NERW 3/24/2014: Return of the Veterans

In this week’s issue… Ordway relaunches in Boston while Gambling returns to NYC airwaves – LIN/Media General deal shakes up Providence TV – Codcomm adds on Cape Cod – Billy Joel gives WLNG the plug of a lifetime – Plus: Baseball on the Radio 2014 – the Majors

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*When longtime WEEI host Glenn Ordway got back behind a microphone a week ago for the launch of his new streaming sports talk show, it didn’t seem wildly exciting, at least not on the surface – the new website at SportsTalkBoston.com was barely even a placeholder, the audio levels were all over the map, and the talk wasn’t very different from what WEEI and archrival WBZ-FM (98.5 the Sports Hub) already fill the airwaves with hour after hour.

But if other ex-WEEI hosts have failed to set the world on fire after going out on their own (just ask Pete Sheppard, who tried his own show up the dial on WUFC 1510 before ending up working for Ordway), Ordway himself is a little different. With 27 years at WEEI under his belt, he’s a far better-known quantity than most ex-WEEIers – and he has more powerful allies, too, like one of his successors as WEEI’s top programmer, Jason Wolfe.

Wolfe also got the axe as part of Entercom’s attempt to overhaul WEEI last year, and as of April 10th, he’ll be on board at Ordway’s SportsTalkBoston as “chief content officer,” overseeing the expansion of programming beyond the 3-6 PM “Big Show Unfiltered” that’s now the sole offering there. Even as a single-show producer, SportsTalkBoston is already getting much better reach than your average podcast outlet. Starting today, “Big Show Unfiltered” will be heard nationwide on SiriusXM, and Wolfe says he’s looking for more outlets, too…which means the sports rivalry between WEEI and WBZ-FM may have a third serious contender in the mix now.

(Over at WEEI, meanwhile, the departure of Ordway’s replacement Mike Salk has reunited another veteran pair of hosts; for now, Dale Arnold and Michael Holley are the long-term temporary team in afternoon drive, reviving the “Dale and Holley” show they did in middays from 2005-2011.)

A veteran of even longer standing is returning to the airwaves of New York City. When John R. Gambling left WOR (710) at the end of 2013, there was a sense in the air that the host wasn’t quite ready to end the 88-year run of Gamblings on the radio in the city. Sure enough, last week brought the announcement that Gambling is reuniting with former WOR GM Jerry Crowley, in the former WOR studios at 111 Broadway, now home to Salem talker WNYM (970 Hackensack NJ).

Starting April 14, Gambling will take the 11 AM to 1 PM shift on “970 the Answer,” adding a second local show two hours after morning host Joe Piscopo signs off. Producer Frank Morano, who’s part of the Piscopo morning show, will join Gambling on the air from time to time, especially when Gambling’s broadcasting from his winter home in Florida.

(And no, there’s still no permanent host named for the WNYM afternoon shift that was vacated when Curtis Sliwa abruptly departed for WABC middays – nor for Gambling’s old WOR morning shift, where Elliot Segal crashed and burned earlier this year.)

*RHODE ISLAND is the state in NERW-land most affected by the big Media General-LIN deal that broke late last week. LIN, of course, is headquartered in downtown Providence, and while the $1.6 billion deal has Media General buying LIN, it’s LIN chief executive Vince Sadusky who’ll be running the merged TV group, raising hope that it will keep Providence as a headquarters.

Providence is also one of five markets where the combined company will exceed the ownership cap. It can’t keep both LIN’s CBS/Fox pair, WPRI (Channel 12) and, under an LMA, WNAC (Channel 64), as well as Media General’s NBC affiliate, WJAR (Channel 10). Which station will stay with the merged company and which will go? Informed speculation suggests WPRI/WNAC, with its strong network affiliations and the NFL football they bring to the table, are more likely to stay, with WJAR being put up for sale.

Who’d want WJAR? Both Sinclair and Nexstar remain strongly in acquisition mode, and Gannett may still be a buyer even after swallowing Belo’s station group a few months ago. Sinclair may have even have some fresh trade bait to offer as it battles with the Justice Department to complete its planned acquisition of Allbritton’s stations.

To speed that deal along, Sinclair told the FCC last week that it will tweak its plans in several markets, including central PENNSYLVANIA: instead of shifting its CBS affiliate, WHP-TV (Channel 21) in Harrisburg, to a closely-linked “sidecar company” when Sinclair acquires Allbritton’s ABC outlet, WHTM (Channel 27), Sinclair now says it will spin off WHP-TV completely. (Sinclair also operates Nexstar’s CW station, WLYH, channel 15, and that management deal would also go with WHP-TV, leaving Allbritton with only WHTM in that market.)

Back to the LIN/Media General deal: in addition to WNAC/WPRI, Media General will also get LIN’s stations in Buffalo (CBS outlet WIVB-TV 4 and CW outlet WNLO 23), Springfield (WWLP 22, NBC), New Haven/Hartford (ABC affiliate WTNH 8 and My affiliate WCTX 59). In addition to WJAR, Media General’s only other property in NERW-land is Albany ABC affiliate WTEN (Channel 10) and its operating agreement with Shield Media’s Fox station, WXXA (Channel 23).

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*”WLNG, look out. We’re going to be crashing your station, Billy Joel and I.”

That rather unexpected plug for everyone’s favorite radio voice at the eastern tip of NEW YORK‘s Long Island came Thursday night on Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show,” as a chat between Fallon and Joel about doo-wop music somehow veered into a discussion of their mutual appreciation for the one and only WLNG (92.1 Sag Harbor), complete with mentions of its reverb-laden audio.

Will Fallon’s off-the-cuff plan to drive out to the Redwood Causeway this summer with Joel to take over the WLNG airwaves, “late one night when they least expect it,” come to fruition?

If it does, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time Joel’s been to the station. A fixture out in Sag Harbor, Joel’s actually a fairly frequent visitor, seen here in this 2008 photo with ‘LNG jock Brian “the Cannon” Bannon, who reports that all the publicity about Joel’s plug made for a “majorly interesting” few days at the station.

(And if Joel and Fallon do make a late-night appearance at WLNG, you’ll read all about it here in NERW…)

Here’s the video of the conversation, with the WLNG part starting about two minutes in:

*It’s been a long road back from the brink of oblivion, but WKAL (1450 Rome) is once again serving as a local radio voice for a city that’s long been served mostly by stations from nearby Utica. WKAL signed on way back in 1946, owned by the Kallett family and operating out of the co-owned Capitol Theater. For more than 25 years, the 1450 signal has been either a simulcast of an FM station (former sister WFRG 96.1, now WODZ and operating from Utica), or programmed from out of town with a satellite-delivered religious format (under Bible Broadcasting Network, as WYFY), or silent entirely.

But California broadcaster Ron Frisch didn’t want to see the station go dark, and for the last three years he’s been working to revive it after buying it from BBN. For the last few months, Frisch and engineer Bob Carter have been building out new studios in an office building on Black River Boulevard in Rome and testing the signal with programming from the 1920s Radio Network – and as of March 11, Frisch has WKAL back up and running with full commercial operation as “Talkradio 1450 WKAL.”

Bob Cain, a longtime fixture on WODZ, is the new local morning man on WKAL, followed by a syndicated talk lineup with hosts such as Dr. Joy Browne that leans away from the heavily-political bent of competitors WIBX (950 Utica) and WSYR (570 Syracuse); WKAL will also carry Rome Free Academy sports and ABC news.

*In Buffalo, this is Jim Ranney’s last week as news director at WBFO (88.7), ending nearly 25 years as part of the WNED public broadcasting family that began when he joined the staff of what was then WEBR (970) in the late 1980s. Ranney stayed on as WEBR became WNED(AM), left for a while to work at WGR (550), returned to WNED, then oversaw the merger of WBFO into the WNED operation in 2012. He’s leaving to become communications director for state Senator Patrick Gallivan; no replacement has been named yet. There’s also no replacement yet for longtime WNED/WBFO host Mark Phillips, who retires from the station next Sunday. Phillips has been an evening and weekend anchor since the WBFO merger; earlier, he’d worked at WBUF (92.9) and WWKB (1520), as well as at WHAM in Rochester.

*Some big changes at Pamal’s Hudson Valley stations: WLNA (1420 Peekskill) and WBNR (1260 Beacon) drop their “Hudson Valley Talk Radio” format today, flipping to classic country as “1260/1420 Real Country.” The music still stops at 4 every weekday for two hours of Dave Ramsey’s talk show, and there’s talk and religion on weekend mornings as well as NASCAR racing.

Down the hall at WHUD (100.7 Peekskill), John Nolan has retired after a long run on overnights. “The Night Owl” has been part of the WHUD family since 1981. Weekender Bruce Owens moves to the weekday overnight seat, keeping WHUD as one of the few stations these days with a live jock all night long.

*Richard Hayes had already enjoyed a successful career as a singer (“Babalu”) and a game show host (“Supermarket Sweep”) before turning to talk radio in that format’s first big rollout in the 1970s. He spent some time as part of the early talk lineup at WMCA (570) in New York, then moved to Philadelphia, where he worked at both ends of the big talk rivalry between WWDB (96.5) and WCAU (1210). He’s perhaps best remembered today for the even bigger radio accomplishments of his son, Drew Hayes, who spent many years programming spoken-word stations in Chicago (WLS, WSCR and WBBM) and is now the operations manager for Cumulus at KABC in Los Angeles. Richard Hayes died March 10 in Los Angeles, at age 84.

*There’s an eerie MASSACHUSETTS connection to that deadly TV helicopter crash last week in Seattle: while the chopper that went down near the Space Needle was flying for Seattle’s KOMO-TV (Channel 4), its tail number (N250FB) was a clue to its previous identity. Until just a few months ago, that helicopter was based in Boston and bore the logo of WFXT (Channel 25), “Fox Boston,” though it was also shared by CBS’ WBZ-TV (Channel 4).

Out on Cape Cod, John Garabedian’s Codcomm group is once again adding signals. After signing on a fourth full-power signal, WKFY (98.7 East Harwich) last year, Codcomm is now poised to upgrade two Cape translators to 250 watts each, relocating both of them westward. W264BA (100.7 Harwich Port) and W230AW (93.9 Centerville) both come to Codcomm from Jeff Shapiro’s Nantucket Public Radio, which currently operates 100.7 from a site in Harwich and 93.9 from a site in Barnstable. If their upgrades are granted, 100.7 would move to 100.5 from the WHYA (101.1)/WPXC (102.9) tower in Barnstable, while 93.9 would move to a site near Mashpee. The 100.7 signal will carry WPXC’s HD3, which is in turn a simulcast of WKFY’s soft AC “Coffee” format, while the 93.9 signal will carry WPXC’s HD2, which is a simulcast of “Frank” WFRQ (93.5), restoring the “Frank” service to the lower Cape that was lost when Codcomm moved 101.1 last year.

Out west, the Hampshire Arts Connection has been granted a CP for a new LPFM on 103.1 in Amherst.

*Last week, we sang the praises of the Cornell University students and alumni who’ve moved WVBR (93.5 Ithaca) into a snazzy new home. This week’s “college radio still draws passion” story comes from NEW JERSEY, where Rob Longo graduated from Seton Hall University 22 years ago. He went into the video production business, but his college years at WSOU (89.5 South Orange) stayed with him – which is why he’s now fundraising for a documentary about his alma mater.

“Pirates of the Airwaves – the WSOU Story” is set to debut April 6 at the Garden State Film Festival, and Longo calls it a labor of love for a station that’s “underfunded, under appreciated, misunderstood, a true underdog that has been punching well above its weight and has become a powerhouse of a radio station in the biggest market in the United States by launching successful careers, winning awards, facing obstacles, and launching bands into stardom for the last 65 years!”

The bold print is his, but not without reason: while he’s finished all the interviews and most of the editing, he’s trying to raise $20,000 within the next two weeks to finish color correction, music licensing and all the other little details that stand between two years of work and a movie premiere in just two weeks. Check out the project’s Indiegogo page, where he’s offering swag that includes DVD copies of the movie and a 3-D printed pirate ship that’s also a real radio, tuned to WSOU’s 89.5 frequency…and if you have a few dollars and a belief in the importance of promoting college radio, maybe you can help Rob make his movie a reality.

*And speaking of movies and radio, we backtrack to Massachusetts and the legendary “Mistress Carrie” of WAAF (107.3). NERW readers already know that in addition to her long-running afternoon shift on the rock station, she’s been passionate in her support of the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, making several visits to war zones over the last few years.

Emerson College student Steve Milo wanted to bring Mistress Carrie’s story to a bigger audience, and for his senior project, he spent several months with her to create a short documentary film about her life and career. Milo got an “A” on the project just before graduating last spring, and now the short film is out on YouTube for the public (complete with a bit of NSFW language, because she wouldn’t be Mistress Carrie, otherwise…)

*Binnie Media has some big changes brewing in NEW HAMPSHIRE, where its purchase of much of the former Nassau cluster created a near-statewide platform for its newly-launched “New Hampshire 1” news brand. Drive-time newscasts are now being heard on 7 Binnie FM signals, with a news staff that includes Nick Carpenelli, Moneen Daley, Laura Montenegro and Dan McCready. Once new studios are completed in Concord, “New Hampshire 1” will also be the news branding on WBIN-TV (Channel 50).

On the music side, Binnie has hired another well-known programming name: Scott Laudani’s resume includes a long run at WHEB (100.3 Portsmouth) and WGIR-FM (101.1 Manchester), as well as time at WSHK/WSAK on the seacoast, WHJY in Providence, WPLR in New Haven and WAQY and WLZX in Springfield. Now he’s signed on as PD of Binnie’s “Frank FM” stations, WFNQ (106.3 Nashua) and WNNH (99.1 Henniker/Concord), where he’s working with his former WHEB colleague “Doc” Garrett, now the GM of the “Frank” stations.

In Portsmouth, Cultural Media Connection’s WBUB-LP (101.5) not only has a shiny new callsign – it’s already applied for a license to cover for its new signal, which signed on March 11. “The Bubble” is playing 1970s hits and streaming from its new website at thebubble.fm.

Joseph Rayball’s career moved back and forth between politics and radio, but he’s being remembered in the radio community as the owner of WVNH (1110 Salem) in that station’s early years in the 1960s. Rayball became an administrative assistant to Massachusetts congresswoman Margaret Heckler from 1968 until 1973, went back into radio as the general manager of WARA (1320) in Attleboro, Mass. from 1973 until 1979, and then returned to Heckler’s office before working for the Attleboro and then Cambridge housing authorities. We’re just getting word of Rayball’s death back on January 11 on Cape Cod; he was 81.

*A coastal MAINE station wants to improve signal toward Bangor. WNSX (97.7 Winter Harbor) is applying for a 22-watt booster in Holden, where WNSX-1 would fill in a gap where terrain blocks the main 97.7 signal from reaching westward.

In Lewiston-Auburn, there’s a new studio almost done for WEZR (1240 Lewiston), which is getting ready to relaunch with its new FM translator at 105.5 – and with a new brand, “Z105,” to go with it. There’s a local morning show coming next week, as well. But while WEZR breaks in its new studio, veterans in the market are shedding a few tears now that the wrecking crew has finished razing the old “Downeast Broadcast House,” the barn-like building that was the longtime home of the old WLAM (1470 Auburn). Only the WLAM transmitter remains at the site, with programming coming from Binnie Media’s Portland studios.

In southern Maine, Bible Broadcasting Network has been granted a construction permit for new translator W286CU (105.1), relaying WYFP (91.9 Harpswell).

And congratulations to our old Maine radio buddy Dan Billings, who traded radio for politics some years back, becoming chief counsel to governor Paul LePage. You can now call him “Justice Billings,” since his nomination to Maine’s Superior Court was confirmed by the state Senate last week.

*NERW was quick to tell you about Bellows Falls, VERMONT LPFM station WOOL-LP (100.1) signing off a few weeks back to clear the way for a license to be issued for its new full-power replacement, but we overlooked mentioning the debut of that new full-power signal on March 8. “Black Sheep Radio” went from 6 watts on 100.1 to 550 watts/387′ DA on the new WOOL (91.5) when that signal went on the air March 8 from the same transmitter site just across the Connecticut River on the New Hampshire side. WOOL licensee Great Falls Community Broadcasting says it’s the only independent public media organization in Vermont or New Hampshire operating at that sort of power level without any affiliation with a college, high school or statewide public radio network.

*In CANADA, Corus is moving from personality talk back to music in Toronto after being burned by the controversy that drove former CFNY (102.1 the Edge) morning host Dean Blundell and his crew off the air. Longtime midday host Josie Dye is moving to mornings alongside evening host Greg Beharrell and Dominik Diamond. Fred Kennedy, who’d been filling in on mornings after Blundell was axed, moves back to afternoons alongside Melanie Mariani, beginning next Monday.

Up in Cottage Country, the religious broadcaster UCB Canada wants a new transmitter in Maynooth, north of Bancroft. UCB says its existing Bancroft relay (CKJJ-FM-4 on 103.5) of CKJJ (102.3 Belleville) doesn’t reach all the way to Maynooth, and there’s demand from that small town for its programming. The proposed Maynooth signal would run 50 watts on 94.7. Out west, Acadia Broadcasting wants a new 50-watt FM signal in Ignace, Ontario. CKDR-FM-1 (97.5) would replace the current Ignace low-power relay of Dryden’s CKDR-FM (92.7), operating on 1340 AM.

*And so we come to something vaguely resembling spring, and to the start of our annual Baseball on the Radio special features.

As always, we start with the major leagues, and this year that means we start with the New York Mets and their big radio change. After a quarter-century on WFAN (660, and more recently 101.9) and its predecessor stations, the team is now the star attraction for Clear Channel on WOR (710). And after a quarter-century with little or no radio network outside New York City, the move from CBS to Clear Channel means more radio coverage for the Mets in the hinterlands, where the team’s fan base may be small but is fiercely loyal. The Mets have been heard in Syracuse for the last two years on Galaxy’s ESPN stations, WTLA (1200 North Syracuse) and WSGO (1440 Oswego), plus translators at 97.7 and 100.1, and in Utica on WUSP (1550, plus translator at 95,5); this year, they add Binghamton-market coverage on Clear Channel’s WENE (1430 Endicott). The team’s also on in Glens Falls via WMML (1230), and it will fill in some gaps in WOR’s Long Island coverage via otherwise-religious WLIR (107.1 Hampton Bays) and its five translators in Suffolk and Nassau counties.

The Mets radio team, as we’ve reported, is finally back in place: Howie Rose and Josh Lewin return from the WFAN broadcasts, with Seth Everett now handling pre- and post-game duties on WOR.

The team’s TV picture has finally stabilized, too: we knew, of course, that most games would be on the SNY network that the team partially owns, and now we know that a handful of games will continue to be seen over the air on WPIX (Channel 11) in New York and a small network of affiliates upstate.

In Spanish, Los Mets are in their second year with WEPN (1050), with no change to the booth lineup of Juan Alicea, Max Perez Jimenez and Nestor Rosario.

*There’s change on the Yankees side of the Triborough Bridge, too, but in a more subtle way. John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman are still being heard on a CBS Radio signal, but this year that signal is the simulcast of WFAN (660/101.9) instead of the team’s longtime home upstairs at WCBS (880). Because the flagship change was “all in the family” within CBS Radio, it appears initially that there’s not much change down the line on the extensive Yankees radio network.

We do know that the Yanks get an FM simulcast in Binghamton, as well as in New York: because Clear Channel is putting the Mets on WENE (1430), the Yankees shift to WINR (680 Binghamton) and its powerful “Oldies 96.9” translator. (In the middle of last season, Clear Channel also put the Yankees on a full-time FM home at the edge of the Rochester market, WODX 107.3 South Bristol.)

Though the team is now only a minority owner of the YES Network, the games of course stay put there for the majority of TV coverage, with some YES-produced games over the air on WWOR (My 9) in New York and an upstate affiliate lineup; in Buffalo, that affiliation shifts from WBBZ (Channel 67) to My affiliate WNYO-TV (Channel 49), which has somewhat better cable coverage around the market and across the border into Canada.

Yankees Spanish-language broadcasts stay on WADO (1280) once again.

*The World Champion Boston Red Sox have, by now, just about justified that huge 10-year radio contract they signed with Entercom back in 2006. In the next-to-last year of that deal, Joe Castiglione and Dave O’Brien are back in the Fenway booth on WEEI-FM (93.7 Lawrence/Boston) and an affiliate lineup that’s largely unchanged across New England. One exception to the status quo is right on the boundary between Red Sox and Yankees territory, where the Yankees’ move to WFAN means that WLAD (800) in Danbury, Connecticut has dropped the team after many years and joined the Sox network instead.

“With this reshuffling, we felt it was a good time to move to serve the large Red Sox fan base in Greater Danbury.,” says WLAD GM Irv Goldstein. “And the fact that the Sox will be defending a World Series title is icing on the cake.”

Out in the hinterlands of Red Sox Nation, we’re extremely excited about one small addition to the affiliate list: after flipping to sports last fall, WRSB (1310 Canandaigua)/WASB (1590 Brockport) join the Sox lineup this spring, and there’s an FM translator for WRSB about to sign on, further enhancing your editor’s summer soundtrack here at NERW Central.

Sox TV, of course, remains on team-owned NESN, with no over-the-air coverage save for the occasional Fox network game; Spanish-language Sox games continue on WUFC (1510).

(And yes, we absolutely did say in last year’s “Baseball on the Radio” column that 2013 was a “rebuilding year” for the Sox. Heck of a rebuild, boys…)

*The Philadelphia Phillies continue their unusual relationship with CBS Radio: talker WPHT (1210) is the nominal flagship and will carry all games, while sports behemoth WIP-FM (94.1) picks up everything that doesn’t conflict with the Eagles. The network appears largely unchanged from last year, with a large roster of affiliates across eastern and central Pennsylvania, south Jersey and Delaware.

On TV, the Phillies have a new over-the-air partner: Comcast Sports Network produces all of the games, including a few early-season outings on sister TCN/The Comcast Network, and now that Comcast owns NBC and WCAU (Channel 10), the 11 over-the-air games move there from their former home on Tribune’s WPHL (Channel 17). A small network of over-the-air affiliates for those 11 games includes WSWB (Channel 38) in Scranton, WLYH (Channel 15) in Lebanon and WHVL (Channel 29) in State College. The TV broadcasts pick up some new analysts this year as former players Jamie Moyer and Matt Stairs join the CSN team, with some guy named Mike Schmidt popping in on Sundays to add his analysis, too.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, fresh off their first postseason appearance in over two decades, maintain their broadcast status quo: CBS Radio’s KDKA-FM (93.7 the Fan) returns for its third season as flagship of a network that extends into eastern Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland as well as blanketing western Pennsylvania. Root Sports has the TV action, with no broadcast TV games.

The Toronto Blue Jays start their season with radio affiliates in 8 of Canada’s 10 provinces (only Newfoundland and PEI are missing), but the team is likely to end the season with one of those provinces missing, once Rogers closes on the sale of New Brunswick’s CKNI and CHNI to new owners less likely to carry the Rogers-owned team. Closer to home, the team will stay firmly in place on its Rogers-owned radio flagship, CJCL (Sportsnet 590 the FAN) in Toronto, and on Rogers Sportsnet for all TV coverage.

In next week’s issue. we’ll continue our Baseball on the Radio (and TV) coverage with a look at the high minor leagues – play ball!

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