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May 25, 2009
On Memorial Day, No On-Air "Rewound"
*For the last decade, it's been a Memorial
Day tradition for fans of classic NEW YORK radio: tuning
in to WABC (770) or its webstream for a full day (give or take
a Yankees game in the early years) of vintage Musicradio 77 airchecks,
carefully reconstructed and introduced by legendary WABC production
guru Johnny Donovan.
 "WABC
Rewound" began in 1999, following on a shorter "WABeatlesC"
revival the previous year. But as New Yorkers mark the Memorial
Day holiday today, they won't be greeted by the Beatles and the
Stones on their AM dials. Instead, WABC's new management is sticking
with the station's usual talk format, even though the holiday
means Imus and Limbaugh and Hannity and the rest of the station's
daily lineup will have the day off, replaced by third-string
substitutes or canned "best-of" shows.
But while there won't be a "Rewound" on the AM airwaves
for casual listeners, there's still a fat package of vintage
audio available for die-hard Musicradio fans, thanks to collector
(and former WHN/WQXR chief engineer) Herb Squire and "Rewound"
producer Peter Kanze. These rarely-heard airchecks, largely from
the early '70s, will get played at some point today on the HD3
subchannel of WABC's sister station, WPLJ (95.5) - but most people
will hear them as downloads from WABC's
own website, where at least one hour was apparently mislabeled
as of Sunday night, or from Allan Sniffen's tribute
site, which was offering faster downloads when we checked.
Is this curtains for "Rewound"? From all indications,
yes - the airchecks that went into the 2009 edition were prepared
(a time-consuming process indeed) when the producers still expected
the package to air over 50,000 watts of AM. What's more, the
pool of "new" vintage airchecks is reportedly drying
up; what was fresh and long-unheard in 1999 has been ricocheting
around file-sharing sites for a decade now.
But if this is the end of "Rewound," it's at least
going out with some very impressive airchecks, and the memory
of eleven years of fun holiday radio in New York.
TUESDAY UPDATE: The word
from listeners in the market is that "Rewound" never
aired on the WPLJ HD subchannel at all...
*In other news from the city, CBS Radio's move downtown has
shifted into high gear. WCBS-FM (101.1 New York) became the first
of the company's stations to broadcast from its new cluster studios
at 345 Hudson Street on May 17; it will soon be followed by WXRK
(Now 92.3), with WWFS (102.7), WINS (1010) and WFAN (660) making
their own moves in the months to come.
On the air, WWRL (1600 New York) is now picking up one hour
of the syndicated Stephanie Miller show, from 11 AM-noon on weekdays.
*Moving upstate, Mindy Barstein's WXUR (92.7 Herkimer) has
been granted a significant boost in power - and a transmitter
change that will get it much closer to its target audience in
Utica. WXUR's CP calls for a power increase from its present
6 kW/299' to 6.4 kW/659', bumping it from class A to class B1,
and a site change to the tower behind WKTV's studios on Smith
Hill in Utica, where most of the market's big FM signals are
already located.
 Over at Ken Roser's
Utica radio cluster, Eric Thomas is settling in as the new morning
man on "Kiss" (WSKS 97.9 Whitesboro/WSKU 105.5 Little
Falls) after a high-profile arrival last Monday. As we correctly
surmised here at NERW, the announcement that "Kiss"
would be changing formats last week turned out to be a stunt
- but the station's three hours as "beautiful music"
and "Whatever FM" fooled much of the Utica media world,
with the local
newspaper and at least one TV newsroom falling hard for it.
So who's Eric Thomas? He comes to the Mohawk Valley from what
may be the only market in the country with an even more blighted
economy, Flint, Michigan, where he worked at WWBN ("Banana
101.5") and did some work in nearby Detroit as well. Thomas'
arrival allows the rest of the Kiss airstaff to get back to normal:
Jesse Jordan returns to middays, while PD Shaun Andrews returns
to his usual afternoon shift.
In Gloversville, mark down "WNGG" as the new calls
for Northeast Gospel Broadcasting's construction permit on 90.9.
In Syracuse, "Love FM" is back on the air at its
old home of 105.1, now that Craig Fox and Sam Furco have returned
that signal to the airwaves after buying it back from Clear Channel.
The DeRuyter-licensed 105.1 returned as WVOA-FM on the evening
of May 19; "Love" also continues on 103.9 in Mexico,
now under the calls WVOU.
Down I-81 in the Cortland market, longtime WXHC (101.5 Homer)
operations manager/PD/morning man Sonny King lost his job early
last week, the victim of budget cuts at the small oldies station.
CNYRadio.com
reports that King's career included stops in the 70s and early
80s in Johnstown, Amsterdam and Cortland, then at WBEN and WECK
in Buffalo before returning to Cortland in 1986 at WKRT. King
had been at WXHC since 1999.
Just east of Rochester, Bud Williamson's construction permit
for WMJQ (1330 Ontario) was close to expiration - but under a
new FCC policy, owners of expiring CPs can sell them to qualified
small businesses and get an 18-month extension to complete construction.
So the unbuilt WMJQ CP, for 1 kW days/2 kW nights beamed north
from three towers in western Wayne County, is being transferred
to Texas-based 21st Century Broadcasting, headed by Norma Jean
Lewis, for $60,000.
More Rochester news: Clear Channel's cluster is midway through
its move out of its longtime home in the otherwise-vacated Midtown
Plaza. Most of the station's sales and business staffers have
moved across Chestnut Street to the former CBS Radio/Stephens
Media Group space at the HSBC Building, and about half of the
stations in the cluster, including big gun WHAM (1180), have
moved their studios as well, with the rest moving over the next
few weeks.
And a former WHAM weekend staple, the Sunday "SoundBytes"
computer show, has found a new home: it's now being heard on
jazz station WGMC (90.1 Greece), whose GM, Rob Linton, used to
be the SoundBytes producer when he worked at WHAM.
In Buffalo, Kevin Hardwick is giving up his Sunday "Hardline"
political talk show to enter the political arena for real. The
Canisius College politics professor is running as a Republican
in this fall's race for the Erie County Legislature.
Down the road in Little Valley, Randy Michaels' RadioActive
LLC has closed on its $250,000 sale of a construction permit
on 105.9 to the Seneca Nation. That amount roughly doubles what
RadioActive paid in the FCC auction for the frequency.
*For years now, listeners to "NEW
JERSEY 101.5" have heard announcements promoting the
talk station's simulcast serving south Jersey - but the latest
home for the simulcast, WXKW (97.3 Millville), is apparently
on the verge of a format change.
 Instead of "serving
South Jersey on 97.3," the station's listeners have been
hearing announcements promoting the station's webcast and its
main Trenton-based signal, WKXW (101.5). What's in store for
the big class B signal on 97.3? Stay tuned...
TUESDAY UPDATE: Tom Taylor
of Radio-Info.com reports that the new format on 97.3 will be
ESPN Radio, presently heard on WXKW's sister station WENJ (1450
Atlantic City).
At the other end of the state, federal agents raided two locations
in Paterson on May 11 in an attempt to shut down "Fuego
90.5," a high-powered unlicensed station that's been causing
interference to listeners of New York's WFUV (90.7) for almost
three years now. The FCC first issued a notice of unauthorized
operation to operator Jairo Diaz back in early 2007, but its
administrative process takes time. Diaz and Frank Rodriguez now
face $10,000 fines for the unlicensed operation. And of course
even with their station shut down (for now), that still leaves
several dozen more high-powered pirates causing daily interference
to licensed operators in the region, as the cats continue to
be far outnumbered by the mice in this ongoing cat-and-mouse
game.
|
CLEARANCE
SALE! CLEARANCE SALE!
 We thought we'd sell out of Tower Site Calendar
2009 without resorting to a clearance sale...but
not quite.
Our business manager (aka Mrs. Fybush)
reports that a limited quantity of 2009 calendars are still available
- and as we get ready to send Tower Site Calendar 2010
to the printer, we're clearing out the remaining 2009
editions.
They won't last long at our clearance price
of just $9 each, postpaid - that's half-off the usual
price of $18. So place that order now - and get ready for pre-orders
of the 2010 edition, starting in July.
Order
now at the fybush.com Store! |
 *At least one MASSACHUSETTS victim of budget-induced
layoffs has his job back: Tom Cuddy quietly returned to the afternoon
sports shift at CBS Radio's WBZ (1030 Boston) last week, five
months after he became part of the big staffing cuts at the station
just before the new year. WBZ's afternoon news anchors had been
reading the sports in the interim.
Another familiar WBZ personality is about to resurface on
a different channel. Longtime WBZ-TV (Channel 4) anchor Liz Walker
finally parted ways with that station late last year, and now
she's placed her new show, "Better Living with Liz Walker,"
on WCVB (Channel 5), where it will be seen four times a year.
The first installment will air June 4 at 7:30 PM, in the "Chronicle"
timeslot.
*Another HD-subchannel-on-translator update
from Keene, NEW HAMPSHIRE: Saga's classic rock format,
heard on the HD3 of WKNE (103.7), is still being heard via analog
translator, too - but it's moved from W281AU (104.1) to W256BJ
(99.1), the translator Saga moved south from Claremont a few
weeks ago.
*The founder of the CONNECTICUT School
of Broadcasting is buying the business back out of bankruptcy.
Dick Robinson had sold the chain of trade schools to a group
led by Credit Suisse back in 2006, for a reported $20 million,
and he's paying just $1 million to buy it back. Robinson plans
to reopen only 11 of the 26 campuses CSB was operating when it
went belly-up in March, and he says students who were left stranded
by the closures will have their outstanding deposits and tuition
payments refunded.
 *There's a new low-power FM signal on the air in
RHODE ISLAND. WIGV-LP (96.5 Providence) signed on May
18 with Spanish-language religion from the Casa de Oracion Getsemani...and
of course we can count on our pal Mike Fitzpatrick's NECRAT.com
to come through with exclusive first photos of WIGV-LP's antenna
setup atop the storefront church on the city's south side.
*Meanwhile, one of a small handful of LPFMs
in MAINE is in danger of going silent. The "Lakes
Region Weekly" reports
that WJZF-LP (97.1 Standish) may cease operations this fall if
it can't begin to generate some revenue from underwriters or
listener donations. Program manager David Patterson, who operates
the small community station from his home, tells the paper, "We
have absolutely no listener support, no underwriter support,
and the costs are just escalating to the point where we can't
operate even a low-power station on our own." He says it's
costing about $500 a month to keep the station on the air, and
he's set an October 1 deadline to turn the operation around or
go dark.
 On the
flip side, a silent AM has returned to the air under new ownership.
WCME (900 Brunswick) has moved from its longtime site in Brunswick,
still in use by erstwhile sister station WCLZ (98.9 North Yarmouth),
to a diplex on the South Bath tower of WJTO (730 Bath).
WJTO's owner Bob Bittner, who recently sold the WCME license
to Wall Street Journal Radio anchor Jim Bleikamp, kindly sent
along these pictures of Bleikamp putting the WCME transmitter
on the air for the first time at its new home Saturday night.
WCME is operating under special temporary authority from the
WJTO site for now, with 176 watts by day, 55 watts at night,
non-directional.
Edited by NERW's own Scott Fybush - on sale now as
an e-book or printed volume!
*In Erie, PENNSYLVANIA, the days are
numbered for WSEE (Channel 35)'s separate operation. Now that
the station's off-air technical employees have been laid off,
the CBS affiliate will close its studio at 1220 Peach Street
on June 1, with its remaining staffers moving in with sister
station WICU (Channel 12) at its State Street facility.
 That, in turn, will
mean big changes to WSEE's news schedule: starting next week,
its 6 PM broadcast will reportedly be moved to 7 PM, with a new
live 10 PM newscast being launched on WSEE's CW subchannel, "WBEP."
That 10 PM show will be repeated at 11 on WSEE while WICU does
its own live newscast.
(That schedule matches almost perfectly with owner Brian Lilly's
other operation, WENY-TV in Elmira, which offers live newscasts
at 6 and 11 on its main ABC channel, a 7 PM newscast on its newly-launched
CBS subchannel, and a 10 PM newscast on its CW subchannel.)
Meanwhile across town at Erie's other commercial TV cluster,
a transmitter failure came at the worst possible time for Fox
affiliate WFXP (Channel 66): just as the season finale of "American
Idol" was starting. WFXP made it back on the air just before
the end of the show, but it also received permission from Fox
to rebroadcast the entire finale on Saturday night.
Across the state, middayer Jason Lee is out at WBEN-FM (95.7
Philadelphia).
Where are they now? Veteran central Pennsylvania broadcaster
Chris Lash, who recently lost his wife Karen to cancer, is keeping
busy by launching a new FM signal just outside Dayton, Ohio.
Lash just put WYNS (89.3 Waynesville) on the air as "Hybrid
FM," playing a mix of AC and country.
*One of CANADA's first expanded-band
AM stations wants to move down the dial. CJWI (1610 Montreal,
aka "CPAM Radio Union") tells the CRTC that it's being
battered by co-channel interference from CHHA in Toronto and
that it needs more power to reach outlying portions of the Montreal
market.
 As a
result, it's applying to move to 1410, the frequency that used
to belong to multi-ethnic CFMB before that station moved to 1280.
On 1410, CJWI would run 10 kW by day, 1 kW at night.
In Ottawa, we've heard several reports of a signal test being
conducted on 94.5 by Industry Canada, with an announced power
of 2000 watts, presumably an attempt to find another frequency
that can be shoehorned into that city's crowded FM dial.
In Toronto, it appears that Bob Magee is out as afternoon
jock on CHFI (98.1).
And in Toronto and many other Canadian cities, CTV opened
the doors of its studios to the public Saturday for a nationwide
series of open house events. The events were designed to do more
than just show off the stations' facilities and star talent,
of course - the real purpose was to push CTV's efforts to "save
local TV" by compelling cable and satellite providers to
pay carriage fees for local TV signals.
But while the open houses drew big crowds at CTV's Scarborough
headquarters, the CKCO studios in Kitchener, the CJOH Ottawa
studios and elsewhere, CTV's on-air lobbying for the carriage-fee
proposal is drawing fire from a coalition of cable companies.
They've filed a complaint about what they say is improper advocacy
for the proposal during CTV newscasts. CTV, unsurprisingly, says
it will challenge the complaint.
*As we contemplate spending our Memorial
Day afternoon at a Rochester Red Wings minor-league ballgame,
we continue our ongoing look at Baseball on the Radio, 2009
with a quick trip around the independent minor leagues in
the region.
The Atlantic League started its season a few weeks back, and
it appears that two New Jersey teams have lost broadcast outlets
since last season. The Camden Riversharks were on Rowan
College's WGLS (89.7) last year, while the Newark Bears were
on WSOU (89.5), but both teams appear to be webcast-only this
year, as are the Bridgeport Bluefish up in Connecticut.
The Somerset Patriots continue on WCTC (1450 New Brunswick),
while over in Pennsylvania the York Revolution remain
on WSBA (910) and the Lancaster Barnstormers are still
on WLPA (1490). The Long Island Ducks have a weekend-only
schedule of 66 games on WNYG (1440 Babylon).
In the Can-Am League, which starts play this week, the Sussex
Skyhawks are apparently still on WDLC (1490) just across
the state line in Port Jervis, N.Y., while the New Jersey
Jackals are webcast-only, though they're running a low-power
signal on 87.9 so fans can hear the call of the game in the stands.
In Massachusetts, the Brockton Rox and Worcester Tornadoes
have full-season (94-game) radio coverage, on WXBR (1460)
and WTAG (580), respectively. The former Nashua Pride in
New Hampshire have become the American Defenders, and
appear to have no radio coverage this year. And up in Quebec
City, Les Capitales may or may not be on CHRC (800); it's
hard to tell from either the team's or the station's websites.
And there's one more independent league with a presence right
at the edge of NERW-land: the Washington (Pennsylvania)
Wild Things of the Frontier League remain on WJPA-FM (95.3)
for another season.
We'll wrap up our Baseball on the Radio coverage in our June
15 issue, when we'll have the radio lineups for the short-season
New York-Penn League. (Go Muckdogs!)
|
From
the NERW Archives
(Yup, we've been doing this a long time now, and
so we're digging back into the vaults for a look at what NERW
was covering one, five, ten and - where available - fifteen years
ago this week, or thereabouts. Note that the column appeared
on an erratic schedule in its earliest years as "New England
Radio Watch," and didn't go to a regular weekly schedule
until 1997. Thanks to LARadio.com
for the idea - and thanks to you, our readers, for the support
that's made all these years of NERW possible!)
May 26, 2008 -
- Another Philadelphia morning host is out of a job: after
just over two years in mornings at Clear Channel's WIOQ (102.1
Philadelphia), Chris Booker was abruptly let go on Thursday.
That leaves Q102 with no wakeup show, but perhaps not for long
- the rumor making the rounds is that the next Q102 morning-drive
entry will be the Elvis Duran "Morning Zoo" from sister
station WHTZ (Z100) up in New York City.
- Booker, of course, has New York history, too: he did mornings
on the "Blink" incarnation of WNEW (102.7) and evenings
on WXRK/WFNY-FM (92.3). Will he be headed back to 92.3 in its
current "K-Rock" incarnation? An unsourced addition
to Booker's Wikipedia entry on Monday claimed he's signed a new
contract there...
- On the other side of PENNSYLVANIA, WEAE (1250 Pittsburgh)
afternoon sports talker Mark Madden was off the air for a couple
of days after some controversial comments he made last week about
Ted Kennedy. It's not clear whether Madden's absence was directly
related to the comments; the Post-Gazette's Bob Smizik, no fan
of Madden's, has been putting some public pressure on ESPN to
respond to Madden's comments through columns such as this one
on Friday. "Pursuant to our contractual rights," ESPN
announced Tuesday that it has fired Madden; no permanent replacement
for the 3-7 PM shift has been named yet.
- One of the most famous stations in NEW YORK radio history
is one that never existed. WVWA (900 Pound Ridge) was a late-night
lark created by staffers at WALL (1340 Middletown) and some friends
back in 1974. The "Nine!" tape they created was a pitch-perfect
parody of the consultant-driven AM radio of the era, and in the
ensuing 34 years it's taken on a life of its own, spawning a
parody sequel ("Ninety-Nine") in 1999, a WVWA tribute
website, a Tower Site of the Week in 2004, and countless jokes
from those in the know. But now, all these years later, WVWA
is about to become a real radio station, just a few towns north
of Pound Ridge, yet. For this, we can thank Dennis Jackson, the
independent-minded station owner whose Foothills Public Radio
applied for, and was granted, a construction permit for 100 watts
on 90.1 in North Salem, NY as part of last year's noncommercial
application window. NERW can now report, exclusively, that Jackson
has applied for the WVWA calls for his new signal - and that
the original "Nine!" braintrust is already hard at
work tweaking the old jingles and shouts for the station that's
already being dubbed..."Ninety!" No, Bob Roberts won't
be doing mornings, nor will Johnny West be doing evenings. Instead,
we're told Dennis has "refined, molded, polished, honed,
shaped and pulled out of left field a revolutionary new formatic
programming concept" that will likely include a lot of jazz,
as well as community programming.
- When will the real WVWA hit the airwaves of metro eastern
Westchester (and nearby Danbury, Connecticut, where it's likely
to appear via translator)? We hear it'll take a while for chief
engineer Ira "Carts" Finkelstein to put everything
together, but word is that the auspicious date of 9/9/09 may
bring the latest chapter in the bizarre (but extremely fun) story
that is WVWA. Stay tuned... (2009 update:
Dennis subsequently changed the calls on his construction permit
to WJJZ, then to WJZZ. But could there still be something "Nine"-related
on 09/09/09?
- On the NEW HAMPSHIRE/VERMONT border, Great Eastern is swapping
formats at several of its Upper Valley signals. The "Pulse"
talk format that had been airing on WMXR (93.9 Woodstock VT)
has moved to WTSL (1400 Lebanon NH), consolidating the separate
talk lineups that had been on both signals. The new "Pulse"
on WTSL will also have an FM simulcast, as translator W232AP
(94.3 White River Junction) has been granted Special Temporary
Authority to simulcast AM 1400.
- The move frees up WMXR to flip to classic hits as "MAXX
93.9," also carrying Red Sox and Patriots games.
May 24, 2004 -
- It was a quiet week in NERW-land...so quiet, in fact, that
we're leading with a not-all-that-exciting stunt just down the
road from us. WNSA (107.7 Wethersfield) dropped its weeklong
simulcast of sports WGR (550 Buffalo) on Friday and began running
a repeating loop of splashing water and cricket noises. A cicada
invasion? Nope - it seems to be the prelude to "107.7 the
Lake," or so the local rumor mill would have it.
- Entercom has reportedly hired Hank Dole (late of WZBA Baltimore
and KHHL Leander-Austin TX) as PD of the station, which we're
hearing will be a AAA-ish classic rocker. Across town at Citadel,
they've gone and registered www.107thelake.com, which was being
forwarded to the WHTT-FM site for a while. What next? Stay tuned...we'll
be listening.
- MONDAY NIGHT UPDATE: WNSA relaunched at 3 PM as - yup - "The
Lake," with a rather esoteric blend of classic rock and
80s pop and whatnot. First two songs: "Swimming in Water"
by Peter Gabriel and "Radio, Radio" by Elvis Costello;
subsequent listening has turned up everything from Traffic to
Bonnie Raitt. New calls are apparently on the way, too, judging
from the bare-bones Web site (1077thelake.com), as the station
picks up the WLKK calls that lived for many years down the Thruway
in Erie, Pennsylvania.
- In southeastern PENNSYLVANIA, a widely-heard pirate radio
station is off the air - and it turns out that "El Sol 95.3"
was actually operating from across the river in Pennsauken, NEW
JERSEY. It took a team of federal agents to do it - and when
they did, they found the station being operated by a group called
"The Moors," who say they're not subject to U.S. law
because they've lived here for thousands of years. (They showed
agents a "license" signed by one "Queen Ali.")
May 21, 1999 -
- NEW HAMPSHIRE's public radio network will soon have a new
link. NHPR announced this week that it plans to purchase WXLQ
(107.1 Gorham) from current owner Gladys Powell. WXLQ has been
running a satellite classic rock format of late, although NERW
still vividly remembers hearing the station with satellite country
a few years back, complete with odd little cueing tones where
they shouldn't have been heard. In any event, the addition of
the Gorham signal will provide a significant northern extension
to the NHPR network, whose WEVO (89.1 Concord) goes only as far
as the southern flanks of the White Mountains, while WXLQ's signal
is heard only to the north of Mount Washington. No word yet on
when the sale will close.
- Just up the seacoast in MAINE, Steve Mindich has applied
for the WPHX and WPHX-FM calls for what are now WSME (1220) and
WCDQ (92.1) in Sanford. Expect the WFNX simulcast to start any
day now on the FM side.
- The top story in MASSACHUSETTS is the nasty rivalry between
Infinity's WBCN (104.1 Boston) and Steve Mindich's WFNX (101.7
Lynn), which started when WBCN began running the "Loveline"
show, long a WFNX nighttime feature. Mindich was telling Boston
papers this week that he plans to sue Infinity for breach of
contract -- and he's also been making loud noises about the rumors
(apparently started on a Howard Stern fan page) that Infinity
will soon require all Stern affiliates to clear a 24-hour lineup
of talk radio. WBCN PD Oedipus told the Boston Globe this week
that he'll wager $104,000 of his own money against Mindich's
money that the rumor is untrue. Meanwhile, both stations are
running "Loveline" for the moment.
- Over at 116 Huntington Ave., "Star 93.7" unveiled
most of its new jock lineup this week, with Ann Duran coming
back to the region (after a stint in Los Angeles that followed
the demise of the old WBIX in New York) to do 10-3PM, Michael
Knight doing 3-7PM, Danny Meyers coming from WPLJ in New York
for nights, and sole Eagle survivor Steve York handling overnight
duties. Still to be named is a morning show. A note, by the way,
to the usually reliable Dean Johnson at the Herald: the calls
on that Lawrence-licensed station are now WQSX -- or is this
just payback for the Other Paper continuing to call 93.7 "WCGY"
for years after it changed to WEGQ?
- Do Worcester TV viewers want to see religious programming
from West Texas? Beats the heck out of us, but it's there if
they want it, thanks to brand-new WYDN (Channel 48), which began
operating late last month from Mt. Asnebumskit in Paxton, rebroadcasting
the "Prime Time Christian Broadcasting" network from
KMLM (Channel 42) in Odessa, Texas.
- VERMONT's newest TV news operation is beginning to fill some
key staff positions. WVNY (Channel 22) in Burlington named Eric
Greene as main anchor and executive producer, as the ABC affiliate
prepares for an autumn expansion to a full news schedule from
the current 5-minute newscasts twice daily.
- On the national front, pencil in a new name for Chancellor
Media just as the company swallows all them Capstar stations.
Now Chancellor is changing its name to "AMFM", to match
its NASDAQ ticker symbol -- which might make more sense if it
weren't for those rumors that the company is about to move its
stock to the New York Stock Exchange, where it will be known
as simply "AFM".
- From CANADA this week comes word of a new owner for Ottawa's
CJMJ (100.3) and CFGO (1200). Rawlco, which sold its Calgary
stations to Rogers earlier in the week, will spin the outlets
in the nation's capital to the CHUM group, which already owns
CFRA (580), CKKL (93.9), and CHRO (Channel 43/Channel 5 Pembroke)
in the market. CJMJ's soft AC "Majic 100" is the market's
ratings leader, and CFGO's new sports format makes a nice complement
to CFRA's news-talk dominance.
New England Radio Watcher, May 26, 1994
-
- After an admittedly poorly-concealed courtship, American
Radio Systems (WRKO-680/WHDH-850/WBMX-98.5 Boston) has agreed
to buy WCGY-93.7/WCCM-800 Lawrence MA from Curt Gowdy for a reported
$12+ million. WCCM will have to be spun off to meet the two-AMs
to a market standard. ARS says it's looking for someone in the
Lawrence community. As for album-rocker CGY, which uses 50kw
from a 131 meter stick in Andover MA (20 miles N of Boston),
ARS is saying there won't be much in the way of format changes...
at least until they see what Pyramid (WXKS-1430/107.9) does with
its now-finalized purchase of CHuRban WJMN-94.5. ARS is promising
technical improvements to pump more signal into downtown Boston
and the southern suburbs, where the CGY signal is shaky.
- The other sale in the works is WMFP-TV Lawrence/Boston, the
very independent Channel 62 that transmits from One Beacon Street
in Boston, putting almost no signal over its city of license.
Owner and former radio talk host Avi Nelson is selling out, in
every sense of the term, to Shop at Home network. No more "interactive"
video vaudeville...no more overflow for the NBC shows WBZ-TV
declines to carry...no more MSTV public-domain '30s movies.
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