NERW 12/17/2012: Connecticut Radio, TV Respond to Tragedy

In this week’s issue… Connecticut broadcasters cover tragedy – New rhythmic CHR coming to Boston? – New Jersey gets new TV signal – Chio out at Philly’s WRDW-FM – PLUS: A report from the NYMRAD Holiday Party – AND: NERW’s Holiday Bookshelf 2012

By SCOTT FYBUSH

NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS: As many of you hit subscription renewal time, we’re in the process of upgrading our subscription system. In the meantime, if you’re experiencing difficulty renewing your existing subscription, please click here to renew. Thanks for your patience! If you’ve already renewed, thank you for your support. Please tell a friend or colleague about NERW, and suggest they subscribe, too – every bit of your support is essential as we continue in our 18th year of independent service to the broadcast community! And if you haven’t yet ordered your 2013 Tower Site Calendar, what are you waiting for? Order today and you can still have yours by Christmas, when you visit the Fybush.com Store!

*Every broadcaster – every newsperson, anyway – dreams of the day when the “big story” will hit, when the nation’s eyes will land on their market for a few hours or a few days and they can show their skills to a larger audience. But it’s safe to say that no broadcaster, no newsperson, dreams of finding themselves where newspeople did on Friday as the tragic news began to emerge from Newtown, CONNECTICUT.

There’s nothing at all that we can say about that event itself (as we look across the room at our own young children) that hasn’t been said elsewhere, and better. And it happens that your editor was traveling for much of the day on Friday and missed the initial coverage. The best we can offer, then, is some brief observations of the coverage we’ve seen and heard about.

The TV stations in the Hartford/New Haven market, as well as those from nearby New York City and other surrounding markets, went – and have remained – wall-to-wall with their coverage, and for much of Friday the networks followed suit, preempting most of the daytime hours and carrying specials in the evening.

On radio, several stations in the region went wall to wall with their coverage right away, most notably Hartford’s WTIC (1080) and New York’s all-news WCBS (880) and WINS (1010). You’d expect the all-news stations to do that, of course, but it was more of a surprise to find New York’s WEPN-FM (98.7) and WFAN (660) breaking from their sports formats to take calls. On the FM music side, many stations in the region also dropped format and kept morning teams in place to talk to listeners and relay information, including Clear Channel’s WKSS (95.7) from Hartford and WKCI (101.3) from New Haven. We note, too, that at WPLR (99.1 New Haven) and WFOX (95.9 Norwalk), the morning team of Chaz and AJ dropped plans to be on vacation this week; instead, they’re sticking around to help with extended coverage of the aftermath, including a live broadcast last night of the Newtown memorial service.

*At the start of 2012, the talk radio market in eastern MASSACHUSETTS was a crowded one indeed. Entercom’s WRKO (680 Boston), with three decades in the format, squared off against its Greater Media FM competitor of more than a decade, WTKK (96.9 Boston) and a newer entry from Clear Channel, WXKS (1200 Newton). Despite pulling big-name hosts including Rush Limbaugh over from WRKO, WXKS didn’t make enough of a dent in the market to survive, and it soon flipped to a low-budget syndicated comedy format, returning Limbaugh to WRKO and giving that station a shot in the arm as it ramped into a busy election season and launched a new morning show.

That left Greater Media’s WTKK as the ratings laggard in the format, and as 2012 draws to a close, it appears the company may be ready to pull the plug on “NewsTalk 96.9.” That’s what our colleagues over at RadioInsight have pieced together from a series of new domain registrations made over the last few weeks. What do “969theBeat.com,” “969BostonsBeat.com” and other similar domains point to? Insight’s Lance Venta believes – and Greater Media hasn’t exactly denied – that the next move for 96.9 will be some sort of rhythmic, urban or top-40 format. That’s also a crowded arena, up against Clear Channel’s powerful “Kiss”/”Jam’n” combo and CBS Radio’s more recent entry, WODS (Amp Radio 103.3), but it offers a much more appealing demographic for sales than the aging talk audience does.

There’s a talent pool available for a new rhythmic launch, in part thanks to recent Clear Channel exits: longtime WJMN morning co-host Pebbles is gone from “Jam’n” in the latest round of cuts there, and we’re not alone in noting that longtime WJMN/Kiss programmer “Cadillac Jack” McCartney is also on the market after his recent departure from Clear Channel in New York.

We’ll be following this story closely during the holiday weeks ahead; stay tuned for updates here and on our Facebook and Twitter feeds.

[private]

*Over at WODS, PD Dan Mason Jr. has made his first big programming hire as he prepares to transition “Amp” from jockless to staffed. Joe Breezy comes to Boston from Clear Channel’s WWVA-FM in Atlanta, with stops before that in Phoenix and Sacramento; he started on Thursday in afternoon drive and is also Amp’s music director.

Downstairs from “Amp,” CBS Radio’s “Sports Hub” (WBZ-FM 98.5) has picked a replacement for Damon Amendolara in the evening talk chair. Adam Jones moves over from ESPN Radio, where he was anchoring weekend shifts and had hosted an online talk show on ESPNBoston.com. In his new role, Jones will be the local lead-in for Amendolara’s new all-night national show on the CBS Sports Radio Network, debuting January 2.

*More New England Radio People on the Move: Jessica Tyler is out as music director/morning co-host at Hall’s WCTK (98.1 New Bedford) in the Providence, RHODE ISLAND market. Tyler had been with “Cat Country” since 2007. Up on the NEW HAMPSHIRE seacoast, JC Haze adds afternoon duties at WBYY (98.7 Somersworth) to his weekend/fill-in shifts at Boston’s WROR (105.7).

Out on Nantucket, Jeff Shapiro has applied to boost power on his new WAZK (97.7 ACK-FM). It’s now running 1.75 kW/236′, but it’s applying to go up to a full 6 kW/236′ from the same site. another licensee connected to Shapiro, Nantucket Public Radio, has also applied for a power increase: it wants to boost translator W300BE (107.9) on Martha’s Vineyard from 9 watts to 250 watts. In the process, the translator has also changed primary stations, shifting from Nantucket Public Radio’s WNCK (89.5 Nantucket, itself a relay of Boston-based WCRB 99.5) to WMVY (92.7 Tisbury), the Vineyard-based station that’s in the process of being sold to Boston public broadcaster WBUR-FM (90.9). There are new calls on the way for the 92.7 signal, too: WBUR has applied to change 92.7 to “WBUA” when it takes over.

*We’ve been remiss in noting a broadcast story related to that big natural gas explosion that devastated a block of downtown Springfield just after Thanksgiving. Among the buildings damaged in the blast was the one that housed the studios for Spanish-language religious broadcaster WLHZ-LP (98.7), which is still struggling to rebuild nearly a month later. For now, the station is running from temporary facilities in the home of one of the members of the church that operates the station while it figures out how to replace its studio equipment, which was mostly destroyed by the blast. (That’s the church’s chapel shown in the photo at left; the studio is out of frame and dark, since there’s no power in the condemned building, which is listing at a 5-degree angle.)

*The first of several prominent obituaries in this week’s column comes from western Massachusetts, where we’re saddened to share news of the death of Tom Jaworski, known to generations of listeners in the southern Berkshires as “Tom Jay” on WSBS (860 Great Barrington). From 1967 until 2008, Tom was WSBS’ news director and at times its chief engineer as well. He suffered a heart attack on December 6 and never recovered, dying last Wednesday (Dec. 12) at a hospital in Springfield. Jaworski was 70.

*Down the road in Waterbury, Connecticut, a former owner of several area broadcast stations has died. Preston Gilmore became part of the WATR (1320 Waterbury) family in 1950 when he married Florence Thomas, the only child of WATR founder Harold Thomas. Under Gilmore, WATR grew to include not only the original AM station but also an FM station (now WWYZ 92.5) and a TV outlet (originally WATR-TV 53, now WCCT-TV 20), as well as a second AM station, WNAB (1450 Bridgeport, now WCUM). The company eventually sold off everything but the original AM station, now in the hands of Gilmore’s sons Mark and Steven. Preston Gilmore died December 10th, at age 89.

*How about a surprise weekend format change? Hall Communications was secretive indeed about its flip in the New London market, where midnight this morning brought the end of the long-running oldies format on “Kool 100.9” WKNL, which relaunches as hot AC “Roxy FM.” Much more on this one as the week progresses, no doubt.

*In MAINE, there’s another format change on the way in the Bangor market in the new year. We already know something new is coming to Stephen King’s WZLO (103.1 Dover-Foxcroft, ex-WZON-FM) when the Christmas music ends, and now there’s word from Townsquare that it will flip WEZQ (92.9 Bangor) from AC to sports as “92.9 the Ticket” on January 1. Dale Duff and Clem LaBree will host mornings, with ESPN Radio filling the rest of the day. The new “Ticket” will also carry Boston Bruins hockey (at least in theory) and Patriots football.

In Portland, Mike Audet departed from WGAN (560) in style last week, ending a career in news that started at at Waterville’s WTVL (1490) all the way back in 1954 and eventually took him to just about every Portland newsroom – WLOB, WCSH radio, WGAN, then three decades as morning newsman on WPOR before returning to WGAN as afternoon news anchor. Audet’s retirement was marked not only on WGAN but on sister station WYNZ (100.9) as well; click here to hear the audio from Audet’s retirement-day chat with WYNZ morning man Chuck Igo.

News Directors on the Move: Mimi Strawn has departed WGME-TV (Channel 13) in Portland, two years after arriving at the CBS affiliate. No replacement has been named yet.

*Back to the Granite State: in the Lakes Region, WWHQ (101.5 Meredith) is now simulcasting Great Eastern sister talk station WTPL (107.7 Hillsborough), but don’t get too used to it: the station has requested new calls WZEI, which would seem to indicate an upcoming flip to the Boston-based WEEI sports network.

Great Eastern has been busy with its new stations: it applied to the FCC last week to officially assume control all of the signals owner Jeff Shapiro had acquired from Nassau through another of his operating companies, Vertical Capital LLC. And Shapiro’s been occupied on the engineering front, requesting power boosts at two of the former Nassau signals. At WFYX (96.3 Walpole), it’s an application to go from 320 watts to 600 watts, still directional at 407′ above average terrain without a site change. Up in the Upper Valley, it’s WHDQ (106.1)’s translator W294AB (106.7) that wants to go from 14 to 100 watts at its current site just east of Lebanon.

*Remember the big story three years ago about a very creative attempt to get new TV signals on the air in the New York City and Philadelphia markets by way of an obscure piece of legislation guaranteeing VHF allocations to the states of NEW JERSEY and Delaware? PMCM LLC, an arm of Jersey-based Press Communications, had cannily noted that the DTV transition moved both states’ lone commercial TV allocations over to the UHF spectrum, leaving open the possibility of invoking Section 331 of the Communications Act. That’s the bit of legislation that was inserted back in the 1980s to allow RKO to sell WOR-TV (Channel 9) by changing its city of license from New York to Secaucus, N.J., where it became WWOR- and with WWOR now on RF channel 38, Press applied to move KVNV (Channel 3) from Ely, Nevada to Middletown Township, N.J. (with a transmitter on Manhattan’s Four Times Square) and KJWY (Channel 2) from Jackson, Wyoming to Wilmington, Delaware (with its transmitter in Philadelphia’s Roxborough tower farm).

The FCC denied the applications, ruling that “reallocation” implied that the new allocation be mutually exclusive with the old one. That was indeed the case with WWOR, but would not have been the case with KVNV and KJWY. PMCM pushed for a ruling by the full Commission, which also turned down the applications – and in the meantime, the Media Bureau went ahead and created its own new VHF allocations in New Jersey and Delaware at less-favorable locations for serving adjacent big markets. One of those signals, WACP (Channel 4), is now on the air from Atlantic City.

PMCM, meanwhile, went to the courts for relief, and last week a federal appeals court in Washington agreed with its interpretation of Section 331, remanding the case to the FCC with an order to approve the KVNV and KJWY moves.

Where does this bizarre case go from here? If there’s no appeal from the FCC, it presumably means the New York area will soon have a new Channel 3, while Philadelphia will have a new Channel 2…and if WACP is any sort of precedent, both stations will probably be more likely to carry infomercials than anything actually serving their communities of license. (They will, however, be entitled to must-carry on cable and satellite, which is a good thing considering how poor their over-the-air signals will likely be.)

*Nearly two months after Hurricane Sandy’s aftermath devastated big swaths of New Jersey and NEW YORK, several signals remain silent in the region. We didn’t hear much about Staten Island’s WSIA (88.9) in the weeks after the storm, but it turns out the station at the College of Staten Island has been beset by power problems that it says have made a return to the air “difficult and elusive.” The problem is downed power lines at WSIA’s Todt Hill tower site, where the station tells the FCC it’s dependent on its landlord to negotiate with utilities to restore service that would allow WSIA back on the air. Also still silent is WUSS (1490 Pleasantville), in the hard-hit Atlantic City area.

*Radio People on the Move: Thea Mitchem is inbound to the management suite at Clear Channel New York to serve as the cluster’s VP/Programming, moving up from her current role as president/market manager at Clear Channel in Washington and Baltimore; internally, Bernie Weiss has been promoted to VP/Sales at the cluster.

Down the street at CBS Radio, Dave Stewart has a new gig on the overnight shift at WCBS-FM (101.1), returning to the timeslot he occupied for many years uptown at WPLJ. And the all-star roster of engineers at CBS on Hudson Street just added another one last week: Jeff Smith spent many years on the engineering team at Clear Channel and then a little while with Merlin’s ill-fated WEMP (101.9), and now he’s followed the 101.9 signal into the CBS fold.

SUBSCRIBER BONUS: Veteran New England radio man Clark Smidt took a day trip down to New York City on Friday to attend the NYMRAD Holiday Party. He’s written an exclusive summary for NERW readers, complete with insight from the city’s top sales executives on what lies ahead for 2013, and you can find it right here!

Upstate, we send our best wishes to Tommy Lee, who’s off the air from his usual morning shift at WRWD-FM (107.3 Highland) as he battles illness.

In Syracuse, Joe Detomaso is now officially the program director at Cumulus rocker WAQX (95.7 Manlius) after several months as interim PD; he’s still on the air on 95X in afternoons as “Joe D.”

Here in Rochester, a change close to home: at year’s end, Julie Philipp will depart her post as director of news and public affairs at WXXI radio and television, moving to a new post with the University of Rochester Medical Center. The usual disclaimers apply here…along with the very best of wishes to your editor’s soon-to-be-former boss!

In Dunkirk, WDOE (1410) has completed a big translator upgrade: the former W236BJ (95.1) has moved to 94.9, boosting power from 10 watts to 200 watts in the process.

*Ready for a reunion? There are two of them already on our calendar (our Tower Site Calendar, of course!) for 2013.

Here in Rochester, current and former staffers at WHEC-TV (Channel 10) are planning a big event to mark the station’s 60th anniversary on the TV dial next year. The WHEC Reunion will take place July 19-21, and organizers Howard Cohen and Tina Stevens want to hear from anyone who’s toiled at 191 East Avenue (or maybe even back in the 40 Franklin Street days?) at www.whecreunion.com.

Down the road in Binghamton, the Binghamton Broadcasters Reunion rolls around every two years, and that means the planning is well underway for the 2013 edition. It will happen Saturday, September 14 at the Binghamton Riverwalk Hotel, and you’ll be hearing much more about it as that date grows closer.

*There’s a big opening for market manager at Townsquare Media’s NEW JERSEY stations: Zoe Burdine-Fly, who’s been regional VP/market manager at that cluster, is leaving early in 2013 to take over as general sales manager at Clear Channel in Chicago. No replacement has yet been named.

*The week’s big news from PENNSYLVANIA is a surprise talent departure in Philadelphia, where Chio said goodbye to his morning audience on Beasley’s WRDW-FM (Wired 96.5) Friday morning at 9:45. Chio’s departure from what had been the “Chio, Shila and Tingle in the Morning” show leaves co-hosts Shila and Tingle handling things solo for now.

On TV, Jim Driscoll moves down the turnpike from Fox-owned MyNetworkTV outlet WWOR-TV (Channel 9) in Secaucus, N.J. to Fox O&O WTXF (Channel 29) as the latest occupant of the news director’s chair. Driscoll replaces Steve Schwaid, who left to become a consultant over the summer.

*The Radio Survivor blog has become an invaluable first line of alert for college radio stations that could fall prey to a sale, and this week it reports that WPTC (88.1 Williamsport) is in danger. The station’s licensee, Pennsylvania College of Technology, is dropping its Mass Media/Communication program after the spring semester, and students at Penn College have started a petition drive in hopes of persuading the school to keep the station going even without an academic program supporting it.

A correction from last week: in the breakup of the former Newport Television group, it’s Sinclair and not Nexstar that’s now running CBS outlet WHP-TV (Channel 21) in Harrisburg and its sister CW station, WLYH (Channel 15).

And an obituary: Dennis Eberly was chief engineer at Lancaster’s WLAN/WLAN-FM through most of the 1980s and for a decade before that at crosstown WIOV. In recent years, Eberly had been general manager at Living Waters Theatre and Sight & Sound Ministries. He died December 10 at age 65.

*A station sale in eastern CANADA leads our news on a slow week north of the border: Newcap is taking full control of CKCH (103.5 the Eagle) in Sydney, Nova Scotia, four years after the station launched with Newcap as a 29.9% minority partner. Within the next 60 days, Newcap expects to acquire the remaining 70.1% of CKCH from its partner there, Barry Maxwell; no price has been announced yet. Newcap also owns CHRK (101.9 the Giant) in Sydney.

In Toronto, Craig Venn has been named the new morning man alongside Wendy Boomer at Oshawa-based CKGE (94.9 the Rock), effective January 7. Venn returns to Toronto (where he’d worked at Q107 and CFNY) after several years in Windsor on CKUE (95.1).
[/private]

We’re nearing the end of 2012, and that means several year-end features are coming your way. Starting next week, we’ll be presenting our 19th annual NERW Year in Review – and this year, it will arrive in a different format, presented in daily installments through the end of the year. (There’s still space available for your ad message along with the Year in Review columns, but don’t delay – contact Lisa at lisa@fybush.com right away to reserve your days!)

And before we get to the Year in Review, it’s our annual NERW Bookshelf, where we feature some of the year’s new and notable volumes about radio and TV in our region, or authored by radio and TV people in the region. You can read it starting midday Monday…check back right here!

*Good news, everybody! A new shipment of the 2013 Tower Site Calendar is back from the printer, and on its way out to YOU! (You can even get yours by Christmas if you order right away!)

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!