NERW 3/26/2012: Barnstable Sells LI Stations

In this week”s issue: Jack Williams cuts back at WBZ-TV – Baseball on the Radio 2012 (the Major Leagues) – FM Auction 93 includes VT, PA signals – New FMs sign on in Maine – Tietolman eyes Montreal”s CJAD

by SCOTT FYBUSH

MONDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Barnstable Broadcasting is exiting Long Island with the sale of WHLI (1100 Hempstead), WIGX (94.3 Smithtown), WKJY (98.3 Hempstead) and WBZO (103.1 Bay Shore) to Connoisseur Media. NERW hears the deal was announced at an employee meeting this afternoon. RadioInsight reports the price on the deal is $23 million; we”ll have more in a mid-week update here and on Twitter and Facebook as it develops.

*In eastern MASSACHUSETTS, Jack Williams has been a fixture behind the news desk on WBZ-TV (Channel 4) for as long as many of his viewers have been alive. That”s about to change, though: last week, the CBS owned-and-operated station announced that Williams, 68, is beginning to reduce his workload at the station after 37 years there.

Starting this week, Williams is off the 11 PM newscast, though he”ll continue to anchor at 6 and produce his long-running “Wednesday”s Child” segments.

Jonathan Elias takes over the 11 alongside Lisa Hughes starting tonight.

*On the radio, there”s a new morning show team at Worcester”s WSRS (96.1), where Heidi West has joined Greg Byrne, filling the co-host slot last occupied by Jackie Brush. West had been at WBMW (106.5) in New London, CONNECTICUT, and has also worked at WWLI (105.1) in Providence and at Worcester”s WORC-FM (98.9), as well as at WMAS-FM in Springfield and part-time at Boston”s WMJX (106.7).

Mel Robbins has departed her weekend slot on Greater Media talker WTKK (96.9 Boston); she”s been doing afternoons at Cox”s WDBO (580/96.5) in Orlando, Florida, and now she”s headed down there full-time.

We”ve been remiss in not noting the new tower that”s finally up in the swamps of Quincy, returning WJDA (1300) to full power after the stati0n lost its tower to Hurricane Irene last August.

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The station was briefly silent before returning from a longwire antenna at the site, and we”re told it”s now back to its usual kilowatt of power from a Valcom fiberglass whip antenna at its licensed location, though there”s nothing on file with the FCC about an antenna change.

*About that high-powered pirate that was shut down by FCC agents earlier this month? “Hot 97 Boston” tells the Jamaica Star that it was making a “move from Terrestrial Digital Radio back to a Digital Internet Radio platform,” claiming that it was the station”s “tremendous success that led to us lending our amazing brand locally for simulcast on terrestrial radio.” Almost two weeks after the raid, there”s been no sign of a signal on the station”s former 87.7 MHz frequency, and no shortage of listeners on its Facebook page asking what happened.

*RHODE ISLAND Public Radio spent the weekend reconfiguring its signal for the southern part of the state. WRNI-FM (102.7 Narragansett Pier) switched to a directional antenna last year, boosting its power from 1950 watts to 6 kW, with most of that extra power pointed southeast toward Newport.

RIPR now has a construction permit for a separate Newport signal on 88.1, and it”s avoiding the complications of a directional antenna by returning to non-directional operation, once again with 1950 watts/226″.

*There”s another FCC FM auction getting underway this week, but don”t expect many big-ticket bids in NERW-land. Unlike the last auction, where a new FM channel in the Erie, Pennsylvania market drew seven-figure competing bids, the upcoming Auction 93 features only three facilities in the region, two of them in VERMONT.

In Poultney, west of Rutland along the Vermont/New York line, the bidding starts at $25,000 for a new class A signal on 92.5; way up in the Northeast Kingdom, bidding for a new class C3 facility on 94.1 in Canaan will start at $5,000. (This is the second stab at a 94.1C3 up there in Canaan – back in 1989, the FCC granted a construction permit for what became WXMX, but the station was never built and had disappeared from the Commission”s records by 1999.)

While we”re up in the Kingdom, we note that Vermont Broadcast Associates is asking the FCC to relocate a class A signal it picked up (for $108.000) in the last round of FM auctions. VBA says because of the rough terrain in the area, it would take a 765-foot tower at the allocation coordinates for the 94.5A signal to actually provide reliable service to its community of license, Albany. Even if that were economically feasible, it wouldn”t be permitted under Vermont”s stringent Act 250 environmental law, and VBA says it has an alternative: it can put a 69-foot tower on a nearby hilltop in the town of Irasburg and relicense the signal there. (An Irasburg-licensed 94.5 would also just happen to provide usable service up the I-91 corridor toward Newport.)

*There”s a stunt underway in the Burlington market. WNMR (107.1 Dannemora NY) is “Wireless 107.1” at the moment, and we hear longtime Burlington talent Louie Manno is behind a new format soon to launch at the “deliberately mysterious, delightfully indefinable” signal that was last doing sports.  (For the moment, we”re enjoying the “wall of ambiguous sound” that Manno”s programming, though!)

*From NEW HAMPSHIRE comes somewhat belated word of the death of veteran engineer and broadcast historian Norm Gagnon. Even at a young age, he was fascinated with radio, and a family story tells of the time that a nine-year-old Norm persuaded his parents to buy an early FM receiver.

Gagnon joined Manchester”s WGIR in 1957, left in 1968 to spend some time at Boston”s WEEI, then returned to WGIR as chief engineer in 1970. In 1979, Gagnon went back to Boston to work at WRKO/WROR, then at WHDH/WCOZ and eventually WMJX, where he was the project engineer for the master FM antenna system atop the Prudential Tower.

After retiring from his final job with the MediaTouch automation system in the 1990s, Gagnon went on to share some of his broadcast memories, especially of the early days of FM radio, at the excellent GGN Information Systems website. At least for now, that site remains on the web as a living tribute to Gagnon, who died March 8 at age 73.

*There are two new FM signals on the air in Down East MAINE.

WRMO (93.7 Milbridge) went silent after the death of owner Lyle Evans back in 2010. Evans” estate sold the station to Chuck Begin”s Pine Tree Broadcasting last year, and now WRMO is back from a new 22.5 kW/669″ class B facility on Martins Ridge, near Franklin, engineered by Washington, DC”s Chris Roth.

It”s now programming gold-based AC as “93.7 the Wave,” reaching Ellsworth and Bar Harbor with a city-grade signal and providing a fringe signal as far away as Bangor.

There”s also a new signal on the air from the Augusta-based Light of Life religious folks: WRNM (91.7 Ellsworth) applied for a license to cover its construction permit last week.

(Light of Life had a busy engineering week: it also filed applications to boost power at two of its newer FM signals, bumping WRPB 89.3 Benedicta from 145 watts to 2 kW and WWLN 90.5 Lincoln from 65 watts to 2400 watts, with a directional antenna.)

*A few years ago, we paid a call on New York”s WBLS (107.5) and WLIB (1190) at their studio home 41 floors above midtown Manhattan, and it”s a good thing we did, because those Inner City Broadcasting stations may not be calling 3 Park Avenue home much longer. As YMF Media (the new entity created by Inner City”s biggest creditors) prepares to take over the stations, it”s asking a bankruptcy court judge to free up $3 million in financing. Inside Radio reports that at least some of that money would be used as a deposit on less expensive space for new WBLS/WLIB studios elsewhere.

(And here”s a good a reminder that your NERW subscription includes more than just access to this weekly column – clicking on the “Members” tab above will bring you to our Member Archive page that includes a dozen years” worth of Tower Site of the Week installments!)

*Cumulus says it now has more than 140 affiliates signed up for the Mike Huckabee midday talk show slated to start next month, and while the syndicator isn”t naming those affiliates (or confirming the widespread rumors that its own big talkers, including New York City”s WABC 770, will be on board for the show), we”ve learned of at least two NERW-land stations that will be carrying Huckabee.

In the Rochester market, WYSL (1040 Avon) will carry Huckabee live from noon-2 PM, displacing Neal Boortz from that slot. While Huckabee”s live slot will put him right up against Rush Limbaugh in most markets, Rochester is an exception: because Rush affiliate WHAM (1180) delays the Limbaugh show to 1 PM, Huckabee”s first hour will run against local talker Bob Lonsberry. (There”s some history here: WYSL was one of Limbaugh”s earliest affiliates, but lost the show to the big WHAM signal after just a few years.)

The other confirmed Huckabee affiliate is WBEC (1420) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which made headlines earlier this month by becoming one of two stations to drop Limbaugh”s show during the initial furor over his Sandra Fluke comments.

*Completing the call-letter shuffle in Utica: now that Roser Communications Group has turned the former WRCK (100.7) into WUTQ-FM, it”s hanging on to the heritage WRCK calls. Those calls spent several decades on 107.3 before EMF Broadcasting bought the former rock station; EMF later shuffled calls itself, sending “WRCK” to the lesser 100.7 signal it just sold to Roser.

Now “WRCK” is going north to Remsen, replacing the WADR calls that have been on Roser”s AM 1480 signal up there for half a century. For now, at least, WADR – er, WRCK – remains part of a four-signal “WUTQ”-branded talk simulcast with WUTQ-FM, WUTQ (1550 Utica) and translator W238CA (95.5).

*On the TV side of things in Utica, Caroline Gable has exited the anchor chair at ABC affiliate WUTR (Channel 20) and Fox affiliate WFXV (Channel 33), six months after becoming part of the stations” initial anchor team when they restarted local news last September. CNYTVNews.com reports the Nexstar stations are now looking for a replacement.

*NEW JERSEY”s WOND (1400 Pleasantville) hit its 60th anniversary in 2010, but the station”s celebration of its history continues into 2012. On Friday, longtime afternoon host Pinky Kravitz will devote his 4-6 PM talk show to a trip back into history: he”s held on to a reel-to-reel tape of a series of interviews he did in 1964 with Atlantic City high school students, and this week he”ll bring three of those students back on the air to listen to the tape and talk about how their lives and views have changed in nearly half a century since it was recorded.

At the other end of the Parkway (Exit 160 or thereabouts, if you”re counting), Fairleigh Dickinson University”s WFDU (89.1 Teaneck) marked its 40th anniversary last year, and now it”s following up with the launch of a completely reworked website at www.wfdu.fm. WFDU”s new online home includes 24-hour streaming, which is a big deal for a station that shares its FM channel with New York University”s WNYU and can only broadcast over the air from 1 AM until 3:45 PM on weekdays. (It”s on the air 24 hours a day on weekends.) The streaming service repeats WFDU”s daytime programming after the FM signal has been handed over to NYU.

And while we wait to see who the buyer will be for Family Stations” WFME (94.7 Newark), the now-commercially-licensed signal has been granted a construction permit to make its move to a new tower permanent. Since last fall, WFME has been experimenting with reduced power (23.5 kW instead of 37.2 kW) from a higher antenna height (679″ instead of 571″) on the taller self-supporting tower just 100 feet from the longtime WFME studio/transmitter site on First Mountain in West Orange. That taller tower already holds auxiliary antennas for New York”s WXNY (96.3), WQHT (97.1) and WEMP (101.9), and it was the home of the old WVNJ-FM (100.3 Newark) for many years until that station”s 1983 move across the Hudson to the “top-top-top-top-top” of the Empire State Building as WHTZ.

*In PENNSYLVANIA“s Poconos, Bud Williamson unveiled a new format and nickname at his newly-purchased WTSX (96.7 Lehman Township) on Friday. The new “Pocono 96.7,” which relocated from Port Jervis, New York to clear the way for K-Love”s WKLV-FM (96.7 Port Chester) New York City move-in, is playing the “Greatest Hits of the 60s, 70s and 80s” with a jock lineup that includes John Perry in mornings, John Harper in the afternoons and two former Clear Channel voices, middayer Lou Brown and night guy Rick Knight (Reg Osterhoudt).

Where are they now? Former Philadelphia jocks John Hanson and Charlie Maxx are teaming up as the new morning show just across the state line at WJBR (99.5 Wilmington, Delaware). Hanson was part of the airstaff at the now-defunct WYSP (94.1 Philadelphia, now WIP-FM), and had worked for WJBR parent company Beasley at the old WPTP (96.5 Philadelphia, now WRDW-FM). Maxx also worked at WPTP, but her most recent gig in Philadelphia was at Jerry Lee”s WBEB (101.1).

At the other end of the state, Tim Martz”s Radio Power, Inc. has been granted a construction permit to move translator W261AX (100.1 Pittsburgh) to the other side of the Steel City. The translator, which relays the R&B programming of WAMO (660 Wilkinsburg), started out in the North Hills at the KDKA-TV (Channel 2) tower site, but that site has some shadowing to the areas where much of Pittsburgh”s African-American population is concentrated. Its new site, on a tower adjacent to the WDDZ (1250)/WKST-FM (96.1) site south of the Monongahela River, will give the 99-watt translator signal a better view into Homestead and other areas where WAMO”s target audience lives.

There aren”t many radio people who get to put in 46 years in the business and still leave on their own terms, but Pittsburgh”s Frank Gottlieb is one of them. Frank started out as the overnight guy on the original WAMO-FM (105.9, now WXDX) back in 1966, and after a tour in Vietnam he came back to his hometown to work at KDKA-TV, WTAE-TV and, after a detour to Columbus, Ohio”s WLWC/WCMH and QUBE Cable, he”s been a fixture for many years now at KQV (1410). He”ll still be seen around the station from time to time doing part-time work even after he officially retires from his full-time duties there at the end of this week, and we wish him all the best as he heads on to his next chapter.

*There”s one Keystone State signal on the Auction 93 docket for the FCC: 105.1A in Sheffield, between Warren and Kane near the New York border, will start at $15,000. (And just across the Ohio line, the Commission will try again to auction 96.1A in Ashtabula, Ohio, this time at $20,000 for a starting bid.)

*In an otherwise quiet week in CANADA, the big news is a “what might be” in Montreal, where the pending Bell acquisition of Astral Media will leave the combined companies at least one station over the English-language ownership limit.

Who”ll be the odd station out? Montreal media blogger Steve Faguy the dominant Anglo radio news voice in town, Astral”s CJAD (800) – and that the most likely buyer is the Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy (TTP) group that recently won CRTC permission to put a new French-language news-talk station on 940. The TTP group had asked the CRTC for an English-language signal as well, but their proposal to use 690 kHz was trumped by Bell”s plan to move sports station CKGM down the dial from 990.

Faguy says TTP had already backed down from its initial “690 or nothing” stance and was negotiating for the use of the Astral-owned former CIQC (600) transmitter plant in Kahnawahke, just south of Montreal, in hopes of reactivating the long-silent 600 frequency for an English news-talk signal. (That Kahnawahke site had later been used by CINW and CINF on 940 and 690, and TTP apparently wanted to reuse it for its new 940 as well.)

But with CJAD suddenly in play, Faguy says TTP”s strategy may be shifting: instaed of competing with CJAD for the relatively small Anglo audience in Montreal, Paul Tietolman and his partners say they”re ready to buy that station – or whatever else Bell wants to spin off.

(Which leads NERW to wonder: since TTP is also one of the 22 applicants for the open 88.1 frequency in Toronto, could we see Tietolman and his partners making an offer for Astral”s big Toronto news-talker, CFRB 1010, too?)

On TV, Hamilton”s CHCH (Channel 11) has been granted a move from VHF channel 11 to UHF channel 15 for its digital signal. The independent station had plenty of reception issues when Canada”s digital conversion last summer shifted it from its transitional UHF channel, 18, to the channel 11 spot where it had operated in analog for almost 60 years – but then it caught a break when Quebecor folded its “Sun TV” over-the-air CKXT operation, freeing up the channel 15 allocation that had already been operating at CHCH”s transmitter site atop the Niagara Escarpment in Stoney Creek. The move will boost CHCH”s power from 6 kW (max DA) on 11 to 132 kW (max DA) on 15; it may also pose some interference issues along the Niagara Peninsula with Buffalo”s WBNF-CA, also operating on RF 15.

*And with Opening Day just around the corner, let”s take our annual look at Baseball on the Radio, starting as always with the major leagues – and starting, as always, with the Probably-Not-Gonna-Be-Champions-This-Year-Barring-Some-Freaky-Miracle Boston Red Sox.

In addition to a morale-shattering September collapse, the Sox ended their 2011 season with a new FM flagship as Entercom added WEEI-FM (93.7 Lawrence) to WEEI (850 Boston). As we noted at the time, the FM signal isn”t a perfect full-market outlet, being just far enough north to have some trouble overcoming the “RF haze” around the Prudential Tower and Newton/Needham master FM sites, but it”s a big improvement for many listeners who”d struggled with WEEI”s night signal. (The 850 signal is still there, too, covering many of the areas where 93.7 has issues.)

At the western end of that new FM signal, the Sox have dropped WPKZ (1280 Fitchburg, plus 105.3 translator) from the network this year. The rest of the network appears largely intact, including WTIC (1080 Hartford), the 50,000-watt AM lifeline for Sox fans west and south of New England. The Sox have also shuffled some affiliates at the far western edge of their coverage area, losing Syracuse”s ESPN Radio outlets (more on that in a moment) and adding WOFX (980 Troy) in the Albany market.

Joe Castiglione and Dave O”Brien continue as the Sox radio team, with Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy handling the TV broadcasts on NESN (once again, there”s no over-the-air Sox TV save for a handful of Fox national broadcasts.) Uri Berenguer continues with the Spanish-language call on WWZN (1510).

The New York Yankees are in a one-year extension of their contract with WCBS (880 New York), keeping John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman in the booth for another season and prolonging the never-ending speculation about a longer-term deal with CBS that might move the team down the dial to WFAN (660).

The Yanks” extensive radio network adds Fitchburg”s WPKZ as a central Massachusetts voice, remaining otherwise largely unchanged.

On TV, it”s still Michael Kay and Bob Lorenz on the Yankees-owned YES network, which will produce 21 games for WWOR (Channel 9) and a network of upstate stations; Spanish-language Yankees coverage remains on WADO (1280).

The New York Mets turn 50 this year, marking the occasion with a new radio announcing team and some new network affiliates. Wayne Hagin is gone after four seasons alongside Howie Rose on WFAN (660), and replacing him is Josh Lewin, who got his start right here in Rochester announcing the Rochester Red Wings” AAA games before moving on to Fox network baseball coverage, Texas Rangers TV play-by-play, and the San Diego Chargers radio booth. (Lewin will still be calling Chargers games in the fall, but there”s no reason to expect any conflicts in the October schedule…)

After many years with only a token network presence outside the big WFAN flagship signal, the Mets will be heard in more outlying markets this season. In Syracuse, Galaxy”s WTLA (1200)/WSGO (1440 Oswego) and their FM translators switch from the Red Sox to the Mets, and in Glens Falls  the team will be heard on WMML (1230), though that signal won”t replace former Albany affiliate WOFX (980), now a Red Sox signal.

On TV, it”s still Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez on SNY, which will produce 25 weekend games for WPIX (Channel 11) and a network of upstate stations. In Spanish, it”s Juan Alicea on WQBU (92.7 Garden City).

Like the Red Sox, the Philadelphia Phillies have a shiny new FM flagship this season. WIP-FM (94.1) takes over from WPHT (1210) at the top of the Phils” extensive radio roster – but “The Big Talker” will continue to carry the Phillies on the AM dial as well. That means splitting the WIP simulcast during Phillies games; WIP (610) will stick with sports talk or pick up conflicting games when the 76ers or Flyers are also on.

(It”s less clear what happens in the fall if the Phillies and Eagles are playing at the same time; the Eagles have had 94.1 as their flagship for many years and would likely be heard there and on 610 while the Phillies are on 1210.)

There”s at least one affiliation change along the big Phillies network: it appears WLPA (1490 Lancaster) will be back with the Phillies after breaking away from the network in 2006 to carry the local Lancaster Barnstormers.

It”s Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen back in the Phillies radio booth, next door to Tom McCarthy and the Comcast TV crew. 45 of their games will air on WPHL (Channel 17) and a small network of broadcast outlets in eastern Pennsylvania; the rest will be split between Comcast Sports Network and The Comcast Network (TCN, formerly CN8).

The Phils get a new Spanish-language flagship this year, too: with former outlet WUBA (1480) having moved back to English-language classic R&B as WDAS(AM), it appears the Phillies go to WEMG (1310 Camden).

The Pittsburgh Pirates also move to a new flagship for 2012, kicking off a “multi-year” deal to put the team-produced broadcasts on CBS Radio”s KDKA-FM (93.7 the Fan) after failing to reach a renewal deal with Clear Channel”s WPGB (104.7), which had been the Bucs flagship for five seasons.

Greg Brown, Steve Blass and John Wehner remain in the radio booth, and as best we can tell the Pirates” network remains largely unchanged this year, with affiliates as far away as Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland.

There”s no change in the Pirates” TV lineup, which remains cable-only on the Root Sports network, and no Spanish-language coverage.

And it”s status quo this year for the Toronto Blue Jays, which is to be expected given the interlocking Rogers ownership of the team and its media outlets. Jerry Howarth, Mike Wilner and Alan Ashby will be heard on CJCL (Sportsnet 590 the Fan) in Toronto and an 18-station network stretching from coast to coast. The Jays” TV games remain on Rogers Sportsnet, of course.

We”ll look at the top of the minor leagues next week…and in the meantime, play ball!