|
June 23, 2003
Springtime is Revolving-Door Time
By SCOTT FYBUSH
*Nobody ever said working in
radio was a stable career path - but last week was a particularly
treacherous one for radio people all over NERW-land.
 We'll start in NEW
YORK, where WCBS-FM (101.1) broke even more dramatically
from its long run as "WABC, Continued" - by parting
ways with Dan Ingram. The WABC veteran had spent the last 12
years doing weekends on WCBS-FM - but when CBS-FM PD Joe McCoy
came to him and asked him to give up the Saturday half of his
shift to fellow WABC vet Dan Daniel, Ingram said no, and CBS-FM
said "sayonara."
 But if Ingram's crying in his
"Tri-Fi Drums," he'll have plenty of company this week.
Out on Long Island, talker WLIE (540 Islip) had some cost-cutting
to do as well, axing Lynn Samuels from its weekend schedule -
and, says Samuels on her Web site - cutting morning news anchor
Tracy Burgess and midday talk host John Gomez from its schedule
as well.
But wait - there's more. Over at Barnstable Broadcasting's
Long Island cluster, operations manager Bill George was shown
the door amidst a staff shuffle that moved Bill Edwards (longtime
PD of WALK) from afternoons on WLVG (96.1 Center Moriches) to
PD/afternoons on "K-JOY" WKJY (98.3 Hempstead), replacing
Scott Miller - who heads out to WLVG for afternoons.
Still more? If you're a fan of shock talk radio, there is:
WABC (770) pulled Michael Savage's Talk Radio Network show off
its evening schedule, apparently as part of a dispute between
Savage and ABC that began when ABC's KSFO (560 San Francisco)
declined to meet Savage's contract renewal demands. Weekend guy
Mark Levin is filling in on WABC's evening shift.
Up here in Rochester, we hear morning team Karlson & McKenzie
cleaned out their desks at Infinity's WZNE (94.1 Brighton) on
Friday; all mention of them has been purged from "The Zone"'s
Web site, and you won't find any mention of WZNE on K&M's
site, either. Could this have something to do with the noises
the boys were making in the trades about syndicating their show?
Stay tuned... (and yes, Boston readers - same Karlson & McKenzie
who were on WEGQ for a little while in the nineties.)
Speaking of Rochester, WWWG (1460) has applied for new call
letters when it flips to Catholic religious programming in a
week or so. "WHIC" will be the new calls, and we've
got to wonder whether that isn't a backhanded homage to the station's
first 47 years on the air as WHEC...
No official filings yet, but we hear WAWA-LP (Channel 14)
in Syracuse will become WSTQ-LP when NBC affiliate WSTM (Channel
3) takes over operation of the UPN affiliate next month.
Up in the Adirondacks, WYZY (106.3 Saranac Lake) files for
a license to cover for its big upgrade; it's now a 50kw C3.
The Roser "Bug" stations in the Mohawk Valley (WBGK
99.7 Newport Village, WBUG-FM 101.1 Fort Plain, WBUG 1570 Amsterdam)
are still in a bit of trouble with the FCC. They were assessed
$11,000 last year for failing to have fully operational EAS equipment
between December 2001 and March 2002; last week, the FCC declined
to rescind the Notice of Apparent Liability but did agree to
lower the amount to $8,800 in light of Roser's good record with
the Commission.
 And we can now explain what's
going on with the "Jukebox Radio" primary outlet in
the Catskills, WJUX (99.7 Monticello) - and how one of the longest-running
controversies in Northeast radio is about to come to a quiet
close.
As we've reported in NERW, WJUX has continued the same automated
music and infomercials that it was running when it was also being
heard on W232AL (94.3 Pomona) in Rockland County and W276AQ (103.1
Fort Lee) in Bergen County, NEW JERSEY
- complete with triple IDs and Bergen County ads.
Now WJUX is about to be sold by Wesley Weis' Mountaintop Media
- and the buyer is the Bridgelight Corporation, the Calvary Church-connected
religious broadcaster that recently bought the two translators
from Gerry Turro. Bridgelight is applying to make WJUX a noncommercial
license, as a satellite of its WRDR (89.7 Freehold NJ).
Once that change is made, of course, there will be no problem
at all with the two translators relaying WJUX, no matter how
they get the programming. (You'll recall that under Turro, the
translators came under fire from competitors for allegedly being
operated under common management with primary WJUX, along with
allegations that they were not receiving the Monticello signal
over the air.)
And Bridgelight will have a religious network that stretches
from Monmouth County, N.J., all the way north to the Catskills.
*In PENNSYLVANIA, the revolving door
catches Joan Jones, who exits the morning show at WBEB (101.1
Philadelphia) after nine years.
 Over in Pittsburgh, Bob Kmetz
is leaving KDKA (1020) after 31 years - and not necessarily of
his own volition. Kmetz has been doing the afternoon news shift
at KDKA; no word on who'll replace him. Down the hall at KDKA-TV
(Channel 2), meanwhile, there's a new logo on the air, very similar
to the CBS 2 logos at WBBM-TV Chicago and KCBS-TV Los Angeles;
the old Westinghouse angular font is now down to just a handful
of remaining radio stations - KDKA, KYW (1060 Philadelphia) and
WINS (1010 New York) - and Baltimore's WJZ (Channel 13).
And we heard WMVL (101.7 Lineville) back on the air as we
headed home from a trip through Pennsylvania and Ohio last week.
The former WVCC is now running satellite oldies as "Cool
101.7," targeting the Meadville area south of Erie.
 *Big doings
in CANADA: Rogers is moving the "Mad Dog and Billie"
morning show, last heard on CISS (92.5 Toronto) when it was still
"Kiss," up the dial to CHFI (98.1), which gets a slightly
harder musical edge as well.
And yes, that means more personnel changes: CHFI's morning
team of Bob Magee and Erin Davis splits up, with Magee (who did
the CHFI show solo last week) moving over to CISS under its new
"Jack" identity and Davis being shown the door. On
her Weblog, Davis says she's taking some time off and visiting
family in British Columbia while figuring out what to do next.
Another former "Kiss" jock, "Tarzan Dan"
Freeman, surfaces up the dial at CHUM-FM (104.5 Toronto), where
he was on the air last Friday night. Meanwhile, Milkman Unlimited reports
that CHUM has fired longtime news director (and nice guy) Brian
Thomas; more on this shakeup next week!
Over in Cambridge, CIZN (92.9) is testing its new 107.5 transmitter
with snippets of classic rock; this one shows up in the Industry
Canada database with new calls "CJDV," but is announcing
"CIZN," so we'll see what the real ID turns out to
be when the station makes its move.
 *Too
often, a change in ownership at a radio station can lead to a
change in staff as well, and that's what happened at WGCH (1490)
in Greenwich, CONNECTICUT when Business Talk Radio took
over last Wednesday.
BTR is moving its network headquarters to the WGCH studios
at 1490 Dayton Avenue, and when that happens, three WGCH staffers
won't be there to welcome it. Out the door are GM Peter Mutino,
PD Don Russell (a WGCH veteran who also hosted the station's
10 AM to noon talk show) and afternoon talk host Amy Beth Arkawy.
WGCH's morning team of Jim Thompson and Dima Joseph stays put.
*In RHODE ISLAND, translator W243AI
(96.5 Newport) is changing hands, due to the death of owner George
Ferguson. Boston engineer David Maxson is buying the translator
from Ferguson's estate; no word on what Maxson has in store for
it, though we seem to recall that he was once CE at WCRB (102.5
Waltham), which W243AI relays.
*A "Where Aren't They Now?"
in MASSACHUSETTS: Brian Whittemore, who spent more than
a decade in Boston radio as news/programming director (and your
editor's first big-market boss) at WBZ (1030), lost his job as
general manager of WCCO (830 Minneapolis) last week when Infinity
consolidated management at its Twin Cities cluster. No word on
what Whittemore, a native of upstate New York, will be doing
next...
*In NEW HAMPSHIRE, WMOU (1230 Berlin)
changes hands from Arnold P. Hansen Jr. to Steven Griffin.
*And in VERMONT, say goodbye to W220AY
(91.9 Brattleboro); Moody Bible Institute asked the FCC to delete
the CP for the religious translator.
 Need some good news
after all that? Us, too. So we're happy to report that Stan Coning
- you remember Stan from our Tower
Site of the Week profile of his WCTM (1130 Eaton OH) last
fall - turned 80 last Tuesday (June 17).
Stan's in good health at the moment, and he's even increased
his programming hours at his unique little beautiful-music daytimer,
adding an hour of organ music at suppertime from 5-6 PM nightly.
That's Stan's helper Grant Wadsworth (aka "John Grant"
on the air, where he's joined Stan as a WCTM program host) in
the background as Stan cuts his birthday cake in the WCTM hallway;
Grant has been helping Stan to get the station cleaned up and
all the equipment back to working order, and the station sounds
great.
We were happy (along with fellow WCTM fan Clarke Ingram) to
be able to visit Eaton again to celebrate Stan's birthday with
him and with his family members, some of whom traveled from as
far out as Pittsburgh - and we have a sneaking suspicion that
Stan just may be the oldest station owner/sole operator in the
country. In any case, we wish him many more such happy occasions!
 *Have you
ordered your Tower Site Calendar 2003 yet? That spiffy
image of the WBEN transmitter site on Grand Island is just one
of a dozen exciting images...and it's accompanied by many others
(including Providence's WHJJ; Mount Mansfield, Vermont; KOMA
in Oklahoma City; the legendary WSM, Nashville; WGN, Chicago
and many more), more dates in radio history, a convenient hole
for hanging - and we'll even make sure all the dates fall on
the right days!
This year's calendar is currently shipping! Calendars
are in stock, and orders placed now will ship within 24 hours!
And this year, you can order with your Visa, MasterCard, Discover
or American Express by using the handy link below!
Better yet, here's an incentive to make your 2003 NERW subscription
pledge: support NERW/fybush.com at the $60 level or higher, and
you'll get this lovely calendar for free! How can you
go wrong? (Click here
to visit our Support page, where you can make your NERW contribution
with a major credit card...)
You can also order by mail; just send a check for $16
per calendar (NYS residents add 8% sales tax), shipping included,
to Scott Fybush, 92 Bonnie Brae Ave., Rochester
NY 14618.
International orders: Calendars are US$18 to Canada,
US$20 to the rest of the world, postage included. Send checks/international
money orders (in US dollars) to the address above, or e-mail
for credit-card ordering information.
*The twelfth edition of the M
Street Radio Directory will soon go to the printer,
and we'll have a special offer for NERW readers coming within
a few weeks. Stay tuned!
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. |