September 15, 2008
Dorman Out at WODS
*Forty years after he signed on in morning
drive at WRKO, Dale Dorman has disappeared from the eastern MASSACHUSETTS
morning radio dial. With no fanfare, Dorman did his last
show at WODS (103.3 Boston) on Friday, departing on his own initiative,
reports Boston
Radio Watch.
 Dorman
came to WODS five years ago this month, making the shift to Oldies
103 after a 23-year run in afternoons at WXKS-FM (Kiss 108),
not to mention stints at WROR and of course the decade-long morning
gig at WRKO before that.
Are there more changes yet to come at WODS? Another Boston
radio veteran, Harry "Bud" Nelson, was missing from
his weekend shift this past weekend.
No replacement has been named for Dorman, but we'll be watching
closely as this high-profile opening gets filled. (And we suspect
we'll hear "Uncle Dale" on at least a part-time basis
on WODS in the weeks to come.)
Speaking of afternoons on Kiss 108, there's a big change coming
today: Ryan Seacrest's syndicated "On Air" continues
its relentless march across the nation, occupying the 10 AM-1
PM weekday slot on Kiss. That moves Shelly Wade (voicetracked
from sister station Z100 in New York) to 1-3 PM and pushes Romeo
back to a 3-8 PM slot.
 *In
other Boston news, there's a new legal ID on the air: "WKOX
Newton." Clear Channel's "Rumba 1200" isn't yet
operating at its new 50 kW daytime power level, but it is
now on the air from its new transmitter site in Newton's
Oak Hill neighborhood, leaving its old Framingham site after
more than 60 years. Testing on the new array (shared with WUNR
1600 and WRCA 1330) is expected to take several weeks.
Brockton's WMSX (1410) is changing hands. Antonio Molina's
Hispanic Broadcasters, Inc. defaulted on the $1,268,000 loan
it took out to buy the station in 2004, so the lenders are taking
the station back, operating as HB Radio Assets, LLC.
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*In NEW YORK, Steve Torre is moving
on from WINS (1010) after many years as morning sports anchor;
he's now the PD of Chris Russo's "Mad Dog" channel
on satellite radio. No replacement has been named yet.
Cutbacks at Westwood One's Metro Networks unit claimed a dozen
jobs on and off the air late last week in Market Number One,
including Kathy Millar, who did morning traffic for WCBS-FM,
and Tom Baroni, who'd been doing traffic for WFAS in Westchester
County. The "restructuring" at Metro means the disappearance
of customized traffic reporting for many suburban stations, as
Metro focuses on its biggest (remaining) clients.
The New York Islanders will disappear from the radio dial
for many listeners in the metro area this fall; the team is moving
its radio broadcasts from big-signal WBBR (1130 New York) to
WMJC (94.3 Smithtown) and WHLI (1100 Hempstead), a move that
will save money - the team had been buying time on WBBR for its
games - but will limit over-the-air reception to portions of
its Long Island home base. "Listen via XM or online"
is the team's advice for fans in New York City, New Jersey and
upstate...
Heading upstate, Bud Williamson's new 1400 signal in Middletown
now has call letters, WZCC - but don't get too attached, as we
hear they're going to change again before the station makes it
on the air.
In Albany, PD Jackie Donovan is making moves at WROW (590):
Mark Williams is out in afternoon drive, with the official word
blaming issues with moving his family from Sacramento, where
he'd been doing the show remotely.
 A bunch
of changes in Syracuse: Hunter Scott arrives as PD at WAQX (95.7
Manlius), but just across the studio glass, Dave Allen is out
after 11 years as morning man and PD at Citadel sister station
WLTI (105.9 Syracuse); "Lite Rock 105.9" is now looking
for a replacement.
Up in Oswego, John Hurlbutt will soon be sleeping in. After
39 years with WRVO (89.9), the last 28 of those as local host
of Morning Edition, he's retiring at the end of the year.
WRVO, too, is looking for a replacement for him. (WRVO, like
many public radio stations, was also looking for replacement
programming Sunday afternoon after a power failure at NPR's network
operations center meant "All Things Considered" never
made it to the satellite; we mention them, specifically, because
we heard their "technical difficulties" announcements
as we were driving home on the Thruway wondering what had gone
wrong.)
A debate over media ownership in Ithaca will be played out
in front of the FCC later this month. Local media activists challenged
the sale of Eagle Broadcasting's four stations (WHCU, WTKO, WYXL,
WQNY) to Saga a few years back, and the FCC will hear their appeal
of the grant of the sale at an open meeting Sept. 25 in Washington.
Ithaca Community Broadcasting now has a callsign for its Watkins
Glen construction permit: the new 91.9 signal will be WRFI ("Radio
Free Ithaca," presumably.)
Down the road in Elmira, music director/afternoon jock Eric
McKay has departed top 40 "Wink" WNKI (106.1 Corning),
with Chase Daniels moving from nights to afternoons, Shawn Kennedy
taking over nights and Jonathan Channell filling a midday vacancy
at the Backyard Broadcasting station.
A Rochester morning host suffered a devastating blow from
Hurricane Ike: Jeremy Newman, co-host at Entercom's WBEE (92.5),
does the show remotely from his home in Bacliff, Texas, on Galveston
Island - but in the wake of the storm, he doesn't have much of
his home left. Newman evacuated on Thursday, staying with relatives
inland, and when he was able to return to his house on Saturday,
he found what he described as a "nightmare." Newman
told Rochester's WHEC-TV, "All my possessions, whether it's
a TV, my bed, my clothes, it's all washed away with the water."
He says he'll rebuild - and he's back on the air this morning,
by telephone, taking calls from worried listeners.
Over at Stephens Media Group's Rochester cluster, there's
a new PD inbound to modern rocker WZNE (94.1 Brighton) - Nik
Rivers, late of Albany's WZMR, will take over at the Zone on
Sept. 29. Terese Taylor has been interim PD at WZNE, and she'll
retain her PD role at the cluster's two other stations, WFKL
(93.3) and WRMM (101.3).
Some changes at Crawford's Rochester cluster: having departed
WLGZ (102.7 Webster), where he was known as "Scott Taylor,"
Earl Schillinger is now doing mornings at sister station WDCX
(990 Rochester) under his real name. And there's a new morning
show on WLGZ: we heard K.B. Cooper on the air there this morning.
On the TV side of things, Kyle Grimes is leaving the news
director's office at WPTZ (Channel 5) in Plattsburgh; he moves
up within the Hearst-Argyle family to take the same role at WPBF
(Channel 25) in West Palm Beach, effective October 1.
And we close our New York report with an obituary: Neil McIntyre,
who programmed at WINS, WNEW, WKTU and most notably at WPIX-FM
in the seventies, died Sept. 11 of cancer.
Edited by NERW's own Scott Fybush - on sale now as
an e-book or printed volume!
*Folks in PENNSYLVANIA are still scratching
their heads over an unusual theft in the Johnstown market. It
wasn't just a ground system or transmission line or an air conditioner
that disappeared from the old WWBR (1350 Windber) tower last
week - it was the entire tower!
The station had been silent since the mid-80s, when it briefly
flipped calls to WBEM before going off the air for good, but
the owners of the 120-foot tower had been planning to rent space
on it to wireless and cellular operators. Instead, they found
that someone with some knowledge of the site had made it through
the brush that surrounded the tower, dismantled it and hauled
it off. They're offering a $1,000 reward for information leading
to the arrest and conviction of the tower thieves.
There will be a less mysterious broadcast disappearance in
November: at 6:25 PM on November 17, all of Pennsylvania's analog
TV stations will put up a test message to determine whether viewers
are ready for the DTV conversion. If previous tests in other
markets are any indication, we'd expect to hear about several
cable companies still taking analog feeds - but not many viewers
reporting issues with their direct over-the-air reception.
In Pittsburgh, Tom Grimm exits as imaging director and afternoon
jock at Clear Channel's WXDX (105.9 the X) after four years there.
And there are new calls at Philly's new "Now": the
former WJJZ (97.5 Burlington NJ) is now WNUW, now. (It's new,
now, you know...)
*There's a format change in the NEW JERSEY
state capital today. WBUD (1260 Trenton) debuts its new Catholic
format under its new ownership, and it said goodbye to its old
format with a special broadcast on Sunday helmed by longtime
host Jack Pinto, who did a final edition of his Frank Sinatra
show, then kept playing music for several more hours before returning
the station to the Fox Sports format it had been running for
just a few months.
 On the
shore, changes are afoot at WJRZ (100.1 Manahawkin) - Anita Bonita
did her last morning show at the oldies station on Friday, and
the veteran New York air talent and programmer is now looking
for a new gig. (Find her at anitabonita.net!)
Is this a prelude to bigger changes at WJRZ? Stay tuned...
After more than three years at WDHA (105.5 Dover), Tony Paige
is out of the PD chair and the midday shift at the Greater Media
rocker. The station hasn't named a replacement yet.
*In VERMONT, we hear WJPK (100.3 Barton)
has signed on, playing classic country for the Northeast Kingdom
under Vermont Broadcast Associates' ownership.
*A MAINE clarification: While WPXT
(Channel 51) in Portland has indeed shut off its analog transmitter,
apparently around August 21, sister station WPME (Channel 35)
remains on the air in analog for now, though it's asked the FCC
for permission to go digital-only ahead of the February 2009
deadline.
*There's analog silence on one TV channel
in CONNECTICUT, too: WSAH (Channel 43) in Bridgeport has
turned off its analog signal after suffering transmitter problems;
the station has a pending application to move its DTV signal
down the coast to the Empire State Building.
 Hartford's
WFSB (Channel 3) has signed on a new DTV subchannel: "3.4"
is a signal called "WFSB Fairfield County," a simulcast
of the main-channel programming on the CBS affiliate with ads
and promos aimed at Fairfield County, where the Hartford market
is wedged in against New York's stations. The WFSB Fairfield
feed is also being carried on cable in Fairfield County, replacing
the main Hartford signal.
*A RHODE ISLAND station lost its antenna
to the aftermath of Hurricane Hanna. WSNE (93.3 Taunton MA) found
itself without the top bay of its antenna last Monday after the
winds stopped blowing. The station was operating at low power
until a new antenna could be rushed to the site (the WJAR-TV
transmitter facility in Rehoboth, Mass.) and installed late last
week.
*It was a relatively quiet week in CANADA,
broken only by the sound of the CRTC saying "no": in
Alma, Quebec, CFGT (1270) has been denied permission to move
to FM, since owner Group Radio Antenne 6 already owns two FM
stations that serve the Saguenay market. Antenne 6 argued that
one of those stations, CHRL (99.5 Roberval, a recent move from
910), doesn't significantly overlap CFGT's coverage, but the
CRTC disagreed.
And in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Tantramar Community Radio Society
won't get the community station on 107.9 it applied for. The
CRTC ruled that Tantramar's proposed programming sounded too
much like commercial radio - and that the $200,000 in annual
ad sales the group expected would harm the already shaky financial
picture at Amherst's lone commercial station, MBS Radio's CKDH
(900).
|
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!)
September 17, 2007 -
- The radio dial in eastern PENNSYLVANIA was spinning like
crazy last week - and nowhere more so than at CBS Radio's WYSP
(94.1 Philadelphia), where most of the remaining remnants of
the failed "Free FM" talk experiment were wiped away
on Thursday afternoon, replaced with a return to the rock format
that has long defined the station. The move back to rock came
abruptly, with the first rumors reaching print on Tuesday morning,
followed quickly by talk of "being fired" by late-morning
host Paul Barsky, who's actually apparently still at the station
in an off-air capacity.
- Wednesday brought the final shows for afternoon talkers Matt
and Huggy and night talkers Scotty and Alex, and Thursday found
Opie & Anthony broadcasting from the WYSP studios (an already-planned
appearance, promoting a local live show over the weekend) and
dropping big hints about a 5 PM announcement. Best-of shows filled
the remainder of the day until 5, when O&A and PM driver
Kidd Chris kicked off the new format with Guns 'n' Roses' "Welcome
to the Jungle." The revived rock format will continue to
include the New York-based Opie & Anthony morning show, as
well as Kidd Chris in afternoons (though without two of his producer/sidekicks,
Brad Maybe and Monkeyboy, who are also out of work), with a new
jock lineup to be announced soon.
- In MASSACHUSETTS, all eyes are on Howie Carr, whose contract
with Entercom's WRKO (680 Boston) expires Wednesday. Carr is
set to start Thursday morning as the new morning man on Greater
Media's WTKK (96.9 Boston), but will legal action keep him from
making the jump across town to the FM talker, where there's already
an office and staff awaiting him? We'll be listening.
- (In Worcester, meanwhile, Carr affiliate WCRN 830 has shuffled
its schedule to cover Carr's move out of afternoon drive. Hank
Stolz moves from mornings to 2-6 PM, while Peter Blute's morning
show expands to 6-10 AM.)
- We'll start our NEW YORK news, such as it is, on Long Island,
where the sale of three Morey Organization stations has apparently
fallen through. Michael Metter's Connecticut-based BusinessTalkRadio.net
was to have paid $5 million for WBZB (98.5 Bridgehampton), WDRE
(105.3 Calverton-Roanoke) and WLIR (107.1 Hampton Bays), but
the deal didn't close. Now WBZB is dropping BTRN programming
and has reverted to its previous calls, WBON. Will the active
rock "Bone" format return as well? And will BTRN find
a new Long Island outlet? Stay tuned...
- It should come as no surprise that when nighttime operation
of AM HD Radio became legal at midnight Friday morning, New York's
WOR (710) was first in line to flip its exciter on - and it should
come as no surprise, either, that the mailing lists were abuzz
within minutes with reports that ranged from "no big deal"
to "IBOCalypse Now!" Within a day or two, WOR had been
joined by WABC (770), WFAN (660), WCBS (880), as well as Hartford's
WTIC (1080), Schenectady's WGY (810), Philadelphia's WPHT (1210)
and Boston's WBZ (1030), WMKI (1260) and WXKS (1430 Everett)
in running digital after dark. Will stations like WYSL (1040
Avon) in the Rochester area experience the interference they've
been fearing? Will HD supporters like WOR find that they're getting
the coverage they're hoping for? Will cheaper, more sensitive
radios ever appear on the market? We'll be following the saga
as it develops.
- And in Geneva, Aaron Read is the new general manager of Hobart
and William Smith's WEOS (89.7). He comes from Boston, where
he was a contract engineer for several stations and an audio
engineer for the public radio show "The Infinite Mind,"
and he replaces Mike Black, who's now with WXXI in Rochester.
September 15, 2003 -
- When the book is written someday on the history of FM radio
in NEW YORK (wait -- I am writing that book, come to think of
it), an entire chapter might well be devoted to the formats that
proved to be the biggest turkeys of all time. And when that chapter
is written, there's a new candidate for lead entry: WNEW (102.7)
and the first incarnation of "Blink."
- This strange format, which mixed top 40 currents, 70s and
80s R&B oldies, a pink logo that led to the derisive moniker
"Barbie Radio" - and, lest we forget, lots and lots
of JLo-related gossip, breathed its last at 4 o'clock Friday
afternoon (Sept. 12), when Viacom pulled the plug , sending PD
Steve Kingston, morning team Lynda (you-know-who's sister) Lopez
and Chris Booker, middayer Tim Virgin, afternooner Allison Stewart,
night guy Todd Newton, late-night contest winner Post Midnight
and most of the rest of the staff packing. (Anyone who had "five
and a half months" in the office pool for how long Blink
would last can now collect their prize...) Surprisingly, the
"Blink" name remained, at least for the moment, as
WNEW morphed into a softish AC station that made no bones about
its new target audience: "Music Women Love." (First
two songs: "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and
"Uptown Girl.")
- VERMONT is down to two TV newsrooms (one of which is really
across the lake in Plattsburgh, N.Y.) with the shutdown on Friday
of the news operation at WVNY (Channel 22) in Burlington. WVNY's
latest stab at doing local news lasted about four years, and
it was a pretty classy attempt right up to the end. The last
newscast Friday night began, we're told, with a series of teases
that included one for "the fat lady sings" - and it
ended with the theme from Newhart playing over an outside view
of the studios as anchor Eric Greene paraphrased Bob Newhart's
signoff, telling viewers "I had the strangest dream; for
the past four years, I've been hosting a newscast in Vermont."
Greene is one of about two dozen WVNY staffers out of work; we
wish them all the best as they search for new jobs.
- September's a beautiful time to visit Vermont - especially,
it seems, if you're an FCC field agent. On the heels of Radio
Free Brattleboro's run-ins with the Commission, two agents turned
up September 3 at Free Radio Burlington, the 87.9 operation that
we first noted in this space July 14. Turns out FRB has been
on the air for two years, or so it claims, though it was apparently
not broadcasting when the agents paid their call. Thus far, FRB
seems to be a little more adept at handling the FCC than its
cousins in Brattleboro; the 87.9 signal has remained silent while
FRB continues its Webcast and station organizers figure out what
to do next.
- (And an editor's note from 2008 - just a few hours
after that Sept. 15, 2003 NERW hit the web, we welcomed little
Ariel Fybush into the world. She's not so little these days...)
September 18, 1998 -
- Boston's oldest noncommercial FM will enter the 21st century
in a new home, and with a new round of controversy. Emerson College's
WERS (88.9) dedicated its new home at 180 Tremont Street this
week with the help of prominent station alumni, including WZLX
(100.7)'s Charles Laquidara. But the decision to allow Laquidara,
WBOS (92.9)'s Robin Young, and others to preempt the usual student
broadcasts to play guest DJ met with static from students who
say they weren't consulted.
- WERS has long been the only major college station in Boston
run solely by students, with no involvement from alumni or community
members. Tufts' WMFO (91.5), MIT's WMBR (88.1), and Brandeis'
WBRS (100.1) all use community members along with students, while
WUMB (91.9) and WBUR (90.9) are run by professionals with almost
no student involvement. In an on-air roundtable led by Laquidara,
students said the college seems to be more concerned about money
(the station runs an annual deficit of about $400,000) than programming.
Emerson officials denied the accusations, saying students should
have been consulted about this week's preemptions. WERS' new
home in the Ansin Building (named after the parents of WHDH owner
Ed Ansin, who donated much of the building's $1.8 million cost)
replaces the station's old second-story offices at 126-130 Beacon
Street. It also closes a huge circle in Boston radio history;
the building was built by Edison Electric Illuminating to house
its then-new WEEI almost seven decades ago.
- In other MASSACHUSETTS news, the WBZ-TV tower that rises
over Route 128 from Cedar Street in Needham is about to rise
a bit more. CBS is getting ready to add some 400 feet to the
tower to accomodate new antennas for WBZ-TV, WGBH-TV, WGBX, and
WCVB-TV -- and their respective digital counterparts. (This helps
to explain why the DTV CPs for these stations specified tower
heights several hundred feet higher than the existing tower).
- Down to CONNECTICUT next, where after nearly two years, "Prayze
105.3" may finally be out of luck. The religious music pirate
signed on back in November 1996, and its existence was reported
for the first time anywhere back in the December 16, 1996, NERW.
The station was selling commercial time, significantly undercutting
licensed urban station WKND (1480) Windsor in the process, which
was enough to get WKND to alert the FCC to Prayze's existence.
This week, US District Judge Warren Eginton granted the government's
motion for an injunction ordering Prayze off the air "until
it receives a lawful license to broadcast from the FCC,"
which almost certainly won't happen unless or until LPFM becomes
a reality, since 105.3 is short-spaced to stations in Great Barrington,
Groton, Middletown, and Hartford's 105.9. The Hartford Courant
says Prayze was still on the air Monday, defying the injunction.
A NERW reader reports Prayze was off a few days later, but that
another long-running Hartford-area pirate, playing Spanish-language
tunes on 97.1, was untouched by the FCC. We'll keep you posted...
- Back on the air in New Haven: WNHC (1340) resumed broadcasting
Tuesday morning at 6, now under the aegis of WYBC (94.3) and
the Yale students who run it. The urban programming that WNHC
ran until going bankrupt has been replaced by an eclectic mixture
of alternative rock, blues, jazz, football games, and local talk.
NERW thinks the New Haven AM dial has to qualify as the region's
most interesting right now, what with WNHC, Quinnipiac College's
heavily-local WQUN (1220), and Clear Channel's well-run talker
WELI (960) and standards WAVZ (1300), not to mention all the
New York stations that make it up the Sound.
- Where Capstar goes, budget cuts seem to follow, and this
week Steve Hicks' ax fell in Burlington, VERMONT. After 14 years,
Brent Jarvis is out the door as morning man at WEZF (92.9), replaced
by production director Jon Brooks from new Capstar sister stations
WCPV (101.3 Essex), WXPS (96.7 Vergennes), and WEAV (960 Plattsburgh).
Frannie Bastian remains as morning co-host on WEZF. Also out
is WXPS-WEAV sports director George Commo, who was left without
much to do when the stations lost UVM sports rights.
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