May 30, 2011

WDUQ Prepares for All-News Future

• MAINE
• NEW HAMPSHIRE
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• CLASSIFIEDS
• FROM THE ARCHIVES

TUESDAY MORNING UPDATE: The long wait for New York's new "K-Love" signal finally ended on Monday, when WKLV-FM (96.7 Port Chester) signed on with the California-based noncommercial network's contemporary Christian format. WKLV-FM is the relocated WCTZ, formerly part of Cox Radio's Stamford, Connecticut cluster.

And a sad story from western Massachusetts: WFCR-FM (88.5) newsman and "Morning Edition" host Bob Paquette died suddenly over the Memorial Day weekend. Paquette had been with WFCR since 1991. He was just 55.

Much more on both stories in the next NERW...

*The transfer of one of western PENNSYLVANIA's most prominent public radio stations is imminent. Essential Public Media says it will take over WDUQ (90.5 Pittsburgh) on or about July 1, installing new calls on the station as it separates from longtime owner Duquesne University.

The new incarnation of 90.5 will lose most of the jazz programming that's long been a staple of WDUQ, relegating jazz to just six hours a week on the station's analog/HD-1 service, though its "JazzWorks" programming will run 24/7 on HD-2. Replacing the jazz will be more news and talk, including two new shows: a daily hour called "Essential Pittsburgh" and a weekly "audio collage" show called "Sounds of the City." Essential says it will also beef up the station's news staff.

*Down the road in Latrobe, PBRTV.com reports WQTW (1570) lost its tower in a windstorm a few weeks back. The station expects to be back on the air by the end of June.

In Erie, Natalie Massing is leaving WRKT (100.9 North East), where she's been part of the morning team since 1990. She's leaving the Erie area after her last show June 17 and moving to Texas.

*At the other end of the Keystone state, Spanish-language WHOL (1600 Allentown)/WEST (1400 Easton) has added an FM translator, the first in the region for a Hispanic broadcaster. The new FM signal on 99.5 in Easton (W258BM) is being acquired from Beacon Broadcasting, which was using it to relay WJCS (89.3 Allentown).

Another Lehigh Valley broadcaster could be for sale. Lehigh Carbon Community College has begun appraising WXLV (90.3 Schnecksville) to determine whether a sale of the station could help close the school's budget gap. Students and alumni are already fighting back against the possible sale; they staged a rally on Wednesday and are trying to persuade the college that it would lose a valuable resource if it sells the signal.

*Two obituaries close out our Pennsylvania report: Charles Fricker, known on air as "Chuck Williams" when he did traffic for KYW (1060 Philadelphia) and jocked for WMGM (103.7 Atlantic City NJ), was stabbed to death last Saturday (May 21) while working in his day job as an insurance salesman. Police say a man on a bike rode up to Fricker and murdered him in what appeared to be a random attack. Police shot and killed the man after catching him a short time later. Fricker was 52.

And former Erie DJ Chris Tarbell died Friday in Virginia. Tarbell went straight from high school to WCCK ("K104") in 1988 and later worked for WJET and its sister stations. He was also the creator of the Erie Radio Tribute Site. In recent years, he'd been working for the Lynchburg Police Department. Tarbell suffered a heart attack a week ago and never recovered. He was just 41.

*Greater Media has sold one of its NEW JERSEY stations, and for a surprisingly high price. WWTR (1170 Bridgewater) has been leased to Indian broadcaster EBC Radio since 2005, and now EBC Music, Inc. is buying the station for $2,750,000, which has to be a recent record for a 600-watt daytimer.

Radio People on the Move: Steve Ardolina takes over programming duties for all five of Millennium Radio's Monmouth/Ocean stations, overseeing WJLK, WOBM AM-FM, WADB and WCHR.

*A long-silent AM station in New York's HUDSON VALLEY could soon be returning to the air under the management of one of New England broadcasting's more colorful characters.

The Daily Mail of Catskill reports that WCKL (560 Catskill) will be back on the air June 15 after many years during which it's appeared for just a few days each summer to keep its license alive. The station's now in the hands of the Black United Fund of New York, which acquired the license from Clear Channel and has never operated it as a full-time station. The Daily Mail says WCKL won't be operated by the Black United Fund when it returns, either; instead, it will be run under an LMA by "Harvest Broadcasting Services of Worthington, Mass." until it can be sold to "Family Broadcasting & Media, LLC."

And who are "Harvest" and "Family"? None other than Brian Dodge, whose adventures with the FCC and with his fellow New England broadcasters were a frequent topic during this column's early years. (Here, for instance, is the text of a detailed complaint filed against Dodge and his "Harvest Broadcasting Association" in June 1997, accusing Dodge of moving several translators in Massachusetts and New Hampshire without authorization.)

Other issues with Dodge over the years have included the 1995 construction and brief operation of WRUT (107.5 West Rutland) after the station's construction permit had expired. That station was eventually deleted by the FCC, as was an unbuilt AM CP in southwestern New Hampshire. In recent years, we'd heard less about Dodge, who was making his base of operations at WWNH (1340 Madbury NH) near the seacoast. WWNH received a construction permit back in 1988 and applied for a license to cover in 1989, but never received a license and is still on the FCC's records as a construction permit, though it's apparently been silent for nearly a year now.

As best we can tell, the FCC never did take much action on any of the complaints against Dodge, though several of the translators cited in the 1997 complaint were subsequently deleted.

The Daily Mail says Dodge is now living in Ghent, N.Y., and in contrast to his previous operations, all of which have been religious stations (often operating as "LOVE Radio"), Dodge tells the paper he's planning a full-service operation at WCKL.

"“We’re going local, live, 24 hours a day, June 15, ” Dodge told the Daily Mail, promising an ambitious schedule. “Our proposed programming will be family-oriented — everything from music to talk shows, and we’ll bring back some of the old things that WCKL used to do — like the Swap Shop, and the Talk of the Town, with people invited in.”

So is this a new Brian Dodge? We're always willing to give a broadcaster another chance, and if Dodge can pull off what he's planning (including a studio relocation to Greene County from his initial location in leased space at WCKL's transmitter site in Greenport, still owned by Clear Channel and home to the studios of WCTW, WHUC and WZCR), the new "Family 560" would be a valuable new addition to the radio dial in the upper Hudson Valley.

But can it really work in 2011 as a standalone AM signal in a market that's been massively overbuilt by new FMs in recent years? With 1000 watts by day, WCKL does a decent job of covering Greene and Columbia counties and puts a tolerable fringe signal into Albany. But with just 43 watts at night, WCKL barely even makes it up the road into Hudson, the largest community in the market.

We'll be watching closely to see if Dodge can live up to his promises this time, including "four to eight" new jobs at the station. Stay tuned...

*In New York City, former WXRK (92.3 Now FM) jock TicTak (aka Mark Allan) has found a new job, all the way across the country in Portland, Oregon. He'll headed to KUPL (98.7) out there, where he'll be playing country music in afternoon drive.

Down the dial at WABC (770), Chuck Armstrong has been promoted from "team leader of digital operations" to assistant PD/web PD. Armstrong replacs Laura Smith, who's still with WABC hosting the "Living Better" show. (And if you're looking for "WABC Rewound," it's gone from the airwaves, but the Memorial Day tradition lives on at Allan Sniffen's RewoundRadio.com, where previous "Rewound" installments and additional content are playing through the end of the day today.)

Fordham University's WFUV (90.7) is expanding the reach of its "Alternate Side" alternative rock programming. In addition to its spot on one of WFUV's HD subchannels and from 10-midnight on WFUV's main channel, the format will be heard starting Wednesday from 6 AM until noon on weekdays on city-owned WNYE (91.5). It will replace programming in that slot that had been coming to WNYE from another innovative noncommercial alternative outlet, Seattle's KEXP (90.3).

*Across the state, another ambitious local AM operation just lost its midday talker. Bill O'Loughlin told his Facebook followers this week that he "resigned on Tuesday from the Bill O'Loughlin Show on WECK which the station owner and staff did not expect." O'Loughlin had been doing the 9-noon shift on the Buffalo-market station (licensed to nearby Cheektowaga on 1230) for the past two years, and he's now headed to TV, where he just started a Sunday-night talk show following the 11 PM news on WGRZ (Channel 2). No replacement has been named at WECK, which has been running syndicated shows in the timeslot.

Here in the Rochester area, veteran newsman Mark Giardina has left the airwaves, at least for now. The former anchor/reporter at WNYR/WEZO and WXXI had been doing weekend work at Bob Savage's WYSL (1040 Avon) while working during the week for a local town government, but he's stepped down from the weekend job to spend more time with his family. We'll miss him - but we suspect he's not gone from the air here forever.

In Utica, Johnny Lew has departed the night slot at "Kiss FM" (WSKS/WSKU) after two years; he's focusing on his mobile DJ business, reports CNYRadio.com, and the station is looking for a replacement.

*Two Empire State obituaries this week, starting on the East End of Long Island, where WLNG (92.1 Sag Harbor) is mourning station president Ann Buckhout. The 32-year station veteran moved up from secretary-treasurer of Main Street Broadcasting to president after the death of Paul Sidney in 2009. Buckhout died last Saturday (May 21) of cancer, at age 66.

And in western New York, Ken Dodd is being remembered for many things, including his stint as town supervisor in Oakfield, Genesee County and his service as a Methodist pastor. But before all that, Dodd was in broadcasting, working as general manager of WGVA (1240 Geneva) and later WBUF (92.9 Buffalo). Dodd died on Friday, at age 70.

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*In eastern MASSACHUSETTS, there's a new executive at the helm of WGBH-FM (89.7 Boston), but he's a familiar name in Boston radio. Phil Redo is the former market manager for Greater Media's Boston stations, and he worked with WGBH on its acquisition of WCRB (99.5 Lowell) from Nassau last year. Now he's becoming WGBH's "managing director of news and culture," with programming responsibilities for 89.7, beginning June 13.

Over at Clear Channel, Mary Menna has been promoted from sales director to market manager for the company's Boston and Providence stations, succeeding Tom McConnell in that role now that McConnell has become a senior VP.

It's taken eight years, but Entercom's WAAF (107.3 Westborough) is finally licensed at its new transmitter site on the WUNI (Channel 27) tower atop Stiles Hill in Boylston. The new site is closer to Boston than WAAF's original home on Mount Asnebumskit in Paxton, but the Stiles Hill site was widely criticized as delivering an inferior signal when WAAF switched it on back in 2005. Ever since then, WAAF has remained licensed at Asnebumskit, occasionally using that site while operating mainly from Stiles under program test authority. On Thursday, the FCC finally granted WAAF's license to cover its operation at the Boylston site. (The FCC's CDBS records now show WAAF with its old city of license of Worcester; that appears to be a relic of the original CP's having been granted when WAAF was still licensed there, and will likely be corrected this week.)

Speaking of Worcester, Peter Blute has departed WCRN (830) after five years of morning drive there. Blute's co-host and producer, Hank Stolz, takes over the renamed "WCRN Morning News with Hank Stolz," and there's speculation that Blute, a former Republican congressman, is looking to return to public office. (Announcing his departure, Blute said simply that he wanted "to try new things.")

In the Berkshires, Talking Information Center, Inc. (TIC) is transferring WRRS-LP (104.3 Pittsfield) to the Berkshire Benevolent Association for the Blind; TIC holds the construction permit for WRRS (88.5 Middleborough Center) at the other end of the state, and a licensee can't own both a full-power signal and a low-power FM.

*A call change in NEW HAMPSHIRE: Unbuilt WSFO (90.7 Barrington) becomes WCTM, taking a callsign last seen on the last beautiful-music AM signal in Eaton, Ohio a few years back. In the Granite State, the calls now stand for "Consecrated To Mary," and yes, it's a Catholic station.

*Mark Haines is being remembered for the more than two decades he spent as a CNBC anchor, but before he went national with the business channel in 1989, Haines was a big name in RHODE ISLAND TV and radio, working at WPRO (630) and WPRI (Channel 12) in the seventies. Haines also worked at KYW-TV in Philadelphia and WABC-TV in New York before joining CNBC. He died suddenly on Tuesday (May 24) at age 65.

There won't be a trial for former WWLI (105.1 Providence) jock Tanya Cruise. Cruise, whose real name is Lori Sergiacomi, pleaded guilty to insurance mail fraud and conspiracy in connection with an incident last year in which she damaged her swimming pool in order to try to collect on flood insurance for her house. Prosecutors have agreed to ask for a sentence on the low end of the scale; Sergiacomi could have faced up to 25 years in prison for the crimes.

*ESPN Radio has new digs in Bristol, CONNECTICUT. The network will open its new "Audio Avenue" studios on Wednesday with live broadcasts from its stations in New York (WEPN 1050), Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles and several other affiliates. (And it doesn't seem like that long ago that your editor was in Bristol, writing up ESPN Radio's previous new digs for Radio World...)

Down the road in Hartford, WMRQ (104.1 Waterbury) has shuffled its jock lineup, moving Kaiser from mornings to nights, shifting newly-named assistant PD Fisch from afternoons to mornings and hiring former WKCI morning man Michael Maze for afternoons.

*One of CANADA's longest-running large-market DJs signed off this week. Aaron Rand did his last show on CFQR (92.5 Montreal) on Thursday, closing out 26 years at the station. His former co-hosts Tasso and Suzanne were back on the air to say goodbye, appearing during a week of special shows that included archival audio and lots of VIP call-ins. Cat Spencer moves over from CJFM (Virgin Radio 95.9) to replace Rand on "the Q."

In Tillsonburg, Ontario, Bill Adams has left his morning anchor chair at CKOT-FM (Easy 101.3)/CJDL (Country 107.3), reports Milkman UnLimited.

And we remember the former co-host of the "Pete and Geets" morning show, a longtime staple of CHUM-FM (104.5) and CFNY (102.1) in Toronto. Pete Griffin was part of the CHUM-FM airstaff even before the station's 1968 flip to rock, but it was after the flip that he was paired with David Haydu (aka "Geets Romo") to create the morning pairing that lasted until 1987. Griffin later worked at CFGM (640) before moving to eastern Ontario. He died Monday (May 23) in Smiths Falls, at age 81.

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