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February 25, 2008

Kane-O Returns to Rochester's WCMF

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*It's all too common at the moment to hear about radio stations firing veteran air talents as they seek to cut costs. It's much more unusual to hear about one of those veteran jocks getting a new job - and all but unheard of to see that jock go right back to his old shift at his old station.

But then there's nothing normal about the soap opera that's surrounded upstate NEW YORK's classic rocker, WCMF (96.5 Rochester), in the year and a half since Entercom announced plans to acquire it and several sister stations from CBS Radio.

No, Brother Wease isn't back on the air at WCMF (though we hear he's now working behind the scenes, doing sales across town at Clear Channel) - but the station is returning ousted midday host Dave Kane to its airwaves today, not quite three months after he did his "last show" under the old CBS ownership before the station changed hands to Entercom.

Since Kane's departure from WCMF, he had been freelancing at WHAM-TV (Channel 13), contributing bits to the station's morning newscast. For much of that time, though, Kane had apparently been negotiating with Entercom about a return to WCMF, which has been lacking in personalities since the start of the contract dispute that pulled Wease off the air just before Christmas. (In addition to releasing Kane, Entercom also chose not to keep night jock Dino Kay or weekender/production director Marc Cronin, leaving WCMF with only the Wease-less morning crew and with afternoon jock Big Marc.

With Kane's return to the station, he'll have a slightly different shift for his "Midday Mambo" (10 AM-3 PM, rather than his 11:15 AM-4 PM shift that followed Wease's extended morning show), and he'll have a new title, adding PD stripes. (And, we hope, restoring some stability to a station that's desperately needed some after the turmoil of the last few months.)

*Meanwhile over at what remains of the old CBS cluster (now operating as the "Rochester Radio Group" in a spin-off trust from Entercom), the morning man at WZNE (94.1 Brighton) was in the news in his home market of Cleveland last week. Rover (Shane French) had been originating at CBS Radio's WKRK (92.3 Cleveland Heights), and apparently pulling very good ratings there - but he abruptly vanished from "K-Rock" last week, and will reportedly return to the Cleveland airwaves April 1 at a competing station, Clear Channel's WMMS (100.7 Cleveland).

Rover, you may recall, had been one of three CBS replacements for Howard Stern in syndication, but while David Lee Roth flamed out along the East Coast and Adam Carolla slowly built a following out west, Rover failed to catch fire in most of the midwest markets where he replaced Stern, most notably in Chicago, where his show briefly originated. That left only Cleveland, Rochester and Memphis in Rover's syndication fold, and with Cleveland off the air, WZNE in Rochester and WMPS in Memphis were carrying best-of shows last week.

We're told (by our esteemed colleague over at Ohio Media Watch, who's been following this story avidly) that Rover will be back on the air today with new shows for Rochester and Memphis from the Clear Channel studios in Cleveland, and that that will continue until he's back on the air in Cleveland in April.

GETCHER 2008 TOWER SITE CALENDAR - BEFORE THEY'RE ALL GONE!

Still haven't ordered your 2008 Tower Site Calendar? You do realize that it's now...er...2008, don't you? We're already down to the last 90 or so calendars, and they're going fast. The 2006 and 2007 editions of the calendar sold out, and this one will do so as well, possibly as soon as this month.

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.

The calendar is just $18 with shipping and handling included - or better yet, beat our move to mandatory subscriptions later this year 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 sure to have your very own Tower Site Calendar 2008! (And thank you!)

The 2008 Tower Site Calendar is dedicated to the memory of Robert Eiselen (1934-2007), whose digital imaging skills made even a bunch of pictures of radio towers look almost like art. His contributions were essential to the calendar's evolution from 2003 to the current edition, and he will be missed dearly.

*In New York City, the new "Pulse 87" (WNYZ-LP) is adding to its staff. Starting today, Star and Buc Wild in morning drive will be followed in middays by Jewelz Lopez, formerly of WKTU (103.5) - and she'll also be the station's music director.

There's a new operations manager at WBLS (107.5)/WLIB (1190) in New York, as Skip Dillard moves north from the same role at CBS Radio's WPGC (95.5) in Washington.

In Binghamton, Clear Channel cutbacks have reduced one PD position. Bob Taylor is out as PD of CHR WMRV (105.7 Endicott)/hot AC WMXW (103.3 Vestal), with the WMRV reins going to Jim Free, who's operations manager at the cluster and PD of rocker WKGB (92.5 Conklin). Doug Mosher, PD of classic rock WBBI (107.5 Endwell) and standards WINR (680 Binghamton) takes the PD chair at WMXW.

(More Binghamton notes that we somehow missed in the year-end tumult: over at Citadel, veteran WNBF 1290 newsman Bernie Fionte lost his job at year's end. Fionte was named "Living Legend" at the 2007 Binghamton Broadcasters' Reunion. And Tejay Schwartz has migrated from mornings at WRRQ 106.7 Windsor to middays at WLTB 101.7 Johnson City.)

Syracuse University's WJPZ (89.1) has one active alumni association - they get together every year, and this year is their 23rd annual reunion banquet. It'll be held March 1, and will feature 1991 SU graduate Craig Carton, now morning co-host at New York's WFAN, as guest speaker. The event will also include the induction of the first members of the "WJPZ Hall of Fame." (Lots more at wjpzalumni.org!)

Speaking of Syracuse - and Utica, and Watertown, and Ithaca - a familiar URL is back on-line after a long absence. It's been three years since Scott Jameson shut down the excellent CNYRadio.com site, and now the site's been resurrected by some fans of the old version, with updated news from around the dials in central New York.

Albany's WQBK (103.9 Rensselaer)/WQBJ (103.5 Cobleskill) looked south for its programming on Friday. The stations usually known as "Q103" reimaged for the day as "Corona 103," running commercial-free, but sponsored by the Mexican beer - and adding a reggae tune at the top and bottom of each hour to its usual rock format.

Up north, Randy Michaels' RadioActive LLC has picked call letters for several of its new stations. Mark down WBLH (92.5 Black River/Watertown) and WDYC (107.1 Saranac Lake).

*On the TV side of things, Rochester Fox affiliate WUHF (Channel 31) is expanding its 10 PM newscast to a full hour, beginning March 3. That will create a 90-minute block of news produced by WROC-TV (Channel 8), which does the 10 PM Fox news and its own 11 PM newscast from the same Humboldt Street studio. March 3 is the start date for the hour-long Fox show, followed two weeks later by the launch of the market's first 7 PM newscast on NBC affiliate WHEC (Channel 10).

Over in Buffalo, Dennis Williams has disappeared from WIVB (Channel 4)'s airwaves and its website. Will former WKBW (Channel 7) sports director John Murphy take Williams' place in that seat over at Channel 4?

*And one more New York note: if you're within traveling range of Broadway, and you haven't yet caught "The Farnsworth Invention," Aaron Sorkin's gripping, if historically dubious, tale of the invention of television and its social consequences (we reviewed it here January 28), you'd best hurry - the play closes March 2.

*In MASSACHUSETTS, there's an unfortunate budget cut at Entercom's WRKO (680 Boston): the talk station axed veteran weekender Moe Lauzier, and the Herald says Lauzier learned of his dismissal from a producer 15 minutes in to what turned out to be his last show Saturday morning. Lauzier, 66, tells the paper he hopes to be working somewhere else (crosstown WTKK?) within a few weeks - and WRKO will reportedly fill Lauzier's slot with...infomercials. Lauzier would have celebrated his 25th anniversary at WRKO this June.

Several Boston TV news anchors are changing assignments, with the biggest shuffles coming at Boston ABC affiliate WCVB (Channel 5), as it shifts its main anchors to a Sunday-Thursday schedule, following the lead of Fox's WFXT, which has been doing Sunday-Thursday for several years. Heather Unruh, who's been anchoring WCVB's "EyeOpener" morning show, will move to the evening newscasts, anchoring Sundays at 6 and 11 and Monday-Thursday at 5, 5:30 and 11. Liz Brunner will become "senior correspondent" and retain her 6 PM anchor chair, with Unruh replacing her at 11. (Except on Friday, when Brunner will anchor at 5, 6 and 11 with Bob Halloran; Halloran in turn will anchor Saturdays with Pam Cross.)

As for mornings, Bianca de la Garza will take Unruh's anchor seat alongside David Brown.

Meanwhile, over at WBZ-TV (Channel 4), Sara Underwood's contract, which expires March 4, won't be renewed - and that leaves the CBS outlet looking for a new anchor for its 5:30 newscast and for the 9 PM news it produces for sister station WSBK (Channel 38.)

In the Pioneer Valley, Monte Belmonte adds PD duties to his morning show/MD responsibilities at Saga's WRSI (93.9 Turners Falls); he replaces Sean O'Mealey, who remains as GM/GSM there.

*In RHODE ISLAND, Tim Staskiewicz is moving on from WHJJ (920 Providence), where he's been a news anchor and producer of the Helen Glover show. He's moving to Washington, but staying with Clear Channel as an online content director for its stations there.

Where are they now? Dave Barber, former talk host on WPRO (630 Providence), is now PD of the Capitol TV network, Rhode Island's statewide version of C-SPAN.

*EMF Broadcasting just keeps buying stations for its "K-Love" network, and the latest acquisition is in MAINE, where EMF is buying WCYI (93.9 Lewiston) from the Last Bastion Station Trust, which is holding the signal in trust for Citadel.

Since Citadel spun off WCYI (and former sister station WCLZ, now in Saga's hands) last June, the station has flipped from a modern-rock simulcast of WCYY (94.3 Biddeford, still with Citadel) to a simulcast of WCLZ's AAA format to a temporary all-blues format.

No purchase price has been announced for the deal, which will give K-Love its first full-power signal in Maine. (EMF has translators in Bangor and Orono, and it's in the process of acquiring WMEX in neighboring Farmington, New Hampshire, with a signal that reaches portions of southern Maine.)

J.J. Jeffrey's WLOB-FM (96.3 Rumford) is on the move: the talk station has changed city of license from Rumford to Gray, much closer to Portland. WLOB-FM already relocated its transmitter not long ago, relocating from Black Mountain to Streaked Mountain near South Paris, Maine; it's not clear whether WLOB can now hop even closer to its target listeners in Portland, or whether this is simply a matter of convenience to allow WLOB's studio at its AM transmitter site in Portland to also serve as the legal main studio for WLOB-FM.

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*In south central PENNSYLVANIA, Four Rivers Community Broadcasting is relocating one of its new construction permits. WZXF (91.7) was granted in McConnellsburg, but now it's been relicensed to Hustontown, about eight miles to the north, which will give Four Rivers' religious network some extra reach along the Pennsylvania Turnpike west to Breezewood and the I-70 junction.

Fans of the Philadelphia Eagles will have two spots on the dial to hear the team's games next season. In addition to FM flagship WYSP (94.1), CBS will also carry the games on its all-sports signal in Philly, WIP (610) - and just to make it more interesting, the two won't be in sync. One of the signals (WYSP, most likely) will be delayed to match up as best as possible with the TV broadcast of the game (though that, too, can vary widely depending on how the viewer is getting the TV signal); the other will run with no delay, for the benefit of the fans in the stands.

There's a Pittsburgh TV connection to that controversial New York Times report about John McCain's possible involvement with a lobbyist. As Jason Togyer explains over at PBRTV.com, lobbyist Vicki Iseman was working on behalf of Lowell Paxson, who was trying to get the FCC to allow WQED to swap its commercial WQEX (Channel 16) license with the noncommercial license of religious WPCB (Channel 40), then sell channel 40 to Paxson for his new Pax TV network. At issue was McCain's reportely close ties to Paxson, including rides on his corporate jet; the deal was eventually scuttled, in any case. (Iseman, a western Pennsylvania native and Indiana University of Pennsylvania graduate, also worked on behalf of Glencairn Ltd. to get the FCC to approve the quasi-duopoly deals that allowed sister company Sinclair to effectively control two stations in markets such as Pittsburgh, where Sinclair owned WPGH, channel 53, and Glencairn owned WPTT, channel 22; a subsequent change in the rules allowed Sinclair to buy channel 22, now WPCW, outright.)

And PBRTV also reports the death Feb. 5 of Bill Brant, whose career in Pittsburgh radio and TV included a stint at WWSW (970) after World War II, some TV hosting early in the life of WDTV (Channel 3, now KDKA-TV 2), and some time in the 80s as morning host at WJAS (1320). Brant was 84.

Engineers on the move: Lamar Smith moves from chief engineer at Entercom's Scranton/Wilkes-Barre cluster down to Austin, where he'll take over the cluster of stations that Entercom recently bought from CBS. (We're grateful to Lamar for a nice tour of several of his Scranton stations a year or so ago, which you can see documented on this Tower Site of the Week episode.)

And we're very sorry to report the untimely passing on Thursday of Pat Kain, whose career included stops at WMAJ and WQWK in State College, nights at WLAN-FM (96.9 Lancaster), and two incarnations of WHFS in Washington and Baltimore. Kain was just 35, and he leaves behind a wife and a new baby.

*In NEW JERSEY, Press Communications has hired a replacement for exiting WKMK (98.5 Ocean Acres) afternoon jock Lee Ann Taylor. Brian Moore moves over from WOBM-FM (92.7 Toms River) to take that role, and to serve as WKMK's PD, replacing Mike Fitzgerald, who's now station manager there.

Here's a good reason to make sure your station's studio doors are locked at night: a man fleeing a car crash fell asleep in the lobby of WVLT (92.1)/WMIZ (1270) in Vineland last week, where a pastor arriving to broadcast the morning sermon found him snoozing in the foyer. That wouldn't have been such a big deal - except that the intruder then got up and, to put it politely, made a mess in the station's bathroom. The police were called, and they arrested Alexander Ballesteros, 25, on charges of criminal trespassing, as well as several charges from the earlier accident.

*From CANADA this week comes word of the grant of a new station in Cobourg, Ontario - at least on paper.

In reality, CFMZ (103.1) has been operating for thirty years with a classical format, and will continue to do so. But instead of being licensed as a rebroadcast transmitter of its parent station, CFMX-FM-1 (96.3 Toronto), CFMZ will now operate as a separate license, offering at least 24 hours a week of separate content aimed at the local audience in Cobourg, mostly in the form of separate advertising from the main Toronto feed.

(And yes, there's an oddity here: not only is the Toronto signal, which came on many years after Cobourg, considered the "parent" station - but it appears, for reasons unknown to us, that the calls in Toronto were changed back to CFMX-FM-1 after briefly being flipped to CFMZ-FM-1 when the station was bought by Moses Znaimer. Could this have had something to do with the aborted attempt by CKFM 99.9 to change its calls to CFMX?)

Across the province, after just over two months in afternoon drive, CHEZ (106.1 Ottawa) has parted ways with afternoon jock "The Real" Darren Stevens, reports Milkman UnLimited.

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!)

February 26, 2007 -

  • While the FCC's commissioners spent Friday in Harrisburg, PENNSYLVANIA talking about media consolidation (and staying longer than planned, as big public turnout pushed the scheduled 2:30 PM ending time to 3:30 PM), a real-life example of the trend was playing out up north in CANADA. Just after the markets closed, Standard Radio and Astral Media, already two of the largest broadcasters in the country, announced plans for a C$1.3 billion sale that will put Standard's 52 radio stations in the hands of Astral, creating the largest privately-owned radio group in Canada.
  • For Astral, the purchase will finally take the company's radio holdings national, expanding beyond its current footprint in Quebec and the Maritimes. It's a goal Astral has had for some time, including an unsuccessful bid for CHUM Limited last summer. For Standard, it marks the end of 22 years of Slaight family ownership. (The family will retain Standard's other assets, including a share in Sirius Canada.) The merger gives Astral a toehold in Toronto, where Standard owns news-talk CFRB (1010), soft AC "EZ Rock" CJEZ (97.3) and hot AC CKFM (99.9), as well as a new presence in Hamilton, London, and most of Canada's major western markets. It also creates new clusters in Ottawa/Gatineau, where Standard's CKQB (106.9 the Bear) joins Astral's "Energie" CKTF (104.1) and "Rock Detente" CIMF (94.9), and most dramatically in Montreal, where Standard's English-language news-talk CJAD (800), AC CJFM (Mix 95.9) and rock CHOM (97.7) join Astral's "Rock Detente" CITE (107.3), "Energie" CKFM (94.3), as well as rimshot "Boom FM" outlets CFEI (106.5 St.-Hyacinthe) and CFZZ (104.1 St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu). Will the CRTC mandate a sale of some of those overlapping signals?
  • Crossing the border to upstate NEW YORK, we can now put a price tag on the deal between EMF Broadcasting and Galaxy Broadcasting, which turns out to involve a third Galaxy station. In addition to the two Albany-market FMs that flipped from "Bone" rock to EMF's satellite-delivered religious formats last week (WBOE 94.5 Ravena to "K-Love," WOOB 93.7 Scotia to "Air One"), EMF's $3.65 million purchase from Galaxy also includes Syracuse-market WSCP-FM (101.7 Pulaski), which is heard in Syracuse via translator W267AL (101.3).
  • WSCP-FM dropped its classic country format late last week and flipped to contemporary Christian "K-Love," creating a network of "K-Love" outlets along the Thruway that now stretches from Rochester's WKDL (104.9 Brockport) through Syracuse to WKVU (100.7 Utica) and the Albany stations. And what of WSCP (1070 Sandy Creek), the erstwhile AM simulcast of WSCP-FM? When we tuned in Sunday afternoon, it had flipped from classic country to a simulcast of Galaxy classic rocker WTKW (99.5 Bridgeport)/WTKV (105.5 Oswego), "TK 99 and TK 105."
  • A veteran MASSACHUSETTS program director is heading west. Max Tolkoff is leaving the PD chair of WFNX (101.7 Lynn) to take over as PD of Entravision's LA-market "Indie 103.1" (KDLD 103.1 Santa Monica/KDLE 103.1 Huntington Beach). Tolkoff will continue to consult WFNX, where APD/afternoon jock Keith Dakin will take over as PD.

February 24, 2003 -

  • The nightclub fire in West Warwick, RHODE ISLAND that killed nearly 100 people last Thursday night would certainly have been a big enough story for the area's media outlets on its own -- and will continue to be so for weeks and months to come. But this tragedy turned out to have an unusual amount of resonance within the media community, beginning of course with the club's ownership. Jeff Derderian is a familiar name and face to TV viewers in eastern New England. Your editor remembers him from his early-nineties days behind the scenes at WBZ-TV (Channel 4) in Boston (when yours truly was toiling, equally behind the scenes, across the building at WBZ radio); later, he would work for WLNE (Channel 6) in the Providence market and then for five years as a reporter for Boston's WHDH-TV (Channel 7).
  • And, as the whole world knows by now, Jeff had just departed WHDH for a job closer to his Rhode Island home, starting just weeks ago at WPRI (Channel 12) in Providence. He's been off the air there since Thursday night (when, ironically, he was working on a WPRI story about nightclub safety, using his own club as a source of B-roll video), and we wonder whether he'll ever be able to work in the region again -- assuming, of course, that he and his brother don't end up facing criminal charges for the fire. More on this in the next few weeks, we're sure. As we go to press Monday afternoon, meanwhile, among the dozens of people missing and presumed dead is Michael Gonsalves, the WHJY (94.1 Providence) overnight jock known on air as "The Doctor."
  • The rest of the week's news: in NEW HAMPSHIRE, WPKQ (103.7 North Conway) finally made it back on the air last Friday (Feb. 21), nearly two weeks after the fire atop Mount Washington that destroyed the power generators and the transmitter of sister station WHOM (94.9 Mount Washington). NERW hears that WPKQ is running at about 80% of licensed power while awaiting a more powerful replacement generator; its studio-transmitter link was damaged during the fire, so the signal from parent station WOKQ (97.5 Dover) is going by ISDN to the North Conway studios and then by analog microwave to the mountaintop. As for WHOM, we're told the station's main antenna suffered little damage; a replacement transmitter and STL could make it to the mountaintop later this week.
  • NEW YORK City has never been good territory for syndicated morning shows -- just ask Tom Joyner. His show disappeared from Emmis' WRKS (98.7 New York) this morning, replaced by a revived "Wakeup Club" with Jeff Foxx and Shaila, about a year after Joyner was brought in to replace the Isaac Hayes morning show.
  • From NEW JERSEY, a new simulcast to report: WMID-FM (102.3 Cape May) pulled the plug on its simulcast of standards WMID (1340 Atlantic City) after about a year and a half. Under new calls of WAIV, 102.3 is now simulcasting the CHR sounds of sister WAYV (95.1 Atlantic City), which never seemed to have much trouble covering Cape May County on its own, at least in NERW's experience....

February 26, 1998-

  • The folks at Sinclair Broadcasting have been busy this week, as they prepare to sell off their Rochester radio group -- while adding TV properties in Rochester and Buffalo. Entercom officially takes control of the former Heritage Media group in Rochester Saturday night, when Sinclair closes on its purchase of WBBF (950), WBEE-FM (92.5), WQRV (93.3 Avon), and WKLX (98.9) from Heritage, then immediately LMAs the stations to Entercom in preparation for sale. The official word is the standard "no immediate changes," but NERW's heard that one often enough...
  • On the TV side, Sinclair is buying 14 TV stations from Sullivan Broadcasting (owned by Boston-based ABRY), including Fox affiliates WUHF-TV (Channel 31) in Rochester and WUTV (Channel 29) in Buffalo. Sinclair is already a dominant radio player in Buffalo, with WGR (550), WBEN (930), WWWS (1400), WWKB (1520), WKSE (98.5 Niagara Falls), and WMJQ (102.5) under its corporate belt -- and it's planning to apply for a waiver to keep all six plus the TV.
  • More from upstate NEW YORK: The third shoe dropped this week in the Jacor format shuffle in Rochester, as WMAX-FM (106.7 Irondequoit) and WMHX (102.3 Canandaigua) put their all-Delilah stunt format to bed in favor of very soft, gold-based AC as "Sunny 106." NERW notes that Jacor's new gold-based soft AC in Des Moines, also "Sunny 106," has taken the calls KYSY; could the WYSY calls (last seen on 107.9 in suburban Chicago) be in the Flower City's future? Jerry Reo's handling mornings on Sunny; Delilah remains on the station from 7 till midnight.
  • Majac already owns the largest group of Binghamton market stations -- WENE (1430 Endicott), WKGB (92.5 Susquehanna), WMXW (103.3 Vestal), and WMRV (105.7 Endicott) -- and now it's adding one more, with the granting of a new CP for 107.5 in Endwell, transmitting from the WMRV site above Endicott. An earlier 107.5 CP, with the calls WRGG, was never built, and the frequency has been in use by a pirate running right-wing talk programming. Down the road in Owego, we hear WEBO (1330) is splitting from its simulcast with soft-rock WGRG (101.7) to go modern rock. Yep, modern rock on AM. We'll be passing through the area next month to bring you a complete report on this one.
  • Big doings in RHODE ISLAND this week, as Portuguese gets punted for public in Providence. Boston's WBUR-FM (90.9) is paying just under $2 million for Neto Communications' WRCP (1290) in Providence, and (as NERW first reported earlier this month) the station will become a WBUR simulcast serving northern Rhode Island. 1290 may not be the first public radio outlet in the Ocean State, though -- Rhode Island Public Radio has applied for a license to cover for its WBLQ (88.1 Westerly), and NERW can't wait to hear from our readers in the area about that station's on-air status.
  • If that's not enough, Howard Stern is entering the Providence market next week. Stern's newest affiliate is rhythmic CHR WWKX (106.3 Woonsocket)/WAKX (102.7 Narragansett Pier). He's already heard in much of the market via Boston's WBCN (104.1).
  • Moving north: Cumulus Broadcasting continues to gather strength in MAINE, buying Tryon-Seacoast's Central Maine group. Cumulus already has WQCB (106.5 Brewer) and WBZN (107.3 Old Town) in the Bangor market and WTOS (105.1 Skowhegan) in the Augusta market. Now it's adding WABK (104.3 Gardiner), WKCG (101.3 Augusta), WFAU (1280 Gardiner), WIGY (97.5 Madison), and WCME (96.7 Boothbay Harbor) to the group. Tryon-Seacoast owner Jeff Fisher keeps his New Hampshire properties in Franklin and Moultonborough.
  • In NEW HAMPSHIRE, there's a new format at WGXL (92.3 Hanover); "XL92" is moving from hot AC to full-out CHR.
  • Across the Connecticut River in VERMONT, Bruce James' Vermont Broadcasting Associates is locking up the Northeast Kingdom with the $630,000 purchase of WSTJ (1340) and WNKV (105.5) in St. Johnsbury from Northeast Kingdom Broadcasting. James already owns WGMT (97.7) in Lyndon.
  • On the TV side, no sooner is Hicks, Muse's Sunrise Television Corp. taking control of WPTZ (Channel 5) Plattsburgh and WNNE (Channel 31) White River Junction than it's trading them away. Hearst Argyle gets WPTZ, WNNE, and KSBW (Channel 8) Salinas CA, and Sunrise gets WNAC (Channel 64) Rehoboth-Providence along with WDTN (Channel 2) in Dayton, Ohio.

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