NERW 11/13/2017: WBZ Saved – For Now

In this week’s issue… Listeners, union save WBZ jobs (at least for now) – CBS/Entercom/iHeart/Beasley head for closing – Bomb scares rattle TV stations – K-Love buys in Harrisburg – Engineers on the move – Newcap buys in NS

By SCOTT FYBUSH

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

*If the executives at iHeart Media thought they could come in to Boston and turn WBZ (1030) into a cookie-cutter version of the news-talkers they run across the country, they learned a powerful (and potentially expensive) lesson last week as they tangled with SAG-AFTRA union leaders and the advertisers and listeners they rallied in support of keeping WBZ’s distinctive local voice alive.

But while the union won a victory by getting iHeart to reverse its plans to force WBZ staffers to reapply for their jobs, there’s still caution in the air as the oldest radio station in MASSACHUSETTS prepares for the ownership change that could come as early as Friday.

Here’s where things stand after two days of tense meetings between union officials and iHeart executives, first at iHeart in Medford and then with WBZ staffers present last Tuesday at Soldiers Field Road: after initially sticking to their stance of cancelling the union contracts, iHeart reversed course, saying it will keep WBZ’s newspeople employed under their current contracts when it takes over.

There’s an unspoken “for now” tacked on to that, though, and plenty of unfamiliar turf ahead on both sides. At one point, iHeart’s executives even acknowledged that they have nothing like WBZ’s all-news format in their station portfolio right now, telling staffers “we drive Toyotas, and this is a Ferrari.”

And speaking as someone who spent a good chunk of last week driving an unfamiliar vehicle (albeit not a Ferrari!) on the left side of British highways, your editor can testify that there are plenty of hazards in taking the wheel in a situation like the one iHeart now faces. Even after winning this victory, the WBZ staffers we’ve talked to are still uneasy about their station’s future under a company that simply doesn’t have the resources to support all-news radio the way Westinghouse and CBS did. Will they stick around as iHeart moves them up to Medford? If there’s attrition in the ranks – as seems likely – will iHeart bring in new hires at the same union rates as the staffers inherited from the CBS era?

As always, we’ll be watching very closely as the new drivers take the wheel of this particular Ferrari – and we’d note that inexperienced drivers tend to have problems on the roads of greater Boston, don’t they?

*It’s certainly going to be a busy week for everyone involved in all corners of the Boston ownership shuffle, as work goes on behind the scenes to figure out who goes where as long-established clusters get broken up and reassembled. Behind the scenes, it’s bits as mundane as moving former CBS employees to Entercom email servers, and as complex as sorting out the physical moves that will eventually have to happen. For a short while, at least, it appears that the current CBS Radio FM studios at 83 Leo Birmingham Parkway could be occupied by stations run by three competing companies – iHeart’s WZLX (100.7), Entercom’s WODS (103.3) and WBMX (104.1) and Beasley’s WBZ-FM (98.5).

Stay tuned to this space – as we learn more about who ends up going where and how all these dust clouds will clear, we may well have NERW updates here, not to mention lots of capital-I Insight on Wednesday’s Top of the Tower podcast as we sort this all out with RadioInsight’s Lance Venta.

*It’s a safe bet that nobody involved in the giant three-way split of the Boston stations wanted any extra drama, which is why it surely didn’t help to have the police show up at Leo Birmingham Parkway on Wednesday to rein in a protest over comments from WBZ-FM (98.5 the Sports Hub) afternoon host Michael Felger. His insensitive jab at the late Blue Jays pitching ace Roy Halladay after Halladay’s death in a small plane crash prompted rival WEEI talker Kirk Minihane to cross Market Street to stage a protest calling for Felger to be fired.

Here’s where it gets weird: the CBS managers who called the cops on Minihane’s stunt will soon be Entercom managers, and thus Minihane’s bosses at WEEI – and Felger, of course, will soon be the competition under Beasley. But it was another set of Felger’s bosses, his TV managers at NBC Sports Boston, who acted first: they suspended Felger from appearing on TV for the remainder of last week. Felger has apologized for his comments, and we still wonder whether Beasley has the stomach for the kind of routine controversy that comes with the format they’re buying at 98.5.

*It’s not clear that there was any connection between two bomb threats that rattled TV stations at opposite ends of New England late last week. In South Burlington, VERMONT, police took a call just after 11 on Thursday night from a man claiming he’d planted bombs inside the Joy Drive studios of WCAX (Channel 3). The building was evacuated in the middle of the late newscast, but a search turned up nothing.

Around the same time, police in Portland, MAINE received a similar call warning of bombs in the studio at WGME (Channel 13). That building was also evacuated, but nothing was found inside.

Then on Friday afternoon, Boston Fox affiliate WFXT (Channel 25) had to interrupt its 5 PM newscast around 5:20 when a threat was called in to its sprawling Dedham facility. For 90 minutes, the evening newscast was off the air while the building was evacuated. Police gave the all-clear at 6:50 and staffers were allowed back inside, where they did an extended newscast that ran until 7:30.

*In Worcester, veteran talk host Hank Stolz is joining forces with Worcester Magazine and the online Unity Radio to launch a new streaming talk format. The new format, which will stream at worcestermag.com, will include the “Talk of the Commonwealth” morning show Stolz has been doing online for the past year, as well as Tony Economou and Gary Rosen from 10 AM to noon and the “Worcester Magazine Radio Hour” from noon-1 PM. Unity Radio has a CP for WUTY-LP (102.9), and we hear the new format could air there when the LPFM launches next year, too.

*And out in western Massachusetts, over-the-air ABC viewers may have a harder time of things once WCDC (Channel 19/RF 36) leaves the air Dec. 1. The Greylock Mountain-based satellite of Albany’s WTEN (Channel 10) has a history that goes back to 1954 and independent WMGT-TV on channel 74, but it’s succumbing to the FCC’s spectrum auction, leaving Berkshire County viewers to need better antennas to try to pull in WTEN itself or Springfield’s WGGB from the other direction.

The demise of WCDC also creates a potential headache for tenants on its Mount Greylock tower, which WTEN will continue to lease to Albany public broadcaster WAMC (90.3) and to NBC competitor WNYT (Channel 13), which operates a low-power relay on channel 38 there. WTEN is reportedly trying to find a buyer for the tower, which faces pressure from environmental advocates who’d like the top of Greylock cleared off.

Nexstar took in $34.6 million for WCDC’s spectrum; it’s apparently going to keep the license alive under a channel-sharing deal that will likely put its license on the WTEN transmitter to give Nexstar a second must-carry channel in the Albany market.

*There’s a new signal coming to iHeart in RHODE ISLAND, where it’s paying EMF $360,000 for translator W284BA (104.7 Warwick). The translator had been carrying EMF’s K-Love, fed from an HD subchannel of iHeart’s WSNE (93.3 Taunton), but now that EMF has taken over the former WBRU (95.5, now WLVO), the translator had become redundant. No word yet on what iHeart plans to do with the 104.7 signal, though we’re hearing rumors of a country flanker that would try to shave some audience from Hall’s dominant WCTK (98.1).

*In the Upper Valley of NEW HAMPSHIRE and Vermont, Great Eastern kicked off November with some changes to its station lineup. “The River,” the AAA format that had been on translator W294AB (106.7 Hanover NH) and the HD2 of WHDQ (106.1 Claremont), has moved to WWOD (93.9 Woodstock VT). The “Kool FM” oldies that had been on 93.9 are now on 106.7 as a full-time feed of the True Oldies Channel; “Kool” also continues to be heard on WFYX (96.3 Walpole NH).

*MAINE Public Classical now has a much bigger Midcoast reach. On Thursday morning at 9, MPBN took over the former WTQX (96.7 Boothbay Harbor) from Blueberry Broadcasting, flipping it from a simulcast of rock WTOS (105.1 Skowhegan) to the growing statewide classical network under new calls WBQA. MPBN paid $550,000 for the signal, which joins full-power WBQF (91.5 Fryeburg, ex-WFYB) and WBQE (93.7 Milbridge, ex-WRMO), along with HD-fed translators in Waterville, Bangor and Portland.

*There are radio engineers on the move in NEW YORK, some more willingly than others. Downstate, a cutback at Univision has claimed the job of veteran New York-market radio engineer Nomar Vizcarrondo, and we’re hoping he lands on his feet somewhere in the market very soon. At the other end of the state, Bill Prendergast has left the chief engineer’s office at Entercom in Buffalo to head back home to Alaska, leaving a vacancy there with some big projects in the works, including a new tower for WKSE (Kiss 98.5) on Grand Island.

*Syracuse is getting a Baldwin back home on the radio. The famous family of actors has made no secret of its roots in central New York (including a starring role by Alec and his mom, Carol, in a Wegmans ad a few years back), and now Daniel Baldwin is hitting the airwaves in his native Syracuse. He’s now doing the 3-4 PM weekday slot on Galaxy’s ESPN Syracuse (WTLA 1200/97.7 and WSGO 1440/100.1 in Oswego).

*In Kingston, Jimmy Buff’s Radio Kingston has closed on its purchase of WKNY (1490) from Townsquare. With financial support from Buffett heir Peter Buffett, Radio Kingston is planning a diverse, hyper-local format on WKNY (and soon, an FM translator), with longtime WDST programmer Buff doing mornings.

Where are they now? Former central New York programmer Jason Furst (WSYR Syracuse, WHAM Rochester) spent the last five years at Entercom’s WBT in Charlotte, but a shuffle of managers there ousted him from the PD chair last week.

*Out on Long Island, we note (somewhat belatedly, due to our travel last week) that the storms that ripped across the east end just before Halloween took out one of the three towers at WLIM (1580 Patchogue), leaving the Polnet-owned station silent for the time being. (There’s been no silent notification filed by WNYG 1440 Medford, which diplexes off one of the remaining WLIM towers – and if you’re scoring at home, this means both of Polnet’s New York AM sites are now missing towers, since a downed tower at WRKL 910 in Rockland County has still yet to be replaced.) Photo: Mike Erickson

*The obituaries for Liz Smith will focus on the gossip column she wrote for New York’s newspapers for years, and rightfully so – but we remember her here for her many years as a fixture on “Live at Five” on WNBC-TV (Channel 4), where she won an Emmy for her work in 1985. The Texan started at WNBC during a newspaper strike in 1979 that would otherwise have silenced her, and she was so popular there that she stayed on TV for twenty years even after the presses started rolling again. Smith died Sunday at 94.

*When EMF Broadcasting can’t find a big deal to make, it’s still out there in the marketplace making smaller deals, including one that will strengthen its K-Love signal in central PENNSYLVANIA. EMF is paying Pat Sickafus $700,000 for WTPA (92.1 Palmyra), giving the musician/sheepskin-coat entrepreneur a nice profit after he paid Cumulus $530,000 for that Harrisburg-market signal back in 2012.

While WTPA’s rock format will now fade away after a long journey around the dial (it spent many years on 93.5 before the Cumulus/Citadel merger sent it down to 92.1), Sickafus keeps his other radio operation, classic country WWSM (1510 Annville-Cleona). As for K-Love, it will get much better Harrisburg coverage than it now gets from northern rimshot WKHW (88.5 Halifax) and translators.

*Up US 15 at the Seven Mountains Selinsgrove cluster, veteran radio guy Tom Scott has taken over afternoons on “Bigfoot Country” (WCFT/WRBG/WQBG/WZBF), where he’s using the airname “B.F. Hunter.” Scott comes to Selinsgrove from Erie, where he’d been PD at top-40 WEHP (Happy 92.7); he’s also worked for Clear Channel in Williamsport and Binghamton.

And up by the state line, Paul B. Walker, Jr. has returned to WDDH (97.5 the Hound) in Ridgway, where he’s back in the afternoon slot he occupied before heading off on adventures to new radio homes in California and Alaska a few years back.

*In Philadelphia, they’re mourning Rod Carson, Sr., the longtime traffic voice at KYW (1060) and co-founder back in 1997 of Shadow Traffic. Carson was in high school when he started out on local WCOJ (1420 Coatesville) and went on to work at WAEB in Allentown and at numerous Philadelphia stations, including as a “Good Guy” on WIBG, five years in mornings on WDAS and as host of “Rock and Roll Roots” on WMMR. He was inducted into the Philadelphia AFTRA Hall of Fame in 2009. Carson was 75.

*Locally-owned radio continues to vanish across CANADA, and the latest stations to go corporate are in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, where Newcap is buying CKEC (94.1 East Coast FM) and CKEZ (Classic Rock 97.9) from Hector Broadcasting. The two stations will be Newcap’s 73rd and 74th radio properties, joining existing Newcap Nova Scotia properties in Halifax, Kentville and Sydney. So far, no purchase price has been announced.

*Newcap is also making moves at its “93.5 the Move” (CFXJ) in Toronto, where it’s adding more contemporary hip-hop and R&B back to the rhythmic AC format it adopted last year.

Over at Durham Radio in Oshawa, CJKX (95.9 Ajax) has added two new HD subchannels: it’s now carrying smooth jazz “The Wave” (from sister station CIWV-HD2 in Hamilton) on 95.9-HD2 and oldies CKDO (1580) on 95.9-HD3, reports Canadian Radio News.

CRN also reports CJCS (1240 Stratford) has now signed off for good, effective Nov. 9. Vista Radio migrated the station to FM on 107.1 (as “Juice FM”) over the summer, and had been running a loop on 1240 directing listeners to the FM signal when last we tuned in.

*Also in Toronto, Bell is promoting Taylor Jukes out of her role as PD of Virgin Radio (CKFM 99.9) to senior manager, national content, which opens up a promotion for Karen Steeles from sister “Virgin” station CFCA (105.3) over in Kitchener-Waterloo. She’s adding the PD duties in Toronto, effective today.

One more tidbit from Toronto: fans of the old CITY-TV in its Moses Znaimer heyday can’t forget the station’s theme song, “People City” – and now there’s a new documentary all about the song and its role in making CITY such an important piece of Toronto TV history. Check it out at Retrontario.com!

*In Quebec City, Cogeco’s CJMF (FM93) has fired host Gilles Parent amidst accusations of sexual misconduct. Ève-Marie Lortie is now hosting Parent’s former afternoon show, alongside Nicolas Lacroix and Dan Pou.

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