"EZ Rock" Lands in Ottawa

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June 1, 2009 -

• Three weeks after WTKK (96.9 Boston) pulled him off the airwaves of eastern MASSACHUSETTS, talker Jay Severin will be back on the air tomorrow, following what Greater Media says were ongoing discussions about the direction his show will take. "We have had conversations with Jay Severin over the past several weeks about his hurtful, inappropriate remarks," said a Greater Media statement released Saturday. "He understands that we will not accept this type of commentary on our airwaves in the future...We want to emphasize that WTKK still strongly supports an open and spirited debate about the many issues our community and our country currently face. There will no doubt be times when people disagree with what Jay says. Our goal is to maintain a level of discourse that is compelling and thought-provoking, yet civil and respectful. While we will not always succeed in walking this line, we will continually strive to do so." Severin disappeared from WTKK's afternoon slot following comments he made about Mexicans in the wake of the swine flu epidemic; it wasn't his first suspension in a long career of controversy, and it's a pretty safe bet it won't be his last.
• In NEW HAMPSHIRE and MAINE, several new construction permits have been saved from deletion, thanks to the FCC rule that allows small business owners to get an 18-month extension if they buy a CP prior to the three-year construction deadline.
• In Maine, Daniel Priestly's Waterfront Communications has transferred CPs on 1230 in Newport and 1240 in Ellsworth to Gary Fogg's Wireless Fidelity of North America, Inc. for $22,000 each, while in Stratford, N.H., Jackman Holding Company has sold WTTT (98.7) to Virginia-based Silver Fish Broadcasting, controlled by Carlton and Aubrey Fitch and Peyton Young, for $100,000. (WTTT has a still-pending application from 2007 to change community of license to Bretton Woods - and to put its transmitter atop Mount Washington.)
• In northwestern PENNSYLVANIA, the consolidation of sister stations WICU-TV (Channel 12) and WSEE-TV (Channel 35) in Erie entered its final stage late last week, when several WSEE staffers offered on-air goodbyes as the CBS affiliate prepared to vacate its longtime downtown studio building and reconfigure its news schedule. While WSEE and WICU had been sharing services behind the scenes for several years, including a common master control and sales department (at WICU's State Street studios) and a common creative-services department (at the WSEE building), their news staffs had remained separate and competitive...until Thursday, when WSEE's airstaff signed off from 1220 Peach Street.
• Several familiar WSEE faces - most notably morning/noon anchor Raychel Vendetti- won't be making the move to State Street, where separate WSEE-branded newscasts will continue to air in some timeslots beginning today. (The details of the new schedule were still being firmed up over the weekend, we hear.)

May 30, 2005 -

• Even as "Jack FM" and its "adult hits" clones have been invading the English-language radio dial from one coast to the other, Spanish-language radio has been upended in the last year or so by a format that's being called "Hurban" - a high-energy mix of the Spanish-language rap music called "reggaeton" and hip-hop, usually delivered by bilingual announcers.
• On Friday, the format arrived in NEW YORK, as Univision Radio flipped WCAA (105.9 Newark NJ)/WZAA (92.7 Garden City) from "Latino Mix," the Spanish hits format that had been running on 105.9 for a few years now, to "La Kalle 105.9 y 92.7, hip hop y mas." The New York format flip follows hot on the heels of recent flips to Hurban in Los Angeles, Phoenix and elsewhere, and it's expected to make WCAA/WZAA a stronger competitor against the big Spanish-language FMs in town (especially SBS' WSKQ 97.9) - and against English-language top 40 as well, which has been mixing more reggaeton into its playlists of late.
• The radio dial in Rochester is a little poorer this week, in two ways. Gary Smith's retirement from WHAM (1180) closes a 50-year career that's included stops at WSAY, WVET/WROC, WNYR/WEZO and WVOR. Most recently, Smith had been doing morning traffic on WHAM and tracking middays on sister station WISY (102.3 Canandaigua), as well as plenty of sports announcing for both local pro and college teams.
• And the death of Katy Abraham ends a career that included 50 years as co-host (with husband Doc Abraham, who died in January) of "The Green Thumb" on WHAM (not to mention a quarter-century on TV at WOKR, now WHAM-TV.) Katy Abraham died Tuesday night (May 24) at her home in Naples, N.Y.; she was 83.
• In CANADA, an unusual travelers information station has gone silent. CFYZ (1280) at Toronto's Pearson International Airport was an unusal station, operating at relatively high power (400 watts) and offering live programming during drive times - but it was also relatively expensive for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority to operate. Milkman UnLimited reports that the official word from the GTAA is that "service has been suspended pending exploration of alternatives," and that listeners are hearing a dead carrier on 1280.

June 2, 2000 -

• Two stories out of MASSACHUSETTS this week rekindle our fading fantasies of a world in which full-power broadcasters can work with community radio stations to better serve the public.
• We start in Maynard, where high school station WAVM (91.7) was fighting for its survival, with its application to upgrade from class D status pitted against competing 91.7 applications from several religious broadcasters and from UMass/Boston's WUMB, which hoped to add a 91.7 transmitter in nearby Stow. With a stellar 27-year record of service to its community, WAVM went on the public relations offensive a few months back, rallying support in the newspapers and among lawmakers.
• NERW stepped into the fray in our February 25 issue, prompting a response from WUMB general manager Pat Monteith, whose open attitude towards the issue led us to make this observation: "NERW wonders whether, given WAVM's limited broadcast schedule, some kind of share-time arrangement could be the saving grace here?"
• And indeed, it seems to be. Wednesday morning, officials from WUMB and WAVM gathered at Maynard High to announce just such an arrangement, under which WUMB programming will be heard on WAVM whenever students aren't broadcasting (in practice, all day long except for 6:30-7:30 AM and 2-9 PM weekdays and Sunday mornings during the school year). What's more, WAVM's talented students will now be able to do internships at WUMB. Of course, WAVM's application for a power upgrade to 150 watts will still need FCC approval (against several competing religious satellite-fed applications), but with the political firepower behind the WAVM-WUMB deal (including Congressman Marty Meehan), we suspect the Commission will have some answering to do if the upgrade isn't granted.
• As promising as the WAVM-WUMB compromise is, there's an even more exciting development bridging the Charles River a few miles to the east. Unlike just about every other commercial broadcaster in the country, WJIB (740 Cambridge) owner Bob Bittner is (gasp!) a fan of the low-power FM movement -- and this week he put his license where his mouth is. Starting tomorrow, Bittner is donating his Saturday night airtime (starting at 9PM) to Allston-Brighton Free Radio, Steve Provizer's micropower community station that's currently having a hard time being heard on 1580 kHz with its hundred milliwatts of legal power. WJIB will carry ABFR's hyper-local informational programming, shows like "Boston's Seniors Count" and "Children's Health Connection," bringing them to a far wider audience (even on 740's little 5-watt night signal!) than the 1580 transmitter can provide.
• There's still more good news to be found in the Bay State: Larry Glick is returning to radio on a regular basis. After paving the way for a comeback with guest appearances on WBZ's Steve Leveille show and on WMEX (1060 Natick), Glick has signed on with WMEX for a regular Sunday afternoon slot. It's only an hour -- 4 to 5 PM -- but that's an hour more of Glick than Boston listeners have enjoyed for nearly a decade! (Those of us outside WMEX range can listen to the Web feed on www.wmex.com).
• Up in NEW HAMPSHIRE, there's some good news from Berlin. Just a few days after going silent, WMOU (1230) returned to the air last weekend with new owners-to-be. Arnold Hanson Jr. and Stephen Griffin, who own a steel company in Berlin, approached owners Bob and Gladys Powell after hearing that WMOU was closing. The Berlin Daily Sun reports that while neither man has any broadcast experience, they didn't want to lose their community's only local radio voice. No purchase price was announced.
• Up in CANADA, some big changes this week for radio listeners in Fredericton, New Brunswick: The country programming of CKHJ has moved from 105.3 FM to the three-way simulcast (1260 Fredericton, 95.5 New Maryland, 103.5 Oromocto) that was, until last week, hit radio CIHI (aka "C-hi"). Replacing CKHJ on the FM side, as of Thursday morning (6/1), is adult contemporary CFXY-FM ("105FM the Fox"). NERW wonders whether CKHJ's country audience on FM was diluted by Saint John's CHSJ-FM, whose 94.1 signal from Mount Champlain has been heard loud and clear in Fredericton for two years now. (Speaking of Saint John, the licensee of the new community station there is the University of New Brunswick - Saint John, not the "University of Saint John" -- that was the CRTC's goof!)

New England Radio Watch, June 1, 1995

• WEEI (850, sports, 50kw) has named a new program director -- and after weeks of rumors of veterans of WFAN or ESPN Radio coming up here, they ended up hiring in-house! Glenn Ordway has been a p-b-p announcer and talk host with 'EEI since the 590 days, and now he's running the show. 'EEI's Eddie Andelman did a live
  show last week from the Strand Theater in Dorchester, with the topic "Racism in Boston Sports." Former 'EEI talker Jimmy Myers, who loudly complained about racism when he was fired a few years back, was invited but declined to attend. The audience was VERY small -- reportedly just 20 or so.
• A veteran WBZ newsman has retired. Darrell Gould left WBZ this month after almost 30 years with the station, and close to four decades in New England radio. Darrell was statehouse correspondent for BZ for many years, and had recently been doing the evening news shift, which is now being filled on a rotating basis by part-timers.
• *If you enjoyed hearing BZ's Gary LaPierre filling in for Paul Harvey earlier this month -- you'll get another chance to hear him this Thursday (June 1). And this time (modesty off) I'm writing for him. So if you don't like what you hear on the Harvey show this Thursday -- you know who to blame :-)
• Imus has moved in the NH seacoast market - from WZNN 930 Rochester to sister station "Mix 96.7," which changed its calls from WWEM to WSRI, "Soft Rock and Imus." WZNN now shares a standards show in the morning with sister WMYF 1540 Exeter, then breaks away to satellite AM Only after AM drive. WMYF runs Stardust, but WZNN was not able to simulcast because its signal overlaps with Stardust affil WASR 1420 Wolfeboro NH. After Imus, WSRI has a AAA-modern rock format.
• Radio Equity Partners has closed its purchase of WWRX-FM 103.7 (classic rock) Westerly-Providence RI from Bear Broadcasting. R.E.P. already owns WWBB-FM 101.5 (B101, oldies) in Providence. Bear keeps WHIM(AM) (1110, country) in E. Providence, along with WERI(AM) (1230, ac) in Westerly, and a CP for WUAE-FM
  99.7 in Wakefield RI. Every high-power FM in Providence is now duopolized, except for WBRU-FM 95.5, which is affiliated with Brown University
• Now that WNLC-1510 in New London, CT has become part of a four-station combo (with WTYD-100.9 New London and WICH-1310/ WCTY-97.7 Norwich), WNLC's format has flipped from CNN headline news to standards. The signal is still awful - it's directional to the south to protect WNRB in Boston, and there's not much
  to the south of New London except fish (and the tip of Long Island).