NERW 8/10/15: Syracuse Radio Rivals Reunite

In this week’s issue… Bidding ends in FM auction – LPFMs light up across the region – WOLF, WNDR veterans reunite – Ontario FM seeks new frequency – Bill Carey, RIP – Tower Site 2016: It’s Real and It’s Spectacular!

By SCOTT FYBUSH

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

“It’s like coming back to worship at the cathedral.”

There might have been just a bit of hyperbole there, but for the dozens of people who packed into the old WOLF studios at Syracuse’s Inner Harbor on Saturday, 401 West Kirkpatrick Street was absolutely a place to worship. It had been 75 years since WOLF signed on and 11 years (almost to the day) since WOLF alumni last gathered for a reunion, and this time the reunion expanded to also include alumni of WNDR (1260), WOLF’s fierce rival.

The music that played on both WNDR and WOLF has migrated to “Dinosaur Radio,” the oldies station (heard on WNDR 103.9 Mexico and four translators) that Craig Fox operates from the old WOLF building, and for four hours Saturday morning (and three more hours later in the day), the alumni retook the airwaves.

Above: Mastriano and Wray; Rhodes and Caplan on the air. Below: Vann, Cavanaugh, Snyder, Rhodes and Markert; the Dinosaur crew wraps up the morning broadcast

Some of the voices from the 2004 event are gone now, including Red Parton (who signed WOLF on the air in 1940), Ron Bee  (who co-hosted the 2004 broadcast) and Dick Clark, who worked at WOLF while attending Syracuse University. But this year’s event brought back other big names who worked at WOLF and WNDR, including Dusty Rhodes, who went on to become a Cincinnati radio legend, Dick Mastriano, who did news at WNDR and pretty much everywhere else, Gary Vann, Howie Castle, Peter C. Cavanaugh, John Gabriel (still on the air at WROW in Albany) and Phil Markert.

The festivities continued into the night with a party for alumni and listeners featuring the band Smokin’.  Big congratulations go out to the event’s organizers, Bob Brown, Nick Caplan and Lee Hoffman, the radio alumni who now grace the airwaves of the Dinosaur  – it was a lot of fun, and a great kickoff for a fall reunion season that continues in September with the Binghamton Broadcasters Reunion. (Watch this space later in the week: we have some great video from the reunion that we’ll be posting as soon as our travel schedule allows!)

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*Erie, PENNSYLVANIA was in the FCC spotlight last week as the FCC’s FM Auction 98 drew to a close. Overall, the auction was a bust, raising just over $5 million from a collection of 129 CPs, about half of them in tiny Texas towns – but three Erie bidders ran up the total for the new class A signal on 100.9 (licensed to nearby Westfield, New York) that will eventually replace Connoisseur’s WRKT (100.9 North East) when that signal moves to 104.9 from a site closer to Erie. Connoisseur dropped out of the bidding first, leaving a two-way fight between Westfield Broadcasting and Rick Rambaldo’s The ERIE Radio Company LLC. The ERIE group won out at $714,000, putting Rambaldo back in control of the 100.9 frequency where he launched “Rocket” before selling to NextMedia, which then became part of Connoisseur. The bid will add a sister station to ERIE’s existing top-40 WEHP (Happi 92.7). That station, which signed on in 2011, was the result of an earlier bidding war in Auction 91 that topped $1 million.

A belated obituary in the Altoona area, where the transfer of Dave Barger’s stations to his wife, Rebecca, alerted us that the broadcasting entrepreneur had died back on July 3. Barger owned WBXQ (94.3 Patton), WBRX (94.7 Cresson), WRTA (1240 Altoona) and WKMC (1370 Roaring Spring). He was 64.

In Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, it was a sad week at Cumulus, where WSJR (93.7 NASH FM) midday jock “Kate Moss” died unexpectedly on Tuesday from complications of diabetes and hypoglycemia. Moss, whose real name was Holly Golembiewski, had also worked as an elementary school teacher and at WBRE-TV (Channel 28). She was just 36.

Gene Dillard (real name: Dillard Bird) was the New Jersey bureau chief for WFIL (560 Philadelphia) all through the 1970s, then anchored morning news on WPEN (950) before becoming a freelance statehouse reporter based in Trenton. Dillard died July 24, at age 73.

Family Life Ministries has completed a signal upgrade in Williamsport: W212CJ has moved from 90.3 to 101.7, boosting power from 7 to 10 watts for its relay of WCOG (100.7 Galeton).

Where are they now? Jason Crane, veteran of jazz stations WGMC (90.1 Greece) and CJRT (91.1 Toronto), is now PD at State College’s WFEQ (Freq 98.7).

*In upstate NEW YORK, there’s a change of control at WLTB (101.7 Johnson City), where Steve Gilinsky is taking full control of the Binghamton-market “Magic 101.7.” Gilinsky will pay $250,000 to acquire the 75% of the station he didn’t already own, buying the rest of GM Broadcasting from former co-owner Thomas Mollen and his family.

In Albany, WGDJ (1300 Rensselaer) is about to become the latest AM signal with an FM relay. Owner Capital Broadcasting is paying Family Stations $50,000 for translator W287AB (105.3), with an escalator clause that will add up to $75,000 to the purchase price if the translator’s signal can be improved within three years. WGDJ will join Pamal’s WROW (590, about to be simulcast on W263CG 100.5), iHeart’s WGY (810, simulcast on WGY-FM 103.1), Empire’s WAIX (1160, simulcast on W291BY 106.1), public WAMC (1400, a simulcast of WAMC-FM 90.3) and religious outlets WHAZ (1330, simulcast on several FMs) and WOPG (1460, simulcast on WOPG-FM 89.9) as Albany AMs with FM outposts.

Over at Townsquare’s Albany cluster, Lou Roberts has left the building. The 26-year veteran of country WGNA-FM (107.7) has moved up the Northway to Empire’s WJKE (101.3 the Jockey), where he starts in afternoon drive today.

In Medina, Family Life Ministries is taking advantage of the demise of the ill-fated WFWO (89.7) to move its translator. W207BD (89.3 Medina) has applied to move to 89.7, remaining at 38 watts for now. Family Life had operated an 89.7 translator, W209BF, in nearby Albion until WFWO got its construction permit and falsely claimed to have built the station in Orleans County. (Instead, as NERW readers know, WFWO built an unlicensed 89.7 facility 38 miles away in Buffalo, at least until the FCC found out.) The Albion translator eventually moved to 95.7.

In Buffalo, John Borsa is back in action as weekend morning anchor/weekday reporter at Time Warner Cable News. The veteran reporter had exited WKBW (Channel 7) almost a year ago after the station didn’t renew his contract. Former TWCN anchor Katie Morse now has Borsa’s old job at WKBW.

Two LPFM construction permits in the Empire State will never see air: WGWY-LP (99.1 Glens Falls) would have been run by the Gateway Pentecostal Church, while near Jamestown, WWKP-LP (101.3 Kennedy) would have belonged to the New Beginnings Baptist Church. Both CPs were cancelled last week after failing to file for extensions or licenses to cover.

And back in Syracuse, the fun of Saturday’s radio reunion was tempered by sadness over the loss of Bill Carey, a longtime fixture on the city’s TV newscasts. The Auburn native began his career at WMBO (1340), then came to Syracuse to work at WHEN (620) and then WTVH (Channel 5). Carey became news director there before jumping to top-rated WIXT (Channel 9, now WSYR-TV). He then worked at WSYR (570) before becoming part of the inaugural staff at Time Warner’s News 10 Now, now Time Warner Cable News. Carey had been undergoing treatment in New York City for pancreatic cancer. He died Friday at age 61.

*iHeartMedia is reaching more of eastern MASSACHUSETTS after completing the last stage in its upgrade of WBWL (101.7 Lynn). As of last Monday, “101.7 the Bull” is operating under program test authority with a class B1 signal (13.5 kW/453′) from Medford, using the same tower the station used as WFNX from the 1980s until 2006, when it moved to One Financial Center in downtown Boston. All along, 101.7 was a class A signal; as NERW readers know, it took some serious shuffling to get it to class B1, including a significant downgrade of WWBB (101.5 Providence, RHODE ISLAND) from class B to class A. (Notwithstanding the downgrade, B101 seems to have rebounded nicely from its initial ratings slump after the power cut; from April to July it climbed from a 5.9 up to an 8.0, good for second place after Hall’s WCTK.)

Attention DXers: Entercom’s WEEI (850 Boston) may be reaching outside the market a little better for a while: it’s asked the FCC for special temporary authority to go non-directional with 12.5 kW while its towers undergo painting over the next few months.

More schedule changes at Boston’s troubled WMEX (1510): while the Saturday oldies show drew in some listeners who still fondly remembered the station’s heyday half a century ago, it has now disappeared from the lineup at WMEX.

In Worcester, the Church of God Pentecostal Salvation Rock has licensed WSRG-LP  (106.1), which appears to be doing Spanish-language religion as “Radio Metabel Internacional,” with an unlicensed AM relay at 1700 on the dial also listed on its website.

*In CONNECTICUT, the New Haven Independent has signed on WNHH-LP (103.5). This particular LPFM has its own chronicler in the form of Boston’s Dan Kennedy, who wrote about the Independent in his book The Wired City and wrote at length about WNHH itself for Nieman Lab last week.

Over in the Danbury market, Berkshire Broadcasting is unleashing its fourth format this afternoon. W279CI (103.7) completed its move from Georgetown to the WDAQ (98.3) tower last week and immediately began stunting. It appears the 250-watt translator, which is fed from WDAQ’s HD3, will be doing alternative rock when it launches for real. That format will complement WDAQ’s top-40, classic hits “B107.3” on WAXB (850 Ridgefield)/W297AN (107.3) and news-talk on WLAD (800).

*In NEW HAMPSHIRE, there’s yet another Brian Dodge story this week. He’s applying to move translator W232AJ (94.3 Greenville) to 101.7 – or rather, “Harvest Broadcasting Associates” is applying to make the move. Who’s “Harvest Broadcasting Associates”? Straight from the application: “HARVEST BROADCASTING ASSOC. IS A GROUP UNDER THE CONTROL OF HILLTOP COMMUNITY CHURCH OF BRATTLEBORO, VT PASTOR TIM ALLEN IS IN SOLE CONTROL!!!”

Is that the same “Pastor Tim Allen,” exclamation marks and all, who told the FCC in last week’s WCKL application that he had no other broadcast interests?

*In MAINE, the Wesserunsett Arts Council has licensed WXNZ-LP (98.1 Skowhegan). “HooSkow Radio” began testing back in June (with a broadcast hosted by “Timtron” of WBCQ shortwave fame) and is now carrying a full slate of community programming.

*In NEW JERSEY, “The Wire NJ” has licensed WUEY-LP (103.9 New Brunswick), which is doing regional Mexican as “La Costena.”

*In CANADA this week, First Nations outlet CKRZ (100.3 Ohsweken ON) is applying for a big power boost, jumping from 250 watts to 5000 watts from its existing site southwest of Hamilton. To make that move possible, CKRZ has negotiated with the University of Waterloo’s CKMS, now also on 100.3, to slide up the dial to 102.7. CKMS will remain 250 watts from its existing location if the moves are granted.

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