February 9, 2009

Cumulus' Turn for Job Cuts

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

*It didn't get the nationwide attention that Clear Channel drew for its massive job cuts a couple of weeks ago, but Cumulus made some big cuts of its own on Friday, and at least in some markets the pain went just as deep, proportionally, as did the Clear Channel cuts last month.

The worst-hit, at least in this region, appears to be the cluster in CONNECTICUT's Fairfield County, where WICC (600 Bridgeport) and WEBE (107.9 Westport) lost more than half a dozen staffers on Friday afternoon.

Gone from WICC are news director/morning news anchor Tim Quinn, who'd been with WICC for 36 years; afternoon news anchor Paul Pacelli, who'll continue with the station as a part-timer; 1-4 PM talk host David Smith and 4-7 PM talk host Brian Smith. The syndicated Clark Howard show will move into the 1-4 PM slot, while Jim Buchanan's "Talk of the Town" show moves to afternoons to replace Brian Smith - which in turn puts Dennis Miller in Buchanan's former 10 AM-1 PM slot.

So if you're keeping track - that means a station that was doing live talk from 5 AM until 7 PM with three newspeople is now doing local talk only in morning and afternoon drive, with a full-time news staff of one. Good for the short-term bottom line? Sure - but it's certainly not going to do anything for WICC's long-term outlook, or to draw more listeners to local radio in general over the long run.

Across the hall at WEBE, Mary Lee is out as morning co-host, leaving "Stormin' Norman" solo, while Ann Rondapierre, who'd been doing afternoon traffic, is gone as well. We're hearing several back-office employees at the cluster were cut, too; there's no word (so far) of cuts at Cumulus' other Connecticut cluster, up in Danbury.

This Week in the DTV Follies: Now that Congress has voted to extend the deadline for the shutoff of analog full-power TV to June 12, with President Obama poised to sign the delay into law early this week, TV stations have until tonight at midnight to notify the FCC about their plans to stay on or shut off on the original schedule. As we "go to press" Sunday night, the situation remained fluid in many markets, with station managers nervously looking right and left to see how their competitors plan to handle the situation.

We'll have a full market-by-market roundup next week of stations' decisions to stay on or pull the plug, but for now we'll let you know what we're hearing from market to market.

In Hartford-New Haven, it appears that CBS affiliate WFSB (Channel 3) will stick to the Feb. 17 deadline, as will Connecticut Public TV's analog transmitters statewide. But NBC and the other "Big 4" networks have committed their owned-and-operated stations, including WVIT (Channel 30), to extended analog operations. No definite word yet from Tribune (WTXX/WTIC-TV) or LIN (WTNH/WCTX).

*There's not much left to cut at Cumulus' clusters across the state line in NEW YORK - WFAS (1230 White Plains) and WFAS-FM (103.9 Bronxville) in Westchester County have already been through big cutbacks in recent years, as have the Cumulus stations to the north in the Poughkeepsie market - and word is that those clusters were spared more pain last week.

WFAS-FM, of course, has a construction permit to move its transmitter south from Westchester to the Bronx, and it now appears that the station may have some company whenever it relocates to the Montefiore Medical Center building that's already home to WFUV (90.7 New York).

WVIP (93.5 New Rochelle) already derives much of its income from leasing time to ethnic broadcasters (largely Haitian Creole) who target listeners in the Bronx, Queens and north Jersey, and now owner Bill O'Shaughnessy is applying to move the station from its current transmitter site in Westchester to the WFUV tower.

From that site, WVIP would run 1.75 kW/433', putting most of Manhattan and Queens within its 60 dBu contour - and it would become the third class A signal to move from New York's northern suburbs into the city, following WFAS-FM and Cox's WCTZ (96.7), which changed city of license from Stamford, CT to Port Chester, NY in preparation for a move to the Bronx.

So far, none of the proposed moves has actually been made, and the delays are no doubt partly attributable to the economic slump that's sharply reduced station values. Will WVIP end up being the first of the three to carry out its move? We'll be watching.

*The slump on Wall Street is taking its toll on the media companies that depend heavily on finance-industry clients, and that includes Bloomberg LP, parent company of New York's WBBR (1130). The New York Post reported that 60 staffers from Bloomberg Radio and TV were laid off last week, and from the radio side, those cuts included veteran anchors and reporters such as Mitch Lebe, Ian Hunter and Jessica Moore - and they meant many radio-only features will be abandoned in favor of simulcasts of Bloomberg TV audio.

Out on Long Island, Tim Clarke is leaving Cox's WBLI (106.1 Patchogue), where he's been music director; he's heading south to WAPE in Jacksonville to serve as PD.

Up the Hudson Valley, we're hearing that WCKL (560 Catskill) has once again fallen silent after several months of simulcasting WCTW (98.5); the station has not operated with a regular schedule or with any of its own programming since Clear Channel spun it off to Black United Fund of New York back in 2003, and it was recently being noted far off-frequency (560.8 kHz or thereabouts), which delighted DXers but must have made for some noisy interference to its neighbors on 560 in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Way upstate, WYME (97.9 Au Sable) has now been licensed, though it's apparently not programming on a regular basis. The Plattsburgh-market C3 signal is owned by Randy Michaels' RadioActive group (though it's been listed for sale), and transmits from the WPTZ (Channel 5) site on Terry Mountain.

There must be something in the Finger Lakes drinking water: just a week after Geneva's WEOS (89.7) applied for the semi-legendary "WVWA" calls for its new 90.3 construction permit in Auburn, Ithaca Community Radio followed up with a callsign request for its new 89.9 in Odessa - that new signal will be "WINO," which ought to be a tribute to the late George Carlin but is more likely a reference to the region's flourishing wine industry.

DTV Follies: The state's biggest market, New York City, looks like it will be keeping most of its remaining analog service through the June 12 deadline, which must be something of a blow to public broadcaster WNET, impatient to replace its low-power Channel 61 DTV operation with full-power digital on its former analog channel, 13.

Stations in Albany are split - Hubbard's NBC affiliate, WNYT (Channel 13), will stay on the air in analog through June, while Newport's Fox station, WXXA (Channel 23) will sign off on schedule Feb. 17. Other stations in the market haven't decided yet what they'll do.

In Utica, WKTV (Channel 2) will stick to the early shutoff, and we're hearing Nexstar will do the same at WUTR (Channel 20) and WFXV (Channel 33).

There's no word yet on plans from Watertown, Binghamton or Elmira; the Elmira stations are all awaiting the shutdown of analog in order to go full-power with digital signals on their former analog channels.

Syracuse viewers will lose analog service from CBS, Fox and the CW, as Granite pulls the plug on WTVH (Channel 5) and Sinclair silences analog service on WSYT (Channel 68) and WNYS (Channel 43); no word yet on the market's remaining stations.

In Rochester, it's a split - Sinclair's Fox affiliate, WUHF (Channel 31), goes off on Feb. 17, while public station WXXI (Channel 21) and Newport's ABC station, WHAM-TV (Channel 13) will keep analog on through June, with the market's other players likely to follow suit.

In Buffalo, Sinclair will turn off WUTV (Channel 29, Fox) and WNYO-TV (Channel 49, My), while Granite pulls the plug on WKBW (Channel 7, ABC); other stations in the market look to be staying on for the duration.

And up north in the Plattsburgh-Burlington market, it looks like a DTV converter box will be a must, since the market's stations all plan to hold to the Feb. 17 date. (That's somewhat significant, since the lengthy delays in getting DTV signals on the air from Mount Mansfield meant viewers in Burlington and vicinity had less time than most of the rest of the country to transition to digital; if they're ready, shouldn't the rest of the nation be, too?)

Did you miss it last month? Catch up on a whole year's worth of radio and TV happenings across the Great Northeast, plus a particularly spirited (if we do say so ourselves) Year-End Rant, all on one handy page that will help you remember a year many of us would probably just as soon forget. Just click on the banner above to visit's NERW's 13th annual Year in Review, brought to you this year by these nice folks:

*Saga's NEW HAMPSHIRE cluster suffered two big job losses last week, both at classic hits WMLL (96.5 Bedford): PD/afternoon jock Alex James and morning man Adam McCune are both out at "The Mill," which has turned to satellite-delivered programming from Dial Global to replace those local shifts.

Across town at Nassau's WJYY (105.5 Concord), there's more satellite programming, too - the ubiquitous Ryan Seacrest is now being heard there in middays, replacing Gabrielle Vaughn.

And there's a radio connection to Governor John Lynch's choice of a replacement for U.S. Senator Judd Gregg as he departs for a post in the Obama Cabinet: Bonnie Newman was one of the principals in WZEA (102.1 Hampton) when that station went on the air in 1992. She sold it in 1995, and it later became half of Citadel's "Shark" simulcast as WSAK.

DTV Follies: Most Granite State stations - including Hearst-Argyle's WMUR in Manchester and New Hampshire Public TV - were originally sticking to the Feb. 17 transition date, but WMUR now says it will stay on until June.

*The Cumulus cuts affected MAINE as well, where we're hearing Damien Brown is out at WBZN (107.3 Old Town), where he was doing afternoons.

Up the road in Dexter, EMF Broadcasting wasted no time flipping WGUY (102.1) from oldies to its satellite-delivered "K-Love" contemporary Christian format late last week. Sister station WFZX (101.7 Searsport), which is also being purchased by EMF, is still running the oldies format that it was simulcasting with WGUY, but that should change any day now.

DTV Follies: Viewers in Portland have already lost their analog PBS, CW, My and Fox signals, and it appears they'll lose CBS as well, since Sinclair's WGME (Channel 13) will stick to the original date. Hearst-Argyle's WMTW (Channel 8) will reportedly stay on with analog ABC, and there's no decision from Gannett's NBC station, WCSH (Channel 6).

In Bangor, WLBZ (Channel 2) and WABI (Channel 5) will keep their analog signals on through June, while WVII (Channel 7) will shut down.

*Hall Communications made a surprise format flip on its RHODE ISLAND AM signal and its southeastern Massachusetts simulcast sister last week. WLKW (1450 West Warwick RI) and WNBH (1340 New Bedford MA) had been carrying the "Timeless Favorites" satellite-fed standards format, but a hole in the market opened up when Citadel flipped WSKO AM/FM away from their "Score" sports format last year - so as of last Monday, WLKW and WNBH are carrying ESPN Radio sports talk on a full-time basis.

(Speaking of ESPN Radio, we've been tremendously remiss in not mentioning the experimental FM signal that's on the air from the network's campus over in Bristol, Connecticut. WX4ESPN is the callsign for the signal on 98.1 that's being used as a testbed for advanced HD Radio services, including several all-digital modes and extended hybrid multicasting.)

DTV Follies: You'd better have your box ready if you watch Providence TV - the market's PBS and CW stations are already digital-only, and the rest of the signals will stick to the Feb. 17 deadline.

*In MASSACHUSETTS, WHDH-TV (Channel 7) and its star anchor, Randy Price, abruptly parted ways on Thursday.

For a station that's always shunned the "star system," Price was as close as WHDH has come to a veteran anchor, having joined the station in 1998 after several years across town at WBZ-TV (Channel 4). In recent years, he'd been the face of the station's 5, 6 and 11 PM newscasts. But he tells the Boston Herald that he was called in to meet with station owner Ed Ansin late last week and told that the station "needed to make changes" - and that "I really can't contribute in the way they they probably want me to contribute."

Does that portend another swing towards blood-and-guts, tabloid-style news at Channel 7, which made a big splash when its brash style shook up the market after Ansin bought the station in 1993, only to slip back in the ratings behind a resurgent WBZ in recent years.

(One more WHDH-TV note: the station has launched the new "This TV" network on its 7.2 subchannel, formerly home to NBC's now-defunct Weather Plus.)

There's another veteran personality leaving the Boston TV news scene: Dick Albert announced on Wednesday that he's retiring from WCVB (Channel 5) after more than 30 years there, most recently as co-chief meteorologist, delivering the weather reports during Channel 5's 5 and 6 PM newscasts.

Albert, 64, says his retirement will take effect after his Feb. 26 reports; among his post-retirement project will be his blog at DickAlbert.com.

WBZ (1030 Boston) has picked weekend sports anchor Walt Perkins to fill the morning-drive shoes of Gil Santos. Perkins has a long history on the New England broadcast sports scene: he went to the University of New Hampshire, worked at WEAN/WPJB in Providence and WGIR in Manchester after graduation, then moved into TV at Providence's WLNE (1985-1988), WBZ-TV and WSBK in Boston (1988), then as a freelancer for WCVB until joining WBZ's weekend radio team in 2003.

(As for WBZ veteran Bob Lobel, who'd been filling in for Santos the week after his departure? He's doing some freelance work for New Hampshire's WTPL, including a trip down to Florida to cover Red Sox spring training.)

Over at Boston's ESPN Radio affiliate, WAMG (890 Dedham)/WLLH (1400 Lowell), local sports talk appears to be making a disappearing act. The local midday show with Mike Salk and Bob Halloran is gone, replaced by extended carriage of the network's offerings. That leaves just the local afternoon "Lew and Mike" show in place, and David Scott's "Scott's Shots" column over at Boston Sports Media Watch speculates that it's only there because host Lew Goldstein is buying the time. Scott also reports that the rumors of "ESPN Boston" moving to the WCRB (99.5) studios in Waltham appear to be unfounded, with the station staying put at the Schrafft Center in Charlestown.

Out on the Cape, it was Qantum Communications making cuts: Larry Egan, who'd been doing mornings on WCIB (101.9 Falmouth), is gone, replaced by Joe Rossetti, who moves over from afternoons at sister station WCOD (106.1 Hyannis). Ricky B takes the WCOD afternoon shift. Over at WRZE (96.3 Dennis), David Duran is out as PD and afternoon jock, with Steve "McVie" Solomon taking on PD duties (adding to his existing PD duties for WCIB) and a longer airshift.

DTV Follies: For whatever reason, Fox's Boston outlet, WFXT, isn't acknowledging what viewers already know - while there may be some remnant of an analog signal coming out of its transmitter, it's not surviving the trip up the tower to the antenna. So we'll count Fox as already digital-only in Boston, even as most of the rest of the market's stations are apparently prepared to keep their analog signals on the air for a while. Public broadcaster WGBH says it may have to shut down the aging WGBX (Channel 44) analog transmitter, and Entravision is offering similar warnings about Univision outlet WUNI (Channel 27).

Over in Springfield, they're down to just one analog, anyway - NBC affiliate WWLP (Channel 22) - and there's no word yet on whether they'll stick it out until June.

*In eastern PENNSYLVANIA, there's a new PD at WPHT (1210), as Ed Palladino moves up from assistant PD to fill a seat that's been empty since last May, when John Cook lost his job as PD of WPHT and sister station WYSP (94.1).

Over in Lebanon, Calvary Chapel of Lebanon is buying WOMA-LP (93.1) from the Latino America Media Organization for $18,000.

Up in the Lehigh Valley, there will be an FM signal this year for the New York Yankees, as Nassau adds the team's games to rocker WWYY (107.1 Belvidere NJ). The Yanks are already heard in the market on Nassau's ESPN simulcast, WTKZ (1320 Allentown)/WEEX (1230 Easton), but those signals are challenged at night

In Pittsburgh, KDKA (1020) faces a $6,000 fine from the FCC for a bit of goofiness committed by talk host Marty Griffin on a slow Thanksgiving Day shift back in 2007. To get the phones moving, Griffin joked that he'd give away a million dollars to the thirteenth caller - but one listener apparently wasn't in on the joke, because he complained to the FCC that he'd been caller 13, yet hadn't received his promised million dollars. The FCC reviewed the transcript, and KDKA's contention that any regular listener to Griffin's show would have known he was being facetious - and it concluded that Griffin had indeed conducted a "contest," per FCC rules, and had broken those rules by failing to pay out to the "winner."

DTV Follies: Since all of the "big four" outlets in Philadelphia are network O&Os, it appears those signals will stay on in analog through June.

In Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, analog service from Fox and CW is already history, and it appears that PBS outlet WVIA will follow suit on Feb. 17; no word yet from the market's remaining commercial signals.

In the Harrisburg market, Hearst-Argyle NBC affiliate WGAL (Channel 8) says it will stay on through June, while others in the market have yet to commit.

Over in Johnstown/Altoona, Cox's NBC outlet, WJAC (Channel 6) says it will stay on through June, and there's no word yet from the market's other stations.

In Pittsburgh, CBS will keep KDKA-TV (Channel 2) on with analog through June - but if Cox does the same at WPXI (Channel 11), that will delay the sign-on of the digital signal at KDKA's sister station, CW outlet WPCW (Channel 19), which is to use channel 11 when WPXI's analog goes away. Public broadcaster WQED will pull the plug on WQEX (Channel 16) analog, in the unlikely event anyone notices, and will silence WQED (Channel 13)'s analog in a month or so, allowing WQED-DT to move from 38 to 13 and WQEX-DT to move from 26 to 38.

And poor Erie, which is awaiting the end of analog so that it can finally get a full complement of full-power DTV signals, may have to wait a bit longer; there's no word yet about the fate of plans to flash-cut on WICU's channel 12 or WJET's channel 24.

We'll update these "DTV Follies" listings once the filings are all in to the FCC later this week...stay tuned!

*The alternative rock void on the NEW JERSEY shore left behind by the format flip at "G Rock Radio" (WHTG-FM 106.3 Eatontown/WBBO 106.5 Bass River Township) is being filled - sort of - by streaming audio and, soon, an HD2 subchannel. "ShoreAlternative.com" is coming from Millennium Radio, and we hear it will soon be broadcast on the HD2 of WJLK-FM (94.3 Asbury Park.)

There's a new analog signal on the air, too - there's late word that WDNJ (88.1 Hopatcong) is on the air with Spanish-language Christian contemporary programming.

*CANADA's financial slump may lead to a TV station sale: CanWest Global announced last week that it's "exploring options" for the future of its "E!" network stations, including Hamilton-based CHCH (Channel 11) and Montreal's CJNT (Channel 62). Among the names being floated as possible owners are Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star and the Hamilton Spectator. Within Hamilton, there's concern about the future of CHCH's local presence; while the station has long operated under license conditions that compel it to focus its newscasts and ad sales on Hamilton and the Niagara region, but given the station's broadcast and cable presence across the province, could the CRTC be persuaded that CHCH needs to be allowed to broaden its reach to stay afloat in rough times?

The economy also played a role in the CRTC's decision to turn down most of the nine applicants who sought new stations in London, Ontario. Rejecting proposals from big guns such as Rogers and CTV, the CRTC instead granted a single new commercial license to Blackburn Radio, which proposed a 4 kW signal on 98.1 running a AAA format. It also approved an application from Sound of Faith Broadcasting, which will trade its low-power CHJX (105.9) for a 234-watt signal on 99.9.

Over in Windsor, the University of Windsor's CJAM is applying to move from 91.5 (where it runs 914 watts into a directional antenna) to 99.1, where it would run 456 watts, non-directional. (NERW thinks this move is tied in with the CBC's proposal to move Windsor's CBE from 1550 to two FM transmitters, one on 97.5 in Windsor and one on 91.9 in Leamington.)

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