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March 30, 2009 -

• It was a bad week for legends on both sides of the border. Canada lost one of its heritage oldies stations for a second time, while Boston lost one of its favorite talk radio voices. We'll get to the legacy of Larry Glick a bit later in this week's column, but first we'll do what CTVglobemedia couldn't be bothered to do and give Toronto's CHUM (1050) a proper burial after 50 years of rock and roll.
• The last time CHUM changed format, back in May 2001, it was a big deal indeed. Back then, the Waters family still owned the station, as it had since the fifties, and the big flip to "Team" sports radio came with an all-day party at 1331 Yonge Street, complete with on-air reminiscences of CHUM's glory days, a website retrospective, and passionate CHUM fans lining the sidewalks to say farewell to one of Canada's signature radio stations. "Team" failed, and rather spectacularly at that, and even the watered-down, mostly voicetracked version of 1050 CHUM that returned to the Toronto airwaves in 2002 had its devoted admirers, at least judging by the crowds that lined up around the block on a rainy day last October to get one last look at the 1331 Yonge Street studios before they're sold to be demolished for a new condo development.
• What they - and we - didn't know that day was that the end of the oldies format was just months away, and that when it came, it would be announced as a minor item in a press release from CP24, the all-news cable channel that went along with the CHUM radio stations when the Waters family sold their media holdings to CTVglobemedia two years ago. It took some time for CP24 to fully separate itself from CityTV, formerly CP24's parent, after CTV spun the CityTV operations off to Rogers in 2007. (Until last week, CP24 was simulcasting evening newscasts from CTV's CFTO-TV, but was still simulcasting CityTV's "Breakfast TV" in the morning.) Now CP24 is asserting its own identity - and much to the surprise of CHUM fans all over North America, the announcement of a new 5:30 AM "CP24 Breakfast" show also included the news that effective that same morning - last Thursday, March 26 - the all-news cable channel would be simulcast on the new "CP24 Radio 1050."
• And just like that, half a century of Canadian radio history was gone. The 1050chum.com website, which had become a repository of CHUM's long legacy, began redirecting to CP24's site as soon as the announcement was made. There were no on-air farewells to be heard on 1050, since the station's evening and overnight programming had already been tracked. Even the final moments were graceless: while "Please Release Me," the last full song heard just before 5 AM Thursday, might have been picked as a nod to the end (again) of CHUM, there was still a minute or so left to kill, so listeners heard the beginning of "Black Magic Woman" before an unceremonious dump into CP24's audio, complete with a steady diet of "as you can see" and "as these pictures show," and little regard for anyone trying to follow along on the radio.
• Ask a random radio listener outside MASSACHUSETTS to name a Boston radio personality, and the odds are pretty good that the response will be "Larry Glick."
• For two decades on powerful WBZ (1030 Boston), and for many years before that on WMEX (1510 Boston) and afterward on WHDH (850 Boston), Glick's informal style and offbeat sense of humor defined a new kind of talk radio, inspired a generation of radio people and amused fans all over the "38 states and half of Canada" served by WBZ's 50 kW signal. (Indeed, for some years when this column was young, the single most commonly-asked question we received was, "what ever happened to Larry Glick?") Sadly, there's now a final answer to that question: Glick went in for open-heart surgery near his Boca Raton, Florida home last Thursday, and after 10 hours on the operating table, complications arose and doctors were unable to revive him. Glick was 87.
• A native of Roxbury, Glick left Boston to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. Returning, he attended Emerson College, worked briefly at WLNH in Laconia, N.H., then spent some time on a kibbutz in Israel. When he returned stateside in the early fifties, he went to Florida, where he owned WZOK-FM (96.9) in Jacksonville for a few years before moving to Miami's WINZ, where his life in talk radio began. It was WMEX that brought Glick back home to Boston in 1964, where he joined an all-star staff that included Jerry Williams, though the two wouldn't work together long. Williams left in 1965, and Glick followed in 1968, moving his nighttime talk show from WMEX's weak 5 kW signal to WBZ's clear channel.
• At WBZ, of course, Glick found his biggest success. Leaving the heavy issues-oriented talk to the daytime hours (a lesson he learned early on at WINZ), he spent the hours from midnight to 5 AM (occasionally being moved to an earlier evening shift) having fun with night owls, early risers and probably every cab driver in the Northeast, dispensing "Glick University" T-shirts, trading quips with newsman Streeter Stuart (often parodied on the other side of the glass by newshound "Streeter Glick") and longtime producer Kenny "Muck" Meyer, and "shooting off" callers with a barrage of sound effects. Glick's long run at WBZ came to a close in 1987, evidently with some acrimony, judging by his reaction when your editor reached him a few years later in hopes that he might appear on a reunion show. (Fortunately, whatever breach existed was repaired later on by Glick's spiritual successor at WBZ, Steve Leveille; after Leveille inherited the overnight hours from Bob Raleigh, Glick made several well-received appearances as a guest on the Leveille broadcast.) From 1988 until 1992, Glick's Boston career wrapped up at WHDH, but his show didn't fit as well with that station's issue-oriented talk, and the station's attempt to move him into a daytime slot was simply the wrong spot. Glick retired from radio, turning his attention to a new career as a hypnotist and eventually moving south to Florida.
• We're still reeling - as is the rest of the NEW YORK radio community - at the developments in the murder of former WABC (770) newsman George Weber. The details have been all over the tabloids; suffice it to say that at week's end, 16-year-old John Katehis was being held without bail at Bellevue Hospital after pleading not guilty to second-degree murder and weapons possession.

March 28, 2005 -

• The rumor mill in PENNSYLVANIA has been flying for a while now about changes at Greater Media's "Mix" WMWX (95.7 Philadelphia), and it'll probably be spinning even faster after last Monday's format change at the station found it flipping to the "we play anything" hot AC/classic hits mix that's known elsewhere as "Jack," "Bob," or a host of other names. To the strains of Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom," WMWX unveiled its new identity as "Ben FM" (as in Franklin, of course) - and it's no surprise that the new format is running jockless for now, with morning team Joe Mama and Kim Douglas, midday jock Charlie Maxx and afternoon jock Brian Murphy all out the door. Can "Ben" do what "Mix," "Jammin' Gold" and "Max" have all failed to do, making 95.7 a contender as a pop-music station after decades as classical WFLN-FM?
• (We can guess, in any case, what the calls won't be - WBEN is a heritage AM callsign in Buffalo, belonging to Greater Media's Philadelphia-based rivals at Entercom....) 2010 note: we guessed wrong! Greater licensed the calls from Entercom and 95.7 has been WBEN-FM ever since...
• In the Hudson Valley, it's the end of "The Cat" at WCTW (98.5 Catskill), as the AC station adopts Clear Channel's favorite new branding and becomes "98.5 Lite FM." The move gives the company three "Lites" between Albany and New York: WCTW serving Columbia and Greene counties, WPKF (99.3 Ellenville) serving Orange and Sullivan counties and WRNQ (92.1 Poughkeepsie) serving Ulster and Dutchess counties.
• In NEW JERSEY, former WCTC (1450 New Brunswick) morning host Jay Sorensen will be back on the air this week, taking over mornings at WJRZ (100.1 Manahawkin), the station he helped to sign on way back in 1976. Sorensen replaces Spyder, who moves to nights at WJRZ, where he replaces the departed Mark Matthews.
• The news from MASSACHUSETTS is largely about the engineers this week, and nowhere more so than at Steve Silberberg's WXRV (92.5 Haverhill). "The River" asked the FCC last week to move its class B allocation from Haverhill down the Merrimack River to Andover, where 92.5 would be the first local service, now that Phillips Andover's WPAA (91.7) has been deleted. Even from its present tower site in Haverhill, WXRV is short-spaced to WBOS (92.9 Boston), WPRO-FM (92.3 Providence) and WWYZ (92.5 Waterbury CT), but because all of those stations have been on the air since before the present spacing rules were adopted in 1964, WXRV has some flexibility when it comes to a potential tower site move - there's no need at all to protect WBOS, and the current levels of interference to WPRO-FM and WWYZ can't be increased. That still gives WXRV some wiggle room to use a directional antenna to move south, though that would come at the expense of the station's excellent southern NEW HAMPSHIRE signal.
• In Boston, Radio One's WILD (1090) has filed an application to move from the tower on Corporation Way in Medford that's been its home ever since the station signed on (as WBMS) in the late forties. The tower was threatened a few years ago by the planned Telecom City development, but it won a reprieve for a few years after the telecom bust. Now the land around the tower is slated for residential development, and WILD wants to move a few hundred yards south to diplex on one of the two towers of WXKS (1430 Everett), next to the Wellington T station. WILD would go from 5000 watts day/1000 watts critical hours at its current site to 4800 watts day/1900 watts critical hours from the WXKS site, still non-directional.

March 31, 2000 -

• Less than a year after assembling a mega-group in the northern suburbs of New York, Aurora Broadcasting turned around this week and sold its CONNECTICUT and NEW YORK stations to Nassau Broadcasting for almost twice what the company paid. Here's what Nassau gets for its $185 million: AC WEBE (107.9 Westport) and full-service WICC (600 Bridgeport), for which Aurora paid $66 million last April. WEBE is a full class B, and WICC (despite only 1 kW day and 500 watts night) has an outstanding signal over Long Island Sound and vicinity. Rocker WRKI (95.1 Brookfield), oldies WAXB (105.5 Patterson NY), and standards simulcast WINE (940 Brookfield) and WPUT (1510 Brewster NY), which Aurora picked up in July for $11.5 million. WRKI is the real prize here; between its full-B signal and boosters on the Connecticut shoreline, it blankets Fairfield County and vicinity. WAXB and the two AMs serve Danbury and environs. AC simulcast WFAS-FM (103.9 White Plains) and WFAF (106.3 Mount Kisco), and news-talk WFAS (1230 White Plains), covering affluent Westchester County. Aurora paid $20 million for the three (including 106.3, which was then smooth jazz WZZN) in late April 1999.
• While Aurora and principal Frank Washington walk away, by NERW's math, with an $88.5 million profit on their $97 million investment, it's not a bad deal for Nassau, either. That's because the Westchester and Connecticut stations go a long way towards Nassau's goal of ringing New York city with a solid chain of suburban clusters. It's something the company is already doing in New Jersey, where it dominates markets from the Jersey shore all the way through Princeton and Trenton to the Poconos to Port Jervis, New York. The only piece of the ring still missing is Long Island, and we wouldn't be surprised to see Nassau make a move there eventually.
• The other bit of Nutmeg State news involves Prayze FM, the 105.3 pirate in Bloomfield that's been on and off the air since 1996. The commercial religious station's operator, Mark Blake, was in federal court in New York City Wednesday for oral arguments in his lawsuit against the FCC. While the AP's Connecticut bureau seems to think that Prayze's continued operation will give it a "low priority" for an LPFM license, we here at NERW know better -- under the rules as they now stand, Blake will be ineligible for LPFM (which is just as well, as far as he's concerned; he says he can't run Prayze non-commercially). Much more on LPFM later on in this week's issue...
• The upstate NEW YORK TV dial continues to spin, as Ackerley buys yet again. Earlier this month, we reported on the company's purchase of WETM (Channel 18) in Elmira, adding NBC service in Elmira and Binghamton to the company's cluster of ABC stations in Binghamton, Syracuse, Rochester, and Utica. Now comes word that Smith Broadcasting, the seller of WETM, is also selling Watertown's ABC affiliate, WWTI (Channel 50), to Ackerley. Ackerley takes over via an LMA April 1, with the deal to close later this year. Smith keeps the Fox affiliation for Watertown, moving it from a secondary status on WWTI to primary status on two LPTVs, W25AB Watertown and W28BC Massena, both of which had been WWTI relays.
• Elsewhere in the Empire State, we have a handful of call changes to report, starting in Rockland County at what was WLIR (1300 Spring Valley). The standards outlet, which has absorbed many of the local hosts who used to work at crosstown WRKL, changes to WRCR (we assume that's for "Rockland County Radio") and eliminates the confusion with separately-owned WLIR-FM (92.7 Garden City), whose modern AC signal reaches Rockland fairly well.
• Elsewhere in New England, it's been the quietest of quiet weeks. On the call-change front, Steve Mindich applies for WFEX for what's now WNHQ (92.1 Peterborough NH), as the station enters Phoenix Media Group ownership and a simulcast with WFNX Lynn-Boston. Down in Rhode Island, Citadel gets new calls for its rock simulcast: WZRI replaces WHKK on 100.3 Middletown, while WZRA supplants WHCK on 99.7 Wakefield-Peace Dale (ex-WXEX, WDGE, and WUAE).

New England Radio Watch, April 3, 1995

• (no issue)