|
February 16,
2004
Nassau Buys Again in NH
*As NERW first reported three weeks
ago, the fast-growing Nassau Broadcasting cluster in
northern New England is adding yet another group of
stations in NEW HAMPSHIRE.
 This time, it's the Vox cluster
in Concord that's joining Nassau. No purchase price has
been announced yet, but the deal will add classic hits
WNHI (93.3 Belmont), country WOTX (102.3 Concord) and
top 40 WJYY (105.5 Concord) to the stations Nassau is
buying from Tele-Media (oldies WNNH 99.1 and, down in
Nashua, WHOB 106.3.)
Vox also owns talk WTPL-FM (107.7 Hillsborough),
which isn't part of the deal; it'll continue to be LMA'd
to Embro Communications, which owns crosstown WKXL (1450
Concord) and will be pretty much the only local
competition for Nassau in the Granite State capital.
(And is Vox done selling? All Access reports
the company is near a deal to sell its Glens Falls, N.Y.
cluster to Albany Broadcasting, and we hear several
other Vox stations may also be on the sale block.)
Heading up I-89, the longstanding construction permit
for WQTH (720 Hanover) is another step closer to getting
on the air. We're accustomed to visiting transmitters
here at NERW, but this past week marked the first time
anyone brought a transmitter to us! That's WQTH
owner Bob Vinikoor (right) with fellow New England
broadcaster Dennis Jackson in the photo above, and
that's the future WQTH transmitter in the truck behind
them.
What were they doing here in Rochester? Simple - up
until last week, that big ol' Gates MW50 transmitter was
on the air as the primary transmitter for the legendary
CKLW (800) in Windsor, Ontario - and Dennis and Bob were
on their way back to New Hampshire after buying and
dismantling the beast. That's a 50 kW dummy load in
front of the transmitter, and those are the tubes
carefully packed in the boxes on the right side of the
truck.
And we hear there's been a format change in Keene,
where WZBK (1220) has dropped the talk and sports it was
doing (as "WKBK-2") to go to standards as "Unrock
1220."
*In VERMONT, the folks at Radio
Free Brattleboro (107.9) are bracing for another FCC
visit, perhaps as early as this week. The Brattleboro
Reformer reports that the unlicensed
station's attorney has received a letter from the U.S.
Attorney's office in Burlington rejecting several
proposals that might have allowed the station to stay on
the air; meanwhile, Brattleboro voters will cast ballots
March 2 on a question asking whether they "grant
permission" for RFB to broadcast.
*One MAINE TV story this week:
WLBZ (Channel 2) anchor Rick Tyler is leaving the Bangor
NBC affiliate. The Gannett station offered to renew
Tyler's contract if he'd move to a reporting position
from the anchor desk; instead, he's joining his wife's
PR firm full-time.
 *Is Sinclair's "News Central" headed for
western MASSACHUSETTS? There's a lot of talk
about some cutbacks on the way in the newsroom at WGGB
(Channel 40) in Springfield, the ABC outlet that's a
distant number two (in a two-station market, more or
less) to LIN's WWLP (Channel 22) - and we wouldn't be at
all surprised to see much of WGGB's news content coming
from Hunt Valley, Maryland in the not-too-distant
future. (And is it more than just a coincidence that the
station has recently rebranded from "News 40" to "ABC
40"?)
We can now report a purchase price for Saga's Pioneer
Valley deal with Vox: Saga will pay $7 million for WRSI
(93.9 Turners Falls), WPVQ (95.3 Greenfield), WRSY
(101.5 Marlboro VT) and WRSI's two translators, W246AM
(97.1 Amherst) and W287AK (105.3 South Hadley).
And we're happy to report that police in East
Longmeadow made an arrest last week in the fire that was
set outside the studios of Saga's WAQY (102.1
Springfield). Christopher D. Christian, 24, of
Springfield pleaded not guilty to two counts of arson;
he'll be back in court next week.
We reported it last
November - and now the Taunton
Gazette has taken notice of the possible
shutdown of that southeastern Massachusetts community's
only local radio station. WPEP (1570 Taunton) would go
dark under a plan to boost the power of its former
sister station, WNSH (1570 Beverly) - but it's not going
down without a fight. We hear the station's current
staffers are looking for other ways to keep WPEP
alive...stay tuned.
Down in Fall River, Barry Richard is the new morning
news anchor at WSAR (1480); Richard was doing talk over
at WBSM (1420) in New Bedford until he was abruptly
dismissed last fall.
 *Regent Communications is bowing out of the
ownership scene in PENNSYLVANIA. It struck a deal
last week to trade its properties in Erie and Reading to
Citadel in exchange for a Citadel cluster in
Bloomington, Illinois. The swap puts Citadel in Erie for
the first time, where it will own standards WRIE (1260
Erie), country WXTA (97.9 Edinboro), AC WXKC (99.9 Erie)
and classic rock WQHZ (102.3 Erie); it also adds country
WIOV-FM (105.1 Ephrata) and sports WIOV (1240 Reading)
to Citadel's large cluster of stations in eastern and
central Pennsylvania.
 And
Citadel wasted no time at all making changes to that
cluster as it prepares to bring the country giant that
is "I105" into its fold. On Friday, the lagging 80s pop
format at WRKZ (102.3 Carlisle) disappeared, replaced by
country as "Red."
That, in turn, means the imminent demise of another
Citadel country property, "Cat Country" WCAT-FM (106.7
Hershey), where PD Sam McGuire departed last week. Cat
afternooner Tag Martin is headed to "Red" for mornings,
with Cat morning news guy Brad Flick heading for
afternoons on Red.
So with country on 105.1 for Reading and Lancaster
and 102.3 for Harrisburg and York, what will become of
106.7's big central Pennsylvania signal? Stay
tuned...
Up in northeastern Pennsylvania, the new Route 81
Radio is making is first moves as it takes over several
stations from Citadel: in Hazleton, WAZL (1490) has gone
dark as it prepares to move into new studios and launch
local programming sometime in March or April. Up the
road in Carbondale, WCWI (94.3) has ditched its "Cat
Country" simulcast (from WCTO 96.1 Easton) in favor of a
simulcast of the standards programming on WNAK (730
Nanticoke), which has always done surprisingly well in
the older Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market.
In Philadelphia, Sam Milkman is out as PD of Greater
Media rocker WMMR (93.3); no replacement has been named
yet. And Chuck Tisa has signed on for three years as PD
of Beasley's WLDW (96.5); are the rumors that the former
"Wild 96.5" will soon be "Wired" true?
*In NEW YORK, WPTR (1540
Albany) is apparently sticking with its "Legends" oldies
format even as it goes all-automated; contrary to what
the message boards are saying, we hear star jock "Boom
Boom" Brannigan is still with the station, but in a
behind-the-scenes role for now as the station looks
towards a relaunch and tries to cut its costs. Across
town, Galaxy has changed the calls again on its "Eagle"
93.7, flipping WEGB to the old Boston "Eagle" calls of
WEGQ before we could get over there to add a legal ID to
the collection.
Down in New York City, Chad Brown moves over from
general sales manager of WCBS (880) to VP/GM of WCBS-FM
(101.1) - and we're reminded that we've neglected to
note the arrival of Annie Bergen as new morning host at
classical WQXR (96.3).
In Syracuse, Tim Noble is the new APD/music
director/night jock at Galaxy's "K-Rock" WKRL (100.9
North Syracuse)/WKRH (105.9 Minetto), moving over from
the former "K-Rock" in Albany.
Here in Rochester, WGMC (90.1 Greece) has turned off
its east-side translator (W286AE, 105.1 Fairport) now
that it's on the air with increased power from its main
transmitter. We hear the translator high atop Baker Hill
in Perinton is on the market to the right buyer,
too.
And speaking of translators, the Mars Hill network's
W289AE in Ogdensburg has moved from 105.7 to 105.9,
getting away from the CIKR (105.7 Kingston) signal that
signed on a couple of years back.
Over in Buffalo, the Bills made the easy choice for a
new play-by-play voice to replace 37-year veteran Van
Miller, picking Miller's color colleague John Murphy to
take over play-by-play duties next year. Murphy will
keep his day job as sports director at WKBW-TV (Channel
7) - and speaking of WKBW, it's finally been granted
special temporary authority to get its long-delayed DTV
signal on the air on channel 38.
 *Our first CANADA story this
week is also something of a Buffalo story - CFLZ (105.1
Niagara Falls) is applying for a big power increase that
will give it a real signal over the Buffalo market for
the first time.
CFLZ began its life as a travelers' information
station on 91.9, moving to 105.1 when CHOW (1470
Welland) moved to FM on 91.7 in the late nineties. In
September 2002, the travelers' information programming
moved over to sister station CJRN (710 Niagara Falls) as
part of a shuffle that took 105.1 to modern AC as "the
River," picking up much of the local news and public
affairs role that CJRN used to have in the community.
(The River had been on CKEY-FM 101.1 Fort Erie, which
became rhythmic top 40 "Wild 101" aimed at, and
partially programmed from, Buffalo.)
But the River on 105.1 has been hampered by a weak
signal - 400 watts from the top of the Skylon Tower
overlooking the Falls. Now it's hoping to give that
signal a big boost, all the way to 7200 watts (into a
directional antenna with a maximum lobe of 30 kW ERP;
unlike the US, which licenses directional FMs based on
maximum power, Canada uses average ERP, which makes
direct comparisons a bit tricky.)
The application may face some tough questions when it
goes before the CRTC April 19, though; for one thing,
the CRTC wants some assurances that CFLZ will be
programmed for the Canadian side of the border and not
for Buffalo, where Citadel already handles sales and
some programming for CKEY. Another problem that may crop
up stems from the lag in adding new U.S. applications to
Industry Canada's database - the CFLZ application
doesn't take into account the pending application by
WMJQ (105.5 Brockport) to move to 104.9, where it would
be tightly spaced to a more powerful CFLZ.
The CRTC has some other issues on its hands as well;
for one, the future of Astral Media's cluster of AM
stations (and CFOM 102.9 Levis) in Quebec after a second
proposed sale of the stations has fallen through.
Astral's initial plan to sell the stations to the big
Quebecor media group was tossed out because of
market-concentration concerns, and last week the second
proposed buyers pulled out of the C$12 million deal.
Montreal media gossip suggests the breakdown of the sale
came after a second popular CKAC (730) talk host left
the station; Jean Lapierre departed last week to lead
the Liberal Party's Quebec election campaign, leaving
CKAC even weaker than it first looked when top-rated
host Paul Arcand announced he would move over to Corus'
FM talk outlet, CKOO (98.5).
And while its regulatory counterparts to the south
worry about Janet Jackson's Super Bowl striptease, the
CRTC - not to mention Parliament - has Conan O'Brien to
deal with. While the Super Bowl broadcast generated
almost no complaints in laid-back Canada, Conan's
Canadian visit touched off controversy after he sent
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to Quebec City to - what
else? - insult the Francophones.
So while U.S. politicians seized on a fleeting
glimpse of Janet to make political hay, their colleagues
up north are holding press conferences attacking the
hand puppet for falling afoul of the rules that ban
programming that's insulting to specific ethnic or
language groups. (Ironically, the shows weren't even
broadcast in Quebec; O'Brien's Late Night is seen
in Canada on CHUM's "NewNet" stations, which don't reach
Quebec - so anyone in Quebec who saw the shows saw them
on the unregulated American feed from WPTZ in
Plattsburgh...)
A few more Canadian tidbits: CHUM's Ottawa radio
cluster is losing its VP/GM, as Mark Maheu heads east to
Halifax to become VP/COO of NewCap's radio group.
In Peterborough, King's Kids Promotions Outreach
Ministries applies for a 50-watt signal on 88.7, to
program contemporary Christian music.
In Toronto, CJRT (Jazz 91.1) shuffles its jock
lineup, welcoming CJEZ veteran Tish Iceton for mornings.
She's now followed by Terry McElligott in middays and
Larry Green in afternoons.
And on the DTV front, Global applies for a Toronto
digital signal on channel 65. It would join several
other Toronto DTVs recently approved by the CRTC:
CITS-DT Hamilton on channel 35, instead of the channel
21 it requested; CTV's CFTO-DT on channel 40; Toronto
One's CKXT-DT on channel 66 in Toronto and 15 in
Hamilton; and the CBC's CBLT-DT 20 and CBLFT-DT 24.
*That's it for another week...except for our usual
housekeeping notes. First, a reminder that while we
don't ask you for a password to read NERW, this isn't a
free product, either. Many of you have already sent in
subscription payments for 2004, and to all of you we say
"thank you." If you haven't, what are you waiting for?
Your contribution - of any amount - makes it
possible for us to keep NERW, now in its tenth year,
coming to you week after week after week...and if you
sign up at the $60 level, you even get a
free 2004 Tower Site Calendar. For all the
details - and easy credit card/PayPal payment links -
just click
here.
If you haven't seen it yet, don't miss our roundup of
all the news that was fit to remember from last year...
Click
here for our 2003 Year in Review package!
 *And if you still haven't ordered one,
we still have plenty of 2004 Tower Site
Calendars still available for your enjoyment!
Just as in past years, the calendar features a dozen
spiffy 8.5-by-11 inch full-color images of tower sites
from across the nation - everything from Washington's
WTEM to New York's WCBS/WFAN (shown at left) to Los
Angeles' KHJ to WCTM in Eaton, Ohio.
Other featured sites include Cedar Hill in Dallas,
Lookout Mountain above Denver, CKLW Windsor, WELI New
Haven, WPTF Raleigh NC, WBT Charlotte NC, WAJR
Morgantown WV, WMT Cedar Rapids IA and the mighty 12
towers of KFXR (the old KLIF 1190) in Dallas.
Unlike last year, this year's calendar features
heavier paper (no more curling!) and will be shipped
shrink-wrapped on a cardboard backing to make sure it
arrives in pristine condition.
All orders received by January 31 have
now been shipped, so if you've already ordered, you
should be enjoying your calendar any day now. (And if
you ordered before January 10 and haven't received your
calendar yet, please let us know!)
If you haven't ordered yet, what are you waiting for?
It's too late for Christmas gift-giving - but perhaps
you still need a calendar for 2004...or maybe you didn't
find one under the tree, despite all those hints you
dropped.
So order now and help support NERW and Tower Site of
the Week. Better yet, place your subscription for 2004
at the $60 level by using the handy buttons below, and
you'll get your 2004 Tower Site Calendar absolutely
FREE. What more could you want? (Local news on the
weekends, maybe?)
Don't want to order by credit card? You know the
drill by now - make those checks payable to "Scott
Fybush," be sure to include sales tax ($1.32 per
calendar) for New York state calendar orders, and send
them along to 92 Bonnie Brae Avenue, Rochester NY 14618.
(Sorry - we can't take orders by phone.)
Thanks for your support!
NorthEast Radio Watch is made possible by
the generous contributions of our regular readers. If
you enjoy NERW, please click here to
learn how you can help make continued publication
possible. NERW is copyright
2003 by Scott
Fybush. |