June 6, 2011

Radio, TV React to Mass. Tornadoes

• MAINE
• NEW HAMPSHIRE
• MASSACHUSETTS
• VERMONT
• RHODE ISLAND
• CONNECTICUT
• NEW YORK
• NEW JERSEY
• PENNSYLVANIA
• CANADA
• CLASSIFIEDS
• FROM THE ARCHIVES

*Broadcast stations in places like Alabama, Missouri and Oklahoma have plenty of experience covering tornados and their aftermath. But twisters aren't a common part of life in western MASSACHUSETTS, so when a devastating storm developed near Springfield on Wednesday afternoon, TV and radio stations in Springfield and Worcester had to scramble to respond to the sudden emergency just before rush hour.

On TV, all three Springfield-based stations - NBC affiliate WWLP, ABC affiliate WGGB and CBS affiliate WSHM - went wall-to-wall with coverage (including dramatic sky-cam images of the tornado whipping up water from the Connecticut River in downtown Springfield) as the storm approached, staying with the story late into the evening as the extent of the destruction became clear (and even as at least one of the three tornadoes passed close to WWLP's tower site on Provin Mountain, south of Springfield.)

On radio, the coverage was a little more mixed, as stations with pared-down news staffs (or none at all) struggled at first to rise to the occasion. Listeners to Worcester's WTAG (580) reported hearing afternoon host Jordan Levy announce that the staff was evacuating the studios as the storms approached, followed by several minutes of dead air. In Springfield, heritage news-talker WHYN (560) started out in syndication mode at first, relaying the Howie Carr show out of Boston's WRKO. Within a short time, though, radio stations around the area were in wall-to-wall mode, either originating their own coverage or relaying TV audio. WHYN's John Baibak and Kevin Johnson stayed on the air until midnight, simulcasting their coverage on WHYN's three FM sister stations.

Within hours, media from all over the nation descended on western Massachusetts to cover the story - not just the Boston and Hartford TV stations but also network crews reporting on what had become a national story. While those crews quickly moved on to the next big story, the local stations in the Pioneer Valley continued to report on (and assist with) the area's recovery, providing information on the availability of relief supplies and food and helping to coordinate donations.

In the longer run, the storms are already prompting discussions of how the area might be better prepared should another tornado ever hit. That preparation might include the installation of warning sirens, but it's also likely to include a greater role for radio and TV. Will broadcasters be more ready if there's a "next time"?

Remarkably, there was no significant damage to any broadcast infrastructure from the storms. Only one station, Springfield College's WSCB (89.9), was taken off the air for more than a short time, and its absence was apparently the result of power outages on the hard-hit campus rather than damage to its transmitter or antenna.

*For one Pioneer Valley station, the storm came at an especially bad time: the region's public station, WFCR-FM (88.5), was mourning its longtime morning host after his sudden death the previous weekend.

Bob Paquette discovered radio while attending UMass Amherst and working at its student station, WMUA (91.1), and he began his career by traveling widely, working in Montana, Arizona and California. Within a few years, he was back in Amherst working at WTTT (1430, now WPNI), and in 1991 he returned to his alma mater and WFCR. In addition to his on-air work hosting "Morning Edition," Paquette lent his voice to the UMass graduation ceremonies, reading the names of each graduate for many years. He had survived a 2004 bout with leukemia, and his death (of a heart attack) last Saturday, May 28, came as a shock to the WFCR family and his listeners. Paquette is survived by his husband, Michael Rice Packard. He was just 55.

WFCR hasn't named a replacement yet; the station has put up a memorial page for Paquette here.

*The week's other big story straddles the RHODE ISLAND state line, as Boston's WGBH expands the reach of its classical service into the Providence market with a deal that will place the programming of WCRB (99.5 Lowell) on Bryant University's WJMF (88.7 Smithfield RI).

The background: WCRB's move from 102.5 to 99.5 a few years back was bad news for classical-music fans south of Boston, and especially in the Providence market, which received a fringe signal from 102.5 but none at all from 99.5. As for WJMF, the college station has been sitting on a construction permit to upgrade its present 225-watt/131' signal to 1200 watts/535' DA from a new site in Johnston, closer to Providence.

That construction permit was due to expire on Friday, but before it did, Bryant reached an agreement with WGBH that will bring classical music back to Providence listeners: beginning in August, student programming will be replaced by a WCRB simulcast on the newly-expanded 88.7 signal, which will provide city-grade coverage of most of the Providence market. The students will land on 88.7's new HD2 coverage, and at least for now they seem to be making the best of it, telling listeners on the station's Facebook page that the student programming will also be available via streaming audio and iTunes, as well as on a mobile DTV channel provided by WGBH-TV.

The exact terms of the deal between Bryant and WGBH haven't been made public; in a statement announcing the agreement, WGBH said it "involves no capital commitment" on the Boston station's part. It's also not clear what becomes of Bryant's other construction permit, authorizing a new signal on 90.7 in Danielson, Connecticut, just over the border from Rhode Island.

(There's already one all-classical signal that's nominally in the Providence market, but WCRI 95.9, an erstwhile sister station to WCRB in its 102.5 days, is licensed to and broadcasts from Block Island off Rhode Island's south coast, with at best a very fringe signal into the state capital.)

*There's a format change on the Boston AM dial: Radio One began leasing daytimer WILD (1090 Boston) to China Radio International on Wednesday, ending the station's mix of syndicated urban talk.

The English-language format from the Chinese government-owned broadcaster has become a fulltime fixture in several other markets recently, including Washington and Houston, and while it's hard to imagine CRI will find a very large audience in Boston, it no doubt is providing a reliable income stream to Radio One.

*Radio People on the Move: Bob Stuart has been a fixture at the 92.5 spot on the dial since its days as Haverhill-licensed WLYT, and he was the only remaining member of the station's charter airstaff from its 1995 debut as AAA "River" WXRV. Now he's gone from WXRV's afternoon airwaves and from the station's website, and WXRV is seeking a replacement. Over at Entercom Boston, Jeff Brown arrives from Portland, Oregon to become the cluster's new VP/market manager, replacing the departed Tim Murphy. Brown will share the title with Julie Kahn, who's also been named New England market manager. Kahn will continue to focus on the broadcast side of the operations, while Brown will focus on Entercom's interactive media platforms. And at Greater Media's WTKK (96.9 Boston), the syndicated "John and Jeff" return to overnights, replacing David Stein.

Want some radio history? The Merrimack Valley's WHAV.net will be dishing it out tonight from 6:45 until 7:45, when veteran DJ Phil Christie will answer listener questions about his days at WHDH, WBZ and WNEW.

Want still more radio history? The denizens of the Boston-Radio-Interest mailing list will be getting together for a cookout on June 18; we'll have more details in next week's issue, or contact Gary Francis at gary@garysicecream.com for more details...

*In CONNECTICUT, Jim Bosh is out at WWYZ (92.5 Waterbury), leaving Cory Meyers handling mornings solo. Bosh had been with the Hartford-market country station for seven years.

*Where are they now? Since leaving VERMONT, former WNCS (104.7 Montpelier) PD Mark Abuzzahab has been busy adding a lot of big AAA stations around the country to his resume: KBCO in Boulder, KGSR in Austin and now KKXT (91.7) in Dallas, where he takes over as PD later this month.

And speaking of rock stations in Vermont, WEQX (102.7 Manchester) is looking for a new music director and afternoon host after the exit of Jason Irwin.

*The week's biggest news in NEW YORK happened right after last week's issue of NERW hit the web: EMF Broadcasting's WKLV-FM (96.7 Port Chester) signed on Monday (May 30), ending months of speculation about just when the national "K-Love" contemporary Christian service would arrive in the nation's biggest market.

Early reports on the station's signal coverage from its new transmitter site atop the Trump Plaza building in New Rochelle (snapped just hours before sign-on by our tower photography colleague Mike Fitzpatrick of NECRAT.us) have been mixed: while it's providing a strong signal to Westchester County and adjacent parts of Connecticut, the new 96.7 signal is reportedly suffering serious interference from unlicensed stations in the Newark, N.J. area.

*Veteran New York City station manager Steve Swenson is heading for Washington. Swenson, who's now at the helm of CBS Radio's WCBS (880) and WINS (1010), will become the senior VP/market manager for the company's five Washington, D.C.-market signals, including sports-talk WJFK (106.7). No replacement has been named yet in New York.

*We now know where WHWK (98.1 Binghamton) PD Don Brake is headed: he's making a straight shot south on I-81 (and then a little jog over on I-70) to Frederick, Maryland, where he takes over as music director and midday jock at Clear Channel country station WFRE (99.9) starting June 13.

CNYRadio.com reports that two Utica sports-talkers are moving: Gene Conte and Fred Miller will join Galaxy Broadcasting's ESPN Radio affilates (WTLB 1310/WRNY 1350/WIXT 1230) on June 20, bringing their talk show from WIBX (950) to the ESPN trio, where it will air weekdays from 3-5 PM. Conte was also serving as WIBX's PD, and the duo's "SportsWatch" show vanished from WIBX's schedule in late May, replaced by Sporting News Radio programming.

In Johnstown, Thomas Kuettel's WIZR (930) started the month with a format flip, shifting from classic country to Dial Global's oldies format. The station will soon add an FM translator, moving W240BA (95.9 Canajoharie) to 96.5 in Johnstown.

There's a format change in Rockland County as well: Polskie Radio's WRKL (910 New City) dropped its own Polish-language programming last week, replacing it with leased-time Spanish-language religion from Pastor Erick Salgado's "Radio Cantico Nuevo," which is also heard on several other AM signals around the tri-state area.

Hudson Valley rocker WPDH (101.5 Poughkeepsie) marked its 35th anniversary over the weekend in style, inviting former staffers back to take guest airshifts all weekend long. The station is also throwing an anniversary concert later this summer at Bethel Woods (site of the Woodstock concert), where the Doobie Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd will perform August 19th.

Buffalo-market talker WECK (1230 Cheektowaga) was in the headlines again this week as yet another host made a noisy departure from the station. "Good Morning Buffalo" co-host Loraine O'Donnell was fired, leaving producer Corey Griswold co-hosting the show with market veteran Tom Donahue. In a message-board post, O'Donnell says WECK told her the show "wasn't working"; PD Brad Riter tells the Buffalo News he's working on retooling the station's talk lineup.

*And we close our New York report with an obituary: Chris Ulanowski was a longtime staple of the news department at public station WRVO (89.9 Oswego), where he worked for 27 years before departing (as news director) in 2009. Ulanowski died last Monday (May 30); he was just 51 years old.

*In TV news, NEW JERSEY state officials are expected to announce this week that they're handing over operations of the state-owned NJN television network to a new nonprofit being formed by WNET (Channel 13), the Newark-licensed and New York City-based public broadcaster.

The Star-Ledger of Newark reports that the state will continue to hold the NJN licenses and won't receive any money from WNET for their operation; instead, WNET will receive $2 million in CPB grants earmarked for NJN and another $2 million annually in tower-lease fees from tenants of NJN's broadcast towers. (What's in it for the state? The end of its $11 million annual subsidy of NJN's operations.)

The deal is expected to go into effect July 1, ending the existing NJN operation (including the nightly NJN News). It's still not clear what will become of NJN's statewide radio network, which is not included in the deal with WNET and Steve Adubato's Caucus Educational Corp.

MONDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: State officials announced the deal's terms on Monday, including the TV network's new identity as "NJTV." While the existing NJN newscast will end at the end of June, WNET's NJTV will launch a new nightly newscast in the fall. As for radio, the network will be split: New York's WNYC will get the stations in Trenton, Netcong, Sussex and Toms River while Philadelphia's WHYY will get the stations in Atlantic City, Berlin, Bridgeton, Manahawkin and Cape May Court House. Much more in next week's NERW...

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*A western PENNSYLVANIA talk host says the controversy over "fracking" cost him his job at WMBS (590 Uniontown). Bob Foltz last hosted "Let's Talk" on the station April 20, but it wasn't until the end of May that he told his story to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, saying he was fired after a guest on his show was critical of the hotly-debated method of extracting natural gas by blasting a mixture of water and chemicals deep into the ground at high pressure.

Foltz says he was presented with a termination notice after the guest, Dan Bailey, said one of those chemicals had contaminated his community's water supply - and he says he has little doubt that his firing was related to WMBS's recent addition of a weekly talk show called "Natural Gas Matters" that's unapologetically pro-fracking.

Foltz says the termination letter he was given claimed that "by your choice, you have decided to let your listeners know ... that you have elected to 'take a personal leave of absence' from WMBS Radio." While that's just what the WMBS Facebook page claimed, Foltz says he never elected any such thing, and he says he's now looking for other work.

*In Pittsburgh, the WAMO callsign is now officially in place on Tim Martz' Wilkinsburg-licensed 660 signal and its translator at 100.1. Martz swapped calls with Telikoja Educational Foundation's signal at 88.1 in Dushore, which is now WPYT.

*Scranton's WVIA-FM (89.9) is adding a relay at the eastern edge of its coverage area: it's acquiring the construction permit for WLPP (91.5 Palmyra Township) from Four Rivers Community Radio. The WLPP signal will serve the area east of Lake Wallenpaupack, including Hawley and Tafton; WVIA won't pay any cash for the 400-watt signal, but it will provide Four Rivers with space for translator W227BA (93.3) at WVIA's main tower on Penobscot Mountain east of Wilkes-Barre.

And in Philadelphia, WNWR (1540) is running announcements saying its current multicultural programming will move down the dial next Monday (June 13) to Beasley's WWDB (860), where it will replace ESPN Deportes Spanish-language sports. What's next for WNWR? NERW wonders whether it might join Boston's WILD as a new home for China Radio International...

*The news from CANADA is all about brand extensions: Rogers Media, owner of Toronto's CITY-TV (Channel 57) and all-news CFTR (680), will launch a new "CityNews" TV channel in October, using resources from both of its broadcast partners.

Over at competitor CTV, the "A" branding is finally disappearing from the company's secondary TV network, which includes outlets in Barrie (CKVR-TV), London (CFPL-TV) and Windsor/Wingham (CHWI-TV).

CTV says it will relaunch "A" this fall as "CTV2," retaining local news in each of its markets and upgrading its signals to high-definition. CTV says it's also applying to the CRTC to add a new over-the-air relay of CKVR's signal to serve viewers in Toronto and Hamilton, though we haven't seen any filings yet.

*More turbulence on the sports-radio scene: Rogers' CJCL (FAN 590) has dropped its hockey reporter, Howard Berger, after nearly a quarter of a century. The station has added Michael Grange, late of the Globe and Mail, as a commentator and as a correspondent for the Rogers SportsNet website.

*And up in Wingham, Ontario, Blackburn Radio wants to add an FM relay to its AM signal there, CKNX (920). CKNX can't move completely to FM, since Blackburn already has two Wingham FMs (CKNX-FM 101.7 and CIBU 94.5), but Blackburn wants to supplement the powerful AM signal with a 3-kw/69m FM relay on 104.3. The application says CKNX hopes to "provide fill-in coverage at night and in areas that are most affected by interference in the CKNX current licensed area"; NERW notes that the 920 signal is widely believed to have been operating with its daytime facilities most nights in recent years, at least judging by reception in our area.

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