NERW 6/8/2015: From Elko, Nevada to….Channel 33 in NYC?

In this week’s issue… FCC quashes “channel 3” in NYC – Boston’s 1260 goes to Salem…with Rush? – Remembering Stan Wall and Margaret Juntwait

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada

Six years ago, the principals behind New Jersey-based Press Communications set a process in motion to bring new TV signals into the heart of the New York City and Philadelphia markets. PMCM, LLC paid just $1.2 million to buy small VHF stations in rural Nevada and Wyoming, using a forgotten bit of the FCC’s rules to try to force the Commission to allow those licenses to be moved thousands of miles east to become the lone VHF signals licensed to New Jersey and Delaware, respectively.

That audacious plan got a frosty reception from the FCC, which quickly assigned two new VHF channels in those states in an attempt to head off PMCM’s proposed moves. PMCM went to federal court to uphold its interpretation of Section 331(a) of the Commission’s rules. Even if that rule was originally meant solely to protect RKO from losing the license to WOR-TV (Channel 9) back in the 1980s by “moving” it from New York to Secaucus, NJ, the courts handed PMCM a win, allowing it to put KJWP (Channel 2) in Philadelphia and KVNV (Channel 3) high atop Four Times Square in the heart of Manhattan.

That “win” ended up being a bit elusive in New York, though, when rival broadcasters challenged PMCM’s right to call its new station (now WJLP) “channel 3.” After months of back-and-forth legal wrangling, the FCC last week sided with WJLP’s opponents, stripping the new station of the right to use virtual channel 3 for its over-the-air signal and instead ordering the station (which remains on RF channel 3) to use virtual channel 33 for its broadcasts.

As a real-world matter, PMCM made a solid case that using “channel 3” for WJLP would cause few problems, even to the two virtual channel 3s that objected to sharing with WJLP. Meredith’s WFSB in Hartford, which uses RF channel 33, is almost impossible to receive over the air in the Connecticut communities that are part of the New York TV market, since it shares its RF channel with New York’s WCBS-TV (Channel 2); at the other end of the WJLP viewing area, PMCM notes that no complaints were received when both WJLP and Philadelphia’s KYW-TV were operating as “channel 3,” despite some signal overlap in central New Jersey.

But the FCC says none of that matters: even after WJLP offered to start its virtual channel lineup at “3.10” instead of the usual “3.1,” the Commission says the intent of its rules is clear: in any given signal area, each major virtual channel (the part before the dash or dot) is supposed to be associated with only one broadcaster’s offerings. What’s more, the FCC says, since there was never an analog “channel 3” in New York prior to KVNV/WJLP’s move, there’s no established viewing pattern or history that tie the station to that “3” branding, which was the intent behind creating virtual channel mapping in the first place.

The real game here, of course, never had much to do with over-the-air channel numbering – just the cable and satellite channels that are determined by OTA channel numbers. While PMCM’s Philadelphia-market channel 2 (now KJWP) successfully got itself on cable channel 2 in most of that market, WJLP has been on hold with its must-carry bid while waiting for a virtual channel resolution. Only Verizon FiOS so far has picked up WJLP on channel 3 across the entire market. That will change now – along with the virtual channel 33 order, the FCC also started the clock in motion for PMCM to start filing for must-carry for WJLP, which will now have to either use channel 33 on New York-market cable or negotiate directly with cable companies for a better spot. (Suppose PMCM now wishes it had accepted the FCC’s original compromise offer to use “channel 14” instead? And that CBS wishes it had used the potential of conflict with its New York WCBS-TV 2 to file a similar complaint against KJWP’s Philadelphia use of “channel 2,” too?)

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*Our MASSACHUSETTS news yet again focuses on the Boston AM dial this week, as Disney prepares to shed its WMKI (1260), among the last remaining AM licenses in the Radio Disney portfolio. When Salem picked up Disney signals in Pittsburgh and Atlanta earlier this year, we’d speculated that it had turned down the chance to add other Disney AMs to its lineup. That may well have been true, but it wasn’t the end of the story; last week, Disney announced another round of sales to Salem that includes WMKI at the bargain price of just $500,000, just 10% of the $5 million that Salem received when it sold 1260 (then WPZE) to Hibernia Broadcasting in 1997.

Salem’s repurchase of WMKI will give the company a fourth AM in the Boston market, adding to a cluster that already includes religious WEZE (590) and WROL (950) and Spanish religious “Radio Luz” WWDJ (1150). Speculation is, of course, already swirling about what Salem will do with a fourth AM, especially with Rush Limbaugh still seeking a new home in the market as Entercom prepares to drop him from WRKO (680).

Salem is no stranger to AM talk, of course, and its in-house syndication lineup that includes Hugh Hewitt and Michael Medved is rather conspicuously lacking Boston as a major-market clearance. So it’s pretty much a no-brainer to figure that Salem will install “The Answer” somewhere in its Boston lineup – and since the company appears to be making good money from the religious programming on the superior 590 signal, the less-lucrative talk seems likely to land on 1260 despite a signal that’s far from full-market coverage. (There’s plenty of historical irony there: way back in 1953, pioneering Boston station WNAC found that same 1260 signal insufficient and instead bought the 50,000-watt signal on 680 that became today’s WRKO; in 1997, Salem itself traded up by moving the WEZE religious format from 1260 down to 590.)

So…Rush on “1260 the Answer,” then, right? It’s possible, certainly, but far from certain. So far, Salem hasn’t been rushing to get into the Rush business. Despite persistent rumors that Cumulus wants to pull Limbaugh from Chicago’s WLS, for instance, Salem has been in no hurry to add him to crosstown “Answer” WIND (560). Only one Salem talker currently carries Limbaugh, and that’s an unusual situation: Rush didn’t need a San Bernardino affiliate when he was on the booming 50,000-watt voice of KFI (640) in neighboring Los Angeles, but when then-Clear Channel shifted him to the lesser signal of sister station KEIB (1150) in LA, it suddenly had an urgent need for an Inland Empire signal to fill in KEIB’s holes, which is how Limbaugh ended up on Salem’s KTIE (590) in San Bernardino.

As we’ve been saying for a long time now, though, iHeart/Premiere is in a financial bind when it comes to Limbaugh and his current contract: as badly as it needs the national clearance that Salem could give it in Boston, it simply can’t afford to give the show away at any substantial discount just to secure that clearance – and if it’s only paying $500,000 for the entire 1260 facility and license, Salem’s not about to pay the $500,000 or so a year in cash compensation that Entercom was reportedly paying to put Rush on WRKO.

(As for Disney, the sale of WMKI will leave it with just one more NERW-land AM to unload: WWJZ 640, which serves Philadelphia from Mount Holly, NJ.)

*Mark down “WAEM-LP” as the callsign for the new LPFM  on 94.9 that will belong to the Town of Acton, where we suspect the “EM” stands for “Emergency Management.”

*WLWM-LP is the new callsign for Living Word Ministries’ new LPFM on 105.7 in Charlestown, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

*In MAINE, veteran jock Gary Dixon has died. Dixon started in broadcasting at Grahm Junior College in the late 1960s, then worked in Providence for a few years before making Portland his home in 1974. Dixon worked at Biddeford’s WIDE/WYJY, WBQQ in Kennebunkport and in Portland at WGAN, WPOR and WLOB over the years, including a stint producing and hosting an old-time radio show on WLOB. When he wasn’t doing radio, Dixon was an avid piano player and a collector of old movies. He would have turned 66 next month.

*VERMONT Public Radio’s staff of 58 employees at its Colchester headquarters has long since outgrown the Fort Ethan Allen facility that opened two decades ago when VPR had 27 people on staff – which is why the broadcaster just broke ground on an $8 million expansion.

While respecting the history of the building, which was the old State Police horse barracks, the renovated VPR headquarters will include a new “VPR News Center” and “Studio One,” designed to host events, performances and meetings with live video and audio production capabilities.

*Another of the ongoing NEW YORK stories we’ve been tracking has been the strange saga of WFWO (89.7 Medina), the religious construction permit that showed up on the air a few years ago from the old WKBW-TV building in downtown Buffalo, 36 miles away from the Orleans County site where it told the FCC it had built its licensed facility. The FCC deleted WFWO’s license and handed permittee Fellowshipworld an $8,000 Notice of Apparent Liability, and last week it upheld that fine and denied Fellowshipworld’s appeal, ruling that the ministry couldn’t claim a history of compliance after it turned 89.7 back on from Buffalo following an FCC inspector’s visit and a promise to shut the unlicensed signal down for good.

*Here in Rochester, WROC-TV (Channel 8) was cursed for decades by constant turnover on the anchor desk in a market that takes longevity seriously. For the last 15 years, though, the Nexstar-owned CBS affiliate has found an unusual degree of stability – and ratings success, too – with an anchor team that’s included meteorologist Scott Hetsko, sports director John Kucko, Rochester native Maureen McGuire and her co-anchor, Kevin Doran. So it was with some sadness that Doran announced Sunday night that he’s leaving WROC on June 16. The Minnesota native was offered a gig back home at Hubbard’s KSTP-TV (Channel 5) in St. Paul, and WROC is now seeking a replacement on the anchor desk. (Is it more than coincidental that Hubbard also owns WHEC in Rochester, the once-dominant local news operation that’s been plagued by anchor-desk turnover in recent years?)

Say “Nick Nickson” in Rochester and older listeners will remember the genial jock who was a fixture on WBBF (950) in the 1960s and remained active doing radio sales well into his 90s. On the West Coast, though, the big “Nick Nickson” is Nick, Junior, who’s made quite a name for himself as the voice of Los Angeles Kings hockey since 1981. Now the younger Nickson is getting one of hockey’s biggest honors: he’s this year’s winner of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, which means he’ll be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on November 9.

On Long Island, the semi-retirement of the legendary Rusty Potz means a longer airshift for a younger member of the WLNG (92.1 Sag Harbor) family: Brian “The Cannon” Bannon is now being heard straight through from 2 until 6 every weekday afternoon. (But without the trademark bell that Potz rang on the air throughout the afternoon shift – that went down to Florida with Potz!)

*Margaret Juntwait went from New York City’s WNYC-FM (93.9) to a prominent post as only the third regular announcer for the Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday broadcasts. Juntwait, who’d been suffering from ovarian cancer, died Wednesday at just 58. She started her WNYC career in 1991 as an assistant to host John Schaefer, but quickly rose to a regular host position there. She joined the Met broadcasts in 2004 and continued to host them until the end of 2014, when her health no longer allowed her to be on the air after a decade in which the cancer had been under control.

*Tom Niven was an important part of AM 1500 in Pompton Lakes, NEW JERSEY from the day it signed on the air in 1964 as WKER until his retirement in January as the operations manager of what’s now WGHT. Niven began as a station announcer and eventually ended up buying the station in 1982. Even after selling it in 1993, Niven stayed on to keep “North Jersey 1500” running smoothly. Along the way, he became a mentor to several generations of radio people, including WABC (770) morning newsman Noam Laden, Fox Sports’ Kevin Burkhardt, WQXR/WRTI classical host Gregg Whiteside, TV reporter Barry Bernson and CBS Radio engineer Jim Stagnitto. Niven was just a few months into his Florida retirement when he died May 14 at 78.

*In western PENNSYLVANIA, Stanley Wall was one of radio’s more colorful local personalities, turning a long career as a concert promoter and DJ into more than four decades of small-market ownership south and east of Pittsburgh. Wall started out on the air at WAKU (1570 Latrobe) and WESA (940 Charleroi) in the 1950s, helped to launch the career of famed Pittsburgh DJ Terry Lee (Trunzo) – and then, in 1971, put WLSW (103.9 Scottdale) on the air. Despite a signal that looked tiny on paper, the 320-watt station with Wall’s initials enjoyed a hilltop perch that gave its oldies format a reach over much of southwestern Pennsylvania including the Pittsburgh suburbs. Wall bought the former WAKU, now WQTW, in 1984. He’d continued to run the stations despite health problems in recent years, including open-heart surgery. Wall died Wednesday at age 78.

One more Pittsburgh-area story: in Jeannette, Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland County is paying He’s Alive, Inc. $22,500 for translator W250AU (97.9), which will expand the coverage of WJLW-LP (100.3 Greensburg).

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