NERW 5/16/2016: iHeart Cuts Hit Boston

From the NERW Archives

Yup, 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: May 18, 2015

WRKO is losing Rush Limbaugh – again. After having the syndicated host get pulled away when then-Clear Channel launched “Rush Radio” WXKS (1200), only to return three years ago when that rival talker failed, Premiere Radio Networks now says it can’t come to terms with Entercom on a renewal, and so it will seek another home for Limbaugh this summer.

*The news last week of a change of control at Philadelphia’s WBEB (101.1 More FM) was no surprise to anyone who’s been following NERW or other industry sources for the last few months. As we reported, for instance, back in March:

When (half-owner Jerry) Lee’s longtime business partner Dave Kurtz died in 2005. Lee bought out his interest in the station, paying $85 million for half the station, which valued the whole thing at $170 million. That number looks awfully high in retrospect, doesn’t it, especially when $22 million of that was financed at over 10% interest?

After a tentative sale earlier this year fell through, Lee’s creditors have now taken control of the station by restructuring the board of Jerry Lee, LLC, the licensee: Zell Credit Opportunities Fund now has three of the five seats on the board, giving it the power to outvote Lee himself – and almost certainly to ready WBEB for another try at a sale so it can recover at least part of what Lee still owes.

*WBEB’s change of control wasn’t the only move on that part of the dial in eastern PENNSYLVANIA. Over in Lancaster, Hall relaunched WROZ (101.3 Lancaster) on Thursday at noon, dumping its “Rose” moniker after more than two decades to become “Fun 101.3,” with a little newer music and a slightly harder edge.

*In central NEW YORK, the name Joe Galuski was synonymous with “morning radio” for most of the last two decades. Galuski, who died Thursday after a lengthy fight with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, came from Buffalo’s WGR (550) to Syracuse’s WSYR (570) in 1988 and moved to mornings in 1998, becoming an institution in the community. He’d been off the air since last fall, with co-hosts Mark Wainwright and Joe Kilpatrick officially on the roster as “fill-ins” while WSYR and the region hoped for his recovery. Sadly, he took a turn for the worse just after his family posted a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for his treatment last week. Galuski was 64.

*On Long Island, Connoisseur relaunched WBZO (103.1 Bay Shore) on Friday morning, and as significant as the new name – “103.1 Max FM” replaces “B103” – is the new airstaff lineup at the rock-leaning classic hits station. Jim Douglas, the Long Island veteran who’d been spending some time in mornings at CBS Radio’s WWFS (Fresh 102.7) in New York, is back on the air doing mornings at WBZO, displacing Jim O’Brien. Another Long Island veteran, Ralph Tortora, becomes PD and afternoon jock, while OM Patrick Shea is doing middays. Former WBZO afternoon host “Wiseman” moves down the hall to become morning host at sister stations WHLI (1100)/WALK (1370).

Five Years Ago: May 16, 2011

*This was supposed to be a big week for NEW YORK CITY‘s newest FM signal. But instead of launching a new format on Wednesday, Michael Celenza’s W293BU (which would have become W292DV with its move to 106.3) is silent and trying to resolve an interference complaint from a co-channel station.

Since the 106.3 signal began testing with 99 very directional watts from Manhattan’s Four Times Square on May 5, Press Communications’ NEW JERSEY country station, WKMK (106.3 Eatontown), has been logging interference complaints from its audience, which includes a population of fringe-signal listeners in New York City, northern New Jersey and Long Island who have no local country station.

In most cases, a station like WKMK that’s experiencing interference outside its protected signal contour (which, in the case of WKMK, doesn’t even touch any of New York City) would be out of luck. But the interference rules for translators are different: they look at “actual interference” to regular reception that takes place even outside a station’s protected contour, and they put the responsibility on the translator to fix the problem.

After spending several days soliciting interference reports from its listeners and sending them to the FCC, WKMK declared victory last Thursday night, telling its listeners: “We are pleased to announce that the radio station that had been causing interference since last Thursday May 5, 2011 to our Thunder 106 signal in NJ, Manhattan, Long Island, Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens, has suspended operations. Accordingly, you should no longer be experiencing any interference issues relative to the Thunder 106 in the communities we have previously been communicating to you. Over the next several weeks we will be meeting with the NYC radio broadcaster in an attempt to help them resolve their interference issues but IN NO WAY will we accept ANY interference to our Thunder 106 signal pattern and your right to receive and enjoy our THUNDER 106 Rockin’ Country Programming.”

What happens now? That’s not immediately clear. On the FCC front, the translator filed an application on May 6 for a license to cover the 106.3 facility, and that application remains pending (“accepted for filing”) as of Sunday evening. If WKMK’s objection keeps it from being granted, the translator’s owner (and Clear Channel, which hopes to use the translator to relay the HD2 channel of its WLTW, which continues to rotate a new format each day) still have some options. The translator started out in Brooklyn on 107.1, and it could return there by way of another minor-change application – though 107.1 is an equally-problematic frequency in the region, with co-channel stations in Monmouth and Westchester.

*The Boston Phoenix is selling its MAINE FM outlet. Since 1999, when Steve Mindich paid $1.02 million for the former WCDQ and its AM sister, WSME, WPHX-FM (92.1 Sanford) has been rebroadcasting the modern rock of WFNX (101.7 Lynn-Boston) to York County and parts of the Portland market.

But that’s about to change: Andrew Hartmann’s Aruba Capital Holdings, which owns WXEX (1540) just over the state line in Exeter, NEW HAMPSHIRE, is paying $1 million for the class A FM signal. The deal does not include WPHX (1220 Sanford), which has been silent since a transmitter failure last year.

*It’s all about translators this week in western PENNSYLVANIA, where there are new signals on the air at 97.5 and 100.1 in the Pittsburgh market.

The 97.5 facility, which signed on Friday, is Bob Stevens’ W248AR Monroeville, simulcasting WKFB (770 Jeannette) for Pittsburgh’s eastern suburbs and extending that daytimer’s programming past sunset, when it’s carrying an oldies format.

On 100.1, it’s Tim Martz’ W261AX Pittsburgh, which began testing its potent 99-watt signal from the KDKA-TV tower over the weekend with a relay of WDUQ (90.5). That’s only temporary, though – the translator will soon be fed instead by an urban format, about to be launched on WPYT (660 Wilkinsburg), which Martz is in the process of acquiring.

Not far away in Green Tree, KDKA (1020) dedicated the newsroom in its new studio facility last week in memory of Fred Honsberger, the 30-year KDKA news and talk veteran who died in 2009. Honsberger’s widow, Chris, was at the station for the dedication ceremony.

Ten Years Ago: May 15, 2006

It’s been an exceptionally bad few weeks for hip-hop radio in NEW YORK. First came the latest shooting at Emmis’ WQHT (97.1), which touched off an eviction battle with the station’s landlord that’s still underway. And then came the rivalry between Hot 97’s Raashaun Casey, aka “DJ Envy,” and the station’s former morning host, Troi Torain, aka “Star,” who moved to rival station WWPR (Power 105.1) and was also heard, via syndication, on about a dozen other stations, including WPHH in Hartford and WUSL in Philadelphia. The feud between the DJs had been brewing for a while, apparently, but it exploded last week, when Star was first fired and then arrested for a series of on-air comments beginning May 3 that apparently threatened DJ Envy’s four-year-old daughter with sexual abuse and kidnapping.

Several New York City Council members brought the comments to light in a news conference Wednesday, and by that afternoon Clear Channel had fired Torain. On Friday, Torain was arrested after appearing at a New York police station to surrender his handgun and weapons permit. Charged with endangering the welfare of a child and with a fourth-degree weapons possession charge, Torain was released on $2,000 bail after pleading not guilty early Saturday morning. At least for next week, WWPR plans to use syndicated host Tigger and weekend DJ Egypt as a replacement for the now-cancelled “Star and Buc Wild Morning Show.” It’s still not clear what the ultimate consequences for Clear Channel might be. Several New York politicians are calling on the FCC to conduct an investigation of the incident, and it’s likely that even if New York has heard the last of “Star” on its airwaves, it hasn’t heard the last about this war of words.

Is there anything more we can say at this point about that big MASSACHUSETTS story, the at-long-last finalized deal for Red Sox radio rights beginning with the 2007 season? We still don’t officially know just how much Entercom is paying for the 10-year deal, but it does appear that the initial figure we’d heard of $20 million a year is somewhat on the high side. We do know that the future Sox flagship, WRKO (680 Boston), is already making some changes. No more “Taste of Boston” at night – instead, that 7-10 PM slot on weeknights is now called the “Todd Feinburg Show,” broadening its focus to add more political and issues-oriented talk to its previous diet of food and entertainment talk. Next spring, Feinburg will share those evening hours (except on Fridays, when the night games will be on WEEI, which will also host weekday afternoon Sox games) with baseball. Sox pregame broadcasts on WRKO will start at 6:30 most weeknights, cutting off the last half-hour of Howie Carr, and pre- and post-game shows will apparently be simulcast on WEEI as well.

Fifteen Years Ago: May 14, 2001

It’s been a long time since Greater Media added to its station count, but this week we’re able to start our update in NEW JERSEY with word of a four-station sale to the New Brunswick-based group. New Jersey Broadcasting Partners will sell adult standards simulcast WMTR (1250 Morristown)/WWTR (1170 Bridgewater), modern rock WDHA (105.5 Dover) and active rock WRAT (95.9 Point Pleasant) to Greater Media for an undisclosed amount, adding the four stations to Greater’s existing Central Jersey combo, full-service WCTC (1450 New Brunswick) and AC WMGQ (98.3 New Brunswick).

Next stop, NEW YORK, and we’ll begin with some changes in the Big Apple. On the air, fans of Laura Schlessinger will have to stay up late to hear her advice show starting May 29, when WABC (770) moves her from 10 AM to 11 PM. No word yet on how WABC’s schedule will shift to fill Laura’s old slot, which was already cut down to two hours earlier this year. Meanwhile, WKTU (103.5 Lake Success) PD Frankie Blue addeed another station to his duties this week, with the departure of Joel Salkowitz as PD of Clear Channel sister WTJM (105.1 New York). What will happen now to the fading “Jammin’ Oldies” format? We’ll be watching closely. Also in the Clear Channel family, WHTZ (100.3 Newark) middayer Lisa Taylor will be leaving her shift to move to Nashville and start her own business. Taylor’s been in that spot on Z100 since 1996; now PD Tom Poleman has two slots to fill, as he continues to search for a night jock as well.

MASSACHUSETTS radio is playing musical chairs again: John Osterlind, longtime midday guy (“O-Zone”) on active rock WAAF (107.3 Worcester), is moving across the hall at Entercom to join Peter Blute on the morning show at talker WRKO (680 Boston). Osterlind fills the seat left vacant since the death earlier this year of Andy Moes. Meantime, rumor has former WAAF afternoon guy Tom Birdsey following former boss Bruce Mittman to WFNX (101.7 Lynn) and the afternoon shift, competing against former WAAF partner Rocko in the timeslot. And while Osterlind arrives at WRKO, PD Al Mayers is gone; he’s reportedly headed to New York to be station manager at Bloomberg newser WBBR, says M Street.

Twenty Years Ago: May 14, 1996

The weirdness continues in the unusual case of WBIV 1060 Natick MA and WRPT 1050 Peterborough NH. It seems that before Alexander Langer bought WRPT from the Peterborough Broadcasting Company, he had reached an agreement to pay WRPT to turn in its license (the station has been dark for years). Langer’s application to change WBIV into a 50kw directional daytimer was contingent upon WRPT handing in its license. So when Langer decided instead to buy WRPT (and, as discussed in the last NERW, move it 100 miles southeast and 400 khz down the dial to AM 650 at Foxboro MA), he had to ask the FCC to suspend processing of the WBIV application until the WRPT matter could be resolved. The practical upshot is that Langer has asked the FCC for permission to keep WBIV dark for 6 more months (it has been silent now for over a year). In truth, WBIV could be off for far longer, since their planned transmitter site is still an empty field.

New England’s tallest mountain could soon be losing a transmitter. WMTW-TV 8, which has operated from Mount Washington NH since 1958, has reportedly applied to move its transmitter off the mountain to a site near that of WCSH-TV 6 Portland ME, near Sebago Lake in Maine. I visited the WMTW site last summer, and had the pleasure of chatting with several of the engineers who live at the top of the mountain in week-long shifts year-round. It’s undoubtedly a huge expense for WMTW, and the advantage it once provided — incredible coverage across eastern Maine, northern New Hampshire, northern Vermont, and a huge swath of Quebec — no longer seems to matter as much now that many of those remote viewers are plugged into cable or DSS. What’s unclear is what would become of WMTW’s erstwhile sister station, what’s now WHOM 94.9 FM. The WHOM transmitter is housed in the WMTW transmitter building. It’s powered by WMTW’s generator, and the WMTW engineers handle maintenance. I doubt WHOM would want to leave the transmitter unattended through the winter months, when it’s often impossible to reach the summit of the mountain, and winds rage to 200+ miles per hour. WZPK 103.7 Berlin NH also has transmitter facilities at the top of Mount Washington. (2011 update: WMTW indeed left the mountain, and the WHOM/WZPK transmitters stayed behind, unattended, until a fire several years later destroyed the former WMTW transmitter building. WHOM eventually moved into a new building and remains on Mount Washington.)