate. WMHQ was the second
service for public TV WMHT (Channel 17), which says it needs
the money for digital TV development. Albany-area viewers with
long memories will recall that channel 45 began as a commercial
independent, WUSV-TV, before being bought by WMHT and operated
first as WMHX-TV and then as WMHQ. Meantime, Buffalo's WNED is
awaiting word on whether the FCC will let it sell noncomm-licensed
WNEQ (Channel 23), or whether it will end up keeping WNEQ and
selling what's now its primary outlet, commercial-licensed WNED-TV
(Channel 17). WNED says it has "at least six" interested
buyers for whichever station is put up for sale.
- In the Buffalo area, the powerful tourist information station
in Niagara Falls, Ontario is relocating. CFLZ had been on 91.9
but will be displaced by the new 92.1 allocation in Amherst and
by the pending move of CHOW Welland from 1470 to 91.7. Its new
home? 105.1 MHz.
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