NERW 6/16/2014: Boston’s Full of Bull

In this week’s issue… Boston’s dance FM evolves to country – New FM coming to RI? – AM talk ratings sink to all-time lows – Translators on the move near NYC – WBZ slaps down “WBZ” – PLUS: More Baseball on the Radio

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*When Clear Channel bought a third FM station in eastern MASSACHUSETTS a few years back, nobody quite understood why then-WFNX (101.7 Lynn) was worth $14 million to a company that had otherwise largely taken itself out of the acquisition game.

Three years and three formats later, it’s increasingly clear that the station now known as WEDX can only be understood as a strategic game piece in today’s cluster landscape – especially after Friday afternoon’s flip from electronic dance music (“Evolution 101.7”) to country, as “The Bull.”

Yes, we could write a few pithy paragraphs about the way in which 101.7 has pinballed from variety hits “Harbor” WHBA to dance music to country in the space of just a few years, and follow that up with some even pithier thoughts about whether there’s any place for a full-fledged EDM format on terrestrial radio, especially as “mainstream” top-40 becomes increasingly EDM-inflected. And we could go on to ponder whether “Evolution” was, no matter how tiny its overall ratings, providing a useful service by giving younger listeners a reason to check out terrestrial radio instead of drifting away to Pandora or whatever’s next.

But realistically, 101.7 is nothing more than a pawn in a bigger game, and the queen Clear Channel is trying to protect with this latest flip is its much bigger top-40 outlet, WXKS-FM (Kiss 108). With Greater Media’s country WKLB-FM (102.5) nipping at its heels for the number-one position in the ratings (both stations were up in the April PPMs, 7.2 to 7.6 for Kiss, 6.4 to 6.8 for WKLB), the flip at 101.7 is a pretty transparent attempt to shave a few fractions of a point off WKLB by providing it with a little country competition.

And make no mistake – as “The Bull” (apparently with new calls WBWL-FM on the way, though no formal request has been filed), Clear Channel will offer WKLB only a little competition. Country listeners within range of 101.7’s limited class A signal who happen to hit the “down” button on their scan during a WKLB stopset this summer will find the Bull running commercial-free through Labor Day. It will also be jock-free for at least a little while, and there’s every reason to expect that when air talent does appear in the fall, it will be mostly Clear Channel syndicated offerings such as the Bobby Bones morning show.

Can we at least conclude, if nothing else, that this latest flip fully puts to rest the idea that Boston’s not a country radio market? After all, this is now the third time in a generation that multiple stations have competed for the country audience in town: in the late 1980s, WDLW (1330) battled it out with WBOS-FM (92.9) back when country was still a niche format in town; in the mid-1990s, WBCS (96.9) duked it out with the first incarnation of WKLB-FM before Greater Media merged the two – and now this…at least until Clear Channel has some other strategic move that requires the deployment of 101.7 in another new direction.

(As for Evolution fans? The dance beats continue on WXKS-FM’s 107.9-HD2, as well as streaming on Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio.)

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*Deep in north central MASSACHUSETTS, was Steve Silberberg looking for publicity (and just a little bit of a fight) when he relaunched the former WJOE (700 Orange-Athol) as “Legends 700 WBZ” last Monday morning at 7? If the goal was to draw a quick cease-and-desist from the lawyers at CBS Radio, it sure looks like the other “WBZ” succeeded: by Monday night, the “700WBZ.com” website was down, replaced by “Legends700.com,” and the “WBZ” jingles were gone from the station’s standards format, too.

The daytimer still has the calls WWBZ, but that’s apparently acceptable – and along the way, the stunt drew plenty of trade publication coverage (including, yeah, that logo to the left right here in NERW.) Meanwhile, sister station WFNX (99.9 Athol) is chugging along with its “Vote999.com” stunt, now asking listeners to “help” pick a name to go with its variety hits format.

It took only a couple of weeks for the final piece of the callsign swap to be completed to send the WMVY calls back home to Martha’s Vineyard: as of last Monday afternoon, 88.7 in Edgartown, formerly WMEX and then briefly WMVI, is officially identifying itself as “WMVY,” while the station on 104.3 in Hartford, VERMONT that had been parking the callsign for the past year has become WECM.

*It appears our speculation last week was right on the money about Radio Vermont’s plans for WCVT (101.7 Stowe): Ken Squier’s group announced officially last week that it’s relaunching both WCVT and Rutland-market WEXP (101.5 Brandon) on July 1 as “101 The One,” simulcasting to take advantage of the adjacent-channel signals that together serve a big chunk of central Vermont. The exact format isn’t being unveiled just yet, but it’s being described as “adult,” and given that country is already well represented in both markets, that would seem to suggest some sort of AC/oldies mix for “the One.”

Brian Collamore is taking a break from the morning show at WSYB (1380 Rutland) so he can run for the state senate. For now, at least, Collamore plans to continue as the station’s sales manager, since the FCC’s equal-time rules apply only to on-air staffers.

*We don’t often engage in unsupported speculation here at NERW, but it’s hard not to speculate about why John Fuller’s Red Wolf Broadcasting is making the move it’s making in RHODE ISLAND. Fuller just received a construction permit from the FCC to move WWRX (107.7) from Ledyard, CONNECTICUT to a new city of license of Bradford, R.I.

For now, the class A 107.7 signal stays put at its present site on Wintechog Hill Road near the Foxwoods casino on the Connecticut side of the state line, but city-of-license changes like this often presage site changes, and a new city of license of Bradford would allow 107.7 to edge its transmitter fairly deep into Rhode Island, possibly as far east as the tower in Exeter from which WVEI-FM (103.7 Westerly) now reaches Providence listeners. As a class A protecting first-adjacent WXKS-FM (107.9) in Boston, a Bradford-licensed 107.7 wouldn’t be more than a rimshot into Providence, but it might have a decent signal over Kent County and the southern Providence suburbs.

Here’s where we dip even deeper into open speculation: several NERW listeners have reported hearing promos on Fuller-owned WJJF (94.9 Montauk NY) for Cumulus’ “Nash FM” national brand. Cumulus, of course, has its own Montauk-licensed station serving the New London market across the sound: WELJ (104.7) went into the Joule spinoff trust while Cumulus seeks a buyer to take the class A signal off its hands. And unlike Fuller, who’d be a standalone owner if he indeed enters the edges of the Providence market with the 107.7 signal, Cumulus has a substantial cluster of its own in Providence that’s not quite maxed out.

So – could a relocated 107.7 go to Cumulus, perhaps to fly the Nash banner over at least part of the Providence market while filling out the cluster that already includes two AMs (WPRO 630/WPRV 790) and four FMs? And could Fuller end up in exchange with not only WELJ, but perhaps more of the Cumulus New London cluster (WXLM 980, WMOS 102.3, WQGN 105.5) to add to his existing WJJF and WBMW (106.5) there?

Again, this is far more speculative than we usually get in this space…but the pieces sure do fit, don’t they?

*On to NEW YORK we go, and we start with the shocker from the April PPM ratings: the latest numbers from Nielsen Audio show what appears to be the worst numbers WABC (770) has pulled in more than half a century, dipping from 2.2 in April all the way down to 1.6 in May.

Wherever those WABC talk listeners went over the last few months, it doesn’t appear that they followed Rush Limbaugh down the dial from 770 to Clear Channel’s WOR (710). Even with the start of the Mets season to at least theoretically pull some new ears over to the 710 spot on the dial, WOR has flatlined over the last few months, 1.5-1.5-1.7-1.6.

What can we read into those numbers? To some degree, certainly, they’re a sign that the talk format in general has calcified. Underlying those weak 12+ numbers are even more appallingly weak 18-34 and 25-54 numbers, indicating (to nobody’s surprise) that what remains of the talk audience, in New York and elsewhere, is rapidly aging and that younger listeners aren’t coming in to replace them.

These numbers also reinforce something we’ve long believed: to succeed, today’s political talk needs the framework of longstanding listener heritage, in what’s almost become a host-parasite relationship. Where there are still many years of full-service habit on which to draw, stations still do well – think of WGAN in Portland, or WPRO in Providence, or WGY in Albany or WBEN in Buffalo. Without that strong news and sports heritage to surround the talk, though, the format falls apart, just as it did at WWIQ in Philadelphia or WTKK in Boston. And with all the changes that Clear Channel has wrought at WOR, and the steady erosion of any sort of local presence around the syndicated hosts at WABC, these latest ratings may indicate that whatever heritage those stations once brought to the table may no longer be a ratings boost, either.

*Plummeting ratings or not, WABC is still making some attempt to rebuild its local presence: Jerry Barmash, like your editor a member of that small fraternity of trade journalists who also do on-air radio news, has joined the station as a street reporter. Barmash, who’s been heard freelancing for Wall Street Journal Radio News and WFUV, will continue to do some occasional Journal work, as well as on-air traffic reporting.

Over at 4 Times Square, New Jersey-based religious broadcaster Bridgelight is getting ready to build new translator W236CH (95.1 Fort Greene), which will bring its programming (based at WRDR 89.7 Freehold Township NJ) into at least part of Manhattan. Bridgelight has launched a “NYC Bridge Builder” fundraising campaign to get the 10-watt signal on the air.

In Westchester County, the roof of the Trump apartment building next to the New Roc City development in New Rochelle is about to get more crowded. It became a broadcast facility a few years back when what’s now WKLV-FM (96.7 Port Chester) moved up there to broadcast EMF’s K-Love toward New York City. Now Dennis Jackson has applied to move his translator, W276BV (103.1), to that site from its current home across the CONNECTICUT state line in Greenwich. The translator is changing primary stations, too – it plans to become an 85-watt relay of WVOX (1460 New Rochelle). Will the translator change ownership at some point, too? Stay tuned…

There are translators on the move in upstate New York, too: as Lloyd Lane’s WCJW (1140) gets ready to start building out its AM daytime power increase from 2 kW to 8 kW, it’s also filing for a move on one of its five FM translators. W283AU (104.5 Eagle) would move to 104.9 in Arcade, running 90 watts to serve the southwestern corner of Wyoming County. Over in Hornell, W289AR (105.7) wants to relocate to 95.1, with 30 watts, still relaying WZHD (97.1 Canaseraga) for owner Europa Broadcasting.

Dave Radigan’s coverage of Tioga County is once again improving: in addition to the existing translators that bring WEBO (1330 Owego) to the FM dial in Owego (W300BV 107.9) and northern Tioga County (W267BV 101.3 Richford), he’s now received a license to cover for his new Waverly translator, W286CS (105.1). The new stick serves western Tioga County from a water tower northeast of the village.

In Binghamton, the translator swap between Family Life and Equinox has already shifted Family Life’s programming from W254BH (98.7) up the dial to W275BC (102.9). We noted that the 98.7 signal was silent when we were in the Triple Cities a week ago, and now we know why: instead of operating that translator from the site northeast of Binghamton it shared with 102.9, Equinox is applying to relocate 98.7 to a site on Robinson Hill Road in Endicott (not far from Clear Channel’s WBNW 105.7 tower). From there, the 98.7 signal would run 130 watts, down from its presently-licensed 250 watts but with line-of-sight coverage to much more of the population that stretches west from Binghamton. It’s just a guess – but could the relocated 98.7 end up becoming the west-side relay of modern rock “Drive” WDRE (100.5 Susquehanna PA), finally freeing up the original home of “Drive,” W283AG (104.5), to flip to the “Gold 104.5” format that’s been on Equinox advertising for several months now?

(And a correction from last week: the new 250-watt signal of Rochester translator W239BF on 95.7 comes from the American Tower site on Colfax Street serving Rochester’s west side. Now that the high-powered translator signal is on the air for new owner Entercom, “ESPN 95.7” has taken over as the primary branding on what had been “ESPN 950,” WROC, with the AM frequency now relegated to a little line under the FM frequency. With this translator on the air, there are only two Rochester AMs that haven’t at least experimented with some FM simulcasting recently – the big signal of Clear Channel’s WHAM 1180 and the less-big signal of Crawford’s religious WDCX 990.)

*Away from the world of translators, Marty Mitchell has been tapped as the new PD and morning man on Clear Channel’s WRWD country signals in the Hudson Valley (WRWD-FM 107.3 Highland, WRWB 99.3 Ellenville, WHUC 1230 Hudson). Mitchell moves north from WKMK (106.3 Eatontown NJ), where evening jock Brian Morelli will take over from him in morning drive, while programming VP AJ Colantoni handles interim PD duries. Mitchell’s arrival at WRWD appears to confirm what we’d suspected in the absence of any official announcement from the station: that veteran morning man Tommy Lee Walker, who’d been sidelined by health issues, is now gone from WRWD.

*One of western PENNSYLVANIA‘s longest-running ownership groups is expanding westward in a big way. Saul Frischling’s Steel City Media, which owns WLTJ (92.9) and WRRK (96.9) in the Pittsburgh market, was the surprise buyer in the surprise sale of Wilks Broadcasting’s four-FM cluster in Kansas City, for what’s being reported as the unexpectedly high price of $100 million. The Kansas City cluster was one of several that Wilks picked up in spinoffs from CBS Radio; back in 2006, Wilks paid $138 for Kansas City and Columbus, so mark this down as one of the few deals from the mid-2000s boom that didn’t end up losing much for the buyer in the long run.

Is there anything at all to read in here about Steel City’s larger plans? The Kansas City deal looks like a big one for the relatively small Frischling group, whose only other media interests right  now are Pittsburgh’s alt-weekly, CityPaper. Might Frischling and his sons be eyeing Renda’s WSHH (99.7), now a stand-alone with the impending sale of sister station WJAS (1320)?

*Harold Swidler and his family already held a dominant position in Cumberland County radio with the combination of classic country WIOO (1000 Carlisle), its translator on 97.9 and the more recent addition of mainstream country Citadel spinoff WCAT-FM (102.3 Carlisle). Now Swidler is cementing that dominance by buying Carlisle’s other AM station out of bankruptcy. WHYL (960 Carlisle) was WIOO’s longtime local competitor, but it’s fallen on hard times recently. Despite a hard-fought attempt by Bruce Collier and Trustworthy Radio LLC to bring WHYL back to prominence with a local AC format, the station had fallen in to bankruptcy. Swidler’s $30,000 purchase of WHYL’s license from the bankruptcy trustee not only closes the books on the WHYL-WIOO competition – it also reunites 960 with its former FM sister at 102.3 on the dial. There’s no word yet on what Swidler (doing business as “WHYL, Inc.”) has planned for WHYL, or when the silent station might get back on the air.

Kevin Fitzgerald has big plans for a little translator high in the hills of north central Pennsylvania. What’s now W259AW (99.7 Mainesburg), running just 7 watts from a rural site east of Mansfield, is applying to move to 99.9 with 250 watts in Troy, to the east. The translator, which started out as a relay of Scranton’s WVIA (89.9), will become a rebroadcaster of Fitzgerald’s WZKN (96.9 Ridgebury), extending the reach of the “KZ” network that includes both WZKN amd sister station WNKZ (103.9 Dushore).

In Hazleton, Fitzgerald is applying to move translator W283BJ (104.5), also on the books as a WVIA relay, up the dial to 105.1. With 80 watts on its new channel, the 105.1 signal would become a rebroadcaster for WAZL (1490 Hazleton).

Mary Medicus is selling a translator in Jonestown, east of Lebanon, to Family Life Ministries. W284CF (104.7) currently relays K-Love outlet WLKA (88.3 Tafton). It’s selling to Family Life for $14,000.

Where Are They Now? Veteran Harrisburg jock Bruce Bond has returned to the airwaves, at least for one day a week. The longtime fixture on WNNK (104.1), sidelined for a while after a conviction on charges he forged a check, is now doing Saturday mornings, 9 AM until noon, on rocker WTPA (92.1 Palmyra).

*In NEW JERSEY, there’s a big name coming to the statewide public television network. Starting next month, former CNN anchor Mary Alice Williams will take over from Mike Schneider as the anchor of the nightly “NJTV News.” Schneider, who’s hosted the nightly newscast (originally “NJ Today”) since the former NJN was relaunched as NJTV in 2011, will remain with the network as a senior correspondent.

*It was a quiet week in CANADA, where the new CFL team in the nation’s capital launched its inaugural radio deal. A.J. Jakubec and Jeff Avery will be in the booth for the broadcasts on Rogers’ CFGO (TSN Radio 1200). Lee Versage and Ken Evraire will handle pre- and post-game duties.

Way up north in Timmins, Ontario, Eternacom wants to put a new Christian station on the air to fill the void left by defunct CHIM (103.5). The new Eternacom signal would run 800 watts/61 m on 105.5, mostly simulcasting “KFM” CJTK (95.5) from Sudbury, with some local inserts.

In eastern Quebec, the folks at CHNC in New Carlisle have been struggling to replicate the coverage they gave up when they moved their signals from AM to FM a few years back. The latest upgrade is to repeater CHGM (99.3 Gaspe), which just won a power increase from 257 watts average/458 watts max DA/73 m to 2.54 kW/76 m. CHNC will also add a relay on 106.7 in Riviere-au-Renard, with 325 watts average/520 watts max DA/195 m.

*We’re already within sight of the All-Star break in the majors, but our Baseball on the Radio coverage here in NERW traditionally goes all the way down the food chain to the short season single-A New York-Penn League, where play is just getting underway as many of the players wrap up their college seasons.

We’ll start this year with the Lowell Spinners in Massachusetts, back on WCAP (980) for a full season of home and away games. The Connecticut Tigers return to WICH (1310) for a fifth season, and the Vermont Lake Monsters are in their second season on WEAV (960), transmitting from across the lake in Plattsburgh, N.Y.

Broadcast coverage returns this year for the Staten Island Yankees, whose 38 home games will be heard on WSIA (88.9) with the help of student broadcasters from the College of Staten Island. It’s the first time the SI Yanks have had regular radio coverage since their previous stint on WSIA, which lasted from the team’s 1999 inaugural season until 2005.

The Hudson Valley Renegades appear to be back to webcast-only, unless their page on the website of last year’s flagship, WKIP (1450 Poughkeepsie), just hasn’t been updated. The Auburn Doubledays are back on WAUB (1590), for road games only, with Syracuse University senior Evan Weston in the booth. The Batavia Muckdogs continue their long relationship with WBTA (1490).

In Pennsylvania, it’s status quo: once again, WLYC (1050, plus a translator at 104.1) is home to the Williamsport Crosscutters and WZWW (95.3 Bellefonte) to the State College Spikes.

There’s no radio once again this year, as best we can tell, for the Jamestown Jammers (likely in their last season in the Southern Tier), the Tri-City Valley Cats of Troy or the Brooklyn Cyclones.

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