In this week’s issue… WKIT finds a buyer – Eskin out at WIP – Staff shifts in Utica – CRTC approves Bell divestitures
By SCOTT FYBUSH
*It’s a rare horror story that has a happy ending, but for rock fans in Bangor, MAINE, the threat of losing their beloved station at year’s end has been averted.
That’s WKIT (100.3), which Stephen King has owned for decades, and which was to have been one of the three King stations to shut down on New Year’s Eve. Could the top-rated station in Bangor really just go silent like that?
The answer turns out to be no.
“We couldn’t let it die,” said restaurant owner Greg Hawes and sportscaster Jeff Solari, who have formed a new company called Rock Lobster Radio LLC to begin LMA’ing the station from King on January 1 with an eventual purchase to follow.
“Hundreds – if not thousands – of people posted, called or reached out when they heard the news 100.3 was getting the plug pulled,” Hawes and Solari said in a post announcing the news on Monday. “Longtime listeners were devastated. But now the grief can fade. The voices you love are staying right here.”
Solari started in Bangor in 1992 as a WLBZ-TV (Channel 2) reporter/anchor, worked in creative services and promotions at the NBC affiliate, left the market for a while, then came back to do sports at King’s WZON (620) and at WEZQ (92.9 the Ticket). Hawes co-owns a local barbecue joint and a cannabis dispensary.
But while WKIT will live to rock another day, it still appears that its sister stations don’t have a path out of the woods yet. Oldies WZON ran a brief DX test early Sunday morning that was widely heard around the region, including a mention that its tower behind the current King studios on Broadway is set for demolition early in the new year once it goes silent, and AAA WZLO (103.1/98.3) is also still set to go silent as 2025 rings in.
Will the stations find a way to extricate themselves from the jaws of the rabid dog that is the small-market radio industry in the 2020s? Can they escape the path of the possessed car that’s aiming at so many independent stations? Can your editor squeeze in one more gratuitous Stephen King reference?
We’ll be watching closely as the new year approaches.
Behold, the 2025 calendar!
We chose the 100,000-watt transmitter of the Voice Of America in Marathon, right in the heart of the Florida Keys. This picture has everything we like in our covers — blue skies, greenery, water, and of course, towers! The history behind this site is a draw, too.
Other months feature some of our favorite images from years past, including some Canadian stations and several stations celebrating their centennials (can you guess? you don’t have to if you buy the calendar!).
We will ship daily through Christmas Eve. Place your order now for immediate shipping!
This will be the 24th edition of the world-famous Tower Site Calendar, and your support will determine whether it will be the final edition.
It’s been a complicated few years here, and as we finish up production of the new edition, we’re considering the future of this staple of radio walls everywhere as we evaluate our workload going forward.
The proceeds from the calendar help sustain the reporting that we do on the broadcast industry here at Fybush Media, so your purchases matter a lot to us here – and if that matters to you, now’s the time to show that support with an order of the new Tower Site Calendar. (And we have the new Broadcast Historian’s Calendar for 2025 ready to ship, too. Why not order both?)
Visit the Fybush Media Store and place your order now for the next calendar, get a great discount on previous calendars, and check out our selection of books and videos, too!
In this week’s issue… WBUR backs off local talk - EMF's expansion in NY, nationally - Rochester broadcasters honored - Russell finds new PA radio home - Remembering Bruce Stevens - The new calendar's here!
In this week’s issue… Remembering WNY's Palvino, Harris - Will King sell Bangor stations? - Kay moves earlier - New signal on LI - Cumulus cuts hit PA, New England - Frizzell sells in NH
In this week’s issue… Saluting a small-town radio vet - Bell moves CP24 - Scott heads west - Burlington gets Air 1, "Experimental Radio" - Family Life heads down I-86
In this week’s issue… NY TV anchor, radio historian both retiring - XPN PD to retire - More Cumulus cuts - Rogers sells FMs as Corus makes big talent cuts By SCOTT FYBUSH Jump to: ME - NH - VT - MA...
