November 9, 2009

Christmas Time is Here...

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

*For the last few years, it seems as though the arrival of Christmas music on the northeast radio dial has been getting earlier and earlier - but not this year. Instead of the pre-Halloween flips we'd been tracking (and which hit at a couple of HD2 signals in Philadelphia and at WEZW on the Jersey shore, which is evidently in the proces of flipping formats), the first stations in the region to go all-Christmas this year waited until November 2.

Those flips happened in Syracuse and Utica, NEW YORK, where Ed Levine's Galaxy clusters flipped at WZUN (102.1 Phoenix) and WUMX (102.5 Rome), which were also early adopters in 2008.

As we go to press Sunday, "Sunny 102" and "Mix 102" still stand alone in the Empire State - and while we'd expect more holiday tunes to start rolling later in November at usual suspects like WRMM in Rochester, WYYY in Syracuse and WKLI in Albany, we're hearing that New York's WCBS-FM, which flipped last year, may stick with its usual classic hits format this holiday season.

(We're tracking Santa's nationwide progress across the radio dial over at another of your editor's outlets, 100000Watts.com.)

*Fans of the adult album alternative sounds on New York City's WFUV (90.7) don't have to worry about that public radio station going all-Christmas - but unless they live on the west side of Manhattan, they may not be hearing WFUV at all during the day for the next couple of weeks. WFUV is in the midst of a big antenna-replacement project at its relatively new transmitter site in the Bronx, and the construction means the station's main transmitter is off the air weekdays from 8 AM until about 4 PM, leaving only the WFUV-1 booster atop Riverside Church (and the WFUV.org webstreams) on the air during the day.

At night and on weekends, WFUV switches on its auxiliary antenna at the Bronx site, restoring most of its coverage. The project is scheduled to wrap up around the middle of next week, weather permitting.

Out on Long Island, the end is near for WNYG (1440 Babylon). The station's days have been numbered ever since owner Arthur Liu received a CP to upgrade adjacent-channel WNSW (1430 Newark NJ) and to move that station closer to New York City, sharing the towers of sister station WPAT (930 Paterson). To make WNSW's move possible, WNYG had to move or go dark, and Liu's initial plan called for WNYG to relocate east from Babylon to Medford, where it would share the towers of WLIM (1580 Patchogue). But in the current economic situation, a relocated WNYG would probably be financially unviable - and so within the next few months, the 1440 signal in Babylon will simply fall silent, ending a five-decade history (much of it as WBAB) that launched an incredible number of New York broadcast careers, not to mention some truly unique formats like the short-lived "Student Radio 1440" in the early part of this decade. (You can read more about WBAB/WNYG's colorful history here.)

The next step in WNYG's demise came late last week, when Liu's LMA of the station to Free Indeed Broadcasting ended, bringing to a close eight years of contemporary Christian programming as "The Spirit of New York" - and shutting down the old studio building on Route 109 for what's likely to be the last time.

For now, WNYG is simulcasting the Spanish-language religious programming from Radio Cantico Nuevo that's heard on WNSW, but it's just a matter of months before 1440 is silenced for good (following in the footsteps of Babylon's other AM, the long-gone WGLI 1290) and WNSW's present STA operation from the WPAT site gets powered up to the full 10 kW days/7 kW nights that Liu seeks.

The "WDRE" calls that disappeared from Long Island last week have been reserved for future use by Digital Radio Broadcasting, the Hudson Valley-based station group owned by Bud Williamson - who's associated with the "DRE" initials through his primary business, Digital Radio Engineering. We'd guessed that the calls were headed to Bud's new signal on 1400 in Middletown, but that one's keeping the WYNY calls. Digital Radio also has unbuilt construction permits in Milford, PA and Ontario, NY, as well as WRUN (1150 Utica).

And we've been reminded by at least one loyal NERW reader that with all the coverage we've given to other NERW-land baseball teams winning the World Series, it's only fair that we note last week's big win by the New York Yankees. There wasn't a lot of drama, at least on the broadcasting front, with this one - the Yanks are in the middle of a very happy relationship with CBS Radio's flagship station, WCBS (880), and the broadcast team of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman is securely ensconced in the new stadium's radio booth. (On TV, the rights are even more secure, since the Yankee-owned YES Network is one of the most profitable ventures in all of pro sports.)

So what was notable about this year's Yankee win, beyond (yes, we'll admit it) the top-notch play from what ended up being the best team in baseball this year? There's this: Waldman became the first woman to call a World Series on the radio - and that's pretty notable right there. And yeah - 880 was tuned in on our radio here at NERW Central for the game's final innings Wednesday night.

In Ellenville, WELG (1370) has become WRWD, once again relaying the country music from WRWD-FM (107.3 Highland) in the Poughkeepsie market, now that sister Clear Channel FM station WRWC (99.3 Ellenville) has become WKIP-FM, carrying the same talk programming that had been heard on WELG.

Say goodbye to WJGK (1200 Highland): the never-built construction permit has been deleted from the FCC database at the request of permittee Hawkeye Communications. This ends (at least for now) a very long attempt by the Klebe family to build a station on 1200 in the Hudson Valley. Over the last two decades, that's included an attempt to move WGNY (1220 Newburgh) down the dial (the station actually operated on 1200, but was never licensed there), then a CP, cancelled in 2005, for WJGK on 1200 in Kingston, and then the current CP for 4700 watts day/1000 watts night from Highland, granted in 2005. That CP nearly ran out unbuilt last year, but was extended when Joergen Klebe's Sunrise Communications sold it (for $10!) to Hawkeye, controlled by Klebe's wife. But the economic challenge of building five new towers was apparently insurmountable, so now WJGK, version 2, is also history.

The long, complex process of sorting out thousands of applications from the FCC's 2007 window for noncommercial FM stations took another halting step forward last week, when the Commission released the results of its analysis of a mammoth group of mutually-exclusive applications that stretched hundreds of miles from western Pennsylvania to the Adirondacks.

Thanks to settlements reached during a window earlier this year, the FCC was able to break that cluster of 37 applicants into three groups, including one mutually-exclusive cluster of six applications spread out from Boonville to Utica to Norwich. Applying its usual standards for choosing among competing applicants (a complex formula that looks at total population covered and at the number of potential listeners receiving a first or second noncommercial service), the Commission issued a decision last week granting a tentative preference to St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Parish for its application for 88.1 in Greene, north of Binghamton and denying applications from Albany's WAMC, Oswego's WRVO and Syracuse's Mars Hill Network.

Two more 88.1 applications - one from the Dominican Monastery of Mary the Queen in Elmira, the other from Scranton's WVIA for a new signal in Sylvania, Pennsylvania, near Mansfield - were pulled out of the mutually-exclusive group after reaching a settlement agreement that should allow both applications to be granted, probably fairly quickly.

Up here in Rochester, there's another "all in the family" station sale to report: Don Crawford, Sr.'s Kimtron Inc. is selling oldies WLGZ (102.7 Webster) to Don Crawford, Jr.'s DJRA Broadcasting LLC. The younger Crawford has apparently been managing "Legends 102.7" since the spring, and no immediate changes are planned at the station, which will continue to share the Browncroft Boulevard studios of Kimtron's WDCX (990 Rochester), which stays with the senior Crawford. Of note here is the sale price: DJRA is paying just $350,000 for the FM license, a class A signal that covers most of the Rochester metro from the Colfax Street tower on Rochester's west side.

There's a second TV news director vacancy in Rochester in as many weeks: after three years as news director at WHAM-TV (Channel 13), Steve Dawe is moving to the noncommercial side of the business as the first "director of multi-media engagement" at WXXI. Dawe's experience includes several years as news director of Fox outlet WUHF (Channel 31) and some time as WHAM-TV's promotions director. In his new role, he'll work from the WXXI newsroom, improving the station's new media content. (Usual disclosure: your editor works in that newsroom, too, as a part-time program host/reporter and as co-host of the weekly "Mixed Media" segment, which is available as a podcast, should you require still more media talk in your week.)

Tuesday's elections swept several radio people into political office, including the new Westchester County executive. Rob Astorino ran unsuccessfully against Democratic incumbent Andy Spano in 2005; this time around, the Republican won the seat. When he's not doing politics, Astorino is doing sports radio and TV; he's served as executive producer at New York's WEPN (1050 ESPN) and as a host on the MSG Network and on Sirius Satellite Radio's Catholic Channel.

The former producer of the Jim Reith talk show on WSYR (570 Syracuse) wasn't so lucky at the polls: Democrat Dan McIntyre was unable to beat incumbent Republican Damian Ulatowski in the race for supervisor of the town of Clay. And in the city of Syracuse, former WSYR-TV (Channel 9) GM Steve Kimatian lost his bid for mayor, reports CNYRadio.com.

And we're sorry to report the passing of a longtime Finger Lakes radio voice. Robert C. Appell, Jr. was known as "Bob Appell" on Seneca Falls' WSFW/WSFW-FM from 1976 until 1999. The Seneca Falls native created the "Rock Shop" show that ran on weekends for 18 years. He also managed bands and ran a delivery business. Appell moved to Rochester a few years back; he died Tuesday morning at 52.

*We now know who's buying WLLH (1400 Lowell and Lawrence) in MASSACHUSETTS' Merrimack Valley: the pair of 1000-watt synchronized AM signals is going to Gois Broadcasting, the Spanish-language operator that also owns WORC (1310 Worcester) and Connecticut's WLAT, WNEZ and WKND.

For the moment, Gois is operating WLLH under an LMA from licensee J Sports, so we don't yet have a purchase price to announce on the deal - but we expect much more news on this front in the weeks to come as the sale closes and as Gois builds a new studio and staffs WLLH locally for the first time in many years.

We do know more this week about the impending sale of WLLH's long-ago FM sister station: December is now the target date for Boston public broadcaster WGBH to acquire classical WCRB (99.5 Lowell) from Nassau Broadcasting, moving the station from commercial to noncommercial and relocating the WCRB studios from Waltham to Brighton.

With the relaunch of WCRB as "All Classical 99.5" will come big changes at WGBH (89.7) - it will drop not only its own daytime classical programming but also several long-running weekend specialty blocks. "Blues on WGBH," a Saturday night fixture that continued the legacy of the old "Blues After Hours," and the Saturday-afternoon "Folk on WGBH" will both give way to more news and information programming on 89.7.

"We are proud of the folk and blues programs we have offered and of the many contributions that WGBH and our hosts have made to these genres, so it was a difficult decision to discontinue Blues on WGBH and Folk on WGBH," said the station in a statement announcing the changes. "As we refocus the 89.7 schedule on news and information, it became apparent that it would not be possible to retain all of the nonnews elements of our schedule. We have chosen to keep a select group of programs, like A Celtic Sojourn and A Prairie Home Companion, that serve our audiences well and attract support for WGBH’s work."

WGBH is directing folk fans to WUMB's network of noncommercial stations, as well as Worcester's WICN (90.5) - and it says blues fans can still find blocks of their music on WUMB, Harvard's WHRB (95.3), Lowell's WUML (91.5) and even on commercial WZLX (100.7).

So what will replace the blues, folk and classical blocks on the big 89.7 signal? WGBH still hasn't released its new schedules, but we'd expect to see more news from the corner of Market and Guest streets in the next few weeks.

*Speaking of WICN, it's been granted a construction permit to relocate from its current transmitter site, the WUNI-TV tower on Stiles Hill in Boylston, to the top of Mount Asnebumskit in Paxton. While the move will come with a big power reduction, from 8100 to 1100 watts, it will bring a big increase in antenna height, from 371 to 810 feet above average terrain.

WICN will join another Worcester noncommercial station up on Asnebumskit when it moves: WBPR (91.9), the Worcester relay of WUMB, recently completed its relocation from its old site in Spencer to the Armstrong tower on Asnebumskit, where it's running 370 watts/699' DA.

Back in Boston, Bradley Jay is the new executive producer of "Nightside with Dan Rea" at WBZ (1030). While he's best known as a rock DJ - he was the last voice on WBCN (104.1) back in August - he's done plenty of fill-in talk work at WBZ as well.

On TV, Fox's WFXT (Channel 25) is cutting back on its sports department. Butch Stearns, who's been anchoring sports at the station for a decade, isn't getting a contract renewal and won't be replaced. The station says it will continue to cover sports with its existing staff.

And here's the latest installment of "As The Translator Turns," our ongoing saga of one small FM relay transmitter's valiant struggle to use the intricate FCC rules to find a new location 80 miles from its hometown:

When last we checked in on W236BX (95.1), the Gloucester-licensed translator had completed the thirteenth step of a site-by-site hopscotch from Cape Ann to the Fitchburg area, where it will eventually settle down as an FM relay of WPKZ (1280 Fitchburg, ex-WEIM). That chapter in our story found W236BX moving one notch down the dial to 94.9, where it becomes W235BJ. But don't get too attached to those calls: the move to 94.9 turns out to have been just a quick interim step that allows for another frequency change: this time an application to move to 105.5, running 10 watts from a site near the New Hampshire state line, northwest of Townsend. That's permissible as a "minor change," since that category includes shifts of up to three channels up and down (that's how the translator moved from 96.5 to 95.9 to 95.3 to 95.1) - and shifts of 10.6 or 10.8 MHz up and down. And while the translator still hasn't officially changed hands from Radio Assist Ministry (the Idaho firm that's made a big chunk of money selling hundreds of translators around the country) to WPKZ, it did take advantage of the FCC's new AM-on-FM translator rules to change its official primary station from Worcester's WICN to WPKZ itself. How many more episodes are left until W235BJ - er, W288-whatever - finds true love in the big town at last? Tune in tomorrow...

More radio people at the polls: Charlie Shapiro, whose broadcast career included station ownership in Florida (WBPC-FM in Panama City Beach) and anchoring "Newton News" on the city's cable TV channel, was elected to a two-year term as a Newton alderman Tuesday night. Shapiro will continue to operate his advertising agency, Massmedia, Inc., and will host a monthly cable show, "Newton Newsmakers."

*There's a new AM signal coming to northern NEW HAMPSHIRE: Mount Washington Radio and Gramophone, which already owns WBNC (1050) and WVMJ (104.5) in Conway, has been granted a construction permit for a new signal on 1340. The new AM will run 620 watts day and night, non-directional, from the WBNC tower on Route 103 east of Conway.

*Some interesting late-breaking news from VERMONT: Chip and Kathy Morgan, who run eclectic community outlet WMUD-LP (89.3 Moriah NY) from their farm in Bridport, are adding a second outlet with a bigger Champlain Valley signal: they're now programming WCLX (102.9 Westport NY) for owner Dennis Jackson, returning the station to the air two months after the end of its last managerial arrangement, with Diane Desmond and Russ Kinsley, took the frequency silent.

"The soon-to-debut new format will be derived from their "Farm Fresh Radio" syndicated format offering," Jackson tells NERW. "It will be a hybrid that expands on our former "musicheads" format, including AAA cuts, deep album cuts, blues, and rockin' Americana cuts." Jackson notes that like WMUD-LP, the new signal's studio will be powered in part by wind from an on-site wind farm.

*In MAINE, veteran station owner Dick Gleason has a new title: mayor of Auburn. Tuesday's election found Gleason winning 69% of the vote in his race against Ron Potvin. Gleason has been a station owner since 1975, when he bought what's now WOXO (92.7 Norway), which became the cornerstone of a five-station group that also includes WTBM (100.7 Mexico), WKTQ (1450 South Paris), WEZR (1240 Lewiston) and WTME (780 Rumford).

*The road that leads to the Rattlesnake Mountain tower site in Farmington, CONNECTICUT is decorated with some of the largest and sternest "no trespassing" signs we've ever seen at a broadcast facility - but that didn't stop someone from breaking into the site early Wednesday morning, climbing the 1340-foot WTIC-TV tower and parachuting back to earth, apparently safely. Nobody has been charged in the incident, though police questioned a man whose car was found near the site.

Where are they now? Jeannine Jersey, who was PD and afternoon jock on WTIC-FM (96.5 Hartford), is heading south to Birmingham, Alabama but staying put on the dial - she's the new morning co-host at WMJJ (Magic 96.5) down there.

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*In PENNSYLVANIA, "Charlamagne tha God" is gone from morning drive at Radio One's WPHI (100.3 Media); the Philadelphia-market urban station has not named a permanent replacement in the slot yet.

Across the state in Pittsburgh, Eddie Edwards' deal to buy WPYT (660 Wilkinsburg) to launch a new urban-focused station is off, with the veteran station owner citing health concerns as the cause.

WTAE (Channel 4) has added a second digital transmitter in the Pittsburgh market to try to resolve some of the reception issues it's been having with its DTV signal on RF channel 51 from the old analog channel 4 tower far to the south of Pittsburgh. The new signal, on RF channel 22, comes from the WQED tower near the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland; it replicates WTAE-DT's two streams (seen as 4.1 and 4.2 on the main signal) as "4.3" and "4.4." (WQED, meanwhile, is itself in the process of moving from RF channel 38 to RF channel 13, and is currently on the air on both channels.)

Speaking of WQED, it named its Studio A in honor of that facility's most famous occupant, Fred Rogers. To mark the occasion, the sets from "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" were reassembled in the newly-named Fred Rogers Studio for the first time since Rogers' death - and possibly for the last time, as well. An open house over the weekend brought thousands of Mister Rogers fans into the building to see the "Neighborhood" - including WDUQ's Chuck Leavens, to whom we send our thanks for the photo (and our apologies for mis-crediting it at first!)

And speaking of WDUQ, it won the "tentative selection" out of a group of 15 mutually-exclusive applications for low-on-the-dial noncommercial FMs in northwestern Pennsylvania and the Southern Tier of New York. (This was the other half of the 37-application group that also yielded the new 88.1s up in the Binghamton and Elmira areas.)

The applicants included everyone from the Seneca Indian Nation in Salamanca, N.Y. to public broadcasters WVIA and WDUQ to several religious broadcasters, as well as the application from Thiel College in Greenville to replace the old WTGP (88.1) facility that the college apparently quickly regretted having returned to the FCC for deletion. But it was WDUQ's application for 88.5 in Marion Center, between Indiana and Punxsutawney, that made the cut - and will soon have a construction permit.

Up in the State College market, there are new calls for the reborn "Qwik Rock" - mark down WQCK for the former WJOW (105.9 Philipsburg) and WQKK in place of WZYY (106.9 Renovo).

In Carlisle, former WARM-FM (103.3 York) PD Dave Russell has taken over mornings at WCAT-FM (Red 102.3).

*Just one bit of NEW JERSEY news this week, and it's another Christmas flip: WJRZ (100.1 Manahawkin) has made the move to holiday tunes.

*In an otherwise quiet week in CANADA, there's a reunion coming later this week in Toronto, as Jesse Dylan and Gene Valaitis, late of Toronto's Q107, CFTR and AM640, reunite on-air for the first time in more than a decade as they fill in on afternoons at CFRB (Newstalk 1010) this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Over in St. Catharines, Sarah Cummings is moving up in the Astral Media family - Milkman UnLimited reports she's heading to Ottawa to become PD of Astral's new FM signal there. Gina Lorentz moves from CKNX-FM (101.7 Wingham) to replace Cummings as PD of CKTB (610) and CHRE (EZ Rock 105.7), while Mike Tyler takes over from Bruce Gilbert as PD of sister station CHTZ (97.7).

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