Mourning Two Broadcasting Pioneers

This month marks the beginning of our 18th year providing NERW-land with the latest news and informed speculation on station sales, format changes, people moves and engineering news affecting the radio and TV community.

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But lucky for you, we're here to help: Tower Site Calendar 2011 is now available, featuring more than a dozen great images of radio and TV broadcast facilities all over the country (and even beyond - this year's edition takes us to Mexico!)

Thrill to a night shot of KFI's new tower! Check out the WAEB Allentown array just after it lost a tower - or enjoy the history at venerable sites like those of KID in Idaho Falls, WCAP in Lowell, KTKT in Tucson and Rochester's Pinnacle Hill.

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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.

One Year Ago: January 18, 2010 -

• Fans of dance music in NEW YORK City are once again without a radio station. After less than three months, JVC Broadcasting abruptly pulled its "Party FM" dance/hip-hop format off the audio carrier of Island Broadcasting's WNYZ-LP (Channel 6) on Thursday, raising questions along the way about the future of the "Franken-FM" stations that have been using channel 6 LPTVs as pseudo-FM stations heard at 87.7 on the dial. "It's hard to invest in a radio station when you don't know if the government will shut it down tomorrow," said JVC CEO John Caracciolo in a statement announcing the end of the simulcast. Caracciolo says it's not clear how much longer the FCC will continue to allow analog LPTVs to continue without converting to digital, a move that would make the channel 6 audio unavailable to analog FM listeners.
• "Party" continues to be heard on Long Island, via parent station WPTY-FM (105.3 Calverton-Roanoke) on the East End and once again via translator W268AN (101.5 Plainview), which had been carrying JVC sister station "La Fiesta" WBON (98.5 Westhampton). As for WNYZ, it was off the air for a bit after the end of the "Party" simulcast, though it returned, at least briefly, with a simulcast of New York's WCBS-FM. An unsourced item on WNYZ's Wikipedia entry claims that the station will be leased out to Idaho-based CSN International for its religious programming, but we've been unable to confirm that. And as for those dance fans, it's been a tough year for them - first last October's shutdown of the always financially-shaky "Pulse 87" operation that had been leasing WNYZ, and now this. Will there be a third try somewhere down the road?
• The final collapse of New York-based Air America Radio made big industry headlines at week's end, but the bankruptcy liquidation of the pioneering progressive talk network won't affect many timeslots on any NERW-land radio stations. There were no full-time Air America affiliates in the region, and hadn't been for several years, and even in New York Air America was only being cleared for a few hours a day on nominal flagship WWRL (1600): Montel Williams' mid-morning show was delayed to 3-6 PM, followed by Ron Reagan Jr. from 6-8 PM, and three overnight hours were filled with a delayed Rachel Maddow rebroadcast and "Clout with Richard Greene." There's no word yet on what programming will now be heard during those hours on WWRL.
• The bigger news from Buffalo was the death of one of the city's media pioneers. Alfred E. Anscombe began his radio career back in the late 1930s as a sports announcer for the old Buffalo Broadcasting Corporation, which then controlled much of the Queen City's radio dial, including WKBW, where Anscombe rose into the management ranks in the years following World War II. As station manager, Anscombe led WKBW radio into its top-40 dominance in the late 1950s and spearheaded the effort to put WKBW-TV (Channel 7) on the air in 1958. He served as vice president of the TV station before leaving for bigger things in 1960, becoming executive vice president of Metromedia.
• Meanwhile, Anscombe was building new holdings in two other areas: UHF TV and cable TV. On the UHF front, Anscombe put WEPA-TV (Channel 66) in Erie and WBJA-TV (Channel 34) in Binghamton on the air in the early 1960s, naming the Binghamton staton after his wife's initials. While the Erie station eventually went dark, the Binghamton station remained on the air through several subsequent owners, becoming today's WIVT. Anscombe founded several small cable companies in western New York, which were eventually combined into International Cable, which later merged into Adelphia and then into today's Time Warner Cable.
• In 1996, he was the founding chairman of the Buffalo Broadcasters Association, which inducted him into its hall of fame in 2000. He was inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame five years later. Anscombe died Tuesday at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital. He was 89.
• This week's top story from PENNSYLVANIA is one of the worst-kept secrets in recent radio memory: CBS Radio is indeed pulling the plug on Pittsburgh's top-40 "B94" WBZW for a second time, replacing it with an all-sports format as "93.7 the Fan" under new calls KDKA-FM. The flip won't take place until February 15, but CBS isn't keeping B94 intact in the meantime. No sooner did the press release go out last Tuesday than the station went jockless - but at least some of its airstaff will stay with CBS on sister station WZPT (Star 100.7), which will add some of B94's top-40 playlist to its existing hot AC format. B94 morning man Bubba will join J. R. Randall and Shelley Duffy on the Star morning show, while Melanie Taylor moves from B94 to Star for middays.
• The details of the new sports format on 93.7 are less clear. The new station has a program director - former ESPN Radio PD Terry Foxx - and a sports director, Jeff Hathhorn, who already holds that role for sister station KDKA (1020). And it sounds as though Gregg Giannotti, who's been a fill-in host and show producer at CBS sports flagship WFAN in New York, might be heading to the Steel City as well; he tweeted that he's "leaving N.Y. to host full-time in another market" soon. There's speculation, too, that CBS may be putting the pieces of a national sports network together, as Pittsburgh joins other recent CBS sports-format launches in Boston and Dallas and more established signals in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit and several other big markets.
• In MAINE, there's a format shift at Saga's WBAE (1490 Portland)/WVAE (1400 Biddeford): the stations have segued from hot talk to "Advice for Life." Bob and Tom remain on board for mornings, and the rest of the syndicated lineup includes Clark Howard at 10 AM, Laura Schlessinger at 1 PM, Dave Ramsey at 4 PM, Dr. Joy Browne at 7 PM and Loveline at 10 PM.
• The struggling local TV business in CANADA took another big hit last week when Rogers eviscerated its local newsrooms at its CityTV outlets around the country - none of them worse than the original, CITY-TV (Channel 57) in Toronto. While Rogers says only 6% of its total staff was cut, those cuts went deep, starting with veteran anchor Anne Mroczkowski, who'd been with CITY-TV for 30 years.
• In Toronto, CITY cancelled its noon and 5 PM newscasts, as well as its evening "CityNews International" broadcast that was distributed to other CityTV outlets around the country. Gone also are the weekend newscasts, leaving only a stripped-down "Breakfast Television" and 6 PM and 11 PM broadcasts on weekdays. That's still more than some other CityTV markets - in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg all but "Breakfast Television" were axed in the cutbacks. As for the 24-hour cable news channel City was to have launched in Toronto to replace the CP24 service that stayed with CTV in the breakup of the former CHUM properties, we're hearing that it won't materialize, either.

Five Years Ago: January 16, 2006 -

• There aren't many folks alive today who were listening to the radio when the first FM stations lit up the dial in the late thirties. Many of us - your editor included - are too young to have any memory of the first regular color TV broadcasts in the mid-fifties, or of the dawn of FM stereo in the early sixties. So it's a neat thing, we think, to have a front-row seat for the debut of another new medium. While it may not have been immediately apparent to anyone but the tiny handful of HD Radio receiver owners (most of whom are also broadcast engineers or managers, anyway), last Thursday's coordinated announcement of new HD multicast formats from the big groups that are part of the HD Radio Alliance represented the biggest infusion of new radio formats on the dial at one time in history.
• NEW YORK was one of the first markets to be announced (and, indeed, already had at least one multicast going, with the CBS-FM oldies format on the HD2 channel of WCBS-FM 101.1), and the announcement effectively launched no fewer than 11 new signals on the Big Apple dial. In addition to the oldies, CBS Radio also unveiled (no surprise) "K-Rock 2" on the HD2 channel of WFNY-FM (92.3), continuing the format that's already available as a webcast from that station's previous incarnation as WXRK. Its third FM signal, WNEW (102.7), will carry "news," reportedly a simulcast of WINS (1010), which has signal deficiencies in much of New Jersey.
• Clear Channel had its five FMs ready to go on Thursday. Perhaps the biggest news from that cluster was the return of country, on the HD2 channel of WKTU (103.5), which was the city's last full-signal country station back in its WYNY days. WHTZ (100.3) has "new top 40," featuring entire albums from the station's core artists. On WAXQ (104.3), it's "deep tracks," complementing the classic rock on the main channel. WWPR (105.1) has "Power Espanol," adding a Spanish-language flavor to the hip-hop that's on the main channel. And WLTW (106.7) has "Lite Classics," a sort of return to the softer sounds Lite played in its earlier years.
• Emmis launched with one FM, WQHT (97.1), which is offering "Old School Hip-Hop" on its HD2 channel. Within the next few weeks, WRKS (98.7) will add gospel on its HD2, while WQCD (101.9) will put "Chill" on its HD2 channel.
• From PENNSYLVANIA, there are more HD2 launches to report, though not quite as quickly as in New York. Within a few months, there will be 11 new signals on the air in Philadelphia, and they'll break down like this: Clear Channel will turn its HD2 signals on tomorrow, with WUSL (98.9) offering "Xtreme Hip-Hop," WIOQ (102.1) programming Hurban, WSNI (104.5) programming soft AC/standards, WDAS-FM (105.3) offering "R&B Love Songs" and WJJZ (106.1) playing AAA. CBS Radio will put alternative rock on WYSP (94.1), while WOGL (98.1) will play 70s oldies, which isn't that different from what's on the main channel. And Greater Media will launch its HD2 signals in the next two or three months, with "WMMaRchives" live performances and other material from the vaults on WMMR (93.3), "Club Ben," with a varied range of rhythmic music, on WBEN-FM (95.7) and "Deep Tracks" on WMGK (102.9).
• Eastern MASSACHUSETTS is about to become a major hotbed of HD2 activity, based on last week's announcements. Greater Media already has HD Radio on the air at all five of its FMs, and now it's adding subchannels on all five. WBOS (92.9) adds "Coffee House," taking its main-channel AAA format more acoustic. WTKK (96.9) puts on "Classical 2.0," which we've got to think is a prelude to Greater's eventual purchase of classical WCRB (102.5). On WKLB (99.5), it's classic country, with "Laugh Tracks" comedy on WROR (105.7) and smooth jazz on WMJX (106.7), restoring one of the more notably missing formats to the market. (Which is only fair, since it was Greater Media's WSJZ 96.9 that last had the format in town.)
• Clear Channel will launch January 27, with "Xtreme Hip-Hop" on WJMN (94.5) and "Artist Channel" top 40 on WXKS-FM (107.9). Entercom's WMKK (93.7) is carrying the "Star" rhythmic oldies format that used to be on the main channel in its WQSX days (and has lived on as a webcast ever since), while WAAF (107.3) will carry "Live Rock," featuring concerts from rock artists. At CBS Radio, it's all-80s on WBMX (98.5), "Lost Classics/Deep Tracks" on WZLX (100.7), "Super Oldies" (from Elvis to the Beatles) on WODS (103.3) and "Indie and Ultra New Rock" on WBCN (104.1).
• There's also some HD2 content coming to Springfield, with Clear Channel launching "new top 40" on WHYN (93.1) and Americana on WPKX (97.9) on March 31.

10 Years Ago: January 15, 2001 -

• A week ago, there was no local newscast at 10 PM in Buffalo. A week from today, there will be two. One, as we've known for a while now, will be on channel 23. That's the former public TV WNEQ, which is now in the process of being taken over by LIN Broadcasting's CBS affiliate, WIVB-TV (Channel 4). At the moment, WNEQ programming consists of just a slate advertising the January 29 debut of the WIVB-produced 10 PM newscast, along with the station's new call letters, WNLO.
• But while WIVB was making its plans to launch WNLO next week, one of its competitors decided there was no point waiting. We knew Gannett was working on a news alliance with Pax affiliates in its markets (NERW, 10/23/2000), but we didn't realize it would result in a 10 PM show on WPXJ-TV (Channel 51), the Batavia-licensed Pax outlet that covers Buffalo and Rochester. That's just what WPXJ and Gannett's WGRZ-TV (Channel 2) decided to do, though, with the show launching last Friday (Jan. 18) on just a few hours' notice. WGRZ anchor Victoria Hong, sportscaster Ed Kilgore and meteorologist Kevin O'Connell anchor the new broadcast. Hong is also the co-anchor at 6 and 11, though WGRZ officials say they'll decide this week whether she'll keep all three shifts permanently.
• As for WIVB and WNLO, here's what we know so far: WIVB weekend anchor Lisa Flynn will anchor WNLO's 10 PM news, with meteorologist Don Paul adding the 10 o'clock show to his duties. WNLO will rebroadcast WIVB's morning "Wake Up!" show from 8-9 AM weekdays, followed by Martha Stewart. "Access Hollywood" will kick off WNLO's evening schedule at 7, followed by "Entertainment Studios," "Queen Latifah" and "Oprah" (a rebroadcast of the afternoon WIVB showing). After the news at 10 will come a replay of "Inside Edition," "Three Stooges" reruns," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," a repeat of the 10 PM news, and then into home shopping overnight.
• The 10 PM wars leave two contestants on the sidelines: ABC affiliate WKBW-TV (Channel 7), which was to have bought UPN affiliate WNGS (Channel 67) last year, and the Sinclair duopoly of WUTV (29, Fox) and WNYO-TV (49, WB). Will either one try to enter the market with news at 10 now? This promises to be most interesting to watch...
• One big radio move this week in the Flower City: After four years at Infinity, Dave Symonds is making the trip across Chestnut Street. The former WRMM (101.3) PD joins Entercom/Rochester today (Jan. 22), serving as operations manager of all four stations (oldies WBBF AM-FM, country WBEE-FM and 80s WBZA) and as program director for WBZA. In his role as OM, Symonds replaces Fred Horton (who still hasn't been replaced on the WBEE morning show, though we hear 'BEE veteran Bill Coffey was back for a visit last week). In his role as "Buzz" PD, he'll get to turn the station from a jukebox into, well, an actual station. Best of luck!
• Next stop: Syracuse, and a peculiar filing from the Syracuse Community Radio folks. Remember them -- the ones trying to get into the Salt City by way of rimshot FMs and translators, feeding their one station (WXXE 90.5 Fenner) by a cruddy-sounding mono phone line? Seems their other full-power CP, WXXC 88.7 Truxton, was expiring last week (Jan. 14). Sure enough, an application was filed with the FCC for a license to cover for the station on January 16. There's just one problem: as best NERW can figure out, WXXC hasn't actually been built yet. We'll be piloting the NERW-mobile out that way later this week to see what, if anything, now exists at the site in northern Cortland County, but we know that WXXE's not mentioning anything about WXXC on the air (at least not during our Webcast listening over the weekend), nor has anyone out that way heard a signal on 88.7.
• It's been all sales, all the time in MASSACHUSETTS, with the latest FCC filing late last week showing Greenfield's WHAI (1240/98.3) passing from the Haigis family to Saga Communications. WHAI had earlier been rumored to be going to Connriver, but that deal never came to fruition. WHAI will give Saga a northern arm to its Pioneer Valley cluster, which now includes Springfield rocker WAQY (102.1), news-talk AM duo WHMP (1400 Northampton) and WHNP (1600 East Longmeadow), and active rock WLZX (99.3 Northampton). We suspect a WHMP simulcast is in the cards for AM 1240 once this deal is complete. As for the FM, it faces off against Vox's WRSI and WPVQ, which are just a week or so away from their big frequency swap.
• We can tell you much more about two of the deals that broke just in time for last week's issue. Mark down $11 million as the price Salem is paying for Carter Broadcasting's WROL (950 Boston)...and we'll call it a nice reward for the quarter-century or so that Ken Carberry and family have tended the 5 kW (90 watts after dark) signal from the Saugus marshlands. (And indeed, we hear the senior Carberry is taking a well-deserved Florida vacation!) Carter keeps WCRN (830 Worcester) with its new big signal and swing format, as well as WRIB (1220 Providence) and WACE (730 Chicopee), at least for now.
• Clear Channel, meanwhile, is paying $10 million for Framingham's WKOX (1200), though Mays & Co. will no doubt be spending a bit more to build out the station's CP to go to 50 kW from the WUNR site in Newton, not to mention the cost of fighting community opposition to the construction of new towers in that very residential area.
• The big buzz in CANADA this week came from a rumor that's been making the rounds for a long time now: a format change at Toronto's legendary CHUM (1050) -- except this time it looks like the change is really going to happen. After decades as the top-40 giant in Toronto, CHUM went to oldies, largely automated, a few years back. Now reports in the Toronto papers say the station will flip to sports in April, challenging Telemedia's "Fan 590" CJCL for the format. (And guess who already has Blue Jays broadcast rights?)
• LATE UPDATE: Just hours after this week's NERW was posted to fybush.com Sunday night, CHUM announced that there will indeed be a switch to sports in a few months -- and not just at 1050 CHUM. The CHUM Group will flip most of its AM properties to the new "Team" sports network, including CKLC (1380) in Kingston (where several staffers were laid off this week), CKPT (1420) in Peterborough, and more.

15 Years Ago: New England Radio Watch, January 17, 1996

• (no issue)