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February 23, 2009 -

• Once again this week - and, we hope, for the last time until June - we lead off the column with a region-wide roundup of the latest on the digital TV transition, at the end of yet another tumultous week for the TV industry and the regulators who oversee it.
• In much of the region, of course, the long-publicized February 17 transition date passed without any incident. For the most part, stations in the biggest markets - New York City, Boston and Philadelphia among them - followed the lead of the network owned-and-operated station groups, agreeing to postpone the shutoff of their analog signals until the new drop-dead date of June 12. In others - Providence, Scranton and Burlington, as well as Springfield, where most of the market had already transitioned - stations reached market-wide agreements to end digital service on the original date...or so they thought.
• With just days to go, though, the government showed up, and it was most definitely "here to help." Even as NERW was compiling our lists last week of which stations were going and which were staying put, the FCC was combing its own lists to make sure that even in the markets where everyone was pulling the plug on analog, at least one of the big four network affiliates would keep an analog signal on the air as an "enhanced nightlight," carrying local newscasts along with DTV transition information and any emergency information that might need to be broadcast.
• By the time last week's NERW hit the web on Sunday night, with 48 hours or so left to go before the big moment, that last-minute plan seemed to be working out, with "enhanced nightlight" stations lined up in Providence (WLNE and WNAC), Burlington (WCAX and WPTZ) and Springfield (WWLP, the lone remaining analog) and the FCC ready to give its blessings to everyone else in those areas to pull the plug.
• But from the way things played out in Scranton, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Commission had outsourced management of the project to Michael Scott over at Dunder-Mifflin Paper - and that he'd passed the buck over to Dwight Schrute to handle the details. As late as midday Tuesday, the FCC appeared to be prepared to allow every station except ion Media's WQPX (Channel 64) in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton DMA to switch off its analog signal, and one of those stations - Local TV LLC's ABC affiliate, WNEP (Channel 16) - wasted no time, pulling the plug at 12:30 PM at the conclusion of its noon newscast. In the meantime, though, FCC representatives had arrived in the market, and they quickly figured out what we'd already reported on Sunday night: that while Fox affiliate WOLF-TV (Channel 56) was shown in the FCC's latest lists as retaining analog service until June, the station had actually ended its analog operations - with the Commission's blessings - back in January.
• The FCC swung into action, contacting both WNEP and competitor Nexstar, which operates both NBC affiliate WBRE (Channel 28) and CBS affiliate WYOU (Channel 22). By early afternoon, both Local TV and Nexstar had offered to operate "enhanced nightlight" service, and by evening WNEP was back on the air in analog, while WBRE and WYOU (along with PBS outlet WVIA and My Network affiliate WQMY) had turned off their analog signals for good. How long will WNEP stay up in analog? Based on the proposed new rules released by the FCC late on Friday, there will be no more analog shutoffs until April 16 at the earliest, and the Commission (under intense political pressure from Capitol Hill) is strongly, strongly encouraging stations to retain analog service until June 12 - and no earlier than 11:59:59 PM on that day, if one of the many regulatory proposals being offered by the FCC is retained.
• Our MASSACHUSETTS news this week begins on Cape Cod, where the Boston-based WEEI sports network almost landed a full-time affiliate back in 2007, when Nassau's WPXC (102.9 Hyannis) was poised to dump its rock format. But the Nassau/WEEI regional deal fell apart at the end of 2007, and since then Cape listeners (including the late "Butch from the Cape," one of WEEI's most legendary callers) have had to tune in to more distant signals - WEEI's main AM home on 850 from Boston, or WEEI-FM on 103.7 from Rhode Island - to hear New England sports talk. That will change in April, when Qantum Communications flips WRZE (96.3 Dennis) from its longtime top-40 format (as "The Rose") to a full-time WEEI simulcast, under new calls WEII. The move became possible last year, when WRZE relocated its transmitter from Nantucket to the Cape Cod mainland, downgrading from class B to class B1 (25 kW/297'), but improving its signal strength over most of the Cape's population. And there's no issue with Red Sox rights: they've been in Qantum's hands on the Cape for many years anyway, on its news-talker WXTK (95.1 West Yarmouth).
• Back in November, when Costa-Eagle paid $65,000 to buy translator W275BH (102.9 Newton, NEW HAMPSHIRE), we suspected that a move southward across the state line would be in the offing - and sure enough, it was. W275BH's moves are a great case study in how the translator game is played these days, and here's how they were carried out:
• First, Costa-Eagle found a friendly station to agree to be the nominal primary for its translator, in the form of WXRV (92.5 Andover). Then it took advantage of a quirk in the FCC rules that allows translators to move to frequencies 10.6 or 10.8 MHz away from their current channels as "minor changes," applying to move W275BH to 92.1, where it was granted (still licensed to Newton, NH) as W221CH. The next step was to move the new W221CH to a new location - in this case, one with at least minimal overlap to the initial Newton facility's contours, and one that would meet the relatively loose criteria for second-adjacent interference to WXRV. What site met those criteria? None other than the tower on Chandler Road in Andover that happens to be home to Costa-Eagle's own WNNW (800 Lawrence). With that construction permit granted (on Feb. 2), tower crews were on scene last week installing two Nicom antennas on the WNNW tower (in the aperture long occupied by the old WCGY 93.7), and the new W221CH was even heard testing, briefly.
• But wait a second - what, exactly, does Costa-Eagle have to gain by putting a translator on the air for WXRV, well within that station's local signal area? Nothing of course, and that's the one shoe remaining to drop in this whole scenario: the other application Costa-Eagle filed on Feb. 2, for special temporary authority to relay WNNW (instead of licensed primary WXRV) over W221CH, thus overcoming AM 800's long handicap of minimal night service to much of the Merrimack Valley.

February 21, 2005 -

• Until now, broadcasting in Port Elgin, Ontario has meant CFPS (1490), the 1000-watt simulcast of Bayshore Broadcasting's oldies CFOS (560) over in Owen Sound, 20 miles or so to the east. Now the CRTC has approved Bayshore's application to take CFPS dark, replacing it with a new adult contemporary station on 97.9, with 3800 watts of power and 126 hours a week of local programming for a community that's had almost none until now.
• But wait, there's more: the CRTC also approved a rival application from Brian Cooper and Daniel McCarthy, for a new adult classic hits station with transmitters in Kincardine, Goderich and Port Elgin. The Kincardine signal will be at 95.5 with 5660 watts, while Goderich will operate on 99.7 with 1670 watts. And while Cooper and McCarthy had applied for 97.9 in Port Elgin as well, they'll have to find a new frequency (though the CRTC approved the application in principle.)
• In NEW JERSEY, Friday night indeed brought the end of "B-98.5," WBBO (98.5 Ocean Acres), as Press Communications replaced the hot AC there with modern rock "G Rock Radio," in a new simulcast with WHTG-FM (106.3 Eatontown). Matt Knight moves over from the old WBBO airstaff to do nights on the new "G."
• The FCC grants the addition of 98.9A in Adams, MASSACHUSETTS to the table of allocations - but it'll be years before the frequency goes up for auction and anything gets built there. The FCC also allots 98.7A to East Harwich, denying competing proposals from John Garabedian to allot 98.7B1 to Nantucket and Monomoy Media for 98.7A at South Chatham. Garabedian tried to argue that East Harwich and South Chatham aren't "communities" for allotment purposes - and while the FCC bought the argument for South Chatham, it found that East Harwich is listed in the census and worthy of an FM allocation - and so the channel goes to East Harwich. (Again, it'll be years before anything actually gets built there.)
• Ed Perry's not only the owner of WATD (95.9 Marshfield) - he's also trying to be the defender of journalists' right to cover stories in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Perry was arrested for disorderly conduct, trespassing and resisting arrest back in 2002 for attempting to interview a security guard at the Hanover Mall, and even though the charges were later dropped, he's suing the mall's former owner and its security company for violating his civil rights. Perry says the mall owners and the security company have tried to settle with him, but he's spent more than $20,000 in legal fees in an attempt to prove a point - that reporters should be able to cover stories (a report of a carjacking, in this case) without fear of arrest.
• The move of WOQL (97.7 Winchendon) to a new tower site across the state line in NEW HAMPSHIRE has cleared the way for channelmate WBOT (97.7 Brockton) to apply for an audacious Boston move-in. The Radio One R&B outlet moved once, a few years ago, from the tower of former sister station WBET (1460 Brockton) to a tower in Abington - but now it's got enough spacing from WOQL to propose a move to Great Blue Hill in Milton, where the WGBH (89.7 Boston) tower overlooks Boston to the north. WBOT would run 2 kilowatts from 173 meters above average terrain from the Great Blue Hill site (it currently uses 2.7 kW/150 meters from Abington), with a directional antenna putting a null toward Winchendon - but with much better line-of-sight coverage to greater Boston.
• And it turns out that WBOT's proposal isn't even the only audacious Boston move-in on the FCC's docket, as WFNX (101.7 Lynn) applies to move right into the heart of Boston. Some background here: the former WLYN-FM began on the side of the WLYN (1360) tower in Lynn proper, but for the last couple of decades or so, 101.7 has broadcast from the site above Malden Hospital that was once home to WNAC-TV (Channel 7). That produced a decent signal in the suburbs, but with just 1650 watts at 449', the 101.7 signal has never done a good job of penetrating the RF haze in the middle of Boston, a problem WFNX tried to rectify a few years ago with the addition of translator W267AI (101.3) on the Hancock tower in the Back Bay. But now WFNX is trying something bigger: it's applying for a new directional signal with 1690 watts at 627', high atop One Financial Center, the downtown skyscraper that's also home to WHRB (95.3 Cambridge) and WERS (88.9 Boston). WFNX's directional antenna (mounted a few feet above WHRB) would put a pretty deep null towards WCIB (101.9 Falmouth) and WWBB (101.5 Providence), and it would barely cover the city of license (still Lynn!) with the requisite 70 dBu signal.

February 25, 2000 -

• Two central MASSACHUSETTS radio stations are changing hands, in a set of deals that promise to change the radio dial along Route 2 in a big way. A year and a half after buying WCAT (700 Orange) and WCAT-FM (99.9 Athol), Jeff Shapiro is selling the stations to Citadel for $875,000, a $25,000 profit from his August 1998 purchase price. While the stations sat at the southern arc of Shapiro's broadcast group in Vermont and New Hampshire (most of which was sold to Vox last year), they're at the northern end of Citadel's growing Worcester market, which includes WXLO (104.5 Fitchburg), WORC-FM (98.9 Webster), and WWFX (100.1 Southbridge). WWFX is the interesting piece here; another former Shapiro station, it's limited from moving its transmitter site northward (and closer to Worcester) by -- WCAT-FM! Do we see site moves (or at least a simulcast) on the horizon? As for the AM daytimer: it's never been much of a player in the market since moving to 700 from 1390 in the 1980s, and now runs mostly Talk America product.
• Just to the east in Winchendon, WINQ (97.7) is also getting new owners, as Central Broadcasting sells the station to Joe Gallagher's Aritaur Broadcasting. Aritaur sold its Pittsfield group (WBEC AM-FM, WZEC) to Tele-Media last July, and ironically, Gallagher's KJI group sold the other 97.7 in Massachusetts, WCAV Brockton (now WBOT), to Radio One last June. There's no word yet on Aritaur's plans for WINQ, or on the purchase price.
• News from NEW YORK: One of the state's oldest FM stations is getting a new owner. Religious WJIV (101.9 Cherry Valley) passes from Floyd Dykeman to Jon Yinger's Midwest Broadcasting for $1.3 million. WJIV was one of the old Rural Radio Network/QXR Network/Ivy Network/CBN stations, with a huge coverage over Albany, Utica, and into western New England. It'll stay religious under Midwest, which also owns religious outlets in Fort Wayne and several Michigan communities, including Detroit's WLQV (1500, the former twelve-tower directional).
• From Green to White: A few weeks after unloading his WENY-TV (Channel 36) in Elmira, Howard Green is selling his Elmira radio stations as well. White Broadcasting LLC is the new owner for talker WENY (1230) and AC WENY-FM (92.7); no word yet on price or any format plans.

New England Radio Watch, February 25, 1995

• (no issue)