In this week’s issue… Illegal move for Western NY FM – Bittner adds Maine AM – New sports talker coming to NE PA? – Bill Kelly, RIP
By SCOTT FYBUSH
*It’s been almost a year since the August 13, 2012 edition of NERW carried this little item from western NEW YORK: “Northeast of Buffalo in Medina, WFWO (89.7) has applied for a license to cover, though our ears in Orleans County don’t report having heard the black gospel station (programmed from Buffalo, in the old WKBW-TV studios at 1420 Main Street) on the air at all yet.”
What’s happened behind the scenes in the eleven months since that brief item makes for a fascinating story in FCC enforcement and the lengths to which some broadcasters will go to get a signal to their target audience, license or not – and now we can finally tell the whole story.
The license that would become WFWO was applied for back in 2007 by the Maine-based Positive Radio Network. As the three-year expiration date on its construction permit ticked away in August 2010, Positive (which owns WMSJ 89.3 up in Freeport) sold the CP to Fellowship World, the church run by Rev. John Young from the old WKBW-TV (Channel 7) studios at 1420 Main Street in Buffalo. Fellowship World paid $10,000 for the CP, which Young said at the time would replace his leased-time programming on Citadel’s WHLD (1270 Niagara Falls).
What did Young want with a 2200-watt signal (later reduced to 400 watts to be more quickly buildable before CP expiration) way out in Medina? Not much, apparently; in 2011, he applied to move the WFWO CP to Newfane, in Niagara County, though the FCC rejected that application for failing to include a “gain/loss analysis.” (With the large number of signals that cover Niagara County and relatively few in Orleans, it’s not an analysis that would have favored the proposed move.)
What Young did want, though, was to serve Buffalo – and the FCC says he went about it in a highly improper way. Last week, Fellowship World was hit with an $8,000 Notice of Apparent Liability after the FCC determined that Young was illegally operating a one-watt transmitter from the roof of his studio building in Buffalo, more than 30 miles away from the licensed site in Orleans County. Young told the Commission that he had put that low-power signal on the air from Buffalo after being forced to turn off his Medina signal due to the need to trim trees around the antenna site – but after an initial FCC visit in which Young was advised to turn the Buffalo signal off, a repeat FCC visit found the Buffalo transmitter on the air again. At that point, Young told the inspector “one of his children” had apparently turned the transmitter on without his permission.
That much, you may have already read in other trades – but there’s actually much more to this little story, and here’s what we can tell you exclusively:
When WFWO filed for its license to cover last August, NERW took a little drive over to the supposed transmitter site in the hamlet of Knowlesville, along the Erie Canal east of Medina. Repeated drives along Presbyterian Road turned up no sign at all of the supposed 32-meter-tall antenna structure, nor was any signal audible on 89.7 – and what’s more, none of the neighbors we talked to had seen any sign of a radio station being built.
In fact, at no time since August 2012 have we ever heard or seen any sign that WFWO was ever operating legally from the Knowlesville site, casting doubt on Young’s assertion to the FCC about the reason why the station allegedly had to go off the air out there. (It wasn’t until April 2013 that WFWO finally filed for special temporary authority to go silent from the supposed Knowlesville location.)
What’s more, Young told the FCC that he’d turned the Knowlesville transmitter off on October 13, 2012 – but by then, NERW had already traveled to Buffalo to check out reports of an 89.7 signal being heard in the city. As early as October 6, NERW readers were telling us they were hearing 89.7 coming from somewhere around 1420 Main Street, and a few days after that (but before that October 13 date), we snapped these pictures of an FM antenna mounted on the chimney at 1420 Main and heard “Totally Gospel” programming loud and clear throughout a big chunk of the city. Subsequent direction-finding pegged the signal as almost certainly emanating from 1420 Main Street.
And that leads us to some interesting questions about what the FCC has done thus far and what it may yet do.
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In particular: if WFWO was never built in Knowlesville – and it certainly appears to us that it was not – then its application for a license to cover can’t have been valid. And if its application for a license to cover was invalid, and the underlying CP has since expired (which it did on July 28, 2012), then it appears WFWO may have no legal authority under which to operate at all. (Nor does it appear that there was ever a legal main studio established within 25 miles of Medina.)
Will the FCC be satisfied with Young’s explanations? Will WFWO face more intense FCC scrutiny when and if it applies to renew its silent STA, which it will have to do in October? And if the Commission finds out that WFWO was, in fact, never built at its licensed site, how much enforcement power will it put behind that reminder, right below Young’s signature on the license to cover application, that “WILLFUL FALSE STATEMENTS ON THIS FORM ARE PUNISHABLE BY FINE AND/OR IMPRISONMENT (U.S. CODE, TITLE 18, SECTION 1001), AND/OR REVOCATION OF ANY STATION LICENSE OR CONSTRUCTION PERMIT (U.S. CODE, TITLE 47, SECTION 312(a)(1)), AND/OR FORFEITURE (U.S. CODE, TITLE 47, SECTION 503)”?
We’ll continue to follow this story closely in the weeks and months to come…stay tuned.
*One more bit of Buffalo news, this one completely legal: there’s a schedule shuffle underway at Entercom’s WBEN (930)/WLKK (107.7). Starting next Monday, it appears that veteran afternoon talker Sandy Beach will shift from his present 3-6 PM slot to the 9 AM-noon slot; the move will swap Tom Bauerle into afternoons, and based on Bauerle’s tweets, it appears he’ll be on from 3-7 PM, eliminating the 6 PM news hour that’s been a longtime WBEN staple. Could the swap be a prelude to retirement down the road for Beach, who’s been a part of the Buffalo radio dial since arriving at WKBW (1520) from Hartford way back in 1968?
*There’s a talk shift underway in the New York City market, too, where former governor David Paterson is returning to the airwaves after being dropped when Clear Channel took over his former station, WOR (710). Paterson – or at least his “Saturday Night Live” doppelganger played by Fred Armisen – wouldn’t want to admit that his new radio home is really in NEW JERSEY, at Salem’s WNYM (970 Hackensack), where he’s now co-hosting the 5-7 PM shift with Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa will keep doing morning drive along with the now-renamed “Curtis and the Gov” afternoon show.
*It’s the end of the line for “Apple 107.1, Inc.” in its attempt to squeeze a new translator into the heart of New York City. Mike and Tammy Celenza’s struggle to move their little translator from 107.1 to 106.3 and into Manhattan drew big headlines in this space last year as the translator moved from downtown Brooklyn to Manhattan, then retreated to low-power operation in Long Island City, and then, under STA, all the way out to the Queens/Nassau line to avoid further complaints of interference from Press Communications’ WKMK (106.3 Eatontown NJ). Now the translator, W292DV, is applying to be licensed from its new home at the North Shore Towers. With just 10 watts from out there, W292DV won’t be much use as a relay of WVIP (93.5 New Rochelle), and if the Celenzas’ intent was to sell the translator for a big profit, it certainly won’t realize the money it could have brought had it been able to operate from Manhattan.
Another translator in the New York metro area is having a better week: W232AL (94.3 Pomona) has been granted its proposed upgrade from 3 watts to 150 watts. For now, the Bridgelight translator remains at its existing Rockland County site, but it’s changing primary stations from WJUX (99.7 Monticello) to Cumulus’ WPLJ (95.5 New York). An earlier proposal to move 94.3 over to Westchester County and relay WFAS (1230 White Plains) was withdrawn – but could it still be revived later on? And will the translator relay WPLJ’s main channel, or the True Oldies Channel on HD2? We’ll be watching…
There’s word that silent WNYX (88.1 Montgomery) has returned to the air with a relay of WFMU (91.1 East Orange NJ). WNYX had gone silent on Oct. 1, 2011, and its owner John Katonah died in April 2012, which may explain why we didn’t see any further applications to renew its silent status after hitting the one-year mark last October.
Where are they now? Former WQXR (96.3) announcer Candice Agree has landed a new big-city classical gig. Agree was one of the WQXR announcers left jobless when the New York Times sold the station in 2009, and since then she’s been working at WDAV (89.9) down in the Charlotte, N.C. market as well as pursuing a voiceover career that includes a longtime stint as the announcer for “CBS News Sunday Morning.” Now Agree has signed on as a music host/producer at WFMT (98.7 Chicago), the largest commercial classical station still standing. (And if you’re paying attention, that makes her the second NERW-land classical host to land a gig at WFMT in as many weeks, following the arrival of Suzanne Nance from Maine Public Broadcasting.)
*Back upstate, Genesee Media is applying for a power boost at one of its newly-acquired Rochester-area stations. WRSB (1310 Canandaigua) now runs 1000 watts full-time, but it’s requesting a daytime increase to 2500 watts. That boost will push out WRSB’s 2 mV/m daytime contour to encompass the eastern edge of Rochester, increasing the footprint the new “Business 1310” could cover with an FM translator.
In Utica, the new AHL hockey team has a radio home when it starts play this fall. The Utica Comets will be heard on Galaxy’s WKLL (94.9 Frankfort), with Brendan Burke continuing on in the announcing booth as the team relocates from Peoria, where it was known as the Rivermen.
More translator news: in Ithaca, FMX Broadcasting (Finger Lakes Radio Group) has applied for a license to cover on its new W235BR (94.9), which is relaying WNYR (98.5 Waterloo). The new translator gives the Radio Group 3 signals in the market, alongside WFIZ (95.5 Odessa) and the 96.3 relay of rocker “Wall” WLLW (99.3 Seneca Falls).
To the west, several area broadcasters are revising their translator applications to avoid a nasty mutually-exclusive situation that would lead to an auction. If the modifications are granted, Pembrook Pines would shift its Bath application for a relay of WKPQ (105.3 Hornell) from 106.7 to 107.1, clearing the way for Calvary Chapel of the Finger Lakes to be granted 106.5 in Bath, relaying WZXV (99.7 Palmyra). In Elmira, Fitzgerald and Hawras would move their Horseheads application for a relay of WPHD (96.1 South Waverly PA) from 107.1 to 107.7, clearing the way for Pembrook Pines’ 106.9 Elmira application for a relay of WOKN (99.5 Southport).
Out in eastern Long Island, Juan Alberto Ayala is modifying his application for a new 94.1 translator in Flanders to specify 94.5 instead, still relaying WSUF (89.9 Noyock).
*What’s Entercom up to in northeast PENNSYLVANIA? It appears this week will mark the end of “The Mountain” and its AAA format on WDMT (102.3 Pittston) and the launch of a new sports talker to compete with Bold Gold Media’s “Game” simulcast based at WICK (1400 Scranton) and Shamrock’s ESPN outlet, WEJL (630 Scranton)/WBAX (1240 Wilkes-Barre) and their FM translators. Our content partners at RadioInsight report that Entercom has registered a series of new domains including “102theScore.com” and, interestingly, “SportsHub102.com,” borrowing the nickname of its sports arch-enemy in Boston, where Entercom’s WEEI competes against CBS Radio’s “Sports Hub” WBZ-FM. WDMT already has one key piece of the region’s sports puzzle, carrying play-by-play of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League.
Some translator news from the Keystone State: Temple University’s W214AC (90.7 York) has been forced off the air due to interference with a new Four Rivers Community Broadcasters “Word FM” signal, WZXY (90.7 Spring Grove). Now the translator, which relays Philadelphia’s WRTI (90.1) by way of WJAZ (91.7 Summerdale-Harrisburg), is applying to relocate to 99.7 to resume its service to York.
As Family Stations, Inc. continues to sell off its signals, it’s parting with a translator in Carlisle. W269AS (101.7) had been relaying WKDN-FM (106.9 Camden NJ) before that station was sold; it’s one of two Family translators going to EMF Broadcasting in a $50,000 deal.
In Williamsport, Family Life Ministries is modifying its application for a new South Williamsport relay of WCOG (100.7 Galeton) to specify 96.7 instead of 97.1, freeing it from a mutually-exclusive conflict that would have sent it to auction.
There’s a similar modification going on in south Jersey, where Susan Clinton’s application for 93.1 in Atlantic City has been modified to 93.5, relaying WOND (1400 Pleasantville) instead of WAWZ-FM (99.1 Zarephath).
*In MAINE, our friend Bob Bittner has scored another broadcast bargain. We’re still in awe, more than two decades later, at Bob’s alacrity in snapping up what was then WLVG (740) in the Boston market for just $277,115 at auction in the early 1990s. Now he’s picked up a 5,000-watt fulltime AM signal for just $16,200.
The station is WFAU (1280 Gardiner), and it comes with a big catch: Blueberry Broadcasting is selling it so cheaply because it’s not operating at full power. Last November, it applied to operate with its nighttime antenna pattern during the day because of problems with its antenna switching system, and it went silent at the beginning of July after Blueberry determined that the cost of repairs would be “prohibitive.”
Bittner’s purchase, by way of his Blue Jey Broadcasting, includes the station’s current three-tower array and the land below it; will he fix the station at that site, or will he move it elsewhere? Either way, we expect WFAU to return as a simulcast of Bob’s WJTO (730 Bath), playing a soft mix of AC and standards; it certainly won’t return with the format it was using before it went dark, when it was part of Blueberry’s “Fox Sports Maine” simulcast – later flipped to CBS Sports Radio. That format continues on WIGY (97.5 Madison) and WVOM (1450 Rockland).
*In MASSACHUSETTS, there’s a promotion at public broadcaster WGBH. Ted Canova, who’s been executive editor for news since joining WGBH in 2011, is now the station’s Managing Director/News Director, overseeing the news on WGBH (89.7) and the daily “Greater Boston” on WGBH-TV (Channel 2). Canova has also worked in the region at WJAR (Channel 10) in Providence, as well as a long run in Minneapolis at WCCO-TV, KMSP-TV and Minnesota Public Radio.
Down the street at CBS Radio, Kwame Dankwa has joined WODS (103.3 AMP Radio) for weekends. That makes for a busy schedule for Dankwa, who’s PD during the week up in Vermont at Pamal’s WZRT (97.1 Rutland). And while we’re in the Brighton broadcast zone, there’s a new imaging director at Entercom’s WAAF (107.3)/WKAF (97.7): Andrew Kaiser joins the station August 5, moving up from CONNECTICUT‘s WMRQ (104.1 Waterbury), where he was music director and night jock.
In western Massachusetts, John Montanari is retiring at the end of the year after a 35-year run with WFCR (88.5 Amherst), much of that time as morning host after WFCR dropped the Boston-based “Morning Pro Musica” back in 1989.
*Out in northern California, they’re mourning Bill Kelly, who died over the weekend after fighting cancer. Before Kelly’s long run in mornings at KEZR (106.5) in San Jose, he’d worked alongside Al Kline at several NERW-land stations. They were “Bill and Al” at WPJB (105.1) in Providence, RHODE ISLAND in the early 1980s, then became “Kelly and Kline” at WTIC-FM (96.5) in Hartford and at WDBZ (105.1) in New York City during that station’s brief existence in the mid-1990s.
*A translator move in NEW HAMPSHIRE: New Hampshire Public Radio had applied for 95.9 in Plymouth to relay WEVO (89.1 Concord), but has shifted that application to 96.5 in Holderness.
Over at Binnie Media, there’s a new production director coming on board: CNYRadio.com reports Ted Bilodeau is inbound from Syracuse, where he was production director at Galaxy Communications, where he also did middays at WZUN (102.1 Phoenix) and WUMX (102.5 Rome) as “Steve Kelley.”
*And there’s some translator news from VERMONT, too: Dennis Jackson has applied to shift his South Burlington translator application from 102.9 to 92.1 to get it out of a mutually-exclusive pile-up; if granted, the new signal will relay WCLX (102.5 Westport).
*Our CANADA news starts with digital TV: on July 5, CKWS-TV (Channel 11) in Kingston flash-cut to digital on RF 11, and we’re hearing it’s carrying several Corus sister stations on its subchannels, a rarity in Canada. They’re not video, mind you, just audio relays of CKWS-FM (104.3) and CFMK (96.3).
CKWS is getting a new boss, too: Corus has hired Mario Cecchini to oversee its radio and TV operations in Kingston, Cornwall and Peterborough, as well as the Ottawa stations (CKQB 106.9 and CJOT 99.7) and the Montreal-based cable networks it’s buying out of the Bell/Astral merger. Cecchini, who’ll start his new job September 2, has been senior VP for radio at Astral; he’d previously worked for Corus overseeing its Quebec radio holdings.
To the west, Global’s CIII-DT in Paris, Ontario has completed its shift from RF 6 (where it operated in its analog days) to RF 17.
In Toronto, the CRTC has approved the application from La Coopérative Radiophonique de Toronto inc. for a site change at French-language community station CHOQ (105.1). The station will leave its current site up in North York and move to the First Canadian Place tower in downtown Toronto, dropping power (from 570 watts average/1 kW max DA to 188 watts average/1.5 kW max DA) but significantly increasing height, going from 103 to 275 meters above average terrain.
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It’s July – do you know where your Tower Site Calendar is? If you don’t, why not? If you haven’t bought it yet, what are you waiting for? They’re 50% off the regular price and will be for the rest of this year, so get yours today! The months may have passed, but the pictures are timeless! (They make great posters, too.)
When you order the calendar, be sure to check out our other merchandise, including a scale model of the KSAN-AM radio tower.
And watch this space in the next few weeks as we begin pre-orders of the all-new Tower Site Calendar 2014, which is now in production!
Who’ll be featured in the next edition of the world’s most popular radio tower calendar? Stay tuned…
From the NERW ArchivesYup, 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: July 23, 2012 *In 18 years of writing this column, it”s hard to recall a summer week as jam-packed with news as these past seven days in NERW-land have been. Rock back in New York, modern rock gone in Boston, a big cluster of TV stations sold, a prominent radio cluster for sale…oh, and the very imminent end of most TV reception across big swaths of Canada, too.
After a day of reminiscing with just about everyone who passed through the doors of 25 Exchange Street since WFNX”s launch back in 1983, Robert closed out WFNX”s final hour with David Bowie”s “Changes” and then “Let”s Go to Bed” by the Cure, the song that marked the transition from WLYN-FM to WFNX way back when. Since the announcement back in May that Boston Phoenix owner Steve Mindich was selling WFNX”s license (but not its intellectual property) to Clear Channel for $14.5 million, there”s been no shortage of eulogies for one of the last independent big-market alt-rockers left standing. (One of the best came from longtime WFNX news director Sharon Brody, who wrote “one final Brody Beat” for her current employer, WBUR; still more came in a special Phoenix section last week.) What can we add? Not much that Neal Robert didn”t encapsulate in that last hour (which you can hear here, by the way): “FNX has always been about the future and while the radi o station is migrating off the FM dial, the future of FNX will continue on our computers and mobile devices. In 1983 we found community on the radio and in 2012 we”re finding community online and that”s where you”ll find FNX after today. It”s been my honor and pleasure to be a part of this institution because, in the words of Nietzsche, without music life would be a mistake. And with that we end the long run of 101.7 WFNX.” So what now? After Robert”s farewell, 101.7 fell silent for a bit before returning with automation – and speculation resumed in earnest about Clear Channel”s plans for its new Boston frequency. Last week, we broke the news that the new calls on 101.7 would be “WHBA,” and on Friday night our colleague Lance Venta over at Radio Insight teased out the news that the new station would be called “the Harbor.” And as we post this column late Sunday night, that”s still as much as we know for certain, thanks to the almost nuclear-level cordon of secrecy that Clear Channel has managed to maintain around its plans for 101.7. Soft AC? Oldies? Adult hits? The best bet is that we”ll know sometime today, when Clear Channel is expected to take over operation of the FM signal from Mindich. (The 101.7 signal and the WFNX stream both fell silent at 10:30 Sunday night, but returned to life at midnight with a Z-to-A music countdown from WFNX.com.) *While alternative rock was dying in Boston, rock made a surprise return to the FM dial in NEW YORK City on Tuesday morning. The signs had been building for a few days that Merlin Media was pulling the plug on the year-old “FM News 101.9″ experiment at WEMP, but the initial speculation focused on the possibility of a news-talk hybrid along the lines of Merlin”s WWIQ (106.9) in Philadelphia, which has an all-news morning block and syndicated talk the rest of the day. What almost nobody saw coming, though, was the complete 180-degree turn Merlin made at 10:00 Tuesday morning: while WEMP staffers (and those at sister station WIQI in Chicago) were meeting with executives, a pre-recorded news segment abruptly gave way to “New Rock 101.9″ at WEMP and “i101″ in Chicago.
Without a strong launch in New York or Chicago, it appears Merlin pulled back from what was, we”re told, an ambitious plan to create a national all-news service that would have combined local content with national material fed from the New York newsroom. (The morning show at Philadelphia”s WWIQ was the only real test of the format, and it continues for now with a New York-based newscast.) What now? For 101.9, it”s not only back to rock, it”s even back to the WRXP callsign the station used until Emmis sold it to Merlin last year. The new incarnation of WRXP features more active rock than Emmis” “New York Rock Experience” did, and for the moment it”s running jockless, programmed out of Chicago, though that will change.
WEMP”s demise also puts more than two dozen talented newspeople out of work, many of them having been lured away from WINS and WCBS (some even within the past few weeks) by the promise of higher salaries and more creative freedom. Here”s hoping they find work again, soon… *Enough big news for one week? Not hardly, thanks to a very big TV station transaction that then prompted a radio cluster selloff. The TV group is Newport Television, the private-equity-backed venture that acquired Clear Channel Television in 2007, and last week it announced plans to sell off most of the 27 stations it owns around the country. Here”s how it shakes out in NERW-land: Sinclair Broadcast Group, already a major player in upstate New York, Pittsburgh and Portland, Maine, is paying $412.5 million for six stations, including CBS affiliate WHP-TV (Channel 21) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. That deal also includes the rights to program WHP”s sister station WLYH (Channel 15), a CW outlet, and it makes for a nice northward extension to Sinclair”s home base in the Baltimore area.
(One more Nexstar note: its stations remained on Time Warner Cable systems out of their home markets right up until the end of the Time Warner/Hearst carriage dispute Thursday night, despite Nexstar”s protestations that Time Warner had no legal right to carry WROC, WBRE or Utica”s WUTR into markets where it couldn”t carry local Hearst-owned CBS, NBC or ABC affiliates.) The third Newport buyer, Cox Media Group, added only two of Newport”s bigger clusters in Jacksonville and Tulsa – but it did so as part of a consolidation strategy in which it”s focusing its efforts on markets in which it can assemble dominant TV/radio clusters. That, in turn, means Cox now plans to sell off some of its less-consolidated markets, which means the company is now seeking buyers for its radio stations in southern Connecticut and its smaller TV signals flanking Pittsburgh”s WPXI (Channel 11). In Connecticut, Cox had already shed its AM signals and one smaller FM (the former WKHL 96.7 Stamford, now K-Love”s WKLV-FM), and now it”s hoping to unload rocker WPLR (99.1 New Haven), AC WEZN-FM (99.9 Bridgeport), classic rock WFOX-FM (95.9 Norwalk) and the sales rights to Yale”s WYBC-FM (94.3 New Haven). Who”d be in line to buy them? About the only names we can rule out might be the other two big commercial operators in the area, Clear Channel and Cumulus, which would both face market-concentration issues if they tried to add Cox”s big FMs. In western Pennsylvania and vicinity, Cox wants to sell NBC affiliates WJAC-TV (Channel 6) in Johnstown and WTOV (Channel 9) in Steubenville, Ohio, apparently having concluded that even after centralizing many of those stations” operations at WPXI, they”re just not big enough by the standards of today”s Cox. Once those stations are sold, Cox”s only remaining operations in the region will be its Long Island FMs (WBAB and WBLI) and WPXI in Pittsburgh. Five Years Ago: July 21, 2008 **The lead financier behind Route 81, the radio group that made a big impact in central PENNSYLVANIA and upstate New York in recent years, has taken over operations of the company’s stations after a foreclosure sale last week.
The stations remain on the air under their current management, though we hear there were some problems with last week’s paychecks clearing, leaving employees unpaid for several days; we’re also hearing there are new owners on the way to WHYL and WAZL. More next week… (There’s a Massachusetts connection to WallerSutton as well; in addition to Route 81, its other radio investment is in J Sports LLC, owner of “ESPN Boston” WAMG 890/WLLH 1400.) Forever is shuffling its simulcasts in Huntingdon, east of Altoona. It’s been a while since the AM/FM pair there has originated its own programming; in 2004, WHUN (1150 Huntingdon) began simulcasting news-talk WFBG (1290 Altoona), while the FM on 106.3, formerly WQHG, shuffled through callsigns as it flipped from a simulcast of oldies WALY (103.9 Bellwood) to “Froggy” country from WFGY (98.1 Altoona). The 106.3 signal changed city of license along the way, too; it’s now WFZY, licensed to Mount Union. As of last Monday, WHUN is relaying news-talk WRSC (1390 State College), while WFZY is relaying classic rock WBUS (93.7 Boalsburg), with new calls WBSS. *WCBS-FM (101.1 NEW YORK) news director morning newsman Al Meredith retired last week, ending a 44-year career that started in Long Island at WGBB, WGSM, WGLI and WBLI. Meredith had been with WCBS-FM for 28 years, remaining as public service director during the “Jack FM” interregnum that ended a year ago last week and returning to the morning airwaves when “CBS-FM” relaunched. *St. Lawrence University’s North Country Public Radio (based at WSLU 89.5 Canton NY) is jumping Lake Champlain to add a signal in VERMONT. It’s been granted a CP for 160 watts, directional, on 90.5 in Vergennes. Vermont Public Radio withdrew a rival application for the frequency, which will serve the central portion of Lake Champlain but will not put a signal into Burlington, already served by NCPR’s WXLU (88.1 Peru NY). North Country was granted another CP last week as well, on 88.1 in Cape Vincent, New York. Ten Years Ago: July 23, 2007 *A short column this week (is everyone away on vacation?) – but some big news to tell you about in MASSACHUSETTS: Sporting News Radio laid off about 20 staffers at its struggling WWZN (1510 Boston) last week, axing its morning show and its ties to the Boston Globe in the process. Among the layoffs announced Friday were morning hosts Kevin Winter and Holden Kushner, who had been doing that shift with Ryen Russillo. Russillo stays with WWZN as part of an expanded “Die Hards” afternoon show (with current hosts Anthony Pepe and Mike Winn); Eddie Andelman and Dave Jageler stay on board as well with their noon-3 PM show, and the station still has the Celtics’ broadcast rights. Other than those shows, though, WWZN will now be a relay of Sporting News’ national network programming…and Boston has never been a kind market to nationally syndicated sports talk. In NEW HAMPSHIRE, Barry Lunderville is about to add another station to his growing holdings, as he gets ready to take over operation of WMOU (1230 Berlin) from Steven Griffin’s Jericho Broadcasting. Lunderville, who owns WLTN (1400 Littleton), WLTN-FM (96.7 Lisbon) and WXXS (102.3 Lancaster), tells the Berlin Daily Sun that he had the chance to buy WMOU three years ago and regretted passing it up. He’ll take over with an LMA from Jericho on July 28, adding a simulcast of WLTN-FM’s morning show (with local inserts); it appears that WMOU’s long-running “Forum” talk show may be over, now that host Rod Ross has left the station and moved to Florida. We’ll start our NEW YORK report way out on the East End of Long Island, where WWHL (92.9 Southampton) changed calls to WHBE last week. 92.9 is still carrying the AAA programming of “EHM,” while WEHM (96.7 East Hampton) itself has flipped to Bloomberg business news. A call swap is expected; meantime, the WEHM Web site is a confusing mess, with graphics that still proclaim “96-7 EHM” and text that reads “92-9″… In CANADA, CIZN (92.9 Cambridge ON) quietly left the air on Sunday afternoon (7/20), making way for the Monday morning debut of its new incarnation as CJDV (107.5), with higher power and less interference from Buffalo’s WBUF – and a new format, too. “Dave 107.5 FM” is playing “80s, 90s and whatever,” the latest take on the Canadian trend towards classic hits/hot AC mixes, as seen in Ottawa, Toronto and elsewhere on similar stations branded as “Jack” and “Bob.” Will the trend head south of the border? We’ll be keeping an eye on it… Up in Cottage Country, new CKHA (100.9 Halliburton) signed on over the weekend, playing a wide variety of music with a staff of community volunteers. It’s calling itself “Canoe FM,” we’re told. Ten Years Ago: July 21, 2003 *Can you say “rat’s ass” on the radio in Boston? It’s a safe bet that the folks at CBS-owned WBCN (104.1) wouldn’t give a you-know-what if Howard Stern used the phrase in the morning — but it was enough to end Bob Lobel’s career on the radio side of (also CBS-owned) WBZ last Sunday. The WBZ-TV (Channel 4) sportscaster was hosting his weekly call-in show with Upton Bell when prolific caller “Butch from the Cape” dialed up to offer his comments about the World Cup, including the observation that most native-born Americans probably don’t give a — yes, that phrase — about the competition. Within seconds, the “batphone” at 1170 Soldiers Field was ringing, as program director Peter Casey ordered “Butch” to be cut off the air. And that was all it took for Lobel to leave the show. In following days, both sides of the controversy took to the pages of Boston newspapers (and to the mailing list associated with NERW) to make their cases. Lobel says he was “censored,” while Casey argues that WBZ is a family radio station that shouldn’t tolerate the use of such language on the air. In any event, Lobel and Bell have been replaced with Steve DeOssie and Dan Roche for the time being, and “Butch” says he’s taken WBZ off his speed-dial. As for us here at NERW, we’ll keep you updated if we decide we give a — oh, never mind! Could Entercom become the new owner of WRKO, WEEI, WEGQ, and WAAF? The radio trades were abuzz this week with rumors that CBS may swap the stations to Entercom, which has no Boston presence right now. Meantime at WBMX (98.5), the only ARS station CBS is keeping in Boston, APD/MD Michelle Engel departs for a PD gig out West at CBS’s KBBT in Portland. Lowell may soon be home to a 24-hour Portuguese station, albeit without a license. We’re hearing rumors that a “WKNM” will start broadcasting August 2 at 1570 kHz. One big piece of news in MAINE this week, as Mariner Broadcasting completes its set of the Pine Tree State’s classical outlets, with the purchase of WAVX (106.9 Thomaston) from Jon LeVeen. Mariner put WBQQ (99.3 Kennebunk) on the air a few years back, and just took over WPKM (106.3 Scarborough), flipping it to WBQW and a simulcast of “W-Bach.” LeVeen tells NERW he’s not sure whether Mariner will continue originating programming at WAVX, or whether it will become a third simulcast. Bowing to what we’re sure was massive pressure to take its brokered-talk format nationwide, WALE (990) in Providence, RHODE ISLAND is now being heard in Arizona as well. Owner Francis Battaglia just bought KCCF (1100 Cave Creek), and as of this week, the Phoenix-market signal has flipped from adult standards (locally-programmed, no less) to WALE’s “Renaissance Radio” mixture of UFO talk, health nostrums, and offbeat politics. We hear much of the programming is coming to KCCF by ordinary phone lines. Call letter changes: WMKB (96.9 Ridgebury PA) in the Elmira market will become WMTT under its new owner, WDBA (107.3 Du Bois). The WMTT calls were last heard in the region on 100.5 in Conklin NY, now WCDW, when it was simulcasting “The Met” classic rock format with WPHD (94.7 Tioga PA) in the Elmira market. And Lyle Robert Evans’ new 94.1 in Old Forge will be WDLS, calls last seen on 93.7 in Dallas PA. |
In this week’s issue… iHeart axes Boston, NYC morning shows and more - Cumulus cuts in central PA - Southern Tier combo saved from silence - Ottawa FM relaunches - K-Love buys in the Burgh - Scranton gets "Loud" -...
In this week’s issue… "Hot" cools down in Providence, CT studios closed - GBH to sell Cape studios - A HEBA in Hamden? - New HDs in New York - Another Canadian AM to close
In this week’s issue… GBH shuffles mornings, prepares new show launches - NYSBA inducts Hall of Famers - More news-talk in the Hudson Valley - Remembering Dan Sys
In this week’s issue… Beasley cuts claim veteran jock - FCC releases LPFM decisions - AM towers coming down - New voices at Indie 88
WallerSutton owned 50% of Route 81’s clusters in Elmira (WENY AM-FM, WENI AM-FM, WCBA, WGMM), Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (WNAK, WCDL, WAZL, WLNP), Carlisle (WHYL) and Coatesville (WCOJ); now its subsidiary WS2K Acquisition has taken control of those stations in the wake of last Monday’s foreclosure.
