NERW 11/5/2012: After Sandy

In this week’s issue… Region recovers from Sandy – WFAN-FM launches – WKTV’s Worden retires – Station sales on Cape Cod, northern VT – Final end for RCI Sackville

By SCOTT FYBUSH

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*The last time a storm ripped across the Jersey shore and Long Island Sound with the intensity of last week’s Hurricane Sandy, the year was 1938 and the broadcast damage was extensive and long-lasting.

With just a few exceptions, Sandy left behind much less permanent damage, but its effects on the broadcast community were still plenty intense in the short term. As we chronicled all throughout last week in updates to NERW, the combination of massive power and telecom outages and record-high water levels in low-lying areas left stations struggling to stay on the air in the hours and days immediately after the storm.

We’ll get to the latest station-by-station details in a moment, but first a few bigger thoughts about how radio and TV fared not only in surviving the storm, but in covering it.

We were fortunate up here in western New York (as we so often are) to escape the worst of the storm. Our colleague Lance Venta of RadioInsight.com was not so fortunate; he lives near the Jersey shore, and while his home wasn’t damaged, he spent several days stranded without power, listening carefully to what radio offered, and to what it didn’t offer. In other trade publications, you’re already reading radio executives praising the industry for the service it provided during the storm – but be sure, too, that you read Lance’s account of what wasn’t there when he needed it. Here’s just a highlight – but go read the whole thing:

At the peak of the storm only two local FM’s were in full storm mode. New York Public Radio’s 93.9 WNYC-FM and Disney’s 98.7 WEPN-FM, the latter of which was simulcasting the programming of sister WABC-TV. Some other stations had local break-ins but for those fearing their lives what good is it that Taylor Swift is never getting back together?

The NAB has been on a crusade to have FM chips placed in cell phones using crises such as this as a reason why. That’s all and good, but without the content the listeners need what good is it?

On with our detailed review of the storm’s aftermath and the latest on the recovery –

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Perhaps the best review that can be offered is that the service broadcasters provided was decidedly mixed. As ever, there were a handful of top-notch local stations that went all-out to provide nonstop local coverage. Out on Long Island’s East End, WLNG (92.1 Sag Harbor) kept going even as water was rising into its studio building Monday night, and its commitment was matched in other parts of the region by stations such as WGHT (1500 Pompton Lakes NJ), WRNJ (1510 Hackettstown NJ) and WOND (1400 Pleasantville/Atlantic City, silenced on AM but simulcasting on sister WWAC 102.7) that kept on chugging with hyper-local storm information.

Other areas, as Lance notes, were not so fortunate. Connecticut’s Fairfield County, at the edge of storm-swelled Long Island Sound, suffered plenty of storm damage and long-lasting power outages, but lacked a strong local news outlet, especially after the storm crippled WICC (600 Bridgeport), the area’s biggest local AM signal, along with other local stations such as WGCH (1490 Greenwich). That left several other players to try to pick up the slack with more limited news resources – Cox’s WPLR (99.1)/WEZN-FM (99.9) went wall-to-wall with coverage at the height of the power outages, and public radio WSHU-FM (91.1) tried to pour more resources into the local AM signals it picked up from Cox, WSTC (1400 Stamford)/WNLK (1350 Norwalk), to respond to criticism that their local news operations had been silenced by the sale.

Storm damage and power outages made it hard to get information to central Long Island as well. WALK-FM (97.5 Patchogue) was displaced from its low-lying studios and decamped to emergency studios at the Suffolk County emergency operations center, but the FM signal ended up losing power and leaving the air, with WALK programming heard only on the weaker WALK (1370) for a time. WHLI (1100 Hempstead) simulcast News 12 Long Island for several days, including during the nighttime hours when the daytimer is usually silent.

Local news was hard to come by up the Hudson Valley, too. There were (and still are) extensive power outages in areas such as Rockland County, which lacks much local radio – and the local station that does broadcast in English, WRCR (1300 Spring Valley), lost part of its center tower and is operating at reduced power, non-directionally, in the meantime.

In New York City, the mass migration of studios from expensive midtown Manhattan office space to cheaper lower Manhattan ended up causing problems. There were power outages of varying durations at the studios of CBS Radio, Clear Channel, WOR, Emmis, Multicultural Broadcasting and WBAI. And even in the places where power was quickly restored via generator or studio operations shifted to backup facilities elsewhere (such as Clear Channel’s backup studio in Secaucus, N.J., where automation quickly kicked in to put its five FMs back on the air), there were more challenges to be overcome.

The flooding in lower Manhattan ended up taking out much of Verizon’s telecom infrastructure, making it difficult or impossible to get audio and information in and out of the neighborhood. That silenced the WOR Radio Network for several days, and it took out all of CBS’ corporate e-mail for most of the week as well.

Then there were the challenges of getting people in and out of the area: with no subway service, closed tunnels and jammed roads, staffing broadcast facilities and getting reporters and guests in and out of the area was difficult at best and impossible at worst for much of the week. As broadcasters learn from the lessons of Sandy, will the concentration of facilities in such a flood-prone part of Manhattan become one of the vulnerabilities that gets fixed?

*Across the Hudson, another point of vulnerability became clear in the hours after the storm: record high floodwaters in the New Jersey Meadowlands caused severe damage to many of the AM transmitter sites that are tightly clustered there. In addition to knocking CBS Radio’s all-news WINS (1010) off the air for several days, the storm caused even more severe damage across Polito Avenue at the Lyndhurst site of WLIB (1190), which remains silent, and a few miles south in Kearny at the site shared by Salem’s WMCA (570) and public radio WNYC (820). For the first time anyone can remember in that site’s nearly 70-year history, water rose into the transmitter building, severely damaging both stations’ transmitters as well as ripping apart the boardwalk and transmission lines that led out into the water where the stations’ three-tower array sits.

WMCA remains off the air as Salem engineers from around the country attempt to rebuild the site; WNYC came back on the air late Friday with a temporary 1 kW transmitter running non-directionally into a single tower. There’s word that a temporary transmission line will be installed to diplex both WMCA and WNYC while the walkway and permanent transmission lines are rebuilt.

Also still silent is independent freeform station WFMU (91.1 East Orange), which suffered water damage to its studios in Jersey City (where a makeshift streaming operation is now up and running) and to both its main WFMU transmitter on First Mountain and to its Catskills relay, WMFU (90.1 Mount Hope NY). WFMU cancelled its big “Record Fair” fundraiser this past weekend because of power problems making the venue unusable, and it won’t be able to reschedule this year’s event.

Public jazz station WBGO (88.3 Newark) was also forced out of its studios by the storm; there’s word that it spent some time broadcasting from a staffer’s basement until power could be restored.

Down the shore, everything’s decidedly not all right. The rebuilding of the shore towns, and especially along the barrier islands, will be a long process, and broadcasters were affected by the damage, too. New Jersey Public Radio’s WNJO (90.3 Toms River) simply no longer exists: its transmitter site just north of Seaside Heights was washed somewhere out to sea when the winds and rain hit, and for now the area remains largely inaccessible to even begin thinking about rebuilding. We’re still awaiting word on the fate of some of the other sites poised closest to the shore damage; we know transmitters were destroyed at WOND (1400 Pleasantville), among others.

*There was also storm damage in more distant areas: power outages in Rhode Island knocked out signals there when the storm hit, sending Rhode Island NPR’s WELH (88.1 Providence) to a low-power backup at its studios and to a temporary simulcast on Providence College’s WDOM (91.3), and in South County the signal is still out at WRIU (90.3 Kingston).

The Lehigh Valley was also affected, knocking out power to Clear Channel’s Allentown cluster, among others, for several days.

We’ll keep following the storm damage and recovery in the weeks to come here at NERW; please check in with your report, if you haven’t had a chance to do so yet!

*The week’s other big New York City story happened Thursday night at 11:57, when Merlin signed off rocker WRXP (101.9), handing over the signal to CBS Radio in a $75 million deal that resulted, seconds later, in the launch of WFAN-FM, the city’s second FM sports station after ESPN’s WEPN-FM (98.7).

WFAN paid tribute to its original AM launch back in 1987 by using the same voice to launch its FM signal. Suzyn Waldman was a sports update anchor back then; now she’s John Sterling’s partner on Yankees broadcasts over at CBS sister station WCBS (880), and of course the WFAN move to FM reignites speculation that CBS will be making a bid before long to move the Yankees over to the new WFAN-FM.

For now, CBS is making good on its vow to keep a full simulcast going between WFAN’s established AM signal at 660 and its new 101.9 FM signal; it’s still widely expected that CBS will put its new national CBS Sports Radio network on 660 once it launches in January, making the local WFAN programming FM-only.

(Listeners with HD Radio receivers found some changes as a result of WFAN’s FM move – gone is WXRK’s 92.3-HD3, which had been simulcasting WFAN, freeing up bandwidth to allow for stereo on “K-Rock 2” on 92.3-HD2. There’s no HD at the moment on 101.9, which had been running smooth jazz on its HD2.)

*In Syracuse, Galaxy’s WZUN (102.1 Phoenix) is traditionally one of the first stations in the country to go all-Christmas, and 2012 is no exception: WZUN made the flip right on schedule last Thursday. This year, sister station WUMX (102.5) in Utica is holding back, waiting a few weeks to make its own flip. (Meanwhile, Galaxy has won the early rounds of its legal fight with Cumulus to keep the former WAQX morning team of Hunter Scott and Josh Grosvent on its WKRL/WKRH/WKLL; while a judge ruled that the duo can’t use one of its signature characters or refer to their show as “The Show,” two courts have now denied Cumulus’ bid for an injunction to keep Hunter and Josh off the air at Galaxy. The next court date in the case is November 21 in Syracuse.)

CNYRadio.com reports that a Utica television veteran is getting ready to sign off. Bill Worden started his broadcast career almost fifty years ago at Utica’s WBVM (1550, now WUSP) and WRUN (1150, now WUTI), later working in TV in Wichita and Columbus before returning to Utica in 1977 to become 6 and 11 PM anchor at WKTV (Channel 2). Worden has been there ever since, also anchoring WKTV’s 10 PM CW newscast and serving for a time as news director. Worden announced last week that after his November 29 newscast, he’s leaving TV and pursuing his other passion, music: he’s joined the Mark Bolos Band as a percussionist.

Don Shipman will move from WKTV’s morning newscasts to anchor the 5, 10 and 11 PM broadcasts; sports director Jason Powles will move to mornings; and weekend sports anchor Mike Levin will take over as sports director. Station manager/news director Steve McMurray, who now co-anchors the 5 PM show, will move to the 6 PM anchor slot alongside Kristen Copeland, who also anchors at 5.

*There’s a translator swap underway in Buffalo: Family Life Ministries is trading W201BE (88.1 Buffalo) to Delaware-based Priority Radio, which will use the signal to relay its “Reach FM” WXHL-FM (89.1 Christiana DE). In exchange, Family Life will get Priority’s W207BB (89.3 Buffalo, displaced by Family Life’s new WCOM 89.3 Silver Creek), as well as a translator in Ashtabula, Ohio to extend its westward reach from the Erie, Pennsylvania area.

*Looking for more syndicated content on your morning radio dial? Look no farther than central PENNSYLVANIA, where more wakeup hours are now being filled by content from Michigan and Ohio. The Michigan component comes from Hall’s WKZF (92.7 Starview), which brought the Grand Rapids-based “Free Beer and Hot Wings” show to the Harrisburg/York area in late October. As for Ohio, that’s the “Dave and Jimmy Morning Show,” which originates at WNCI in Columbus and has just been added to Clear Channel’s WVRT (97.7)/WVRZ (99.7) in the Williamsport market, replacing local operations manager Eric White in that slot. (Dave and Jimmy are also heard in the region on Clear Channel sister station WHKF in Harrisburg.)

In the midst of the storm, one long-silent AM signal actually returned to the air: WPAM (1450 Pottsville) had been entirely silent since April, and technical issues had taken the classic rock station on and off the air as far back as November 2011.

Our unexpected trip through central Pennsylvania late last week reminded us that a new signal had signed on this summer at the northern end of the US 15 corridor: WTIO (88.3 Mainesburg) runs just 48 watts/848′, but it brings the NPR programming of Scranton’s WVIA (89.9) to an area around Mansfield and Troy where public radio reception is shaky at best. (The calls stand for “TIOga County, where the station is located.)

And we note with sadness the passing of longtime Susquehanna Radio top executive Art Carlson, who presided over the company’s expansion from its original base in central Pennsylvania at WSBA in York and WARM in Scranton into a much bigger footprint beyond the region. Carlson had started with Susquehanna at WARM in 1958, and retired from the company as its president in 1994. He died Saturday (Nov. 3) in Jacksonville, Florida at age 82.

*On the CONNECTICUT-New York line, Marshall Miles’ Tri-State Public Communications is making good on its name. WHDD-FM (91.9 Sharon)/WHDD (1020 Sharon) already expanded north into the Berkshires with a western Massachusetts simulcast on WBSL (91.7 Sheffield), and now WHDD’s “Robin Hood Radio” programming is being heard in more of the Hudson Valley via Bard College’s WLHV (88.1 Annandale-on-Hudson), which began test transmissions last week at half-power. When it reaches its full 910-watt licensed power, WLHV will reach Kingston and Rhinebeck with a usable signal, adding about 150,000 potential listeners to the WHDD audience.

*After WIHS (104.9 Middletown) complained about interference from a co-channel translator in Bridgeport, the translator is filing to change channels. Red Wolf Broadcasting applied last week to move W285DE from 104.9 to 104.5, where it will continue translating the “La Bomba” Spanish-language HD subchannel of co-owned WMRQ (104.1 Waterbury). The translator will still run 250 watts at its new location on the dial.

*In eastern MASSACHUSETTS, Entercom’s WRKO (680 Boston) is shuffling its morning lineup yet again. Out, at least for now, are Michele McPhee (who’s bounced around from WRKO to WTKK and back again) and veteran WRKO talker Todd Feinburg; in as the new morning man is Washington-based Jeff Kuhner, who’s been a regular fill-in host on WRKO in recent months. It’s not yet clear whether Kuhner will continue to broadcast from Washington, or whether he’ll move his show up to Boston. WRKO also says it will find a new role for Feinburg at some point soon. (Kuhner continues hosting the 11 AM-noon hour on WRKO for now, as well.)

Cape Cod broadcaster John Garabedian is adding a fourth signal to his new “Codcomm” group, paying David and Deborah Wang’s Liveair Communications $90,000 for the construction permit for a class A signal at 98.7 in East Harwich. Liveair won the frequency at auction for $55,000 (less a bidding credit) last year. Under Codcomm, the new 98.7 has already requested the calls “WKFY”; it will join Codcomm’s existing WPXC (102.9 Hyannis), WFRQ (93.5 Harwich Port) and WHYA (101.1 Mashpee) once the sale is complete.

There’s a new FM signal on the air in the Fitchburg area. Owned by “Prayers for Life, Inc.,” WQPH (89.3 Shirley) is following the traditional pattern of Catholic radio launches, signing on as a 24-hour relay of the national EWTN Radio service but promising to add local programming eventually from its studios at the Madonna of the Holy Rosary Evangelization Center.

*Go as far north as you can go in VERMONT and you find yourself looking at a radio station painted like a spotted cow. That’s WIKE (1490 Newport) and WMOO-FM (92.1 Derby Line), and it’s about to have another new owner. WIKE/WMOO had ended up as part of Nassau’s massive northern New England holdings, and Nassau’s bankruptcy auction then sent those signals to Jeff Shapiro’s Vertical Capital Partners. Now he’s turning around and selling the stations to another big owner in the region, Bruce James’ Vermont Broadcast Associates. James’ cluster in the Northeast Kingdom already includes WSTJ (1340 St. Johnsbury), WGMT (97.7 Lyndon), WKHX (105.5 St. Johnsbury) and WMTK (106.3 Littleton NH); he’s spinning WQJQ (100.3 Barton) to Capital Broadcasting Associates for $25,000.

In Brattleboro, they’re mourning the co-founder of community station WVEW-LP (107.7). Larry Bloch was an entrepreneur-turned-social activist known for his involvement in building the “jam band” music scene in the 1990s, when he owned the influential Wetlands nightclub in New York. In 1996, Bloch sold the club and moved to Vermont, where he became involved in putting the unlicensed Radio Free Brattleboro on the air. Many of the RFB staff moved over to WVEW when it launched in 2006, and Bloch became WVEW’s program director. He died October 28 of pancreatic cancer, at just 59 years old.

*From NEW HAMPSHIRE comes word that Chris “Doc” Garrett, recently sent packing after 20 years with Clear Channel’s WGIR-FM (101.1 Manchester)/WHEB (100.3 Portsmouth), has landed with Bill Binnie’s new broadcast group as general manager of WFNQ (106.3 Nashua).

*Is longtime AM radio advocate Bob Bittner adding (gasp!) an FM signal in MAINE? It sure looks that way – his Blue Jey Broadcasting is paying $100,000 to Light of Life Ministries for translator W252BT (98.3 Freeport), which will flip from relaying WWWA (95.3 Winslow) to Bittner’s WJTO (730 Bath).

(And we note, as a matter of history, that before his WJIB/WJTO years, Bittner’s earlier career was very FM-centric, spent here in Rochester at two pioneering independent FMs, WCMF 96.5 and WVOR 100.5.)

*As of last Thursday, the CBC no longer holds a license for its Radio CANADA International shortwave transmitters at Sackville, New Brunswick. At RCI’s request, the CRTC revoked the license, which held the (never-announced) callsign CKCX. Most transmissions from Sackville ceased earlier in October, and RCI engineers have reportedly begun dismantling the massive antenna arrays after the CBC failed to find a buyer for the facility.

The last remaining transmission from Sackville is the CBC’s Northern Quebec Service, operating on 9625 kHz and aimed northwest at the remote native villages that dot the frigid landscape up there. The CBC is in the process of building out a network of small FM signals to replace the shortwave service, but in the meantime it appears “CKCX” will remain on the air a while longer, even without an official license, in order to serve northern Quebec.

*The CBC is also in the process of completing a facility change in Windsor, Ontario, where the transmitter site for its Radio-Canada service, CBEF (540), was reportedly in need of expensive repairs. Instead of fixing up that site, the CBC asked the CRTC if it could move the CBEF license to the facility on 1550 last used by its English-language service, CBE. That service has moved to FM (as CBEW 97.5), but the old 1550 transmission facility was in decent repair – and so as of last week, CBEF is being heard transitionally both on 540 and 1550 before the 540 signal is silenced for good.

*In London, Sound of Faith Broadcasting’s CHJX has a new frequency – it recently moved from 10 watts on 105.9 to 500 watts on 99.9 – and now it has a new identity, too. Dan Sys’ Canadian Radio News reports CHJX has flipped from “Inspire FM” to “Faith FM.”

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*Good news, everybody! A new shipment of the 2013 Tower Site Calendar is back from the printer, and on its way out to YOU!

This is the 12th edition of our annual calendar, which features photos of broadcast towers taken by Scott Fybush on his travels.

The 12-month wall calendar boasts a full-color photo each month of a well-known broadcast transmitter site.

This year’s edition includes sites in Florida, Wisconsin, Kentucky, California, Iowa, Idaho, Las Vegas, Colorado, Boston, Cleveland, Albuquerque, upstate New York and western Massachusetts. We’ve also redesigned the calendar to make it more colorful (don’t worry; the pictures are still pristine) and make the spiral binding our standard binding — your calendar will hang even better on your wall now! And of course, we still have the convenient hole for hanging.

Order 20 or more for a 10% discount! And while you’re at the Fybush.com store, check out the new National Radio Club AM Log and the final stash of FM Atlas editions.

For more information and to order yours, click here!