October 1, 2007
Rea Named For WBZ Nights
TOWER SITE CALENDAR 2008 - NOW AVAILABLE!!!
 *A
month after the death of beloved MASSACHUSETTS talk host
Paul Sullivan, WBZ (1030 Boston) has named a replacement for
its weeknight 8-midnight slot - and in keeping with tradition
at the CBS Radio-owned news-talk station, it's an in-house move.
"NightSide with Dan Rea" makes its debut Monday
night on WBZ, and if it doesn't sound like a major shift in the
station's sound, that's the idea, since Rea has been sharing
fill-in duties on Sullivan's old timeslot for months now. (WBZ
weekend/swing host Jordan Rich has been the other regular fill-in
on Sullivan's show; he'll return to his usual duties now.)
Rea, of course, is best known to Boston audiences for his
33-year reporting career on WBZ-TV (Channel 4), which included
the exoneration of convicted murderer Joe Salvati. But before
he joined the TV side in 1974, Rea was a talk host on WBZ radio,
so in a sense he's coming home to his roots by rejoining the
AM station.
 *Out
on Cape Cod, WKPE-FM (103.9 South Yarmouth) has spent the past
few days stunting, after apparently dropping its former classic
rock format.
What's next for the station? There's a big jukebox covering
up part of its logo at its (mostly-disabled) website, as well
as on-air hints pointing to country...which probably means absolutely
nothing.
(We'll keep you posted as to what develops when the stunting
ends!)
|
IT'S THE 2008 TOWER SITE CALENDAR!
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.
Even so, we still think this
year's edition is a bargain - just $18 with shipping and
handling included.
Or better yet, beat our move
to mandatory subscriptions (also coming later 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!) |
*After years of effort and planning, VERMONT
Public Radio achieved a long-held goal Monday morning, as
it split its programming into two statewide networks.
 The "original"
VPR network (WVPS 107.9 Burlington, WVPR 89.5 Windsor, WVPA 88.5
St. Johnsbury, WRVT 88.7 Windsor, WBTN-FM 94.3 Bennington and
several translators) has become a 24/7 news-talk service, with
a new midday lineup that includes BBC news at 9, On Point
at 10, The Story at 1 and Day to Day at 2.
Meanwhile, the classical programming that was heard in middays
on the main VPR network has moved to the new VPR Classical network,
with new flagship WOXR (90.9 Schuyler Falls NY), WVTQ (95.1 Sunderland)
and WNCH (88.1 Norwich), as well as HD-2 subchannels on WVPS,
WVPR, WVPA and WRVT. VPR, which also launched a redesigned website
at www.vpr.net as part of the
relaunch, promises additional VPR Classical frequencies in the
months to come.
*We now know where Nassau's new WEEI sports
network will land in MAINE: the Portland Press Herald
reports that the Boston-based sports programming will land
at what are now "Bone" rockers WHXR (106.7 North Windham)
and WHXQ (104.7 Kennebunkport), as well as current ESPN outlet
WLAM (1470 Lewiston), sometime in January.
Down the coast, veteran Boston jock Joe McMillan is looking
for work after exiting WNSX (97.7 Winter Harbor); he's being
replaced in mornings there by another well-known New England
voice, Bruce Stevens.
*In NEW HAMPSHIRE, WFEA (1370 Manchester)
celebrated its 75th anniversary over the weekend with a special
produced by none other than Ed Brouder, who's not only the news
guy at the Saga station but also one of New England's leading
broadcast historians. (The special's not available on line yet,
but we're hoping...)
*In CONNECTICUT, they're mourning
Bill Gonillo, who spent the last 12 years as sports director
of Cablevision's News 12 Connecticut as well as many years at
WELI (960 New Haven) before that. Gonillo had also worked for
WVIT in New Britain and as a voice for Yale football for several
seasons. Gonillo died Sept. 23 of complications from diabetes;
he was just 44.
You can have
your ad here! Click
here
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*Our PENNSYLVANIA news begins, sadly,
with the death of a well-known local tower climber. Dan Plants
Sr., whose Daniel Plants Tower Service was based in Triadelphia,
WV, was killed last Monday (Sept. 24) when he fell more than
100 feet from one of the towers of WGBN (1150 New Kensington),
where he was working on dismantling a self-supporting tower that
was to be replaced after being damaged in a thunderstorm earlier
this year. Plants, 51, had worked on many of the towers in southwestern
Pennsylvania; OSHA is now investigating the fall that killed
him.
There's a memorial fund for Plants; donations can be sent to
Wesbanco, PO Box 2088, Wheeling WV 26003.
 In other Steel City
news, the "Man Talk" format at CBS Radio's WTZN (93.7
Pittsburgh) is over, just six months after "The Zone"
was launched in early April as part of the company's highly-touted
"Free FM" talk initiative.
On Monday, the station began stunting with Christmas music,
while dropping hints about a possible return to the frequency's
heritage with top 40 as "B94" WBZZ. (As we go to press
Monday night, there's a site up at www.pitts-urgh.com
that makes copious reference to that "missing B" in
the middle...get it?)
Out of work are midday host John McIntire, afternoon host
Scott Paulsen and late morning host Paul Steigerwald - and off
the air, at least for now, are syndicated hosts Opie & Anthony
and Dennis Miller.
In TV news, PBRTV.com
reports that Pittsburgh's WPXI (Channel 11) will begin broadcasting
from its new studios on Evergreen Road on October 6, ending 50
years of TV history at 341 Rising Main Avenue, aka "11 Television
Hill," though that site closer to downtown will continue
to be the station's transmitter site. And up in Erie, WSEE-DT
has signed on at full power on channel 16, with CW affiliate
"WBEP" now being seen on the 35.2 subchannel there,
as well as on cable.
Moving east, there's a call and format change in the State
College market, as Forever flipped AC "Lite 99.5" WLTS
(99.5 Centre Hall) to adult hits "Magic 99.5" on Sept.
17, changing calls a week later to WMAJ-FM, which nicely matches
sister station WMAJ (1450 State College).
Over in the Harrisburg market, Philadelphia's WXPN has taken
over control of WZXM (88.7 Middletown) from Four Rivers Community
Broadcasting. For now, the station is running a promotional loop
of WXPN's AAA programming, in preparation for assuming the XPN
simulcast that's now being heard on WXPH (88.1 Harrisburg); that
lower-powered signal will go to Four Rivers for its "Word
FM" network.
 Most
of the NERW-related news we brought back from the NAB Radio Show
in Charlotte was related to Pennsylvania, for some reason - including
the presentation of the NAB's National Radio Award to Jerry Lee,
the longtime owner of WBEB (101.1 Philadelphia).
Lee received multiple standing ovations as he accepted the
award at the radio luncheon last Friday, even as he criticized
his fellow broadcasters for not doing more to keep the industry
vital in the face of competition. Among his proposals for change
was a suggestion that radio, like television, should offer national
advertisers ratings guarantees, a prospect made possible by the
introduction of the Portable People Meter for radio.
Two Keystone State stations also took home Marconi Radio Awards:
Greater Media's WMMR (93.3 Philadelphia) as Rock Station of the
Year and Clear Channel's WWSW (94.5 Pittsburgh) as Oldies Station
of the Year.
*Our NEW YORK news begins with a big
promotion, as Entercom ups Rochester market manager Mike Doyle
to a new position as regional vice president. In addition to
the Rochester cluster, Doyle will oversee Entercom's stations
in Buffalo, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Gainesville, Greensboro/Winston-Salem,
Greenville/Spartanburg, Memphis and Wichita. There's no word
yet whether Doyle will continue to be directly responsible for
the Rochester stations, or whether a new market manager will
be named here.
In the big city, Jasmin Sanders is the new midday host at
Inner City's WBLS (107.5 New York), reports AllAccess.
Where are they now? Former Syracuse talk host Bill Colley,
last heard on WFBL (1390), has landed on the beach - not out
of work, literally "on the beach." He's holding down
afternoon drive at talk station WGMD (92.7 Rehoboth Beach DE),
serving that pretty stretch of sand on the Delmarva Peninsula.
And veteran New York engineer John Lyons will be in Pittsburgh
next week for the Society of Broadcasting Engineers' annual convention
- where he'll be honored as Broadcast Engineer of the Year for
his long career that's included, most prominently, his work at
the Four Times Square site in New York City, which we've chronicled
in detail over at Tower Site of the Week. (Other SBE honorees
include central New York's Chapter 22, for "best regional
convention or conference" - and they'll be doing it again
in just a couple of weeks - and New Hampshire's John Bisset,
of Broadcast Electronics, as "Educator of the Year"
for his "Workbench" column in Radio World.)
 *In
CANADA, Hamilton's "Wave" (CIWV 94.7) has regional
ambitions. Citing its unique smooth jazz format, owner Burlingham
Communications is asking the CRTC for permission to add transmitters
in Ottawa and Peterborough. The Ottawa transmitter would operate
at 99.7 with 10 kW DA/100.5 m, while the Peterborough signal
would be on 100.7 with 5 kW DA/75 m.
Near Kingston, Amherst Island Broadcasting has filed a backup
application to keep its CJAI (93.7 Stella) on the air after a
new signal comes on the air at 93.5 in Kingston. CJAI has a pending
application to increase to protected status (as a "type
B community station") on 92.1 - but in case that's not granted,
it's also applying to move its existing low-power signal to 92.1.
Last Friday (Sept. 28) was launch day for the new CHOP (102.7
Newmarket). The Pickering College station had some strong professional
support to get it started, since former CHUM Ltd. head Jim Waters
is the parent of two Pickering alumni.
 And congratulations
to CFPL (980 London), which marked its 85th anniversary on Friday
with a day full of celebrations, including an open house at the
station's studios and the return of many former air personalities.
(The station signed on in 1922 as CFGC, moving from 910 to
730, merging into the new CKLW in 1933, then re-emerging under
its present calls in 1934. CFPL relocated to 1570 in 1941 and
to the present 980 in 1949. It was sold by original owner Blackburn
- the London Free Press - to present owner Corus in 1999.)
|
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!)
October 2, 2006 -
- There's a new broadcaster coming to the TV dials in MASSACHUSETTS
and CONNECTICUT. Arthur Liu, whose Multicultural Radio Broadcasting
has become a major force in leased-time radio in big cities from
Boston to New York to Los Angeles, is entering the television
arena with the $170 million purchase of Shop at Home TV's five
UHF stations from Scripps Howard. Liu is creating a new company,
Multicultural Television Broadcasting, to operate the stations.
Four of the five, including WMFP (Channel 62) in Lawrence, Mass.
and WSAH (Channel 43) in Bridgeport, Conn., were full-time outlets
of the former Shop at Home TV network, which Scripps also recently
sold. Since that sale, they've continued to broadcast the network
under its new owner, Jewelry Television. That will surely change
under Multicultural, whose model for TV will likely follow the
company's successful radio model, under which all or nearly all
of its stations' airtime is leased out to program producers,
mostly in foreign languages or serving ethnic audiences.
- For WMFP, which transmits from One Beacon Street in Boston
and has nearly full-market cable carriage, that shouldn't be
difficult. For WSAH, it will be a bit more of a challenge - while
the station is technically in the New York City TV market, it
has little cable carriage beyond Connecticut and no over-the-air
presence in the city itself. Given its distance from the center
of the market, and its history of non-carriage on New York and
New Jersey cable systems, it may face a challenge in getting
on cable in those areas, which would impair its reach.
- In other news from the Bay State, Jay Severin returned to
his former radio home Monday, as the cancellation of his Westwood
One syndicated evening offering freed him to return to the 3-6
PM slot on flagship WTKK (96.9 Boston). The move once again puts
Severin head-to-head against Howie Carr on WRKO (680), and it
pushes Michael Graham from WTKK's afternoon drive slot to evenings.
Severin also says he's moving from Sag Harbor, N.Y. (where he's
been doing the show via ISDN since its Boston-only days at WTKK)
up to the Boston area soon.
- Back in July, we reported that Mario Mazza was moving from
the PD chair at WCRB (102.5 Waltham) to the station manager's
chair at public station WHIL (91.3 Mobile AL), only to be met
with a one-line e-mail from Mazza telling us, "you're wrong,"
followed by stony silence when asked for clarification. Now the
Mobile Press-Register reports - guess what? - that Mazza officially
started as station manager at WHIL last week. Did the veteran
classical programmer have a change of heart once word got out
that the WCRB classical format would survive under new ownership?
Was he trying to back out of the Mobile move? We may never know...and
we don't expect WCRB to fill the now-vacant PD position until
Nassau takes over and the station moves to 99.5, which should
happen sometime in the next couple of months.
- It's been a long time coming, but digital TV is finally a
reality in VERMONT. Vermont Public TV's WETK (Channel 33) was
the first station to sign on a DTV signal from Mount Mansfield
a few days ago, and we hear that the other stations in the Mansfield
tower consortium - CBS affiliate WCAX, NBC affiliate WPTZ, Fox
outlet WFFF and ABC affiliate WVNY - will have their signals
on within the next few weeks, too.
- In CANADA, Fort Erie's CKEY (Wild 101.1) wants to move its
transmitter. The station now operates from one tower of the 13-tower
array of sister station CJRN (710 Niagara Falls), but it's asking
the CRTC for permission to move north and west to the site of
sister station CFLZ (105.1 Niagara Falls), where it would operate
with 50 kW DA (13 kW average ERP) at 142.4 meters. The move,
if granted, would also silence CKEY's on-channel repeater in
St. Catharines, which would no longer be needed.
October 1, 2002 -
- It was supposed to be NEW JERSEY's newest radio station,
but 14 years after its first construction permit was granted,
WKNJ (550 Lakewood) has become radio history -- without ever
broadcasting so much as a station ID. When the FCC cancelled
Steven Wendell's construction permit and deleted the call letters
last week, it ended a story that began back in 1988, when Wendell
originally proposed a station in the north Jersey community,
just south of the New York state line. Neighbors of the proposed
site on the New Jersey side of the line fought the construction,
and when the FCC began cracking down on long-unbuilt CPs a few
years ago, Wendell tried another tack to get his station built.
- Changing the community of license to Harriman NY, Wendell
modified the CP to specify 250 watts, daytime only, from the
existing site of WRKL (910 New City), on US 202 in Pomona, Rockland
County. But while WRKL rebuilt its site, adding two towers for
night use, WKNJ remained unbuilt. The FCC said last winter that
it would cancel the CP (which had been renewed most recently
in December 1998), but Wendell appealed, telling the commission
this year that he had been unable to build WKNJ because engineers
in the New York area had been too busy with the World Trade Center
recovery. The FCC didn't buy it, noting that Wendell made no
effort to hire engineers from outside the area, and WKNJ is now
officially gone. (The back politics here: WKNJ's existence would
have made the upgrade of WLIE, on 540 in Islip, impossible; while
the Long Island station pushed to have WKNJ taken off life support,
Wendell filed for another 540 facility, this time in Jaffrey,
N.H. That application is still pending....)
- An obituary to report in PENNSYLVANIA, but the passing of
Walter Annenberg ends a broadcast chapter that extended far beyond
the Keystone State. Annenberg's Triangle Broadcasting group was
best known for its ownership of WFIL AM-FM-TV (now WFIL 560,
WIOQ 102.1 and WPVI-TV 6) in Philadelphia, but it also included
WNHC AM-FM-TV (now WYBC 1340, WPLR 99.1 and WTNH-TV 8) in New
Haven, Connecticut, WNBF AM-FM-TV (now WNBF 1290, WAAL 99.1,
WBNG-TV 12) in Binghamton, N.Y. and WFBG AM-FM-TV (now WFBG 1290,
WFGY 98.1 and WTAJ-TV 10) in Altoona, Pennsylvania, among others.
Annenberg's print holdings included the Philadelphia Inquirer
and TV Guide, which he founded nationally in 1953. In later years,
he served as ambassador to the Court of St. James's. He died
Tuesday (Oct. 1) at his home in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, reportedly
of pneumonia. Annenberg was 94.
October 3, 1997-
- Rochester, NEW HAMPSHIRE's 96.7 unveiled its new format Monday
morning, and it turns out to be oldies. The former WSRI is applying
for the WQSO calls. Oldies had last been heard on the Seacoast
on ``Cool 95.3'' WCQL (York Center, Maine), which is now hot
AC WXHT. The new WQSO keeps Imus in the Morning from its previous
modern AC format.
- There's a new program director at WEEI (850). Jason Wolfe
had worked as the sports station's assistant sports director.
His first big task will be to oversee the new 10-noon talk show
featuring John Dennis (formerly of WHDH-TV) and Gerry Callahan
of Sports Illustrated, which replaces the Fabulous Sports Babe.
- The long, strange saga of WVAY (100.7) in Wilmington, VERMONT
has taken yet another turn: WVAY is now simulcasting AAA WRSI
(95.3) from Greenfield, Mass. This is the fourth station WVAY
has simulcast in less than three months. A simulcast with Richard
Lightfoot's WKVT-FM (92.7) Brattleboro ended August 1, when Lightfoot's
option to buy WVAY expired. Since then, WVAY has simulcast three
different area stations owned by Jeff Shapiro (WHDQ Claremont
NH, WSSH Marlboro VT, and now WRSI), as well as offering its
own programming for a brief time when the deal to sell the station
to Shapiro stalled.
- On to NEW YORK, where there's been a programming shakeup
at ARS rocker WCMF (96.5) in Rochester. Nighttime DJ Beth Donahue
and afternoon cohost "Bull" are out, with "BJ"
going solo in afternoons and Uncle Roger taking over evening
dutries. Down the hall at AC WRMM (101.3), evenings are now being
handled by Audiovault automation.
- In Buffalo, a successor has been named to replace Michael
Collins as head of the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association.
Donald Boswell comes to WNED-AM-FM-TV, WNEQ-TV, and WNJA-FM from
North Texas Public Broadcasting (KERA FM-TV/KDTN-TV) in Dallas.
He'll start in January.
- Downstate, WBWZ (93.3 New Paltz) and WRWD (107.3 Highland)
in the Poughkeepsie market are being sold to Roberts Radio by
Hudson Valley Radio Partners for $7.5 million. Meantime, former
WRWD/WBWZ owner William Walker has been granted a construction
permit for W279AJ, on 103.7 in Highland, to relay New York's
WQXR (96.3).
- In the New York market, WXLX (620 Jersey City NJ) is set
to go all-sports on Tuesday, and new owner One-on-One Sports
has applied for the WJWR calls to go with the new format.
- And just over the state line in Tunkhannock, Pa., the classic
rock format of "Endless Mountains Rock," WEMR-FM (107.7)
has come to an end. WEMR-FM and its sister AM station on 1460
have been sold to Citadel, and it's now rebroadcasting the CHR
format of WBHT (97.1) Mountaintop-Wilkes-Barre. Citadel also
owns WARM (590), WKQV (1550), WKQV-FM (95.7), WMGS (92.9), and
WZMT (97.9) in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market.
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