A Rough Week for Radio

It's been a couple of months since we posted our "open letter" to NERW/fybush.com readers announcing some upcoming changes to the site.

The response has been unbelievably gratifying: already, hundreds of you have signed up for subscriptions to the new version of fybush.com, and many of you have sent along very kind notes of thanks and support.

And after some delays, this is the week when we finally flip the proverbial switch (or, perhaps, to hit the proverbial "plates on" button).

If you've already subscribed...you'll get login information for the new site in your e-mail within the next few days. If all goes well, we'll move over to our new servers on Wednesday, November 2 - and after a short transition period, much of the information there will be available only to our paid subscribers. (Fear not - we won't bring the paywall into place until everyone who's subscribed has their login information in hand!)

Please note that some services at fybush.com will be inaccessible for a time on Wednesday, and possibly Thursday as well. Please bookmark www.fybush.org as an alternate web address to reach our archival content, and you can e-mail me at my gmail address (last name at gmail dot com) if fybush.com e-mail is down for the count during the switch.

If you're not yet a paid subscriber, we hope you'll join us soon. (All one-year subscriptions entered before the changeover will run through the end of November, 2012, so there's no advantage to waiting until the last minute.)

Thanks for your patience. It's a big transition for us (our first redesign since...gulp...2001), and we appreciate your support as we work our way through it.

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TOWER SITE CALENDAR 2012...ORDER NOW!

A decade ago, it was just a goofy idea: "Hey, you should put some of those tower pictures into a calendar!"

But when Tower Site Calendar 2002 appeared, it was a hit - and ten years later, the fun still hasn't stopped.

And now it's that moment at least some of you have been waiting for: the release of our latest edition, Tower Site Calendar 2012, seen for the very first time right here!

As befits a tenth-anniversary edition, this one's special: in addition to all the great tower photos and historic dates you've come to expect from our calendars, the new 2012 edition is our first-ever themed calendar, paying special homage to the many stations that began broadcasting during radio's first big boom year of 1922.

The 2012 edition brings something else that's new to the Tower Site Calendar: the option of a spiral-bound edition that will hang flatter on your wall.

The calendars are back from the printer, and the first shipments went out to early purchasers on Saturday. But don't worry: we still have plenty of both versions of the calendar (plus the signed, limited-edition version) on hand. So don't miss your chance to be part of the very first shipments...or to make your 2012 calendar order part of the subscription you'll soon need to continue enjoying all of the features of fybush.com.

Order now - or subscribe - at the fybush.com Store!

• HELP WANTED

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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: November 1, 2010 -

• Three NERW-land stations tied for the title of "first all-Christmas flips" when they kicked off November by going 24/7 holiday music: in the Albany market, both Clear Channel's WTRY (98.3 Rotterdam) and Townsquare's WBZZ (105.7 Malta, now "Santa 105.7") made the flip Monday morning, as did Equity Communications' WEZW (93.1 Wildwood Crest) on the Jersey shore. And as the countdown on the "Santa 105.7" website helpfully reminds us, it's still 53 days until Christmas... (More Christmas? Why, yes: CNYRadio.com reports Galaxy's WZUN (102.1) in Syracuse and WUMX (102.5) in Rome also made the flip on Monday.)
• Want to keep a room full of media historians busy for hours? Just stick your head in the door, ask them, "Was KDKA the first radio station?" and run. But whether or not that November 2, 1920 election-night broadcast by KDKA in Pittsburgh, PENNSYLVANIA in fact marked the start of radio in the United States (and there's plenty of well-documented evidence to suggest that everything KDKA did that night had been done elsewhere, earlier), it unquestionably marked the breakthrough of radio into the national consciousness - and thus radio's transition from a curious hobby to a new mass medium. The Westinghouse publicity machine that propelled KDKA into the history books survives today under the station's current CBS ownership, and so it should come as no surprise that the station is marking tomorrow's 90th anniversary in style. In partnership with the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh's Strip District, KDKA hosted a weekend open house that featured appearances by KDKA personalities, a slide show of the station's highlights and a display of artifacts that included that transmitter shown above, a 1930s-era replica (including some original parts) of the transmitter used on that fateful night in 1920. The celebration continues Tuesday with live broadcasts from the Heinz center, featuring Marty Griffin, Robert Mangino and Rob Pratt from 9 AM until noon and Pratte, Mike Pintek and Bill Rehkopf from noon until 3 PM.
• In Philadelphia, Christmas tunes have arrived on the radio dial - not on the analog side, at least not as of late Sunday night, but on three HD2 subchannels. WPEN-FM (97.5 Burlington NJ) resurrected the very same Christmas programming (imaging and all) that it was running on 97.5-HD2 last year as "Now FM," WNUW, and Greater Media is reportedly simulcasting that relic of "Now FM" on the 95.7-HD2 of WBEN-FM. Meanwhile, Jerry Lee's WBEB (101.1) has put Christmas music on 101.1-HD2.
• The big news this week out of MASSACHUSETTS is all about Catholic radio, starting at 1060 on the dial this morning at 8. That's when WQOM (1060 Natick) will return to the airwaves as an all-Catholic outlet of Buffalo-based Holy Family Communications. The inaugural program on WQOM will be a live Mass from the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, celebrated by Boston Archbishop Cardinal Seán O’Malley, and while the station is boasting "50,000 watts of power," it's still not clear whether construction has been completed (or even begun) on the station's full daytime facilities at the Ashland transmitter site, shared with WAMG (890 Dedham), that it's been using for nighttime operation. In its prior incarnation as WBIX, 1060 transmitted by day from the old WKOX (1200) facility in Framingham, but WQOM didn't pick up the lease on the studio/transmitter facilities there.
• Over in Worcester, Catholic programming is coming to WNEB (1230) as Blount Masscom sells the 1000-watt signal to a new company called Emmanuel Communications. Emmanuel will pay $500,000 for WNEB, which presently does Spanish talk as "Radio Sol."
• We start our Empire State coverage in western NEW YORK, where "Slick Tom" Tiberi is back on the air at WGRF (96.9), two years to the month after losing his evening airshift on "97 Rock" to Citadel budget cuts. Tiberi tells the Buffalo News he's being paid less now than he made when he was dismissed in 2008 - but he's happy to be back on the air at all, connecting with a fan base that stayed with him during his absence through podcasts on Tiberi's website, slicktom.com.

Five Years Ago: October 30, 2006 -

• Even as Clear Channel was making national headlines over the possibility that it might go private, the company quietly went through a "restructuring" on Friday that leaves several veteran employees in western NEW YORK out of work. While the in-house memo that went out Friday afternoon said "these individuals have not been fired," we're not sure how else to describe the status of the five Clear Channel Radio employees in Rochester who are collecting severance pay and unemployment checks this week. Craig Kingcaid was the cluster's chief engineer; Susan Ashline had been reporting for WHAM (1180) for several years; Rob Jason had joined the WHAM news staff just last year after leaving the executive producer's slot at WROC-TV (Channel 8); Mike DiGiorgio was Bob Lonsberry's producer for his midday talk show; and Jonathan Wallace was in the promotions department. (Another veteran of the cluster, Dan Guilfoyle, left the sales department recently in what was apparently an unrelated move; we're also hearing that some of the remaining staffers may have some of their titles shuffled.)
• The memo says the "restructured" employees will be encouraged to apply for jobs elsewhere in the company, including (we'd presume) the "many new positions (that) are being created during this restructure in an effort to continue to super-serve our advertising and listening community." It goes on to say "the positions being created will focus on our online products and will also include an expansion of our sales force." And, oh yes - it reminds the remaining staffers that "those outside of our stations may not fully comprehend the changes that are taking place," and reminds them not to talk to the media, leaving that duty to the cluster's market manager. Since the news broke late on Friday, and NERW goes to press Sunday night, we've been unable to reach the local management; we'll be happy to report their comments in next week's issue.
• Longtime New York program director John Mainelli is returning to the PD chair, this time at CBS Radio's "Free FM" WFNY-FM (92.3). Mainelli, whose resume includes stops at WABC and WOR, was most recently the radio reporter for the New York Post - even while continuing to do consulting for talk radio around the country.
• In Westchester County, Bill O'Shaughnessy is bringing a venerable callsign back to the airwaves. On Wednesday (Nov. 1), he'll flip WRTN (93.5 New Rochelle) to WVIP-FM, paying tribute to the late Martin Stone's WVIP in Mount Kisco, an erstwhile sister station to O'Shaughnessy's WVOX (1460). The WVIP calls are still in use on 1310 in Mount Kisco, though that station's now merely a simulcast of Spanish religious WWRV (1330 New York); the former WVIP-FM on 106.3 in Mount Kisco is now WFAF.
• Western MASSACHUSETTS' new sports station signed on right on schedule Thursday afternoon at 2, as Entercom put WVEI-FM (105.5 Easthampton) on the air from Mount Tom. Before the station's simulcast of WEEI (850 Boston) kicked in, it stunted for a few hours with readings from Dr. Seuss books, paying tribute to the author's hometown, Springfield. WVEI-FM will take the Red Sox broadcast rights from Springfield's WHYN (560) and Northampton's WHMP (1400) next season; the Sox will apparently continue on WHMP simulcast WHMQ (1240 Greenfield).
• It's the end of an era in Atlantic CANADA: CHNS (960) in Halifax, Nova Scotia is silent for good, now that Maritime Broadcasting System has completed its AM-to-FM conversion. CHNS-FM (89.9) signed on in July as classic rock "Hal FM." With the three-month simulcast period over, so is the run of CHNS on AM, which dated back to 1926.

10 Years Ago: October 29, 2001 -

• The doors have been spinning in radio managers' offices all over MASSACHUSETTS this week, at two of the biggest clusters in Boston. We'll start at Clear Channel, where some old familiar faces are back on the job in the Waltham studios of WJMN (94.5 Boston). Just a few months after leaving the PD chair at "Jam'n" to take over the same seat at crosstown WXKS-FM (107.9 Medford), a bout of management consolidation has "Cadillac Jack" McCartney taking that job back. McCartney will now handle programming for both "Jam'n," with its urban-CHR sound, and "Kiss 108," Clear Channel's more mainstream entry in the CHR battle - a far cry from the old days, when the two stations (and WJMN predecessor WZOU) were bitter rivals. WJMN PD Dennis O'Heron stays with Clear Channel, becoming marketing director of both stations, while WXKS-FM music director Kid David adds the same duties at WJMN, displacing Michelle Williams, who departs the station.
• But wait - there are changes on-air as well at "Jam'n," beginning with morning drive, where Baltazar is out of the morning show, replaced by afternoon drive jock Ramiro Torrez. Morning co-host Pebbles stays. And AllAccess reports that both stations will go voicetracked during overnights beginning January 1, 2002, thus also displacing WXKS' Chris Shine.
• Religious satellator news: The "Living Proof" folks have managed to get their application for a new 91.7 in Lunenburg reinstated, which can't be good news for Boston's WUMB (though there's probably not much they can do to prevent the incursion into their chain of signals on 91.9 in Boston and Worcester and Maynard's WAVM on 91.7); meanwhile, down on Nantucket, a settlement finds "Broadcasting for the Challenged" yielding to "Nantucket Public Radio" for the 89.5 frequency there. That new station will run 78 watts vertical, 500 watts horizontal at 36 meters AAT from a stick on Swain Hill, a mile or so west of Nantucket village. (We're sure Nantucket fans of Boston's WGBH will be none too thrilled about this one...) 2006 Update - We were wrong about WUMB, which did find a way to keep Living Proof from doing too much damage to its signals. But we were mostly right about the WGBH fans on Nantucket; in the end, Nantucket Public Radio's WNCK on 89.5 ended up as a simulcast of WGBH for that very reason.
• While we're down that way, we note the passing of one of Boston sports radio's most prolific callers. "Butch from the Cape," aka Thomas Speers, died October 17 of cancer. The former bar owner became a regular on WEEI when it went all-sports a decade ago, mocking the Red Sox and other Hub teams. Speers had lived in Connecticut before moving to the Cape, and was charged with harassment (though later acquitted) for making anti-Semitic calls to a radio host in Waterbury; he also served prison time for running gambling rings in the Nutmeg State. Speers, who had been honored by WEEI when he disclosed his illness last year (in an event called "Butchiepalooza"), was 58.
• Two call changes from VERMONT and NEW HAMPSHIRE: WCFR-FM (93.5 Springfield VT) changes calls to WXKK, to match country simulcast "Kixx" partner WXXK (100.5 Lebanon NH), while the WCFR-FM calls pop up across the Connecticut River at the former WLPL (96.3 Walpole NH), which in turn simulcasts oldies WWOD (104.3 Hartford VT).
• Just to add to the simulcast fun: WMXR (93.9 Woodstock), which had been simulcasting country with the Springfield station, has dropped out of that format in favor of a simulcast with classic rock WVRR (101.7 Newport NH).

15 Years Ago: New England Radio Watch, October 30, 1996

• After 52 years of radio and 70 years of a full life, Norm Nathan passed away on Tuesday night, October 29, at his home in Middleton, Massachusetts. Norm was not only one of the finest broadcasters New England has ever known, but he was also a colleague and, I'm proud to say, a friend. I trust NERW readers will understand if I depart from the usual rundown of news items and indulge in some remembrances of Norm.
• Over the years, Norm came to find himself as the last of the breed, as colleagues such as Jess Cain, Dave Maynard, and Larry Glick left radio or went into semi-retirement. I know Norm was crushed when his old radio home, WHDH, disappeared from the airwaves in August 1994, especially when he found out the last noise heard on the station was a toilet flushing. In the end, Norm's show sat alone even on WBZ. At the end of a week filled with hard news and the political, hard-edged talk of David Brudnoy and Bob Raleigh, Norm's show was where we all went for a soft chuckle, a smile, and the feeling that there was somebody out there who just wanted to cheer you up.
• There's something more than a little bit eerie about the timing of Norm's death. For the last few months, WBZ has been in the process of moving out of its old studios, and into a new facility on the other side of the building. The new studios are cleaner, brighter, and better-equipped...but I will never picture Norm anywhere other than in the dark, somewhat musty old talk studio. It was just a few days ago that they finished tearing out the guts of that studio, and it was unsettling to walk into that familiar room and find only an empty physical space. Suddenly, it's not merely physically empty; there's a huge spiritual hole there too. It's 2 A.M. as I write this; Norm's time of the night. This was the hour when he hit his stride, making life a little brighter for listeners all along the path of BZ's booming signal. Norm's producer, Tony Nesbitt, found the right phrase on BZ tonight, when he talked about "a hole 38 states wide." So did another colleague, who asked simply, "What will I listen to now?" Out there in the vast corporate world that's radio in the 1990s, there are still a few remnants left of a simpler time, in the days before shock jocks and satellites, when a jazz record and a joke could be the foundation for a half-century of great radio. We've just lost one of the best. Goodbye, old sport.
• There's one fewer silent AM station in Massachusetts this week, with the return to the airwaves of Worcester's WNEB (1230). The station has been silent since 1991, but it signed back on last Thursday (Oct. 24) under the ownership of Bob Bittner, who also owns WJIB (740) Cambridge and recently sold WKBR (1250) in Manchester NH. WNEB uses 947 watts, non-directional, from the old tower site on Worcester's west side, near Chandler Street. Programming for now is largely a simulcast of WJIB's beautiful-music, although plans include Spanish-language broadcasts at night.
• With WNEB's return, only two AMs in Massachusetts remain silent, and in danger of losing their licenses in February: WBIV (1060) in Natick and WCEG (1530) in Middleborough.
• In business news, SFX Broadcasting's Hartford group has hit near-maximum size with last week's purchase of WWYZ (92.5 Waterbury). "Country 92.5" was owned by the Gilmore family, who will keep their WATR (1320) in Waterbury, along with $25.25 million of SFX's cash. SFX's Hartford properties include WKSS (95.7, CHR), WHCN (105.9, classic rock), WMRQ (104.1 Waterbury, modern rock), and WPOP (1410, mews-talk). The company also owns WPKX (97.9 Enfield CT) in the Springfield MA market and WPLR (99.1) New Haven, which has an LMA with Yale University's WYBC (94.3).
• Boston University's public radio station is about to expand its reach on Cape Cod. WBUR (90.9) already simulcasts most of its programming on three small Cape noncomms, WSDH (91.5) at Sandwich High School, WKKL (90.7) at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable, and WCCT (90.3) at Cape Cod Voc-Tech in Harwich. Now WBUR is buying car dealer Ernie Boch's WUOK (1240) in West Yarmouth. WUOK has been simulcasting sister FM WXTK (94.9) for a year or so...but it can trace its roots all the way back as the Cape's oldest station, WOCB.