Corus Pulls Plug on Montreal AMs

 

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February 2, 2009 -

• You remember Bill Murray's movie "Groundhog Day," don't you - how each morning his alarm clock keeps going off to Sunny and Cher singing "I've Got You, Babe" as the local puker morning jocks once again remind him that he's about to live the same day of his life all over again?
• We've had that scene in mind these last few months each time we sit down to write another week's installment of NERW, with what seems to be the same headline week after week about job cuts after job cuts after job cuts.
• We'll have a few of those to report later in this week's issue - but for once, we have some good news to offer as well: thanks to a flood of listener outcry, ousted WBZ (1030 Boston) overnight talk host Steve Leveille is getting his job back, and on Groundhog Day of all days.
• What happened? Credit a combination of history and an unusually passionate listener base. The history, of course, is WBZ's long tradition of local talk - and of frigid response to any attempt to replace local talkers with syndicated product. A prior generation of station management learned that lesson two decades ago, when the late David Brudnoy was briefly pulled off the air and replaced by Tom Snyder's national show in the evening hours. This time, it was the painfully generic "Overnight America" with St. Louis-based Jon Grayson that failed to make the cut with WBZ's loyal overnight audience, which flooded PD Peter Casey with what we're told was a pile of angry letters more than a foot high.
• That was apparently all the ammunition Casey and the local management team needed to persuade the CBS Radio bosses in New York to bring Leveille back, a move that came as a surprise to everyone, Leveille very much included, as the news broke Tuesday afternoon.
• "I never expected to get a call like that...it's not how the business works," Leveille told the WBZ newsroom as he prepared for his return, which is scheduled for tonight.
• WBZ is also bringing back another laid-off personality, but Lovell Dyett won't get his longtime Saturday night shift back. Instead, the veteran talk host will be heard for just half an hour in what's probably the station's lowest-profile slot, from 4:30 to 5 on Sunday morning, and he's not happy about it. Will the public outcry over the dismissal of WBZ's lone black talker eventually get him restored to his old timeslot? That doesn't seem likely - indeed, Casey's statement that "we still need a new way to create new revenue for the Saturday night programming hours" suggests that the infomercials that have already begun to infect WBZ's weekend programming are likely to increase over the next few months - and there's already speculation that Jordan Rich's weekend overnight slot could be targeted for changes.
• Even as WBZ was welcoming back Leveille - and based on our short visit to our old stomping grounds during our New England swing last week, the move was a big morale boost for the station's surviving staffers - it was saying goodbye to the dean of its airstaff.
• Gil Santos didn't want the pomp and publicity that surrounded the retirement of his old morning colleague, Gary LaPierre, two years ago. So when he delivered his final sportscast for WBZ at 9:45 on Friday morning, it was a much smaller and more low-key event. Santos' family - his wife Roberta and his children and grandchildren - gathered around him and applauded as he read the last sports headlines, followed by recorded tributes from co-workers past and present and a touching poem from the inimitable Carl Stevens.
• Santos will still be heard on CBS sister station WBCN (104.1) as the voice of the Patriots, and for the first week after his retirement from WBZ, his morning sports slot will be filled by Bob Lobel, who's become something of a pinch-hitter for CBS (including a few weeks on morning drive at oldies station WODS) since departing his own high-profile gig as WBZ-TV sports director last year.
• So, about that Groundhog Day business - the rest of our MASSACHUSETTS news brings us back to job-loss territory.
• This time around, it was Greater Media's turn, and the company cited the usual "current economic environment" as it cut 11 jobs from the Boston cluster, three of them from programming and the rest from sales.
• The programming cuts included WBOS (92.9 Brookline) PD Dana Marshall, who'd come to the station two years ago from WXRV (92.5). She'll be replaced by Ken West, who adds WBOS programming duties to his existing job as PD of WROR (105.7 Framingham), a job that suddenly becomes a little less demanding as that station goes "music-intensive" from 7 PM until 5:30 AM.
• "Music-intensive," of course, is the polite way of saying, "we just cut two decently-paid on-air positions" - in this case, Julie Devereaux, who was doing 7-midnight, and Albert O, who was on overnights.
• From the engineering department: Greater Media's WKLB (102.5 Waltham) is operating from a new transmitter site. After many years at the "FM 128" tower on Chestnut Street in Newton, 102.5 has returned to its former home at the WBZ-TV tower on Cedar Street in Needham, running 12 kW/905'. Right now, the Needham site is licensed as an auxiliary, but expect that to change soon.
• It would be nice to say that's it for the job-cut news this week, but there were big headlines from VERMONT, too, where Vox made some big cutbacks at WCPV (101.3 Essex NY).
• No euphemisms here - "sh*tcanned" was the subject line of the e-mail veteran Burlington-market DJ/programmer Steve "Corm" Cormier sent us announcing that he was suddenly out the door at Fort Ethan Allen after 11 years at the station and a total of 23 years in radio.
• Cormier had moved from mornings to middays last year with the end of his long-running "Corm and the Coach" show, and he was also wearing multiple hats as PD of "Champ 101.3" and operations manager for Vox's Burlington cluster. Production director and weekend jock Doug Grant is now filling the midday slot on WCPV, while afternoons - where Carolyn Lloyd had been heard for the last two years before also being ousted last Monday - are now being filled by Mike Wilhide.
• "We are watching our expenses," said Vox principal Ken Barlow to the Burlington Free Press, blaming the cutbacks on a "soft market."
• It was a quiet week in PENNSYLVANIA - especially out west, where you'd almost think people around Pittsburgh had something other than radio on their minds...something, say, black and gold and now in possession of a record sixth championship?
• There was some broadcast news related to the big game: PBRTV.com reports that over-the-air DTV viewers in the Erie market - hard-core Steelers territory - had the chance to see the game in HD, even though NBC affiliate WICU (Channel 12) hasn't been operating HD on its own ultra-low-power WICU-DT signal on channel 52. WICU has also been putting NBC programming on the higher-powered signal of sister station WSEE-DT - and for the big game, WSEE used most of its bandwidth to carry its NBC subchannel (35.3) in HD, relegating CBS on 35.1 to SD for the night.
• This should be the last year for that particular problem; even if Congress still finds a way this week to postpone the official end of analog TV, WICU plans to silence its analog channel 12 transmitter on Feb. 17, replacing it with full-power digital WICU-TV on 12. (ABC affiliate WJET-TV would also flash-cut to digital that day, leaving only WSEE, with CBS, and WFXP, with Fox, operating in analog.)

January 31, 2005 -

• It wasn't a good week at what is - or at least used to be - NEW YORK's biggest hip-hop station, Emmis' WQHT (Hot 97.1). It was bad enough, probably, that Clear Channel-owned rival WWPR (Power 105.1) had just launched a new morning show featuring the former top-rated Hot 97 team of Star and Buc Wild. But things took a turn for the worse when Hot's answer to Star and Buc Wild, "Miss Jones," began playing a parody song based on the 80s charity single "We Are The World." Instead of the upbeat message of the original, though, this version poked fun at the victims of the Asian tsunami, resorting to some awfully offensive stereotypes in the process.
• And in today's hyper-conscious age, it didn't take long at all before the incident had escalated to cause celebre status, with Miss Jones and her morning crew first being suspended for a few days, then offering to donate a week's salary to charity, then being pulled off the air "indefinitely," which is where things stand at press time (along with several advertisers, most notably McDonald's, pulling their business from Hot until the matter is settled.)
• A few other pieces of news from the city: Don Imus is saying farewell to the basement studio in Astoria, Queens that he's called home ever since joining WFAN (660) back in 1988. He's headed across the Hudson, to a studio custom-built for his show at MSNBC's Secaucus, N.J. facility, in a move that's probably been inevitable since the day MSNBC began televising his show.
• Mets fans aren't alone in mourning the death of Bob Brown, whose career at the 970 spot on the dial (formerly WAAT Newark, later WJRZ Hackensack) included hosting the Mets pre- and post-game shows for much of the sixties and early seventies, including the "Miracle Mets" 1969 season. Brown also hosted New York lottery drawings on TV for many years. He died Wednesday (Jan. 26) of lung cancer, at age 79. And we note, too, the passing on Jan. 21 of John Hess, whose commentaries were a fixture on WBAI (99.5 New York.) He was 87.
• And we're sorry to report the death of one of upstate New York's best-loved broadcasters. George Abraham was universally known as "Doc," and with his wife Katy he hosted the "Green Thumb" gardening show on WHAM (1180) for more than five decades. "The Green Thumb" was also seen on TV for a quarter-century (at WOKR 13, now WHAM-TV), and the couple wrote a syndicated newspaper column that was read in more than 150 papers at its height. Doc Abraham died Thursday (Jan. 28) of congestive heart failure, just a week before his 90th birthday.
• A strange story from central MASSACHUSETTS this week: it's not every day that much of the staff of a radio station walks out, taking the station's music library with them. It happened at WESO (970 Southbridge), the result of a feud between the station's new general manager, Dick Vaughn, and his predecessor, Joe Grivalski. Grivalski, who's known as "Joe G" on the air, co-hosted WESO's morning show with Derek Moison until last week, when the two abruptly left the station. With no music on hand - Grivalski owned most of the station's CDs and took them with him when he left - WESO was left with dead air for a while Wednesday morning, until the station's Jones satellite classic country was put back on the air, reports the Southbridge Evening News. The paper quotes station owner Barry Armstrong (who also owns Concord's WBNW 1120) as saying Grivalski had been removed as GM because he failed to make the station profitable. For his part, Grivalski told the News that Vaughn wouldn't talk to him or Moison, calling Vaughn "the most unethical and unprofessional man I've met in my life." And Armstrong, in turn, told the News that Moison and Grivalski "took the coward's way out" by walking out of the station. (It's a change, anyway, from the usual "resigned to pursue other career interests" that we're so accustomed to...) For the moment, WESO's running the Jones satellite programming in morning drive, with no word on who might replace Grivalski and Moison in the long run.
• Some good news, meanwhile, from Boston: WGBH broke ground last week on its new 330,000 square foot headquarters facility at Allston Landing. The complex will include an existing building and a new studio building (with a 200-seat auditorium, among other amenities) alongside the Mass Turnpike, where WGBH will put up a giant video wall to showcase its products to passing drivers. WGBH's current home, which now encompasses two connected buildings and a welter of smaller structures and trailers along Western Avenue, will become part of the new Harvard Business School campus once the new digs are ready in a couple of years.
• There are some changes on the way to the radio landscape in Johnstown, PENNSYLVANIA, where Forever is about to move the "Key" AC format from WKYE (95.5 Johnstown) to newly-acquired (from Clear Channel) WMTZ (96.5 Johnstown). The country format that's been on 96.5 will move sometime today to the more potent 95.5 signal, but not under its current "Mountain" moniker. Is yet another "Froggy" on the way to western PA? Don't bet against it. (Ribbit.)
• There's a format change to report in CANADA's Niagara Peninsula, where CHOW (91.7 Welland) dropped the country format it's had for decades (going back to its old AM 1470 days) over the weekend, ditching "Spirit 91.7" in favor of "Giant 91.7," playing a hot AC/classic hits mix that's said to be reminiscent of the "Jack" and "Bob" and "Dave" formats being heard elsewhere in Canada. New calls for Giant 91.7 are CIXL, as in "Extra Large."

February 4, 2000 -

• Things are settling in at Boston's newest talker, WMEX (1060 Natick). Already home to many former WRKO (680) hosts, WMEX added one more this week: Tom Irwin, aka "Tai," joined the station as a fill-in host. And while WRKO might be worried about WMEX, it apparently has nothing to fear from the new FM talk entry; it seems WTKK (96.9) didn't break a 1 share 12+ in the latest Boston ratings, while WRKO was strong and news/talk WBZ led the book.
• Down the hall at Alex Langer's other Boston-market station, WJLT (650 Ashland) received some good news from the FCC: it's been approved to go to 2000 watts daytime, directional from the five towers of the WBPS (890 Dedham) array in Ashland. Langer says the move will give WJLT a very usable signal in downtown Boston, something it doesn't have with its present 250 watts from the WKOX/WMEX sticks in Framingham.
• Speaking of WKOX, we have word of yet another power-increase plan from Framingham's AM 1200. It seems WKOX wants to move to the current WUNR (1600 Brookline) site on Saw Mill Brook Parkway in Newton, blasting a full 50 kilowatts (by day, anyway) down the road into Boston. We're still waiting for the actual FCC filing on this; we'll keep you posted.
• From the obituaries: Jim Pansullo, one of the best-known anchors at the old WEEI Newsradio 590, died Monday (1/31) in Quincy. Pansullo's Boston career dated back to 1952, when he joined the news staff at WHDH (850), adding duties at WHDH-TV (Channel 5) when that station signed on in 1957. A few years later, Pansullo moved to WEEI, where he handled everything from sports to hard news to the weekly "Topic Religion" show. Pansullo also worked for several years as color commentator on Celtics broadcasts, joining Johnny Most for memorable moments that included the "Havlicek stole the ball!" game in 1965.
• Into NEW YORK we go, then, with a bit more on the WGR/WBEN/WWKB consolidation in Buffalo. The sounds of hit radio returned to 1520 last Sunday morning (1/30), as the station began a partial simulcast with "Kiss" WKSE (98.5 Niagara Falls). 1520 breaks away from the FM for Canisius College sports and for paid religion at night. We'll admit there's something fun about hearing Britney Spears on the AM dial, but it still seems like a waste of a good 50 kilowatts. Meantime down the dial, Chris "Bulldog" Parker indeed joined Tom Bauerle in mornings on "WGR Sportsradio 55", but at least one former WBEN colleague isn't making the move. Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff refused to join the WGR staff, saying the station's afternoon host, Chuck Dickerson, is biased against his team. That team, by the way, isn't on *any* of the Entercom stations -- it, along with the Bills, is on Citadel's FM group. Kudos to the Buffalo News for a cogent editorial alerting Buffalo to the loss of a news voice.
• Two quick bits of Rochester TV news: WROC-TV (Channel 8) unveiled a new set and a new, very classy, on-air look on Monday. Now known as "News 8 Now," the 5, 6, and 11 shows add Kevin Doran as anchor, coming from WRTV (Channel 6) in Indianapolis. Across town at WUHF (Channel 31), "The Ten O'Clock News" expands to an hour next Monday (2/7).

New England Radio Watch, February 6, 1995

• An interesting week here in Beantown, at least on AM 890. This is the 3-month old WBMA Dedham (25kw day, 10kw night), owned by SRN Boston, the same people who owned the now-defunct WBIV 1060 Natick-Boston. WBMA operates from WBIV's former transmitter site in Ashland MA, uses WBIV's former transmitters (now retuned to 890), has been leasing all its time out to "Radio Emanuele," the Spanish-language religious broadcaster that used to lease out WBIV. And, SRN prefers to identify 890 as "WBIV" still (the legal IDs announce "WBMA Dedham, WBIV Natick.")
• Strange enough, right? Not yet. Now comes word that 890 will change format by Feb. 15, to the satellite "Prime Sports Network," under new ownership. SRN management is claiming that "890's calls will change from WBIV to WBMA" when that happens. Uh-huh, right. The current manager of "WBIV," when asked by the Boston Herald about where the new owners are from, replied, "Hell." All of 890's staff is being laid off, apparently so a different group of board-ops can be brought in.
• So why sports on 890? Well, it's just 40 khz above 850, the 50kw site of all-sports WEEI since August. Never mind that 850 is local from the end of Imus until nighttime, and the new 890 "might do an hour of local talk in the morning."
• Weird enough? Not by half. There's ALSO a rumor floating around town that the Prime Sports format will also be fleeting... to be replaced by Korean-language programming by May. Never mind that Koreans aren't even in the top 10 in terms of minority population in this area...
• And what of 1060, the frequency WBIV/WBMA vacated when the station moved to 890 last fall? Well, it's allegedly for sale...but just the license. The 1060 transmitters are, as noted above, already retuned to 890. And whoever buys 1060 will not be allowed to diplex it off the Ashland site. The area where a new 1060 transmitter would have to go is some of the most expensive real estate in the state...so the odds of finding a new site are pretty small. About the only solution would be to diplex off WKOX-1200 in nearby Framingham. I've heard a rumor that one group might buy 1060 and use it as a daytimer (the old facilities were 25000/2500), running off the one WKOX stick that's not used in daylight. I'd say the chances of 1060 resurfacing are
  pretty slim. The whole thing is very odd...
• Meanwhile in the Granite State: A trip up the New Hampshire seacoast Friday produced one bit of news: The "Rock Garden" moniker made famous in the '70s
  by WCGY-93.7 Lawrence-Boston has resurfaced, trademarked no less, at the brand-new WRGW-98.7 Somersworth NH. The station is co-owned with WTSN-1270 Dover, which is renovating its studios on Middle Road to add space for the FM. Unfortunately, WRGW did not resurrect the freeform rock format that marked the original Rock Garden. The new Rock Garden is soft AC.