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March 2, 2009 -

• In a decade and a half of doing this column, we've shied away from repeating rumors and spreading gossip. But sometimes the drumbeat is so loud, and so clear, that it's hard to ignore - and that's the case, this week, with CBS Radio's NEW YORK cluster. Even as salespeople for WXRK (92.3 New York) settle in as the first tenants of the cluster's new home downtown at 345 Hudson Street, well-placed sources tell NERW that managers are looking for a new request line number that ends with the letters "H-I-T-S." That, needless to say, doesn't fit the rock format of "K-Rock" or the AC format of its eventual neighbor at Hudson Street, "Fresh" WWFS (102.7). But it does track with the big flip out in Los Angeles last week that transformed FM talker KLSX (97.1) into top-40 "AMP Radio."
• Despite rumors that have suggested "AMP" clones showing up everywhere from Boston to San Francisco, we're hearing that the eventual flip in New York - whether at WWFS or WXRK - won't carry the "AMP" branding, which will apparently remain unique to L.A. So which signal will end up flipping in New York, and when? That remains a well-guarded secret for now, though with the contract for morning men Opie & Anthony just a couple of months from expiration, it certainly would seem that WXRK is more obviously poised for a flip than WWFS, which has been surprisingly successful with its "Fresh" format after many years of instability and repeated format flips as WNEW.
• We now know the outcome of this morning's big meeting in Syracuse - and it ends up being the opposite of what we'd surmised - Barrington Broadcasting's NBC affiliate, WSTM (Channel 3), is taking over operations of Granite's CBS affiliate, WTVH (Channel 5), under a shared-services agreement. There was no noon newscast on WTVH, and it appears much of that station's staff may be out as operations of the CBS station move two doors down to WSTM's studios. We'll have much more on this developing story in next week's NERW.
• The news out of MAINE is all about call changes: WKCG (101.3 Augusta) has become WVQM, to match its news-talk simulcast with WVOM (103.9 Howland) in the Bangor market. Meanwhile, Bangor's WABI (910) sheds the calls it's had for more than eight decades - it's now WAEI, matching its WEEI-simulcast FM sister, WAEI-FM (97.1 Bangor). The WABI calls live on over at WABI-TV (Channel 5).

February 28, 2005 -

• If the measure of a man is in the lives he touched, then the late David Brudnoy lived a full life indeed. On Sunday afternoon, Brudnoy's friends - and even his casual listeners on WBZ (1030) counted themselves as friends - lined up around the block to fill the Cutler Majestic Theater for a tribute to one of the most eclectic personalities ever to grace a microphone. For two and a half hours, the crowd - including Boston mayor Tom Menino and other local notables - heard from friends and family across the many facets of Brudnoy's life.
• "He did all things all the way," said Peter Meade, Brudnoy's close friend and former WBZ host, as he introduced the speakers. To judge from the stories Brudnoy's family shared, that was a trait that distinguished David as far back as his childhood in Minnesota. His cousin Rachel Brudnoy shared the tale of how a 12 year old Brudnoy worked the phones and persuaded a Minneapolis hotel, a car dealer and a luxury restaurant to prepare for the state visit of a fictional "Grand Emir of Aden."
• Brudnoy's doctors spoke of the incredible strength that brought him back to life after the 1994 illness that left him all but dead. Several of his students at Boston University spoke of the energy, enthusiasm and wit he brought to the classroom, including his attack on the use of the word "like" in students' speech. In the last years of his life, Brudnoy was adopted by the Emerson College chapter of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity, whose members were in turn adopted by "Brother Bruds," who brought them into the whirl of what student Roman Sturgis called "the Brudnoy-centric universe."
• Brudnoy's former producer, Kevin Myron, shared the nickname that the erudite, scholarly Brudnoy bestowed on him ("Yo"), saying Brudnoy's direction to him when planning the memorial service was,"Yo, make it something I'd like to be at." There's no question that Brudnoy ("whose favorite topic was David Brudnoy," as one speaker said) would have laughed and cried along with the crowd at the Majestic, especially as his longtime partner Ward Cromer closed out the afternoon with his stories of life and travel with Bruds. One of Brudnoy's few unfulfilled wishes in a life he lived with incredible fullness was to visit India and the Taj Mahal, a wish Cromer said he'll fulfill later this year when he travels there to sprinkle some of David's ashes at the site.
• And in thanking those who mattered most to David, it's worth noting that Cromer singled out the callers, the "vox populi" who carried on a dialogue that lasted for decades. Cromer spoke movingly of Brudnoy's final show on WBZ the night before his death, when Meade took calls from listeners while Brudnoy listened intently from his hospital bed at Mass General. Of one such call, from a listener named Keri who credited David for getting her started in radio (and that would be NERW reader Keri Rodrigues of WHJJ in Providence), Cromer said "callers such as Keri meant the world to David."
• David, in turn, meant the world to so many of us, who miss his voice every night on the radio and the joy of his presence, and you'll forgive your editor for the personal aside, I hope, in saying just how much it meant to be in the company of so many of those who loved David Brudnoy.
• There's some good news out of WBZ to report: Paul Sullivan, heir to Brudnoy's evening hours, is recovering from his treatment for a brain tumor. Sully was greeted with hearty applause when he stepped on stage at the Brudnoy memorial, and he confirms that he'll be back in his 8-midnight slot Monday night, followed by the return of Steve LeVeille to his usual overnight slot after months of filling in in the evenings. With that, WBZ will finally have a "normal" nighttime talk schedule for the first time since Brudnoy's death, and we're sure PD Peter Casey (who deserves tremendous appreciation for the work he put into planning Sunday's memorial) is breathing a sigh of relief.
• Speaking of Sullivan, the radio station where he got his start is about to change hands. WLLH (1400 Lowell and Lawrence) and WAMG (890 Dedham) have spent the last few years doing Spanish tropical under the ownership of Mega Communications, but Mega's been selling off many of its facilities, and now the company's exiting New England completely. The investment firm of Waller Sutton is backing the $9 million purchase, but so far we know nothing about who'll be running the stations or what happens next. Stay tuned...
• WEEI (850 Boston) has found a replacement for Bob Neumeier alongside Dale Arnold in middays. Former Boston Globe sportswriter Michael Holley joins Arnold on the renamed "Dale and Holley" just in time to talk about the start of spring training for the World Champion Boston Red Sox. (Sorry - it still just feels so good to type that...)
• And with that we come to PENNSYLVANIA and the week's other top story. It was no secret that WPLY (100.3 Media) was losing the Preston and Steve morning show at the end of February; after sitting out a six-month noncompete, the pair will reappear this fall on Greater Media's WMMR (93.3 Philadelphia). But it was something of a surprise even to Y100's staffers when the end of the Preston & Steve show Thursday morning was followed just hours later by the complete demise of the station's modern rock format. The duo's final Y100 show was peppered with clues about the impending end, including their last song, "Alive" by Pearl Jam, which was the last song played on the old WDRE (103.9 Jenkintown) before it dropped modern rock in 1997.
• There's a powerful irony at work: upon its purchase by Radio One, 103.9, of course, went urban as "the Beat," WPHI - and now those calls and that format are being heard on the more powerful 100.3 facility. Two hours after Preston and Steve signed off, dropping a mention of a new website at y100rocks.com, middayer Bret Hamilton noted "it's my last day, too," and at noon became the last live voice heard on Y100. After not quite 12 hours of automation, WPLY went to dead air at 11:55 Thursday night, resurfacing minutes later as "the Beat." Over the weekend, 103.9 was running liners sending listeners down the dial to 100.3, but it starts the new week with the black gospel format that was widely rumored to be coming to Radio One's other Philadelphia-market station, WRNB (107.9 Pennsauken NJ). You may recall that the 107.9 facility tested last fall under the calls WPPZ (quickly withdrawn, we hear, over concerns that it was tipping off competitors to the planned black gospel format) - and now those WPPZ calls have been applied for on 103.9. (The call changes will take effect Thursday.)

March 3, 2000 -

• We begin this week in NEW YORK's scenic Finger Lakes region, an area we don't usually talk about much in this column for the simple reason that radio there tends to just chug along without much change or disruption -- until now.
• George Souhan, the 70 year old owner of Seneca Falls' WSFW (1110) and WSFW-FM (99.3), announced last week that he's selling the stations that his family has owned (except for an 8 year interregnum) since they signed on the air decades ago.
• Here's how the deal shakes out: Souhan will sell the stations to Family Life Ministries of Bath, which operates an extensive noncomm network of religious FMs across upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania. Family Life will then trade WSFW AM/FM to George Kimble's Radio Group for Kimble's WLLW (93.7 Clyde), which serves the eastern Finger Lakes from studios in Auburn. From a programming standpoint, WLLW's rock format and calls will move from 93.7 to 99.3, Family Life will take 93.7 religious under new calls, and WSFW(AM) will switch from satellite classic country to satellite adult standards (the same format Kimble now runs on WAUB 1590 in Auburn).
• So why is this being treated as a big deal in Seneca Falls? Simple: WSFW was an unusually community-oriented radio station. From the little downtown storefront with the big radio dial over the window, WSFW was the voice for community events and information in Seneca County. The county has no daily newspaper of its own, and its only other radio station is WNYR (98.5 Waterloo), which is owned by none other than George Kimble and runs a mostly-satellite AC format from studios in Geneva, Ontario County. Once this deal closes, Kimble will own a string of Finger Lakes stations from WCGR Canandaigua to WGVA Geneva to WNYR to the new WSFW/WLLW combo to WAUB -- and his only commercial radio competition in the northern Finger Lakes will be WFLK (101.7 Geneva) and WYLF (850 Penn Yan), owned by his brother Russ Kimble.
• In fairness to George Kimble, he's trying to make the best of the situation -- he tells NERW no decision has been made yet about whether the Seneca Falls studios will be closed, and he says he'll try to keep as many WSFW employees as he can afford. And we're certainly happy to see the stations stay in the hands of owners based in the region. It's just hard to imagine that the state of affairs in Seneca County will be helped any by the inevitable decrease in local programming that will follow WSFW's farewell broadcast next Friday...
• Moving along to New England, the big news this week comes from NEW HAMPSHIRE, where the classic rock of "Arrow" (WXBB 105.3 Kittery ME and WXBP 102.1 Hampton NH) gave way to a repeating loop of bad "Stairway to Heaven" covers and the theme from "Jaws" Wednesday night, with a promise of something new Friday morning at 6. Unfortunately for Citadel, the secret got out a bit early, thanks to the folks at broadcastmusic.com who handled WXBB's Web streaming. Visits to their WXBB site on Thursday showed the logo and calls for "WSHK, The Shark" -- and sure enough, that's what launched this morning as the repositioned, male-oriented version of the station's classic rock format. (Visits to the shark1053.com site before the launch were greeted by the words "Go Away.")
• A quiet week in MASSACHUSETTS, but expect things to get a bit noisier by next weekend. That's when Steve Provizer will turn on his newest venture in community broadcasting, "Allston Brighton Free Radio," running Part 15-compliant at 1580 kHz. Sign-on is set for Friday, March 11; more next week.
• From CANADA this week comes word that Cornwall's AM 1220 could soon return from the dead. TRI-CO Broadcasting, which moved CJSS from 1220 to 101.9 FM last year, has applied to the CRTC to reactivate the 1220 frequency, again with 1 kilowatt, running a nostalgia format. Will the CRTC approve? We'll find out at a May 9 hearing, at which they'll also consider applications for a new FM up the river in Kingston.

New England Radio Watch, March 3, 1995

• (no issue)