November 6, 2006
DePetro Out at Boston's WRKO
TOWER SITE CALENDAR 2007 - NOW SHIPPING!!!
|
It's that time of year
again...
...when we ask for your subscription
support as we head towards a new year of NERW.
NorthEast Radio Watch is part of an
ever-shrinking breed of radio industry websites open to anyone
without a password or a mandatory payment.
Here at NERW, we still believe that
it's not an especially efficient use of our time to be issuing
passwords and renewal reminders. We'd rather be out there taking
pictures of towers and twirling the dials to bring you actual
news about radio and television across the northeast U.S. and
eastern Canada, just as we've been doing, week in and week out,
for over a dozen years now.
There's a catch, though, and here it
is - even if there's no mandatory subscription fee, that doesn't
mean that NERW comes to you each week free of charge. We ask
you each year to do your part by making a voluntary contribution
to help keep NERW coming. So far, the system has worked. Many
of you support NERW each year, and for that, we're grateful.
But there are still many more of you
who don't, and at some point, we're going to have some tough
decisions to make about how to keep the bills paid and the NERW-mobile
gassed up. We still consider, from time to time, whether it's
time to put our fresh weekly content behind a password and a
fee, just to make sure there's enough money in the bank to keep
doing the column at all.
We don't want to do that, and with your
help, we can hold off that change for yet another year. Sign
up right now with PayPal and get your free 2007 Tower Site Calendar
- or visit our Support
page for more information...and thanks!
(You can help NERW in other ways, too - placing a classified
ad or a display ad, for instance, which not only reaches thousands
of influential radio and TV people in the region but also helps
support our work. Contact us for more information!)
|
Suggested NERW Subscription
Levels |
|
Student/Senior/Retired ($15) |
|
|
Individual ($30) |
|
|
Industry Professional ($60)
INCLUDES
A FREE COPY OF THE 2007 TOWER SITE CALENDAR - A $17 VALUE! |
|
|
|
*After serving a two-day suspension over
the summer for using an anti-gay slur against a MASSACHUSETTS
state official, WRKO (680 Boston) mid-morning talk host John
DePetro was probably on thin ice at the Entercom station. On
Thursday, another DePetro remark sent him crashing through that
ice, ending his career at WRKO and getting his board operator,
Jimmy Kiesling, fired as well.
 This
time, the comment concerned the Green Party candidate for governor,
Grace Ross, who DePetro referred to as a "fat lesbian"
while reviewing the previous night's televised debate.
In a prepared statement, Entercom Boston executive VP Jason
Wolfe said, "In the context of what (DePetro) said and the
tone with which he said it, the comments were completely inappropriate,
derogatory, and will not be tolerated," pretty much slamming
the door on any possibility of DePetro returning to the air.
The talk host, who came to Boston from Providence's WHJJ (920)
in 2004, says he plans to sue Entercom for wrongful dismissal,
noting that his language didn't violate any FCC content guidelines.
And there's plenty of speculation that WRKO was looking for any
excuse to send DePetro packing, given his sagging ratings and
complaints from advertisers. (What's more, the impending arrival
of Red Sox broadcasts at WRKO are giving the station a powerful
incentive to steer clear of the sort of controversy that's seemed
to follow DePetro for years.)
Evening talk host Todd Feinburg filled in on DePetro's former
9-noon shift on Friday and will do so again this week; no permanent
replacement has been named.
*Just a few more bits of Bay State news: Dana Marshall has
departed the PD chair at WXRV (92.5 Haverhill) after six years
at the station.
And Barry O'Brien, a longtime friend of NERW and veteran of
the old Radio & Records, has a new gig - his Boston-based
Barry O'Brien & Co. is now handling all advertising and sponsorship
sales for the John Bayliss Foundation, which sponsors the annual
Radio Roast and manages internship and scholarship programs for
promising college studens.
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. |
*In CONNECTICUT, the Clear Channel
cutbacks have eliminated the music director post at WWYZ (92.5
Hartford), with PD Pete Salant taking on the duties formerly
held by Evan Boyer.
 On the
TV side of things, veteran WVIT (Channel 30) anchor Joanne Nesti
is retiring at the end of the month, ending a 24-year career
at the NBC owned-and-operated station, where she's most recently
been the 11 PM anchor.
*Up in MAINE, Bangor's WVII-TV (Channel
7) is in the news again, just a few weeks after the perennial
last-place station announced it will prerecord its late newscasts.
(Wonder how that'll work on election night?)
Last week, WVII made the New York Times after a staff
member leaked an e-mail from general manager Michael Palmer that
ordered the newsroom to stop reporting on global warming until
"Bar Harbor is underwater," comparing the story to
the Y2K scare from a few years ago and complaining that a story
about the opening of Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth"
movie amounted to a commercial for the film. Palmer didn't respond
to the Times' inquiries, and a NASA scientist who talked
to the paper noted that "that the people of Maine will have
at their disposal other sources of information," though
he was perhaps unaware of just how dominant those "other
sources" are in the Bangor market when compared to WVII
and its Fox sister station, WFVX-LP (Channel 22).
*The ongoing Clear Channel cutbacks hit in
PENNSYLVANIA last week, as five people in the Philadelphia
cluster lost their jobs. The Inquirer reports that WIOQ
(102.1) APD/MD Marian Newsome-McAdam and her husband, Q102 imaging
director Franklin McAdam, are out. So are WDAS-FM (105.3) overnight
guy Jerry Wells, WUSL (98.9) public affairs host Tiffany Bacon
and WUSL newscaster Heshimu Jaramogi. The cluster's WUBA (Rumba
104.5) has hired a new PD, Juan Arroyo, a midday jock, Issa Lopez,
and an afternoon jock, Johnny Machete.
In Allentown, Mike Kelly moves from afternoons to mornings
at WAEB-FM (104.1), paired with newsperson Laura Cramer.
Across the state, the University of Pittsburgh is joining
the growing centennial celebration for radio pioneer Reginald
Fessenden. On November 11, a symposium
at the university, where Fessenden was chair of the electrical
engineering department from 1893 until 1900, will recount Fessenden's
legacy and look forward to the future of radio. (And there's
still more "Fessenden-fest" to come out in Massachusetts,
where a recreation of the inventor's legendary - and possibly
apocryphal - Christmas Eve broadcast will take place next month.)
 Up
in Sharon, Cumulus' WPIC (790) once again has a proper tower,
a year and a half after its 1947-vintage Truscon self-supporter
was demolished.
WPIC had been operating on a temporary longwire antenna at
400 watts, but it's now on from its new guyed tower, running
1300 watts by day and 58 watts at night.
Speaking of Cumulus, it's also wrapped up the transmitter
relocation work at Harrisburg-market WWKL (92.1 Palmyra), moving
from the old 3.3 kW/299' facility just outside Palmyra to a new
1.5 kW/601' facility near East Hanover, with better coverage
into Harrisburg. And while we're there, we note that the former
"Wes Shore" from WRBT (94.9) has joined Cumulus' WNNK
(104.1) as the new morning news guy, under his real name of John
Beaston. He replaces John Paul Shaffer, who's heading west for
the relaunch of KDWN (720) in Las Vegas.
*Our top stories in NEW YORK this
week are all about market concentration: in Rochester, the Justice
Department says it will allow Entercom's acquisition of the CBS
Radio cluster here (as well as the CBS Radio stations in Cincinnati,
Austin and Memphis) to move forward, provided Entercom spins
off three of the seven FM signals it will end up with. Entercom
tells the Justice Department that it plans to spin WRMM (101.3),
WZNE (94.1 Brighton) and WFKL (93.3 Fairport), which would leave
it with its existing WBEE-FM (92.5) and WBZA (98.9) as well as
CBS' WCMF (96.5) and WPXY (97.9), but the agreement allows it
to substitute alternate signals with Justice Department consent
 In the Ithaca market,
meanwhile, Saga Communications is paying Citadel $4 million for
WIII (99.9 Cortland), one of the last commercial competitors
to its four-station Ithaca cluster (news-talk WHCU 870, progressive
talk WNYY 1470, AC WYXL 97.3 and country WQNY 103.7). Saga will
sell WIII's sister station, news-talk WKRT (920 Cortland), to
Bible Broadcasting Network (which, ironically, has been trying
for quite a while now to sell its station in Rome, WYFY 1450.)
Will the community activists in Ithaca who protested what they
said was over-concentration when Saga bought its existing cluster
protest the WIII deal as well? We'd bet on it.
One more Rochester item: WROC-TV (Channel 8)/WUHF (Channel
31) news director Lee Eldridge is returning to his native Kentucky,
taking the ND chair at WAVE (Channel 3) in Louisville. No replacement
has been named yet at WROC/WUHF.
A PD move in Albany: Rob Dawes, who held that post at Clear
Channel top 40 WKKF (102.3 Ballston Spa), is the new PD at Regent's
WQBK (103.9 Rensselaer)/WQBJ (103.5 Cobleskill). Meanwhile at
Clear Channel, WGY (810 Schenectady) news director Chuck Custer
is now the station's PD as well, taking those reins from Greg
Foster, who's now in Salt Lake City at KNRS (570). Foster's duties
as PD of sports WOFX (980 Troy) and the Clear Channel Total Traffic
Network pass to operations manager John Cooper.
Also in Albany, Clarence Fanto has resigned as VP of news
and cultural affairs at WAMC-FM (90.3), as the result of a nerve
disorder that's robbing him of his night vision and making it
impossible for him to commute from his home in Lenox, Massachusetts,
45 miles away. Fanto will continue to contribute classical-music
reviews to WAMC, while news producer Katie Britton takes his
former position.
In the Hudson Valley, Jimi Jamm is no longer PD at "Kiss"
WPKF (96.1 Poughkeepsie) and "Star" WBWZ (93.3 New
Paltz), with former Kiss PD Donnie Michaels taking his old job
back (after a stint at WHYI in Miami) and WRWD (107.3 Highland)
PD/afternoon guy Aaron McCord.
It looks like the hot AC "Fox" simulcast between
WGNY-FM (103.1 Newburgh) and WTSX (96.7 Port Jervis) is over,
with the Port Jervis signal flipping to country as "Fox
Country 96.7."
Follow the bouncing call letters: With the flip of WRTN (93.5
New Rochelle) to WVIP, there are new calls at the former WVIP
(1310 Mount Kisco). It's now WRVP, only the second set of calls
the station's had in nearly 50 years on the air, with "RV"
standing for current owner Radio Vision Cristiana, which also
owns WWRV (1330 New York) and the powerful RVC (530) in the Turks
and Caicos Islands.
Here's a new title, courtesy of the Clear Channel cluster
in New York: "Online PD." Zena Burns, formerly with
Teen People magazine, will be the first holder of that
title, overseeing the websites of the company's five New York
City stations and WALK-FM (97.5) on Long Island.
|
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!)
November 7, 2005 -
- The first week of November brought plenty of news from PENNSYLVANIA
- none of it bigger than the $1.2 billion sale of Susquehanna
Radio to Cumulus Media Partners, a partnership of Cumulus Media
and three investment firms. In our region, the sale affects only
the Susquehanna group in York - talker WSBA (910 York), AC WARM-FM
(103.3 York), oldies WSOX (96.1 Red Lion) and silent WGLD (1440
Red Lion) - but it also closes a long, proud history of a group
(owned by Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff, perhaps better known for its
dishware) that grew from a handful of central Pennsylvania stations
to a nationwide cluster with major outlets in San Francisco,
Dallas, Atlanta and elsewhere.
- Across the state, adult hits came to Pittsburgh Tuesday when
Steel City Media dumped the lagging classic rock format on WRRK
(96.9 Braddock) in favor of "96.9 Bob FM." The station
is running jockless for now - even in mornings, previously occupied
by the syndicated Bob & Tom show.
- It's technically a NEW JERSEY story, but the move of WTTM
(1680 Princeton) to its new home in Lindenwold, which was being
completed over the weekend, is really all about Philadelphia
and its radio listeners. WTTM spent much of last week playing
country music from its old tower site near Pennington, N.J. (lovingly
automated by chief engineer Neal Newman) while getting the new
Lindenwold facility ready to go on the air. NERW hears that Multicultural
Broadcasting will begin running Spanish-language programming
on WTTM once the move is finished.
- And speaking of Pennington, some sad news to report: that's
where Julian Breen lived, and we were as stunned as everyone
else in the business at the news of Breen's death last week.
Breen was the APD/MD at WABC during some of its most successful
years, from 1968-1971. From there, he became PD at KYA in San
Francisco before returning to the East Coast to become vice president
of Greater Media. He's credited with creating the "Magic"
format at WMGK (102.9 Philadelphia) and WMGQ (98.3 New Brunswick).
More recently, Breen was one of the go-to guys for ratings analysis,
through his Supertrends (later Breen Broadcast) consultancy.
Julian Breen died Oct. 29 of pancreatic cancer; he was just 63.
- Big changes at CONNECTICUT's WEZN (99.9 Bridgeport) - "Star
99.9" morning man John Harper was abruptly ousted from his
wakeup slot last week, after more than a decade at the station.
His replacement is former WVIT/WTIC-TV sportscaster Tony Terzi,
son of Hartford TV veteran Al Terzi. Terzi joins newscaster Marit
Price (who just joined Star in July) and traffic reporter Tommy
Edison. Meanwhile, Star has officially hired former WQSX ("Star
93.7") jock Mike McGowan for afternoons; McGowan has a long
history in Connecticut, albeit in the Hartford market, and he'd
been doing the afternoon slot on WEZN on an interim basis.
November 5, 2001 -
- We told you last week about the fate of the Tele-Media stations
that were spun off to Ed Levine's Galaxy, with WKLI (94.5 Ravena)
becoming "94 Rock" and WABY (1400 Albany) being prepped
for sale; we can add this week that Levine's other new purchase,
WHTR (93.5 Corinth) is off the air with transmitter problems
unrelated to its proposed move to 93.7 in Scotia. This week,
the attention shifts to the stations Tele-Media sold to Pamal
Broadcasting: while WKBE (100.3 Warrensburg) keeps running automated
with the "Point" hot AC format for the Glens Falls
area, WCPT (100.9 Albany) ended its stunt simulcast with CHR
WFLY (92.3 Troy) at 4 PM Friday (Nov. 2) to go standards as "Magic."
- New call alert: As Univision prepares to relaunch the former
USA Broadcasting stations with its new Telefutura network, it
has new calls lined up as well. In New York, WHSE-TV (Channel
68 Newark N.J.), whose antenna is now the very highest point
in the city (at the top of the Empire mast), becomes WFUT(TV),
while Long Island's WHSI (Channel 67 Smithtown) becomes WFTY,
calls last seen in Washington, D.C. on what's now WBDC (Channel
50).
- Infinity's consolidation is hitting home in MASSACHUSETTS,
where John Morgan exits as PD of WODS (103.3 Boston) after just
over three years at "Oldies 103." His duties get added
to the plate of Greg Strassell, who'll be doing some running
across the parking lot from WBMX (98.5 Boston) next door, where
he's VP of programming.
- One MAINE note: Citadel has reclaimed the WCLZ call for 98.9
in Brunswick, ex-WTPN. The station has been edging its way back
to the AAA format it used to run in its first stint as WCLZ through
much of the nineties, but it's keeping the "Point"
nickname that went with the WTPN calls. "WCLZ" had
been picked up by former 98.9 owner J.J. Jeffrey for his 95.5
in Topsham, but that station flipped to WJJB-FM a few months
back.
- From the Pittsburgh market, Sheridan's WAMO-FM (106.7 Beaver
Falls) will soon have a better signal in the Steel City, a few
years after Sheridan traded the grandfathered superpower WAMO-FM
signal on 105.9 to Chancellor (it's now WXDX) for cash and the
106.7 facility 35 miles out of town. Here's how it works out:
WAMO-FM will move its 106.7 signal from Beaver Falls to Wexford,
running 38 kW at 568 feet from a new tower where I-79 meets Wexford
Bayne Road just south of the Turnpike. WAMO-FM's simulcast, WSSZ
(107.1 Greensburg), will move from its current site west of Greensburg
way out to a new site south of Latrobe, just off route 217 north
of US 30, where it will run 4300 watts from 305 feet AAT, with
a directional antenna. And religious WRIJ (106.9 Masontown) will
move its tower south across the West Virginia border, where it
will run 980 watts from 810 feet AAT from the same ridge where
West Virginia Public Television's WNPB-TV (Channel 24 Morgantown)
broadcasts.
New England Radio Watch, November 7, 1996
- Up in Portland, Maine, "The Ocean
97.9" is a thing of the past. Fuller-Jeffrey's hot AC WCSO
began moving towards a CHR format at the start of the month.
It's now going by "The New Q 97-dot-9," and new calls
are expected any day now. This fills a major format gap in Portland,
where until now the only CHR has been little WRED (95.9) from
Saco.
- The 103.7 signal from Mount Washington
is back on the air, but it's not WZPK anymore. As predicted,
the Berlin, NH-licensed outlet is now simulcasting country WOKQ
(97.5) from Dover, NH, using the "WPKQ" calls. The
top-hour ID on WOKQ/WPKQ now mentions both stations, as well
as WOKQ's 97.9 translator in Manchester, NH.
You
can sponsor this new weekly feature! Click here for information! |
*It's here! As seen in the St.
Paul Pioneer Press, the Omaha
World-Herald and the Chicago
Sun-Times, Tower Site Calendar 2007 is now shipping!
 This year's edition
features what we think are the finest tower images yet - from
the cover image of WCCO Minneapolis all the way to the back-cover
centerfold of WBZ in Boston, and from KGO San Francisco to KOIL
Omaha to Philadelphia's famed Roxborough tower farm, captured
in a dramatic dusk shot with the lights all aglow.
This sixth annual edition once again contains plenty of historic
dates from radio and television history in the Northeast and
beyond, and as always, it comes to you shrink-wrapped and shipped
first class mail for safe arrival.
You can even get your 2007 calendar free with
your new or renewal subscription
to NERW at the $60 level.
Visit the Fybush.com
Store and place your order today - and be among the first
to get the Tower Site Calendar 2007!
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. |