September 10, 2007

Paul Sullivan, RIP

• MAINE
• NEW HAMPSHIRE
• MASSACHUSETTS
• VERMONT
• RHODE ISLAND
• CONNECTICUT
• NEW YORK
• NEW JERSEY
• PENNSYLVANIA
• CANADA
• CLASSIFIEDS
• FROM THE ARCHIVES

*Some sad news from MASSACHUSETTS just as we go to press early this Monday morning: Paul Sullivan, the former WBZ (1030) evening talk host, lost his battle with brain cancer Sunday night.

Sullivan's fight took a turn for the worse last week, when WBZ released a statement from his family saying that Sullivan was taken off medical treatment and was receiving hospice care at Saints Memorial Medical Center in Lowell.

"Paul is surrounded by his family and friends and would like everyone to know how important all the thoughts and prayers have been to him," said the statement.

That was Thursday, and now comes the word that Sullivan died with his beloved family by his side on Sunday evening, just ten weeks after he said farewell to his listeners in an emotional final show from the WBZ studios June 28.

Sullivan, 50, was a true Bay State original, a newspaper guy who came late to the radio medium, adding WLLH (1400 Lowell) to his career at the Lowell Sun in the late eighties. Sullivan began filling in for the late David Brudnoy on WBZ in the late nineties, and took over the evening shift after Brudnoy's death in 2004, replacing Brudnoy's nightly academic seminars with an earthier (and distinctively Merrimack Valley-accented) approach to talk radio.

It wasn't long afterward that Sullivan's brain cancer was diagnosed, and once again the WBZ family is mourning a good friend and talented broadcaster, lost far too young.

We here at NERW send our sympathies to Sullivan's family and his colleagues. We'll update this week's column with any information about memorial services and special WBZ programming as it becomes available. (As we write this early Monday morning, Dan Pierce is on the air filling in for Steve LeVeille, and he's talking about other topics.)

*As the soap opera that is the rest of Boston talk radio rolls on, Entercom Boston has averted one crisis, even as it's knee-deep in legal action over another.

First, the success: over the weekend, Entercom's WEEI sports network came to terms with morning talkers John Dennis and Gerry Callahan, clearing the way for them to return to the air from a month-long lockout as early as this morning, and with a five-year contract that will keep them in place at WEEI for a while to come.

We'll defer to David Scott's Scott's Shots column over at Boston Sports Media Watch for all the details on the negotiations, which he says went all the way up to Entercom CEO David Field and lasted well into the weekend. But we'll also note that Dennis and Callahan ended up in a much weaker negotiating position when their "Plan B" - a possible Nassau-run sports network hubbed at WCRB - suddenly turned into a Nassau/Entercom joint venture to put WEEI content on many Nassau stations in New England. We'd also note that WEEI was struggling to find adequate replacements for its morning team, just at a point where the station is heading into a critical programming season, what with the Patriots season underway and the Red Sox deep in the last weeks of a tight race to the playoffs.

But even if Field (and local honchos Julie Kahn and Jason Wolfe) can now relax a bit about their lineup on WEEI, the picture remains cloudy just down the hall at WRKO (680 Boston), where there's just over a week remaining until the end of Howie Carr's contract and plenty of legal action afoot to figure out where the Herald columnist and syndicated afternoon talker will land.

The rumor mill on Carr's attempt to jump to rival talker WTKK (96.9 Boston) went eerily quiet just before Labor Day, right after a couple of columns (carefully planted, perhaps, by WRKO's master PR practitioner, George Regan?) noted that Carr stood to make as much as $7 million from WTKK. And since then...radio silence, as it were, except on Carr's own show, where he's not discussing the contract issue at all.

So will Carr show up on WTKK's morning drive in a few weeks? Stay tuned...

(In the meantime, we can report one weekday schedule change at WTKK: the syndicated John and Jeff show has been replaced by Phil Hendrie's new syndicated show in the 1-5 AM slot; John and Jeff continue on weekend overnights.)

*Elsewhere on the FM dial, WXKS-FM (107.9 Medford) said farewell to its longtime home at 99 Revere Beach Parkway. Boston Radio Watch reports that "Kiss 108" signed on from its new digs across the street at 10 Cabot Road, shared with sister station WJMN (94.5 Boston), on Monday, August 27. WXKS (1430 Everett) will move its studios over to the new facility soon as well - but not with PD and morning man Raffy Contigo, who's moved on to Houston's KLOL (101.1). Afternoon jock Jose Miguel Espinal takes the PD chair at "Mega 1200/1430," reports BRW.

More Radio People on the Move: At WBOS (92.9 Brookline), George Knight moves from nights to the "All Music Morning Show," which isn't quite as true to its name now, while Dominick Lewis moves from overnights to evenings. Juliet Nuzzo, former PD of WERS (88.9 Boston), is the new music director at WUMB-FM (91.9 Boston). On Cape Cod, Kevin Redding (late of Boston's WBOS and WROR) takes the morning-drive slot at WCIB (101.9 Falmouth). And out west, Paul "Boom" Cannon has departed the PD chair at WMAS-FM (94.7 Springfield) after a decade, while Jerry Hyland has vacated the station manager's office at WVEI-FM (105.5 Easthampton) after only a year or so.

On the TV front, new WBZ-TV/WSBK GM Ed Piette didn't waste much time bringing a key colleague over from his former station, Minneapolis' WCCO-TV. Former WCCO-TV news director Jeff Kiernan is the new ND at WBZ-TV, replacing the departed Jennifer Street.

And from the obituary file: Hal Peterson, whose career at WBSM (1420 New Bedford) began in 1955 and lasted, with some interruption, until 1990, died Aug. 17 in North Carolina. Peterson came to WBSM as program director, but was perhaps best known as the host of the "Open Line" talk show. Peterson was 81.

IT'S CALENDAR TIME! Think the arrival of the new phone book is an exciting time of year? (We do, actually, with apologies to Steve Martin, but that's not the point.) Here's a really exciting spot on the calendar - in fact, it is the calendar. Yes, the 2008 Tower Site Calendar is back from the printer and ready for shipping all over the US and beyond. This year's edition is a particularly fine one, if we do say so ourselves. From the cover photo of KAST in Astoria, Oregon to the back cover shot of the Blaw-Knox diamond tower at WBNS in Columbus, this year's calendar features 14 all-new full-color shots of famous broadcast sites far and wide. There's KROQ in Los Angeles, KFBK in Sacramento, WESX in Salem, WGAN in Portland, Black Mountain in Vegas, Mount Spokane in Spokane, and many (ok, several) more. If you've been following our adventures, you know that the 2006 and 2007 editions of the calendar sold out. If you've been following postal rates and the cost of printing, you know they've both gone up. Which is to say, there's every reason to order this year's calendar right away - especially because the price will go up after September 30. Get your order in now, and you'll be able to have all this tower-calendar goodness on your wall for last year's price - just $17 with shipping and handling included. Or better yet, beat our move to mandatory subscriptions (also coming this fall) and get a free calendar with your $60 subscription to NERW for 2008. (Remember, the proceeds from both the calendar and the subscriptions help keep NERW right here on the web, as we head into our fourteenth year of news and analysis.) So click right here and you can be one of the first to have your very own Tower Site Calendar 2008! (And thank you!)

*We knew the newly-freed Buddy Cianci was returning to the RHODE ISLAND airwaves on Citadel's WPRO (630 Providence) - but we didn't know, until now, how many changes Cianci's return would bring to the schedule, not only at WPRO but across town at Clear Channel's WHJJ (920 Providence).

Clear Channel, which syndicates Rush Limbaugh through its Premiere Radio Networks division, is bringing the Rush show in-house in Providence, moving him from WPRO to the noon-3 slot on WHJJ, effective next Monday. It's still not clear whether Limbaugh's move to WHJJ means the end of the local Helen Glover show, which has been occupying that slot as WHJJ's only local entry - but it is clear that some big shuffles are in the works on the WPRO lineup.

Mornings on WPRO will be the province of John DePetro, who'll yield his mid-morning slot to Cianci and former morning man Ron St. Pierre. They'll be on the air from 10 AM until 2 PM, followed by an expanded Dan Yorke show from 2-6.

Can the local Cianci/St. Pierre show outdraw the syndicated Rush in the famously self-absorbed Providence market? We'd take that bet...

*Budget cutbacks at a CONNECTICUT religious station have claimed the job of a two-decade veteran there. The station is WFIF (1500 Milford), and the veteran is Willie Barnett, station engineer and host of the "My Morning Light" morning show. We're told the move is part of an overall belt-tightening at Blount Communications, which also owns WVNE (760 Leicester MA), WARV (1590 Warwick RI) and WBCI (105.9 Bath ME) - and that Barnett will continue to do some engineering consulting for WFIF, while he seeks to start a new religious FM station in the area.

*In MAINE, we can now attach a price tag to the deal that moves WCLZ (98.9 Brunswick) from Citadel to the Last Bastion Station Trust to Saga Communications. $3.5 million is what Saga will pay to add WCLZ to its Portland cluster, which already includes four AMs and three FMs.

One of those FMs is WYNZ (100.9 Westbrook), where morning man Chuck Igo should now be labeled "author Chuck Igo." He's gone and written a novel, a political thriller called "Taken Identity," and he's selling it directly from his site at ChuckIgo.com.

*In NEW HAMPSHIRE, the "Morning Waking Crew" (Mark Ericson and Danielle Carrier) at WOKQ (97.5 Dover)/WPKQ (103.7 North Conway) has just received its fifth Country Music Association "Personality of the Year" nomination.

Down the road just a little bit at WUNH (91.3 Durham), there's a reunion in the works, tied in with a University of New Hampshire reunion scheduled for 1970s-era graduates. Any alumnus of WUNH, 1970s or otherwise, is invited to a gathering scheduled for October 13 - contact Lee Gordon and company at wunhreunion at aol.com for more information.

And up in Laconia, WJYY (105.5 Concord) PD AJ Dukette adds PD duties at WLNH (98.3) to his roster, replacing the departed Chris Ialuna. Dukette will be assisted at WLNH by Molly King, who moves from production director to assistant PD.

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.

*It was a busy couple of weeks in PENNSYLVANIA, and especially in Philadelphia, where a closely-watched experiment to see if modern rock could work with HD Radio on a flea-powered AM signal has ended in - well, c'mon, what did you really expect it to do in eight months?

Tom Kelly's Marconi Radio will continue its "Skin Radio" format online, but the terrestrial signal of WHAT (1340 Philadelphia) flipped on Aug. 31 to "Martini Lounge Radio," a standards format. (We hear the digital signal's been turned off there, too.)

Over on the FM side, there were plenty of Radio People on the Move: Chris Conley exited the PD chair at WBEB (101.1 Philadelphia) after almost a dozen years there. At WUSL (Power 98.9), Sam Sylk is out in morning drive, headed to Radio One's WENZ in Cleveland, with "Q-Deezy" filling in by ISDN from Los Angeles. Over in Reading, Al Brock (late of Binghamton, Providence, and other stops in NERW-land) is the new PD at WIOV-FM (105.1 Ephrata).

Heading west, WYGL (1240 Selinsgrove) dropped its "Big Country" simulcast with three area FM stations on August 30, flipping to ESPN sports.

Also flipping (back) to sports is Connoisseur Media's WFNN (1330 Erie), which returns to its former "Fan 1330" identity today, not quite nine months after it flipped from sports to oldies in an attempt to keep the oldies format alive after sister station WFGO (94.7) moved to adult hits. That AM move didn't go well, with Regent's WRIE (1260) snapping up the ESPN affiliation. (It apparently also nearly grabbed the WFNN calls, which led to a hasty change on 1330 from WFGO back to WFNN.) With ESPN unavailable, WFNN will pick up Fox Sports Radio instead; it will also bring back the Jim Lecorchick/Red Hughes local sports show (5-7 PM) that had moved over to sister station WJET (1400 Erie).

News from the Scranton area: WEMR (1460 Tunkhannock) is reportedly back on the air after going silent in March. We believe it's simulcasting "Cozy 104," WCOZ (103.9 Laporte), but with a new format on the way. Down the hill, Ed Histed has moved from the Route 81 Radio group to the PD chair at Shamrock's WQFM (92.1 Nanticoke)/WQFN (100.1 Forest City). (And just to make sure we're all clear, it's Route 81's WCDL 1440 in Carbondale that's gone all-Spanish; sister station WAZL 1490 in Hazleton is running a few hours of Spanish on the weekends but is otherwise still in English.)

There's a new TV station on the air in the State College market: WHVL-LP (Channel 29) signed on last week with a combination of local programming (focused heavily, unsurprisingly, on the hometown Nittany Lions) and MyNetworkTV fare. The new station has cable carriage into Altoona and Johnstown as well.

In Pittsburgh, Business Talk Radio Network has closed on its $225,000 purchase of WLFP (1550 Braddock, ex-WURP) from Inner City Broadcasting.

And we're really not trying to pick on that little LPFM in Gap, Pennsylvania - indeed, we got an e-mail from them, the last time we mentioned them, explaining how they're trying to adapt to a constantly-changing set of competitors. But we can't not mention that the former WLAL-LP (92.9) has changed calls yet again, returning to the WLRI-LP calls it used in 2005-06. Nor can we fail to mention that this is the sixteenth set of calls the station has had in just under four years. Yes, sixteen - and if the nice folks at WLIZ, er, WLAL, er, WLRI care to check in and let us know what the latest change is all about, we'll gladly pass on word to all of you.

*There's been a format change in northwest NEW JERSEY: the oldies are gone at WNNJ (1360 Newton), replaced by "standards" (the "Timeless Classics" satellite format) that are really more like soft AC these days.

*Just over the state line in NEW YORK, the FCC is opening the promised special application window for a new signal on 1700 in Rockland County.

The window will run from Oct. 1-5, and it opens at the behest of WRCR (1300 Spring Valley), which has been struggling for years with a night signal that doesn't cover most of the fast-growing parts of the county. WRCR lobbied successfully on the public-safety angle, arguing that Rockland County residents in the evacuation zone of the Indian Point nuclear plant lacked a local source for emergency information.

Any applicant for the new 1700 facility must show that it will cover (with a 2 mV/m day signal and an interference-free night signal) at least 50% of the Indian Point evacuation district in Rockland County - but that still offers enough leeway to create a persuasive rimshot day signal into New York City, 30 miles or so to the south.

Who will apply in addition to WRCR? And what will happen when the competing applications go to auction? We'll be watching.

*Around the New York City dial while we were out west, there were plenty of Radio People on the Move: with Disney ownership out of the picture, former WABC/WOR talk legend Bob Grant returned to WABC a couple of weeks ago to take over the 8-10 PM weeknight slot that had been filled by Jerry Agar. Over at WFAN (660 New York), Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton launched their new morning show in the old Don Imus timeslot last week, to mixed reviews so far. Clear Channel's WKTU (103.5 Lake Success) has parted ways with Al Bandiero after many years; most recently, he was hosting the Sunday night "Studio 54 Clubhouse" dance show there. And CBS Radio's WXRK (92.3 New York) is staffing up: it's hired Mike Tierney (late of KUFO in Portland) as assistant PD/music director, and Matt Schwenker is reportedly heading from WRRV/WRRB in the Hudson Valley to become the new night guy at K-Rock.

On the TV side of things, the venerable "Live at Five" breathed its last at WNBC (Channel 4) on Friday; "Extra" will be in the 5 PM slot today, followed by "News 4 You" at 5:30, local news at 6, NBC Nightly News at 6:30 and a new "New York Nightly News" with Chuck Scarborough at 7.

Heading upstate, Rick Schneider moves from nights at WDST (100.1 Woodstock) across the state line to mornings at WKZE (98.1 Sharon CT).

In Cortland, Citadel has handed WKRT (920) off to new owners Bible Broadcasting Network, and the talk programming there has been replaced with BBN's satellite-fed religion. (BBN ended up receiving WKRT as a donation from Citadel, which had to spin off the signal as part of the sale of sister station WIII 99.9 to Saga.)

Where are they now? Former WKXL (98.9 Rochester) morning guy Ellis Feaster is out at WWKA (92.3 Orlando FL) after eight years in morning drive down there. He's looking for a new gig - could we see him back upstate again?

*The big news from CANADA was all about AM-to-FM moves, especially in Kingston, Ontario, where the CRTC granted a three-pack of moves that will wipe out the AM dial there.

Corus' CFFX (960) will move to 104.3, with 4 kW DA, continuing its oldies format. CTVglobemedia's CKLC (1380) will move to 98.9 with 8.7 kW DA, continuing its AC format. And K-Rock 1057 Inc., which owns CIKR (105.7 Kingston), will get a second FM signal. The new 93.5 outlet (3.2 kW DA) will have a country format, in an effort to repatriate listenership that now goes across the border to Regent's WFRY (97.5 Watertown NY) and to Clancy-Mance's WBDR (102.7 Cape Vincent), which is operated by CIKR under a quasi-LMA.

In Halifax, Nova Scotia, the AM band is about to be down to one station, CTVglobemedia's CJCH (920) - but now CJCH is applying to move to FM as well. It would go to 101.3, with 100 kW/160.1 m, under an application filed with the CRTC. CTV would divest its interest in CKUL (96.5) if the CJCH move is granted.

Back in Ontario, Rae Roe is selling CKJN (92.9 Haldimand-Norfolk) to Christopher Grossman's Haliburton Broadcasting, which flipped the station from its brief "Jayne FM" identity to "Moose FM," the same branding used at Haliburton's "Cottage Country" outlets north of Toronto. New to CKJN is morning man John Hardy, who spent many years at Hamilton's CHML (900).

*And that's it for this big two-week catchup edition of NERW. See something we missed while we were out west? Drop us a line, and we'll get even more caught up next week.

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