NERW 2/19/2018: Retraining Day at WEEI

In this week’s issue… WEEI stops down to address controversy – WMGK’s DeBella faces harassment suit – FM sale in Utica – Remembering a Boston TV news icon – PA morning man dies suddenly – Jays’ Howarth retires 

By SCOTT FYBUSH

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

*In a #metoo world where entertainers and politicians are increasingly under scrutiny for behavior that might not have raised many eyebrows a generation ago, commercial radio has remained largely immune – until now.

On Friday, all the local hosts at Boston’s WEEI were off the air, replaced for the day by syndicated fare from NBC Sports Radio so that the entire staff at the Entercom sports station could spend a day in sensitivity training. WEEI managers said the move was a response to several recent suspensions there, but it’s hard not to believe that the real pressure was coming from a different (and more potent) corner.

In the Globe, columnist Shirley Leung has been pushing back hard on the most recent WEEI misfire, in which midday host Christian Fauria was suspended for using a fake Asian accent to portray Don Yee, Tom Brady’s agent. And unlike many of the columnists who write about stories like this one, Leung has been asking questions to WEEI’s business partners – its advertisers and the teams whose games air there, especially the Red Sox, which shares ownership with the Globe.

At least one advertiser had already pulled out of a WEEI schedule when Entercom called the one-day sensitivity training for Friday. Were others about to follow suit? And will one day of training (which WEEI host Mike Mutnansky described as “heated” when he hit the air on Friday night) make a difference?

Meanwhile to the south, it’s Beasley that will take the next turn in the spotlight, as WMGK (102.9) morning icon John DeBella faces a lawsuit from a former sidekick who says DeBella sexually harassed her at work. Jennifer (“Posner”) Neill was part of DeBella’s show from 2010 to 2016, when she filed a complaint with the state about DeBella’s behavior, which she says included both unwanted physical contact and verbal harassment. She says she was given a choice of staying on the show or taking a lesser job as a traffic reporter, which she did briefly before leaving the station a year ago.

“We are not offering specific comment on the matter,” Beasley said in a statement. For now, DeBella is still on the air.

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*At WBUR (90.9 Boston), former “On Point” host Tom Ashbrook is now out permanently. Ashbrook had been suspended in December over allegations of sexual misconduct, and while an investigation cleared him of that, it found that he had created an abusive environment for co-workers on the show. Ashbrook issued a statement saying he’s “deeply disappointed” in what he calls an “unfair” outcome.

*Jack Hynes was one of the true class acts of Boston TV news over a 50-year career that stretched across two incarnations of channel 5 and the city’s UHF startup, channel 56. Hynes grew up in Dorchester as the son of John B. Hynes, Boston’s mayor from 1950-1960 and namesake of the convention center in the Back Bay. After serving in the Marine Corps for three years, Hynes worked at WBZ (1030), then joined the first channel 5, the Herald-Traveler‘s WHDH-TV, not long after it signed on in 1957. He became one of the station’s main anchors and, with much of its news staff, migrated out to Needham in 1972 to launch the new news operation on its channel 5 replacement, WCVB.

In 1984, with a new generation of anchors eclipsing him at WCVB, Hynes moved on to a new newsroom, WLVI (Channel 56), bringing name recognition to the new “Ten O’Clock News” operation at the independent station then owned by Gannett. Hynes remained at WLVI until his retirement in 2006, leaving the airwaves with a final commentary criticizing the station’s sale to Ed Ansin’s WHDH-TV (Channel 7), which shut down the WLVI newsroom.

Hynes, who was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2008, died Tuesday morning in Hingham. He was 88.

We send our condolences as well to the family of Grethe deSuze, who died Feb. 15 at 82. She was the widow of WBZ morning legend Carl deSuze, and the mother of two daughters, including longtime New England air talent Samantha deSuze.

*In CONNECTICUT, UConn women’s and men’s basketball, football and hockey have been staples on CBS Radio’s (now Entercom’s) WTIC (1080 Hartford) for 25 years – but they’re moving to a new home. Starting this fall, the Huskies will instead be heard on iHeart’s WUCS (97.9 Enfield), which has picked up the rights from IMG Sports. Entercom executives are telling the local papers that UConn was seeking favorable talk show coverage on WTIC, among other demands. Losing the UConn coverage from WTIC will eliminate many schedule conflicts with Red Sox broadcasts; meanwhile at iHeart, some conflicts on the WUCS schedule will be pushed to sister station WPOP (1410).

*Trignition Media took over last Wednesday at WWCO (1240 Waterbury), dropping the simulcast of the “Talk of Connecticut” format from WDRC (1360 Hartford) in favor of simulcasting the Spanish tropical format of “Viva! Radio” WRYM (840 New Britain). WRYM is already heard on a translator at 107.3, and WWCO has a construction permit for a potent new translator from West Peak in Meriden on 106.3.

*Few broadcasters are as aggressive when it comes to protecting the edges of their signal contours than Saga, and so it’s no surprise that Saga’s WFEA (1370) in Manchester, NEW HAMPSHIRE reacted strongly when WGHM (900) down the road in Nashua signed on a new translator at the end of 2017. The former W253AF moved from Bennington, Vermont to WGHM’s tower in Nashua, operating on the same 99.9 frequency as WFEA’s Manchester translator. Now Saga has filed a sheaf of complaints from WFEA listeners, seeking to have the WGHM translator shut down. But here’s the rub – as a secondary service, translators don’t have the same protection from interference that full-power FMs enjoy. Will Saga prevail here? We’ll be watching.

*Saga is also a player in a translator case in MAINE, where Light of Life Ministries runs W273DF (102.5) in Portland, leasing the signal out to sports talker WJJB (96.3 Gray). Light of Life applied to move the translator to 98.3 after that frequency was vacated by another translator last year, and it did so claiming “displacement” from incoming interference from WQSS (102.5 Camden) down the coast.

But Saga intervened, filing a complaint with the FCC alleging that the 102.5-to-98.3 move is actually a major change that should be put on hold until the FCC opens a major-change window for translators (an unlikely eventuality). Saga argued that in order to show “displacement” (which allows a major change to be made outside a window), a translator has to demonstrate that a new full-power signal has signed on to force such a move. The FCC dismissed Light of Life’s application on Feb. 7, but Light of Life is appealing, arguing that WQSS made a tower move in 2016 that created new interference to the Portland translator. (WQSS did indeed move – but its signal contour toward Portland remained almost unchanged.)

Saga’s not a disinterested party here: keeping Light of Life off 98.3 would clear the way for the FCC to approve Saga’s own 98.3 application filed in the January translator window for its WGAN (560).

*There’s another “this isn’t a minor change” moment coming on the Seacoast, where Cultural Media Connection’s WBUB-LP (96.1 Portsmouth NH) filed an application with the FCC to move to 101.5 and relocate across the river to a new site in Eliot, Maine. WBUB cited interference from WSRS (96.1 Worcester MA) as a justification for the move, but WSRS was there long before the LPFM was, meaning there’s no opportunity to claim a displacement move here, either.

*A surprise sale rocked the upstate NEW YORK media world on Thursday: Galaxy Broadcasting, which bought WOUR (96.9 Utica) in the summer of 2007 as part of Clear Channel’s exit from the market, announced it’s selling the big classic rock station to competitor Townsquare.

The $3.95 million deal includes an immediate LMA of the station. For Townsquare, it adds a fourth big FM to a cluster that already included classic hits WODZ (96.1 the Eagle), AC WLZW (Lite 98.7), country WFRG (Big Frog 104.3) and news-talk WIBX (950). For Galaxy, it leaves behind a smaller cluster with rock WKLL (K-Rock 94.9), hot AC WUMX (Mix 102.5), adult hits “Tony” (WKLL-HD2/W256AJ 99.1) and the sports trio of WTLB (1310 Utica)/WRNY (1350 Rome)/WIXT (1230 Little Falls).

But that’s not all it means for Galaxy: in a letter to staffers, CEO Ed Levine says the money from the WOUR sale is being used to buy out Galaxy’s New York-based capital lenders, reducing (and eventually eliminating) Galaxy’s debt load once the company pays off a new loan it’s getting from a local bank. As Levine pointedly notes, two of his biggest Syracuse competitors (iHeart and Cumulus) are struggling under their debt loads, which makes the ability to operate debt-free even more important to the newly-renamed “Galaxy Media LLC.” Levine says he plans to have Galaxy operating debt-free in ten years.

The company is also expanding its events business, opening a new office in Charlotte, N.C. under the name “Big Dog Events,” headed by Live Nation veteran Rob Wooten.

*Downstate, Don Imus’ exit from WABC (770 New York) next month is coming with a side of drama, in the form of an age-discrimination lawsuit from former “Imus in the Morning” sportscaster Warner Wolf. Wolf was 78 when he was let go from the show at the end of 2016, in part because of dissatisfaction with a new working arrangement that had him in a home studio in Florida instead of WABC’s New York digs. Wolf says he was owed nearly $100,000 in severance from Cumulus, though there’s disagreement about whether there was a signed contract in place mandating that severance pay.

Wolf’s replacement on the Imus show was Sid Rosenberg – and there were some pretty broad (and unsurprising) hints being dropped last week that Rosenberg and producer/sidekick Bernie McGuirk will take over mornings on WABC when Imus signs off at the end of March. (With, we’d assume, something syndicated replacing the late-morning “Bernie and Sid” show that now follows Imus.)

Joe Curci is leaving WOR (710), moving on to a new job managing a summer camp; WOR producer Ray Martel gets the promotion from Len Berman’s morning show, taking over from Curci as executive producer of the Mets radio network and “Sports Zone with Pete McCarthy.”

TV repack news: there’s late word that WRNN (Channel 48) in the Hudson Valley has reached a deal to channel-share on Fox’s WWOR in New York. No details of the arrangement have been released yet.

*In the Hudson Valley, Mark Bolger has parted ways with Townsquare’s WCZX (Mix 97.7), where he’d been since 2011. Bolger’s long run in the region included previous stints at WSPK (K104.7) and WBWZ (93.3); co-host Taylor Dickson is now solo in mornings.

Up north, the last remaining license in Ted Morgan’s failed Radio Lake Placid group is being sold. WRGR (102.1 Tupper Lake) is headed to Border Media Licenses LLC, if the FCC accepts their request for a waiver of the foreign ownership rules. Border, which is paying $8000 for the long-silent signal, belongs to UK national Ricki Shorthose (aka Ricki-Lee Coulter) and his wife Hanna Kaleta, a Polish citizen. Shorthose’s broadcast experience includes PD posts in Bristol, England and co-founding the Aiir audio content management system.

*A NEW JERSEY rock radio veteran is sticking around: Beasley has signed a multi-year deal to keep WDHA (105.5) PD/midday host Terrie Carr at the station, where she’s been on the air since 2010 and has been PD since last summer.

*It was a sad week for radio listeners in the Reading, PENNSYLVANIA market, where Cumulus’ WIOV-FM (105.1 Ephrata) lost longtime morning man Jerry Murphy, who was found dead in his home in East Lampeter Township on Wednesday morning.

Co-workers at “I105” called police after Murphy didn’t show up for the “Murph and Casey” show and PD Rich Creeger went to his home and found the door locked. The station announced Murphy’s death to listeners around 10:30 Wednesday morning, then devoted Thursday morning’s show to a remembrance of “Murph,” who’d been with the station since 1999.

Police say no foul play is suspected in Murphy’s death. He was 61.

*Up the road in the Harrisburg market, EMF has filed for new calls for the former WTPA (92.1 Palmyra), which will become WKHL when it signs back on with “K-Love” contemporary Christian any day now.

*In Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Cumulus has found a replacement for Randy Savage as PD of WBHT (97.1)/WBHD (95.7). Chad Valentine starts in that gig (and middays on the air, too) tomorrow, moving back north from south Florida, where he’d been with iHeart’s WHYI and WLDI. This is Valentine’s second time at BHT – he was on the air there on the night shift from 2001-2004. (And it’s yet another even swap, since Savage went from Pennsylvania down to Florida to become operations manager for Renda in Jacksonville.)

*We’re still a few weeks away from our annual “Baseball on the Radio” rundown, but there’s news from the biggest radio booth in CANADA: after 36 seasons with the Blue Jays, Jerry Howarth announced last week that he won’t be able to call the team’s games this year.

Howarth made a two-hour appearance Tuesday on flagship CJCL (Sportsnet 590 the FAN) to tell fans that the health issues that have affected his voice in recent years have become too serious to allow him to stay on the job. The Jays haven’t yet said how they’ll fill his place on their radio coverage this year, though one prominent contender for Howarth’s job might be Dan Shulman, the former ESPN Sunday Night Baseball host who’s been working for Sportsnet in Canada.

Across the lake, Radio Dhun has received its first extension from the CRTC to get its new 1220 in St. Catharines built out. The 10,000-watt signal (replacing the now-defunct CHSC) now has until April 20, 2019, reports Canadian Radio News.

*In Quebec, we’ve been remiss in not noting the latest firing of shock-talker Andre Arthur. He’d been relegated to a second-tier station, Leclerc’s CFEL (“BLVD 102.1”), after bigger CHOI (98.1 Radio X) fired him in 2016, but the latest straw appeared to have been his reference to a street in front of a Quebec City gay bar as “AIDS Boulevard.” Co-host Marc-André Lord is now handling the noontime show solo on CFEL.

And in the Maritimes, the unions who represent the production crews for Global’s local TV news operation in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are protesting the network’s plans to end local evening news production in Halifax. Instead, reporters in the Maritimes will send their stories to Global’s Toronto headquarters, where anchors will deliver the “local” news. (Anchors will still be local in the Halifax studios for the Global morning show.)

It’s not just TV that’s taking an employment hit – Canadian Radio News reports that all of the local staff at the Maritime Broadcasting System cluster in Saint John, New Brunswick has been let go, with out-of-town talent tracking shows on CFBC (930), CIOK (K100) and CJYC (Kool 98.9).