April 5, 2010

Rhode Island Dries Out

• MAINE
• NEW HAMPSHIRE
• MASSACHUSETTS
• VERMONT
• RHODE ISLAND
• CONNECTICUT
• NEW YORK
• NEW JERSEY
• PENNSYLVANIA
• CANADA
• CLASSIFIEDS
• FROM THE ARCHIVES
• BASEBALL ON THE RADIO: AAA AND AA

*The breathless TV news reports called it RHODE ISLAND's worst natural disaster in two centuries, though the Hurricane of 1938 might beg to differ. But whether it was "worst" or just "pretty bad," the flooding on the Pawtuxet and Blackstone rivers caused plenty of damage and kept broadcasters busy last week.

Unlike the 1938 storm, which destroyed most of the state's broadcast infrastructure, the TV and FM sites and most of the AM sites, all east of Providence, remained safe and on the air. As best we can tell, only two riverside AM sites north and west of Narragansett Bay were inundated: Radio Disney's WDDZ (550 Pawtucket) along the Blackstone River and Hall's ESPN Radio affiliate WLKW (1450 West Warwick) along the Pawtuxet.

At WDDZ, the water that rose above the tower bases didn't knock the station off the air; even with the tower in water, the station's auxiliary tube transmitter was able to drive the unusual load and keep some signal getting out. WLKW fared worse; it was off the air for almost two days until the waters receded below the base insulator. The good news is that there was no apparent permanent damage from the floodwaters, and things are slowly getting back to normal.

As much of the state continues to dry out, the Rhode Island Radio Hall of Fame has named this year's class of inductees. Veteran WADK (1540 Newport) sportscaster Bobb Angel, former WWLI morning man Gary DeGraide, former WHJJ/WPRO talk host Steve Kass, WHJY morning sidekick Steve McDonald, former WPRO talker Mary Ann Sorrentino and current WPRO talk host/executive producer Ron St. Pierre will all be inducted at the ceremony May 13, along with two posthumous inductees: longtime WEAN/WPJB newsman Harry McKenna and the late Mike Sands of WICE, WJAR and WSNE. The induction dinner will be held at the West Valley Inn in West Warwick, and there's more information to be had at rhodeislandradiohalloffame.org.

*In MASSACHUSETTS, Chris Zito is gone from the morning show at WODS (103.3 Boston), leaving veteran jock Karen Blake solo for now. Blake and Zito had been paired up since November 2008, when their "Zito and Karen Blake" show took the place of longtime WODS morning man Dale Dorman. Zito came to WODS from Worcester, where he'd been doing mornings at WXLO.

Another morning show in the same CBS Radio building has a little more job security: WBZ-FM (98.5) picked up the "Toucher and Rich" show for what's being described as a "multi-year deal"; that deal doesn't include producer/sidekick Chris "Crash" Clark, who left the show Friday.

Also gone from the "Sports Hub" is Gary Tanguay, who was co-hosting the midday "Tanguay and Zo" show with Steve Zolak; replacing him is one of Tanguay's former Comcast SportsNet colleagues, Andy Gresh.

Did we mention that Red Sox season is underway? For Spanish-speaking listeners in Boston, this year once again brings a new radio flagship. The Sox are one of a growing number of teams whose Spanish broadcasts are produced by Spanish Beisbol Network, and since SBN simply leases time from existing stations for the games, those games have a tendency to move around the dial. After many years on WROL (950), the Sox moved up the dial to Salem sister station WWDJ (1150) last year - and now they're moving up the dial again, this time to Blackstrap's WWZN (1510). That will give the Sox a larger Spanish-language radio footprint than they've ever had, but it also means that some of the "Revolution Radio" progressive talk that leases most of WWZN's broadcast day will be preempted by beisbol this summer.

The hosts of WFNX (101.7 Lynn)'s long-running "One in Ten," the Sunday night specialty show aimed at the gay and lesbian community, have parted ways with the station and the show. Keith Orr and Sue O'Connell had hosted the show together since 1997.

O'Connell, who helped to put the show on the air back in 1992, wrote about the changes in an article for Bay Windows, where she's co-publisher:

I’m also not going to delve into the reasons for my departure, and I won’t speak for Keith Orr. I’ll simply say I wish we were still on the air, but the situation had become untenable. There was a glimmer of hope earlier this year that we might be able to continue as hosts, but it was too little, too late.

O'Connell says WFNX is planning to keep the show going with new hosts, and it was still listed on the WFNX website at press time.

*Over at Clear Channel, "Rush Radio 1200" continues to staff up. New talker WXKS (1200 Newton) now has a news director, and it's all in the family: Angela Anderson moves south from the same job at WGIR in Manchester to take the news post in Boston, where she'll be heard on the Jeff Katz morning show that debuts today.

Out west, Pat McKay is leaving Clear Channel's Springfield and Hartford clusters, where he was operations manager; his contract wasn't renewed after 11 years with the company.

Click on the banner above to visit's NERW's 15th annual Year in Review, brought to you this year by these nice folks:

*CONNECTICUT talk host Jim Vicevich is off the air again at WTIC (1080 Hartford), but this time it's for good. Vicevich was absent from the WTIC airwaves for a while earlier this year as he recuperated from a bout with auto-immune illness, and while the station saved his 9 AM-noon slot for him with a combination of an extended morning show and Sean Hannity reruns, budget cuts finally did the local mid-morning show in last week.

"As of this morning at 8:30, I am no longer employed by WTIC 1080," Vicevich wrote on his radioviceonline.com site on Wednesday. "Over the course of four months, we were unable to reach an agreement on a new contract." Vicevich says he'll continue to blog and to do shows on his website.

*In TV news, there's a familiar face coming to the news director's chair at WTIC-TV (Channel 61). Coleen Marren was news director at the Fox station from 1990-1996 before moving up to Boston's WCVB, where she became news director in 2000. Marren left Boston for Pittsburgh last summer, completing a Boston/Hartford swap that sent John Verilli from the news director's office at KDKA-TV (Channel 2)/WPCW (Channel 19) to the same job at Boston's WBZ-TV (Channel 4). But Marren says the pull of her native New England was too strong - and now she's homeward bound, returning to WTIC-TV to fill the seat vacated by Bob Rockstroh, who left the Tribune-owned station a few months back. Anne Linaberger will serve as interim news director at KDKA/WPCW while a replacement is selected.

*One of the best-known jocks at NEW YORK's WRXP (101.9) has parted ways with the station. Nik Carter made a name for himself in Boston and then at WXRK before coming to WRXP a year ago; his afternoon shift there is now being filled by music director and former night jock Brian Phillips

One of the last big analog-only holdouts on the New York City FM dial has added HD Radio: Inner City's WBLS (107.5) is now broadcasting digitally, with a simulcast of black gospel sister station WLIB (1190) on its HD-2.

*Later on in this week's NERW, you'll find the second installment of our annual "Baseball on the Radio" column, focusing on minor-league coverage - but there's some major league news upstate, too. For quite a few years now, this column has pushed the idea that baseball loyalties have shifted in central and western New York. It's not just our own rabid Red Sox fandom blinding us here: there really is almost as much Sox paraphernalia as the traditional Yankees gear being seen on people and vehicles around the area, and at long last it appears that some radio programmers are catching on to the trend.

We hear that WIZR (930 Johnstown) will be carrying the Red Sox network rather than its longtime Mets coverage (now on WCSS 1490 Amsterdam) when it returns to the air full-time this month - and now there's news from even further west, where Syracuse's new "ESPN Radio 97.7 & 100.1" (aka WTLA 1200/WSGO 1440 and FM translators) also began carrying the Red Sox last night.

*Here in Rochester, Nik Rivers adds PD duties at Stephens Media's WFKL (Fickle 93.3) to his existing PD duties at sister station WZNE (94.1 the Zone). The Zone also has a new afternoon jock and production director, as Joe Lopez (aka "Tre") arrives from WPBZ in West Palm Beach to replace Brody, who's now in Denver.

Up the street at Entercom's WCMF (96.5), Chris Crowley is inbound as the new PD, where he takes over from midday guy Dave Kane, who remains on the air. Crowley comes to Rochester from WARO in Fort Myers, and he'll also be programming WROC (950), to the extent that an automated ESPN Radio outlet needs much programming.

*A follow-up to our report two weeks ago about Buffalo's WWKB (1520) and its power levels: it appears that whatever stories were making the rounds about a power cut to 10,000 watts at the city's once-mighty AM voice were just that - stories. Reliable sources report that 'KB in fact remains at 50,000 watts, with no plans to change power levels, and we're glad to hear that.

Also in Buffalo, they're mourning the founding program director of the city's big classical voice. Peter Goldsmith was there when public broadcaster WNED bought commercial stations WEBR (970) and WREZ (94.5). Goldsmith turned the FM station into an all-classical powerhouse, and he remained PD until just last October, when he retired. Goldsmith died March 30 at age 60; he had been suffering from Parkinson's disease.

*And we send our deepest condolences to WQNY (103.7 Ithaca) morning man Chris Allinger on the death of his mother, Betty Cushing Griffin Allinger, who was herself a formidable figure in Utica broadcasting for many years. She actually began her broadcasting career in Boston in 1938, working at WHDH after attending Leland Powers School of Theater and Radio, but by 1939 she was back home in Utica as director of educational programming at what was then the city's only radio station, WIBX. During World War II, she became WIBX's production manager, as well as a pioneering female newscaster. In 1955, she married a fellow Utica radio personality, Ralph Allinger; in later years, she also served on the board of the New York State FM Network, and she was a frequent guest on her son's morning show even in her nineties. Mrs. Allinger died March 27; she was 93.

*A long-running morning team in northeast PENNSYLVANIA split up last week, as John Webster departed Shamrock's "Rock 107" (WEZX 106.9 Scranton) to become the new morning co-host at Entercom's talker WILK, replacing the just-dismissed Kevin Lynn.

Webster, whose real name is John Gasper, had been teamed up with Jay Daniels at Rock 107 since 1985, and Shamrock's not quite ready to let go of its star morning man: Gasper tells the Scranton Times-Tribune (which is co-owned with WEZX) that he's still trying to determine whether his six-month non-compete starts now, or whether it began when his contract ran out last year. It's also not clear whether Gasper can take the name "John Webster" down the dial with him, or whether that remains Shamrock's property.

Meanwhile upstairs at the Times-Tribune building, Willobee, last seen as OM/PD/afternoon guy at WEQX (102.7 Manchester VT), is the new OM at WEZX and its Shamrock sister stations, WEJL/WBAX and WQFM/WQFN.

*It's been a few months now since Great Scott Broadcasting took WPAZ (1370 Pottstown) silent after many decades as a hometown AM signal, and now the "WPAZ Preservation Association" wants to get the little station back on the air to resume serving the area west of Philadelphia. Ross Landy and Rick Rodgers are hoping to raise enough money to buy the station from the Scott family, which put it up for sale after turning off the transmitter and letting the staff go in December.

There's a new 10 PM newscast in Erie: PBRTV.com reports that Lilly Broadcasting's WSEE (Channel 35) is now doing a nightly half-hour at 10 on its CW subchannel, "WBEP," anchored by Scott McDowell and Lisa Weisman. The new newscast competes with the market's established Fox affiliate, WFXP (Channel 66), whose news comes from sister station WJET-TV (Channel 24).

Pittsburgh's KDKA (1020) "restructured" its newsroom last week, leaving reporter Maria Leaf without a job. Leaf came to KDKA in 2007 from Syracuse, where she'd worked for WSYR and WRVO; she also worked at WTOP in Washington, though she left that big newsroom in 2006 to return to Syracuse after her brother Bill, also a radio reporter, was killed in a car crash by a drunk driver going the wrong way down I-81.

At Pittsburgh's other news station, KQV (1410), they're mourning reporter/editor Phil Lester, who died Tuesday (March 30) at 58. The Canadian native had also worked at CJRN in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Some late-breaking news from along the Ohio state line: WLLF (96.7 Mercer) has apparently ditched its soft AC "96.7 the River" format in favor of ESPN sports; the Cumulus station has also picked up the Pittsburgh Pirates network just in time for opening day.

In Philadelphia, they're mourning Malcolm Poindexter, the versatile journalist who came from a print career - first at the Philadelphia Tribune, later at Ebony and Jet and eventually at the old Bulletin - to KYW radio as part of its inaugural all-news staff in 1965, moved over to KYW-TV (Channel 3) in 1967 and remained an important part of the staff there for more than three decades.

Poindexter won multiple Emmys (and a berth in the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers hall of fame) for his work as a general-assignment reporter and education reporter at KYW-TV; in later years before his retirement in 2001, he worked as a public-affairs host and as the station's editorial spokesman.

Poindexter died Tuesday (March 30) at age 84.

*The oldies format may be vanishing around the country, but it's going strong in southern NEW JERSEY, which now boasts no fewer than four oldies stations now that Coastal Broadcasting has flipped country WKOE (106.7 North Cape May) to oldies as "Fun 106.7," with new calls WFNE. Word is that "Fun" is simulcasting the morning show from sister station WCZT (94.3) for now.

There are two new noncommercial signals coming to Cape May County now that the FCC has accepted their applications for filing. Allied Communications Network Two is seeking 91.5 in Cape May, while Soul Mates wants 91.9 in North Wildwood.

*Here's one difference between the broadcast regulators in the U.S. and their counterparts in CANADA: north of the border, you don't have to have a tower, a transmitter or even a frequency in order to hang on to a license. At least that's the case in the Toronto suburb of Markham, where the CRTC awarded a short-term license renewal to CHEV, a station that's been off the air since losing its 1610 frequency to Spanish-language CHHA in Toronto back in 2004.

CHEV was a mobile station, broadcasting from various events (especially junior hockey games) in and around Markham; since losing the 1610 frequency, it's produced podcasts and streaming audio, though its website was down when last we checked. Last week, the CRTC renewed its license through July, albeit with a warning that this will be the last renewal unless CHEV finds a frequency to call home.

There's a PD shift in Halifax, as Dan Barton leaves CKHZ (Z103.5) to go into the consulting business, with CKUL (Kool 96.5)'s Rob Johnson coming over to Z to replace him.

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*Opening Day is fast approaching for Baseball on the Radio, not just for the majors but for the upper echelons of the minor leagues, too, beginning with the AAA International League, where everything's pretty much status-quo this season.

In keeping with our (non-partisan, we swear!) policy of working geographically from northeast to southwest, we just happen (really!) to begin with the Pawtucket Red Sox, who retain their three-station network based at WHJJ (920 Providence), along with WNBH (1340 New Bedford) and WNRI (1380 Woonsocket); seven other signals as far afield as Vermont carry a limited schedule of games.

The Syracuse Chiefs enter their third season on WHEN (620), with Jason Benetti now lead announcer after Bob McElligott's departure to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The hometown Rochester Red Wings add an FM signal to their lineup this year; flagship station WHTK (1280) began simulcasting on WHTK-FM (107.3 South Bristol Township) just after the end of the 2009 season. The team's alternate signal for day games, WYSL (1040 Avon), has added an FM simulcast as well, via new translator W221CL (92.1 Rochester).

The Buffalo Bisons begin their second season on WWKB (1520 Buffalo), while the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees stay put on Bold Gold's "Game" network, which includes WICK (1400 Scranton), WYCK (1340 Plains), WFBS (1280 Berwick) and at least for now WCDL (1440 Carbondale) as well. And the Lehigh Valley IronPigs stay put on WTKZ (1320 Allentown)/WEEX (1230 Easton), with a limited slate of games on a network stretching north to WLSH (1410 Lansford) and south to WNPV (1440 Lansdale) and WYBF (89.1 Radnor) in the Philly suburbs.

On to the AA Eastern League we go, where the Portland Sea Dogs retain a sizable six-station network based at WBAE (1490 Portland)/WVAE (1400 Biddeford).

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats are in the second year of a three-year deal with Clear Channel that includes flagship WGIR (610 Manchester) as well as affiliates around the state.

The New Britain Rock Cats continue their interesting deal with CBS Radio that puts a limited slate of games on WTIC (1080 Hartford) and the full slate on WTIC-FM (96.5)'s HD2 channel, as well as WMRD (1150 Middletown)/WLIS (1420 Old Saybrook). (Connecticut's other Eastern League franchise, the Connecticut Defenders of New London, have departed the scene; they've relocated to Richmond, Virginia as part of a shuffle that moved Richmond's AAA team to Georgia and will bring the class A former Oneonta Tigers of upstate New York to New London later this summer.)

The Binghamton Mets appear to be continuing their deal with Citadel's WYOS (1360)/WNBF (1290).

The Trenton Thunder have Rider University's WRRC (107.7) as their flagship this year, though they're focusing on their webcast.

The Reading Phillies enter their second decade on WIOV (1240), with an extensive TV schedule via Service Electric Cable 2, Blue Ridge Cable and Hazleton's WYLN.

The Harrisburg Senators stay put on WTKT (1460), while the Altoona Curve enter the second year with WVAM (1430 Altoona) and a small regional network.

And if the Erie Seawolves have radio for 2010, they haven't announced it yet.

There's one class A South Atlantic League team in NERW-land, the Lakewood Blue Claws on the Jersey Shore, and they're back on WOBM (1160) for another season.

We'll continue our Baseball on the Radio with the independent minors two weeks from now, and we'll tackle the short-A New York-Penn League when they begin play in June.

*And we close with this programming note - we're on the road for most of the next two weeks, en route to the NAB convention in Las Vegas. If you're going to the show, please do drop us a line...we'd love to catch up with you out west.

We'll be back with a somewhat abbreviated edition next week, live from Vegas...

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