In this week’s issue… What’s heating up at Hot 97? – WMCA’s new “Mission” – FCC reconsiders, forces Mass. FM move – EMF grows in Maine – Evanov seeks big Toronto HD move-in – We turn 21!
By SCOTT FYBUSH
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*”Hot 97″ and “stable” haven’t been words that go together in NEW YORK radio for a while now, and last week was no different. We start in the PD chair, where Jay Dixon is out after just half a year on the job. While Dixon will continue to consult for Emmis and other clients, Pio Ferro comes on board as PD at WQHT (97.1). Ferro comes to Emmis from Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), where he was national PD for a portfolio of stations that included WSKQ (97.9) in New York.
Down the hall in the air studio, Nessa is the new afternoon jock at Hot 97, making a cross-country move from her current gig with iHeart’s KYLD in San Francisco. At Hot, she replaces Cipha Sounds, who’ll stay on “in other capacities.” Could that be the midday shift, where Big Dennis Rivera was quietly ousted last week after a remarkable 20-year run with WQHT?
And then there’s that weird story that started making the rounds Sunday night: a thinly-sourced report that music mogul Jay-Z was in negotiations to buy Hot 97. Over at RadioInsight, Lance unpacked that one nicely: in a nutshell, it’s entirely possible Jay-Z might become an investor in Emmis (which is widely rumored to be more in buying than selling mode in the urban/Hispanic major market landscape), but highly unlikely that Emmis has any intention of selling its premier property outright.
*Then there’s Salem’s New York City cluster, which doesn’t often make headlines, especially on the religious side at WMCA (570). It may not draw much in the way of ratings, but WMCA’s roster of preaching and teaching brings in steady revenues, which is why we were dubious when the station started announcing it would be “no more” beginning today.
The on-air hints weren’t leading to an all-out format change, as some speculation had it, nor to a signal swap with talk sister WNYM (970). Instead, they pointed the way to a new on-air identity, “570 the Mission,” one of the first incarnations of what appears to be a new national brand for Salem’s religious stations around the country. (RadioInsight picked up on a “Mission” domain registration in the Twin Cities for Salem’s KKMS 980, and it’s a pretty safe bet that the Salem plan is to roll out that branding around the country in much the same way that it’s branded most of its conservative talk stations from coast to coast as “The Answer.”)
WMCA marks its 90th birthday in just a few weeks (February 6, if you’re inclined to send a card), and it’s remarkable to note that of all the many formats that have been associated with that venerable callsign over the years, religion has outlasted WMCA’s memorable turns with top-40 (barely a decade, from the late 1950s until 1970) and talk (1970-1989).
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*Over at Cumulus, New York City market manager Kim Bryant has moved on after just under two busy years on the job. Following the launch of “Nash” WNSH (94.7) and “Radio 103.9” WNBM, Bryant has been promoted to executive VP of West Coast sales for Cumulus-owned Westwood One. No replacement has been named yet at the New York cluster, which also includes troubled talker WABC (770) and hot AC WPLJ (95.5). Will the next New York market manager also oversee what’s left of WFAS up in Westchester, where GM Marty Sheehan also appears to be out?
(And speaking of Westwood One, check out your editor’s story about its new Technical Operations Center in Westchester County, just published in Radio World!)
*Univision’s Manhattan FM booster for WQBU (92.7 Garden City) is on the move. WQBU-1 is losing its lease atop the hulking building at 450 W. 33rd Street (the former home to, among other things, WNET 13 and the Daily News) , and it’s asking the FCC for permission to move a block north to a rooftop at 460 W. 34th St. From there, the directional on-channel booster would go to 99 watts from its present 80 watts.
Before we leave New York City, we take a moment to remember Lou Miliano, one of the finest radio reporters out there. After making a name for himself with the RKO Radio Network in its declining years, Miliano jumped ship to CBS in 1989. While he eventually crowned his career with a stint at CBS Radio News that started in 1998, Miliano first worked at WCBS (880), bringing his usual attention to the craft of natural sound to the fast pace of local all-news radio. Miliano had retired from CBS in 2007; he died Monday in Florida after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He was just 67.
*With Monday’s launch of WINU (104.9), Albany now has four sports stations, one for each major commercial ownership cluster, and now it’s going three-for-four on country music, too. Townsquare’s WGNA (107.7) is the big gun in the market, of course, and it’s been fending off competition from Pamal/Albany Broadcasting’s WKLI (Cat Country 100.9) for a while. As of last week, there’s a new player in the mix, too: iHeart’s “New Country 99.9.” The new entrant is officially W260CH, a 250-watt relay of WRVE (99.5)’s HD2, and it transmits from the Rensselaer transmitter site of iHeart’s WGY-FM (103.1).
There’s country news from Hornell, too, where Kevin Doran’s WCKR (92.1) has signed on as one of the first non-Cumulus affiliates of the newly-syndicated “Nash Icon” classic country format.
In Geneva, the Smith Center for the Arts has been the official licensee of WHWS-LP (105.7) since it signed on as WSAC-LP back in 2003. But all that time, the LPFM has actually been operated by Hobart and William Smith Colleges, just down the street – and now HWS is making its ownership of the LPFM official in a transfer with no cash changing hands. The student-run LPFM operates in tandem with Hobart-owned public stations WEOS (89.5 Geneva) and WITH-FM (90.1 Ithaca), which are in turn operated by Rochester public broadcaster WXXI. (Usual disclaimer applies.)
More LPFM news from around the Empire State: in the Capital District, new grants this week include 105.3 Troy (Media Alliance), 95.9 Schenectady (Troy Bike Rescue) and 106.9 Albany (Green Education and Legal Fund). In Binghamton, the Bundy Museum picks WBDY-LP for its new LPFM grant at 99.5.
Changing times are ending a longstanding autumn tradition in the upstate broadcast community. After more than 40 years holding an October convention, first in Syracuse and more recently at the Turning Stone casino in Oneida, SBE Chapter 22 announced last week that it won’t hold its annual Expo this year, citing rising venue costs and declining support from industry vendors.
“The SBE 22 Expo Committee is re-evaluating our strategy for 2015 and beyond, and we will announce our plans for the future effort by the end of April,” says chapter chairman Chris Baycura.
*EMF Broadcasting just keeps buying, and having largely run out of markets where it can introduce a first Christian AC or Christian rock format, the California-based company’s current strategy seems to be buying out existing stations in the format.
That’s what’s happening in southern MAINE, where EMF is spending $925,000 to buy WMSJ (89.3 Freeport) from Bethesda Christian Broadcasting. When the sale closes, Bethesda’s “Positive FM” format will go away, replaced by the satellite-fed sounds of EMF’s “K-Love.” In the Portland market, K-Love on 89.3 will operate in tandem with EMF’s existing signal, Christian rock “Air-1” on WARX (93.9 Lewiston). The deal also includes WMSJ’s fairly distant translator, W260AS (99.9) in Lawrence, Mass., which will bring K-Love to a piece of the Merrimack Valley.
*One of the signature sports voices in MASSACHUSETTS has fallen silent. Bob Wilson was the Bruins on the radio for many years, starting as an analyst in 1964 and then moving to the play-by-play chair starting in 1967. With the exception of two seasons (1969-71), Wilson remained the Bs radio voice until his retirement during the strike-shortened 1994-95 season. His career included the call of the Stanley Cup win in 1972. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2007; in 2011, the Bruins named the radio booth at the Garden after him.
The Arlington native, whose real name was Robert Castellon, served in the Air Force and began his radio career in Louisiana before coming home to work at WCOP (1150) early in his career. That’s where he took his mother’s family name as his air name, and where he worked as a top-40 DJ before moving into the world of sports. He died Thursday of lung cancer, at 85.
*Up the North Shore, there’s an interesting shuffle playing out in the noncommercial part of the FM dial. UMass Boston had been one of several applicants for 91.5 on Cape Ann back in the 2007 window, and the FCC initially rejected its application because of a typo in one spot that put its transmitter site somewhere near Baie-St.-Paul, Quebec instead of Gloucester.
Making the very sensible point that the rest of the application correctly showed the desired Gloucester site (and that UMass obviously wasn’t applying for a site 450 miles north in Quebec), UMB sppealed the FCC’s dismissal, and for almost five years the whole matter sat idle at a Commission not known for its speed. In the meantime, the FCC granted a competing 91.5 application from Maine’s Light of Life Ministries, and WWRN (91.5 Rockport) was licensed in June 2012.
But in mid-December, the FCC finally acted on appeals from UMB and several other broadcasters caught in that same typo bind. Acknowledging that the laws were “ambiguous” about whether UMB and other applicants could have expected the FCC to catch the typos, the Commission returned those applications – including UMB’s 91.5 Gloucester – to “pending” status. (It also ordered a clarification of the rules so that future applicants know that typos in the “tech box” on their applications will indeed be fatal.)
Under other circumstances, the whole thing could indeed be fatal to Light of Life’s WWRN, which loses on points to the UMB application. But Light of Life thinks it has a way out: it’s applying to the FCC to move WWRN down the dial to 88.5, where it can increase power from its present 530 watts to 750 watts. Will the FCC approve both applications and let everyone survive?
*There are Radio People on the Move in several corners of eastern Massachusetts, none more so than at CBS Radio’s Boston cluster, where several sources report that Andy Gresh is on his way out at the Sports Hub (WBZ-FM 98.5) after the football season ends.
Gresh and longtime on-air partner Scott Zolak have been the midday team on 98.5 for almost five years, and Gresh also hosts pre- and post-game Patriots coverage for the station. The Globe reported late last week that Gresh’s contract isn’t being renewed, though, which means a talent shuffle on the way: Marc Bertrand will move from the third chair on the “Felger and Mazz” show in the afternoon to become Zolak’s midday co-host, Rich Keefe may move from evenings to work with Felger and Massarotti in afternoons, and new hosts will be brought in to replace Gresh and Gary Tanguay for Pats pre- and post-game coverage next season.
Upstairs, “Slater” is leaving nights at CBS Radio’s AMP (WODS 103.3) in Boston, and the top-40 station is seeking a replacement; Slater will stay on board until his successor is in place.
*Out on Cape Cod, veteran Boston talents Karen Blake and Ralphie Marino are teaming up once again starting today for a new “Karen and Ralphie Morning Show” on WQRC (99.9 Barnstable), where Blake had been hosting solo. Marino moves down the dial from Cape Cod Broadcasting sister station WKPE (103.9 South Yarmouth), where “That Girl” Wilson moves from afternoons to mornings.
Over at the Codcomm group, Stephanie Viva’s joining the team at WFRQ (93.5 Harwich Port), moving over from iHeart’s WCOD (106.1 Hyannis) to become morning co-host on “Frank” alongside Steve McVie. McVie, in turn, moves his airshift to Frank from afternoons on sister “Y101” WHYA. (And you really ought to read Viva’s explanation of why she wanted to work for the local gang at Codcomm instead of for iHeart after it bought out the former Qantum ownership at WCOD!)
*In RHODE ISLAND, Marconi Broadcast Foundation has picked WWRI-LP as the calls for its new 95.1 LPFM in Coventry. Over in CONNECTICUT, the Simsbury Fire District picks WSIM-LP for its new 103.5 LPFM.
*Radio People on the Move in PENNSYLVANIA: Casey Reed returns to Philadelphia a little more than a year after leaving WRDW-FM (Wired 96.5). After spending some time doing weekends in New York at WPLJ, she’s taking over as music director and 4-8 PM jock at iHeart competitor WIOQ (102.1), where she fills the slot last occupied by “Rat and Puff.”
At iHeart’s WRFF (Radio 104.5), Jessie moves from weekends to nights, shortening the rest of the staff’s weekday airshifts: “Johnny” will now end his morning show at 10 instead of noon, Wendy Rollins moves from noon-6 to 10-3, and Mike Jones shifts from nights to the 3-7 PM shift.
Four LPFM applicants have been granted CPs for their share-time operation in Philadelphia, though three of the applicants appear to be closely enough related to make this one really a two-party share. The four applicants for 92.9 were “G-Town Radio,” Germantown United Development Corp., Germantown Life Enrichment Center and the South Philadelphia Rainbow Committee Community Center – but the three Germantown applicants will share a common studio and transmitter site controlled by the G-Town Radio group. The share-time plan calls for South Philadelphia to have the channel from 12:01 Monday morning until noon on Wednesday; the rest of the week will be mostly G-Town, with the other two Germantown groups occupying 10 hours each, mainly in midday/afternoon slots. The three “G” groups will transmit from the Germantown Life Enrichment Center at 5722 Greene Street, while the South Philly group will use a site atop the Methodist Hospital on South Broad Street.
The LPFM window also yielded a CP last week for the Philadelphia Public Access Corp., which will operate on 106.5 from a site just north of Center City.
Outside Philadelphia, La Casa Dominicana picked calls WCDH-LP for its new 99.3 in Hazleton, and the city of York briefly registered WJSI-LP for its 95.7, but then withdrew the calls so they could go to an applicant down south instead.
*In Erie, public broadcaster WQLN has had a run of really bad luck with transmission lines and antennas over the years. This time, it’s the FM side of WQLN that’s having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week: the signal on 91.3 has been off the air since Thursday, and tower crews have been called in to try to figure out what’s wrong with its transmission system. WQLN’s far-flung network of translators are all fed over the air, so they’re silent as well until the main 91.3 signal is repaired. In the meantime, WQLN is pointing listeners to its streaming audio to get their NPR fix.
*In NEW JERSEY, Atlantic Cape Community College was granted a CP for an LPFM on 107.9 in Mays Landing.
*And our big piece of news from CANADA begins with an answer, at least, to a question we’ve been pondering ever since Evanov submitted an unusual application to modify its flagship AM station in the Toronto market. Last April, the CRTC approved Evanov’s proposal to take down the last of the old CKMW (790) array in Brampton, northwest of Toronto, allowing CKMW’s successor CIAO (530) to replace the two shorter towers it was using (out of the ten CKMW once boasted!) with one new tower for non-directional operation.
So far, so normal…until we looked more closely at just what CIAO was proposing. Even for a station way down the dial at 530, with a correspondingly long wavelength, a 226-meter (741-foot) tower seemed like an absurdly tall thing to build for just 1000 watts on the AM dial by day, and 250 at night, especially since CIAO’s very clear channel meant its ethnic programming got out there just fine from its existing shorter sticks.
Now we know what Evanov was really up to: that big tower (as yet unbuilt, so far as we can tell) is intended to do more than just transmit CIAO’s AM signal. Last week, Evanov asked the CRTC for permission to move its CIDC (103.5 Orangeville) from its present site near Orangeville, way north of Toronto, to a new home on the new CIAO tower. The move would come with a big signal increase – from 30.7 kW/150m now to 51 kW average/100 kW max DA/221m from the new tower, enough to put most of Toronto inside the 70 dBu contour of the signal for the first time in CIDC’s long history of attempting to rimshot the nation’s biggest market.
And there’s more! Evanov is also asking the CRTC to approve experimental HD Radio authorization that would allow CIDC to rebroadcast CIAO’s programming on 103.5-HD2 and, on HD3, the programming of Evanov’s weak-signalled Toronto station CIRR (103.9).
Evanov says with its current rimshot signal into Toronto, CIDC is losing money at an accelerating pace, and it claims that only by getting a stronger signal into the big city can it make “Hot 103.5” profitable again. It’s to Evanov’s advantage that Orangeville now has a second, more local station – and indeed, My Broadcasting’s big case to get its new CKMO (101.5 Orangeville) approved was that CIDC had become a de facto Toronto station with little or no interest in Orangeville.
Will the CRTC sign off on the HD multicasting proposal? It’s expressed interest in experimenting with HD Radio technology, including approval of a test that’s been running with four ethnic programming streams on Toronto’s CJSA (101.3, “Canadian Multicultural Radio”). Given that both CIAO and “Proud FM” CIRR are meant to serve niche audiences, it’s hard to imagine the CRTC finding fault with a plan that promises to give both signals greater reach, at least to whatever extent receivers are out there to pick them up.
*Is there room for a new commercial station in the Hamilton-Burlington area? The CRTC is taking comments about whether it should issue a call for applicants for a new FM signal in Burlington, triggered by an application from Byrnes Communications for a new signal on 88.5, where it hopes to squeeze in 80 watts average DA/350 watts max for a “commercial mainstream music station.” The deadline for comments on the proposal is February 17.
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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, fifteen and – where available – twenty 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: January 20, 2014 *How fast does the FCC move? When it’s not in a mood for quick action, the Commission can be as slow as it gets, as witnessed by the FM translator applicants who waited more than a decade after the FCC’s 2003 window to finally get their signals granted (including a few we’ll discuss later in this week’s column.)
As of this Monday morning, nine lucky LPFM applicants around NERW-land are the first to hold shiny new construction permits out of this window, and it should come as no surprise that they’re largely in rural areas where channels were still available without requiring interference waivers. We’re still waiting for an announcement from Salem about its plans for a permanent replacement for Curtis Sliwa following the host’s abrupt departure two weeks ago from WNYM (970 Hackensack NJ) for a new gig back at WABC (770 New York). While we wait, though, there’s some entertaining stuff happening in morning drive on “970 the Answer”: veteran producer Frank Morano slid into the host chair to keep the seat warm after Sliwa bolted, and somewhere along the way he found out that comedian Joe Piscopo was listening. Piscopo offered to come in and guest host alongside Morano, and he’s been hanging out at WNYM’s new Broadway studio ever since. Are Piscopo and Morano the long-term “answer” for WNYM? So far, the station’s website still lists only “Morning Drive” and “Afternoon Drive” in Sliwa’s former 6-9 AM and 5-7 PM slots. WNYM has plugged a health infomercial into the midday space formerly occupied by Dennis Miller. Five Years Ago: January 18, 2010 When Clear Channel began working to upgrade its AM signals in eastern MASSACHUSETTS more than a decade ago, rumors ran rampant all over the mailing lists and message boards about a possible flip of WKOX (1200) to talk. It was a long time coming, but it appears those rumors will soon be reality. Last year, WKOX completed its upgrade, changing city of license from Framingham to Newton and powering up to 50,000 watts fulltime from the rebuilt transmitter site in Newton’s Oak Hill neighborhood that originally belonged to WUNR (1600 Brookline). And last week, Clear Channel announced that it will soon swap calls between WKOX and sister station WXKS (1430 Everett), ditching the “Rumba” Spanish tropical format now on 1200 in favor of a talk lineup drawn heavily from Clear Channel’s Premiere Radio Networks. A few of the key pieces of that lineup – most notably Glenn Beck’s late-morning show and Sean Hannity’s afternoon-drive show – are already available for immediate clearance in Boston, and Clear Channel has made no secret of its intention to eventually fill the slot between them with its top-name talent, Rush Limbaugh, who’s long been heard on Entercom’s WRKO (680 Boston). Limbaugh’s contract with WRKO reportedly runs through late 2012, and at least for now Clear Channel says it intends to be “as respectful as possible with some of the current contractual obligations with WRKO.” But the company hasn’t hesitated to shift Rush to its own stations in other markets, most recently in North Carolina with the launches of “Rush Radio” talkers in Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem/Greensboro earlier this month. The speculation is already flying hot and heavy over what a third talk station might do to the competitive balance between WRKO and its fierce rival, Greater Media’s WTKK (96.9 Boston). Even with 50 kilowatts, the signal of the new WXKS 1200 won’t have the full-market coverage that WTKK enjoys, and will arguably enjoy even less useful nighttime coverage outside Route 128 than the already signal-impaired WRKO. What’s more, the “Rush Radio”/Premiere model relies heavily on out-of-market syndicated talent – and Boston is not a market that’s ever taken to national talk in the way it responds to local talkers. Would Clear Channel make the investment in local talk that WRKO and WTKK have made? It’s already hired a general sales manager for the new station with local talk experience – Alan Chartrand, who’s worked at both Entercom and Greater Media as a top sales executive – and more staffing announcements are expected soon. In western PENNSYLVANIA, Clear Channel already launched a talker a few years back – WPGB (104.7), which grabbed Rush and the Pirates baseball rights away from CBS Radio’s long-established KDKA (1020). Now it’s CBS’ turn to aim for a piece of the FM spoken-word market. The rumors began on the message boards late last week, and quickly spread to the Post-Gazette, which confirmed on Friday that CBS is planning to launch an all-sports FM station, most likely on “B94” WBZW (93.7 Pittsburgh), which has struggled in the top-40 war with Clear Channel’s WKST-FM (96.1 Pittsburgh). Is it just coincidence that CBS moved B94 morning co-host BuckHead to Detroit last week to do afternoons on its new “Amp 98.7” (WVMV), leaving the morning show as just “Bubba and Melanie”? Unlike Boston, where CBS launched “Sports Hub 98.5” WBZ-FM last year with two franchises that were already in its local lineup – the Patriots from WBCN and the Bruins from WBZ(AM) – the big sports franchises in Pittsburgh are all locked up (for now) with the two existing AM sports players in town. Clear Channel has all three pro teams: the Pirates on WPGB, the Steelers on WDVE (102.5) and the Penguins on WXDX (105.9), with Fox Sports outlet WBGG (970) also carrying the latter two teams. University of Pittsburgh sports also air on Clear Channel’s WWSW (94.5) and WBGG. The other existing sports talker, ESPN-owned WEAE (1250), offers Penn State sports. Does that leave room for sports on a future “KDKA-FM”? There’s plenty of local sports-talk talent available at the moment, including longtime WPGB/WEAE host Ellis Cannon, who was ousted from his 6-9 PM slot on WPGB last week due to budget cuts. Michael Savage’s show, which had been heard on delay, moves to a live 6-9 PM clearance on WPGB, followed by a delayed hour of Glenn Beck. The Boston-based WEEI network has lost its northernmost affiliates, up in Bangor, MAINE, where Blueberry Broadcasting has flipped WAEI-FM (97.1) and WAEI (910) to the Fox Sports national feed. Blueberry’s Bruce Biette tells the Bangor Daily News that WEEI breached its contractual agreement with the Bangor station, but he’s not saying what the details of the issue were; WEEI’s Jason Wolfe says Blueberry “chose to end its contract with us,” and we suspect the whole thing will end up in court before long. WEEI is still heard in southern Maine via WPEI (95.9 Saco/Portland.) Ten Years Ago: January 18, 2005 Radio listeners in NEW JERSEY‘s capital city are about to get a big shakeup on their FM dial. On February 14, Nassau will move WPST’s calls and top 40 format from the 97.5 spot where it’s been heard for nearly three decades to the 94.5 facility that’s been classic rock “Hawk” WTHK. The Hawk, in turn, will move to 97.5 – but for how long? NERW notes that Nassau recently won FCC approval to move the 97.5 allocation from Trenton to Burlington, from which the facility will effectively become a Philadelphia-market signal. The 94.5 half of the move is pretty obvious in that context: WPST is a dominant presence in the Trenton market (and a huge cash cow for Nassau), so moving it to a comparable facility (both 97.5 and 94.5 are class B signals) that will remain focused on Trenton will keep ‘PST going for listeners there. But we strongly suspect that many more changes are in the works for 97.5, especially in light of the fact that Nassau has no other properties in the core Philadelphia market, and that it’s a company that prefers to compete in suburban and small-city markets. (Not to mention that the cash infusion from an eventual sale of an upgraded Philadelphia-market 97.5 signal would more than pay for all the buying Nassau’s been doing in New England and more recently in Maryland.) The fight over payola allegations in upstate NEW YORK took some noisy new turns this past week, as former WKSE (98.5 Niagara Falls) PD Dave Universal took to the trades to defend his actions while programming Buffalo’s “Kiss.” Universal told All Access that “Entercom and my GM knew that I occasionally went with record reps to various sporting events to build relationships. Never once was I told not to do this,” adding, “With all that’s going on in the state of New York, it was easier for them to get rid of me, than defend how I did business for them.” Unfortunately for Universal, the publicity about the whole affair – coupled with the Armstrong Williams scandal in Washington – got the attention of FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, who at week’s end persuaded chairman Michael Powell to launch an Enforcement Bureau investigation into the case. Meanwhile on the TV dial, the long-awaited call change at Rochester’s channel 13 finally happened last Monday morning, with WOKR signing off for the last time at 1:42 in the morning (using original WOKR announcer Jerry Carr to make the final announcement) and WHAM-TV debuting minutes before the 5 AM newscast. (NERW was most amused by morning anchor Doug Emblidge, one of the wittier guys in the business, starting the first newscast by appearing to be taking notes on all the technical details – studio-transmitter link callsigns and the like – that were mentioned in the sign-on.) “13 WHAM News” brings with it a new graphics package and music; we’re still waiting to see much of the promised closer promotional relationship with WHAM (1180), where we understand several anchors were still slipping up and referring to “News Source 13” instead of “13 WHAM News” for much of last week. (All in good time, we’re sure…) A veteran MASSACHUSETTS newscaster is saying farewell to the daily grind. After just under a quarter-century at WBZ-TV (Channel 4), Liz Walker announced Friday that she’s giving up her anchor chair on the station’s noon newscast to focus instead on her family and on her studies at Harvard Divinity School. (Walker left WBZ’s evening newscasts in 2000 to begin her studies at Harvard.) Walker won’t vanish from the CBS4 airwaves completely, though: she’ll soon start a new Sunday morning public-affairs program called “Sunday with Liz Walker,” to be seen each week at 11. Fifteen Years Ago: January 21, 2000 [no issue – NERW was traveling] Twenty Years Ago: January 19, 1995 [no issue – NERW was traveling] |
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
