May 22, 2006
WBAB Fights STL Hijackers
*It's been an interesting week for WBAB (102.3)
in Babylon, NEW YORK. First there was the flap over a
morning-show comedy bit that we reported in our last issue, and
now the station's engineers are chasing a technically-adept prankster
who interrupted the station's "Roger and JP" morning
show last Wednesday by overriding the station's studio-to-transmitter
link.
 For about 90 seconds,
the pirate operator broadcast a rap song filled with racial slurs
- and because the station's transmitter control was also handled
over the STL link, engineers weren't immediately able to turn
off the transmitter and silence the unauthorized broadcast. (Initial
reports said the interrupting signal was also heard over simulcast
WHFM 95.3 on Long Island's east end, but we haven't been able
to confirm that.)
"Clearly, someone has a bone to pick with WBAB, and understands
the broadcast business well enough, to know how to hack into
our signal, and has access to this equipment and obviously was
able to gain access to our broadcast," said a statement
from the station, which offered a $10,000 reward for information
leading to a conviction of the pirate.
(NERW notes: there's a long history of engineering pranks
and practical jokes among Long Island engineers; this, however,
seems to go more than a little beyond the bounds of good, clean
fun. It also seems to have required a fairly specialized knowledge
of radio engineering, which makes for a relatively small pool
of potential suspects.)
|
STILL HERE - BUT NOT FOR FREE:
If you're a fan of the
national radio message-board sites, you're probably feeling a
little disoriented lately by all the changes they're going through.
(We are, too.)
Here at NERW, we're now in our
twelfth year of regular, uninterrupted service to our readers,
and we're not going anywhere. Same address, same weekly columns,
same old design. (OK, perhaps a few things could use some freshening
this year.)
And if we've learned anything
after all those years in the radio website business, it's this:
good things don't come for free. Or at least when
they do, they don't last forever. But thanks to our loyal subscribers
and our growing fleet of advertisers, we've built a solid community
here. We were here in 1994, we're here in 2006, and assuming
there's still a radio dial to cover, we have every intention
- with your support - of still being here in 2018. (I wish I
could say the same about my hairline.)
If you still haven't subscribed
yet for this year, do it right now at our Support
page - and enjoy another exciting year of NERW, guilt-
(and password-) free. And if you have become one of our
many subscribers, thank you! |
*New York's WWPR (Power 105.1) has named Tigger and Egypt
as its new morning team, replacing the now-disgraced Troi "Star"
Torain. The "Tigger and Egypt" show is also being heard
on WUSL (98.9 Philadelphia) and WPHH (104.1 Waterbury-Hartford),
and appears to be the permanent replacement for Star and Buc
Wild on the former, at least.
Over at WNEW (Mix 102.7), former WCBS-FM jock Bobby Jay is
joining the airstaff, at least for the "Legends of Dance"
special that the station is running Memorial Day weekend. (He'll
be joining an all-star cast of New York veterans including Howard
Hoffman, Paco, Sue O'Neal, Ray Rossi and Freddie Colon.)
In Binghamton, we've been remiss in not making note of the
community media activists who have filed petitions against the
renewals of the Clear Channel and Citadel stations that dominate
the revenue picture. William Huston, founder of the Greater Binghamton
Progressive Media Center and the Binghamton Independent Media
Center, is leading the drive. The petitions argue that "profit-seeking
in mass-media is toxic to individuals, harmful to society, and
destructive of democracy," charging that both groups have
failed to provide significant local news and other local programming
to Binghamton listeners.
(You can read the petitions at the Binghamton
Progressive Media Center website.)
Huston acknowledges that the petitions are unlikely to stop
the stations' renewals - and indeed, given the FCC's current
deregulatory stance, there's almost nothing that a station can
do, programming-wise, that would lead to its license being pulled.
But he says the petition is meant to "engage the FCC, the
corporate licensees, and the community in a dialog on the issues
at stake," and it's worth reading at least for that.
Veteran Ithaca radio personality Tom "T.J." Joseph
died May 14. Joseph, 63, came to WHCU (870) way back in 1962,
and worked his way up to operations director at the station before
his retirement last year.
Here in Rochester, Dave Symonds is departing Entercom's WBZA
(98.9 the Buzz) and its sister stations, trading his operations
manager role here for a new gig as PD of Entercom's KALC (Alice
105.9) in Denver. Best of luck to Dave at his new high-altitude
gig - and speaking of the Buzz, it's the (temporary) new home
of the Buffalo Sabres in the Rochester market, as the team's
high profile charge towards the Stanley Cup lands it a bigger
signal than its usual home in town, Entercom's WROC (950 Rochester).
 On the TV side of
things, the new CW network signed two more affiliates in the
Empire State this week. In Elmira, it'll be seen on a subchannel
of WENY-DT (Channel 55), while in Watertown, the CW will show
up on a subchannel of WWTI-DT (Channel 21). WWTI is a Clear Channel
station; so is WTTX-CA (Channel 30) in Elmira, the current UPN
affiliate that will be left without a network when UPN folds
this fall. (My Network TV lands on new WJKP-LP in the market,
and it's not clear what becomes of WTTX now.)
You
can have your ad here! Click here for information on the
most economical way to reach tens of thousands of Northeast radio
and TV people each week. |
*Clear Channel is adding to its holdings
in western MASSACHUSETTS, acquiring WRNX (100.9 Amherst)
from Pamal in a trade for several yet-to-be-named stations elsewhere
in New England.
Pamal was left as a single-station operator in the Springfield
market after its deal to buy WBEC-FM (105.5) from Vox fell through
last year. The spinoff of adult alternative WRNX will give Clear
Channel a fifth station in the market, adding to its existing
cluster of news-talk WHYN (560 Springfield), sports WNNZ (640
Westfield), hot AC WHYN-FM (93.1 Springfield) and country WPKX
(97.9 Enfield CT).
What will Pamal end up with in exchange?
It's widely believed that the other end of the deal will be up
in VERMONT, where Clear Channel's small holdings in the
Rutland-Randolph area are in competition with Pamal's WJEN/WJJR.
 Meanwhile at the
other end of the Bay State, Steve Silberberg's WXRV (92.5 Haverhill)
got the FCC go-ahead late last week to change its city of license
to Andover. As a grandfathered allotment dating back to before
the current FM spacing rules were adopted in 1964, WXRV has no
spacing restrictions against second-adjacent WBOS (92.9 Brookline)
- but any moves it makes cannot increase its current interference
to fellow grandfathered stations WPRO-FM (92.3 Providence) or
WWYZ (92.5 Waterbury CT), so its ability to move closer to Boston
is still somewhat restricted. Stay tuned; we'll be keeping an
eye on this one.
After 11 years at WJMN (94.5 Boston), most recently as producer
of the station's morning show, Mike "Big Daddy" Morgan
has parted ways with the station.
And down on the South Coast, WSMU (91.1 Dartmouth) is telling
its listeners to get ready to change frequencies. It plans to
put its new 89.3 signal on the air in June, after which 91.1
(with the calls WUMD, for now) will be sold to a religious broadcaster.
There aren't many Boston viewers who even know about the city's
Channel 62, WMFP. Licensed to Lawrence but transmitting from
downtown Boston, WMFP has been an owned-and-operated outlet of
Scripps' Shop At Home network for the last few years. Now Shop
At Home is shutting down next month, and that means WMFP will
be looking for new programming (and may well be put up for sale.)
*In CONNECTICUT, the Shop At Home
shutdown leaves another station stranded - WSAH (Channel 43)
in Bridgeport is the region's other SAH owned-and-operated station,
and we'll be watching to see what replaces the home shopping
on that facility, too.
Nutmeg State native Paul Walker has a new gig - he's now in
North Dakota, holding down mornings at KYYZ (96.1 Williston).
*One bit of TV news from MAINE: The
CW will reach Bangor viewers on a subchannel of WABI-DT (Channel
19).
 *Several
new stations are primed to take air in eastern CANADA.
In Halifax, tests are now underway at Evanov's new CKHZ (Z103.5),
which will have a rhythmic top 40 format when it signs on officially
next month, and we're hearing tests are underway also at the
new CHNS-FM (89.9), which will replace CHNS (960) later this
year. And CFCY (630 Charlottetown PEI) says it will complete
its move to FM, at 95.1, by July.
*In northern NEW JERSEY, Salem's WWDJ
(970 Hackensack) is applying for a power increase. As part of
a coordinated interference agreement with WAMD (970 Aberdeen
MD), which will reduce its power, WWDJ wants to boost day power
from 5 kW to 50 kW, providing more solid coverage of New York
City from its existing three-tower array in Hackensack. Night
power would remain at 5 kW.
Down in Camden, Beasley's WTMR (800) gets a $4,000 fine from
the FCC for failing to drop power from its daytime 5 kW to its
nighttime 500 watts on several occasions last July.
*In PENNSYLVANIA, Fox's My Network
TV has landed a Philadelphia affiliate. Tribune's WPHL (Channel
17) loses its WB affiliation in September, and the CW is going
to CBS' WPSG (Channel 57), but now you can mark down "My
17" for Philadelphia. WPHL will do "My" for the
Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York market as well, where the station
has extensive cable coverage. That market will see CW on Clear
Channel's WLYH (Channel 15), which signed up for that new network
to replace its existing UPN affiliation last week.
The CW also signed an Erie affiliate - it'll be seen there
on a subchannel of WSEE-DT (Channel 16), currently home to UPN
in that market.
Former Scranton TV anchor/news director Frank Andrews (WNEP,
WYOU) won the Democratic primary for the 113th district state
representative seat last week, furthering his move into politics.
In Pittsburgh, WBGN-LP (Channel 59) is adding local news -
sort of. It's hiring local photographers for its two-minute news
inserts, which will be seen twice an hour in prime time, but
the anchors and weathercasters for the newscasts will be based
in Davenport, Iowa at the Independent News Network.
On the edge of the Youngstown, Ohio market, Cumulus is withdrawing
its proposal to move WWIZ (103.9 Mercer) to Hermitage. Why? NERW
speculates that it has something to do with the infamous "Note
4" of the FCC's most recent ownership rule revisions, which
says that companies whose ownership in a market is grandfathered
at levels above those currently permitted cannot change the city
of license of one of those stations without forfeiting their
grandfathered status. "Note 4" came into play in the
Syracuse market last year, preventing Galaxy from moving WTKV
(105.5 Oswego) closer to Syracuse, and it's caused grief for
several other group owners lately. WWIZ is one of eight stations
Cumulus owns in the Youngstown market, and our quick review of
the current rules suggests that under current rules, it would
be allowed only seven.
There's a new webcast focusing on Philadelphia radio. "The
Radio Racket" debuted May 12, with a live broadcast Friday
nights at 10 on audio18.com
and frequent weekend rebroadcasts. It's the latest version of
what used to be "The RadioRadio Show" on WNJC and WVLT,
and like those shows, it's hosted by George Brusstar, this time
with Kyle DeWitt and Roscoe Browning on board as producers. (And
check out the show's website at www.radioracket.com,
too!)
And we close with the sad news of the death of Carl Wehde,
better known as "Long John Wade" on WFIL (560 Philadelphia)
in the late sixties. Wehde died Monday (May 15), leaving behind
a family that includes his brother Don Wade, half of the "Don
Wade and Roma" morning team on Chicago's WLS. Wehde came
to WFIL from Hartford, where he covered the Beatles' 1964 tour,
and later worked at WIBG. He was also an educator, operating
the American Academy of Broadcasting in Philadelphia. Wehde later
retired to Cape Cod.
|
From
the NERW Archives
(Yup, we've been doing this a long time now, and
so we're digging back into the vaults for a look at what NERW
was covering one, five and ten years ago this week, or thereabouts
- the column appeared on an erratic schedule in its earliest
years as "New England Radio Watch," and didn't go to
a regular weekly schedule until 1997. Thanks to LARadio.com
for the idea - and thanks to you, our readers, for the support
that's made all these years of NERW possible!)
May 23, 2005 -
- Just a few hours after NERW went to press last Monday, upstate
NEW YORK got its first domestic taste of the real live licensed
"Jack FM" that's been so much the rage around North
America over the last couple of years, as Infinity dumped the
talk format on WBUF (92.9 Buffalo) and flipped the station to
"92.9 Jack FM." This is a slightly unusual Jack, since
it keeps one element of the old talk format from WBUF, retaining
Howard Stern in morning drive (at least until the end of the
year, when Stern's show leaves terrestrial radio) before segueing
into the "Playing What We Want" format that alert Buffalo
listeners may already have sampled via nearby CJAQ (92.5 Toronto).
- In Corning, WCBA-FM (98.7) and WGMM (97.7 Big Flats) have
applied to swap callsigns, which we suspect means an eventual
format swap, too, with WGMM's oldies going to 98.7 and WCBA's
standards to 97.7.
- Down the shore in NEW JERSEY, Press Communications is asking
the FCC to allow it to move WKOE (106.3 Ocean City) to Bass River
Township, in Burlington County north of Atlantic City. If granted,
the move would shift WKOE from 106.3 to 106.5, though it would
remain a class A signal. The new WKOE signal at 106.5, which
would really be more of an Ocean County signal, would overlap
sister "Breeze" soft AC station WBHX (99.7 Tuckerton),
which would then free up one or the other of those signals to
take on a new format.
- In PENNSYLVANIA, Greater Media's WPEN (950 Philadelphia)
is one step closer to a better night signal. Last week, the FCC
granted its application to move its night transmitter from the
current 5000-watt, three-tower facility in southwest Philadelphia
to the five towers of WWDB (860 Philadelphia) on Germantown Pike
in Montgomery County. The new 21 kW night signal could be on
the air within a few months; since WWDB is strictly a daytimer
and WPEN will use the facility only after dark, there will be
no need to build complicated diplexing filters at the site. WPEN
is still pursuing plans to build a six-tower, 50,000-watt daytime
facility at another Montgomery County location.
- And in MAINE, WGAN (560 Portland) is looking for a new news
and program director as Doug Tribou departs after six years in
the job; he's now in Boston as PD of soon-to-launch "ESPN
Radio 890/1400" (WAMG Dedham/WLLH Lowell). Tribou also handled
programming for Saga sister stations WZAN (970 Portland), WBAE
(1490 Portland) and WVAE (1400 Biddeford.)
May 21, 2001 -
- A religious discrimination dispute has a Rochester DJ set
to fight her former employer in court. Alicia King McBride filed
a complaint against Entercom after being fired from her job doing
production and fill-in ir work at WBEE-FM (92.5), WBBF (93.3/950)
and WBZA (98.9). McBride tells NERW the problems began when she
sent a memo to co-workers looking for someone to fill a shift
she was scheduled to work on the first night of Chanukah last
December. Another jock sent a note back to her, in what she says
was an anti-Semitic tone, accusing her of trying to bring the
holiday "up to the level of Christmas." While the initial
reaction from her supervisor was supportive, McBride's complaint
claims station management soon stopped talking to her, then fired
her on March 8. That afternoon, she was due to leave the station
early to celebrate the first night of Purim with her daughter.
- Elsewhere in NEW YORK, the end came quietly for the English-language
standards format on Long Island's WLIM (1580) Friday night. The
station signed off at 10 PM after an hour-long farewell show
to mark the transfer of ownership from Jack Ellsworth to Polnet.
(The folks at the Long Island Radio History page have a nice
batch of pictures from the final night, should you be curious.)
Polnet's ethnic programming is expected to debut later this week
on 1580, which is dark for the moment.
- Back home in Western New York, we're saddened to report the
death of a 62-year veteran of the Buffalo and Rochester airwaves.
Ed Little's resume included stints at WKBW, WBBF and WBEN; he
retired last year from WBEN on the same day the station left
its longtime Elmwood Avenue studios (his was the last voice heard
from the old location). Little had been hospitalized since suffering
kidney failure in February; he was 78 when he died last Wednesday
(May 16). Two days later came word of another death: veteran
WOKR (Channel 13) Rochester anchor Dick Burt succumbed to a heart
attack while on vacation on Cape Cod. Burt began at WOKR when
the station signed on in 1962, and for many years was paired
with Dick Alhart as one of the Flower City's best-known anchor
teams. Burt retired from WOKR in 1987. He was 75.
- Finally this week, best wishes to Glen Jones of WFMU (91.1
East Orange), who'll spend next weekend trying to break the 73
hour, 33 minute record for longest DJ shift ever. Jones will
begin broadcasting on WFMU at 9:00 Friday morning (May 25), and
he'll stay awake and on the air at least until 10:33 AM the following
Monday, including his usual Sunday noon-3 shift.
New England Radio Watch, May 21, 1996
-
- Radio Equity Partners, parent company
of WHYN AM-FM Springfield MA and WWBB-FM Providence RI/WWRX-FM
Westerly-Providence, has been sold to Clear Channel Broadcasting
for $235 million. Both are new markets for Clear Channel, whose
only other New England operation is WELI(AM)/WKCI-FM/WAVZ(AM)
in the New Haven market. NERW wonders how this will affect Clear
Channel's planned purchase of WPRI-TV Providence from CBS...
- A few formats get cleared up: Our spies
in northern New England tell me WVFM 105.7 Campton NH is on the
air, simulcasting oldies WLKZ 104.9 down in Wolfeboro for now.
And WRDX (ex-WRGW) 98.7 Somersworth NH, on the seacoast, is again
running AC, after a brief stint as standards "Radio Deluxe."
Meantime in Rhode Island, the smooth jazz is dead on WOTB 100.3
Middletown-Newport. New owner Philip Urso is now using the station
to simulcast his modern-rock WDGE 99.7 Wakefield-Peace Dale,
"the Edge." There's a lot of overlap between those
two signals in southern Rhode Island. The only remaining smooth-jazz
outlet in the area now is WPLM-FM 99.1 Plymouth MA, which mostly
runs SW Smooth FM, as does WKCD 107.7 Pawcatuck CT, which gets
into some of the more remote parts of the former WOTB listening
area on the seacoast.
- WAMC swallows another one: The ever-growing
WAMC Northeast Public Radio Network, based in Albany NY, has
acquired another outlet which can be heard in New England. Control
of WCFE-FM 91.9 Plattsburgh NY, which also serves the Burlington
VT area, is being transferred from the Mountain Lakes Public
Telecommunications Council (licensee of WCFE-TV 57 in Plattsburgh)
to WAMC, and 91.9 will presumably become part of the WAMC network,
allowing travelers to hear WAMC from the Canadian border pretty
much all the way down to the northern New York City suburbs.
Thanks to the main WAMC 90.3 transmitter on Mount Greylock in
Adams MA, the station can already be heard from central Massachusetts
most of the way to Utica NY.
You
can sponsor this new weekly feature! Click here for information! |
*Didn't find a Tower Site Calendar
2006 under the tree/menorah/Blaw-Knox diamond tower model
of your choice over the holidays? Our supply is running low,
but we have a few still available at special clearance
prices!
 We've got to say,
we're especially proud of the way this year's calendar turned
out. Once again, we bring you more than a dozen images from the
fybush.com collection that have never seen print before, including
that nifty nighttime view of New York's WMCA that graces the
cover. You also get to see WSB, KTAR, Mount Wilson, CBV and many,
many more, plus all those fun dates in radio and TV history,
civil and religious holidays, a handy full-page 2007 calendar,
and the always-popular hole for hanging.
And we do it all with no increase in price, for the fourth
year running!
You can get one free with your 2006 subscription
to NERW at the $60 level, or order the calendar (plus other goodies)
at our brand new fybush.com
Store! We think you'll like this one - and as always,
we thank you 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
2006 by Scott Fybush. |
