Bidding Skyrockets For New Erie FM

TOWER SITE CALENDAR 2011 - NOW DISCOUNTED!

Maybe you need an extra copy for the wall of your shop. Maybe you gave your first copy away as a gift. Maybe the year just got away from you and you forgot to order your Tower Site Calendar 2011.

Whatever the reason, do we have a deal for you!

We didn't quite sell out of this year's calendar...and so now that it's March, we're offering our remaining supply for just $12 postpaid. (That's a 33% discount from the original list price of $18!)

Tower Site Calendar 2011 features more than a dozen great images of radio and TV broadcast facilities all over the country (and even beyond - this year's edition takes us to Mexico!)

Thrill to a night shot of KFI's new tower! Check out the WAEB Allentown array just after it lost a tower - or enjoy the history at venerable sites like those of KID in Idaho Falls, WCAP in Lowell, KTKT in Tucson and Rochester's Pinnacle Hill.

But wait - there's more! We also have a small supply of the new FM Atlas, 21st edition back in stock, as well as a limited supply of Tower Site Calendar 2010 - plus signed calendars, back isues and much more in the fybush.com store!

Orders of 20 or more calendars get an even bigger discount. We'll even add a bow or a gift card upon request. But don't wait...supplies are limited, and the calendar will sell out soon!

Order now at the fybush.com Store!

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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, ten and - where available - fifteen years ago this week, or thereabouts.

Note that 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.

One Year Ago: May 3, 2010 -

• Since being spun off from the Shaw media empire in 1999, Corus Entertainment has become one of the biggest broadcasters in CANADA. But despite heavy investments in Quebec, Corus was never quite able to make its operations in the second-largest province pay off - and last week the company announced that it's exiting Quebec, selling 11 stations to Cogeco Incorporated and putting a twelfth up for sale.
• Cogeco will pay Corus C$80 million for its four-station Montreal cluster (sports-talk CKAC 730, English-language AC CFQR 92.5, rocker CKOI 96.9 and talker CHMP 98.5) along with nearby CIME (103.9 St. Jerome), as well as Quebec City's CFEL (102.1 Montmagny) and CFOM (102.9), Sherbrooke's CKOY (104.5) and CHLT (107.7), CJRC (104.7) in Gatineau-Ottawa and CHLN (106.9) in Trois-Rivieres.
• Cogeco already owns five signals across the province: the "Rythme FM" network of CFGL (105.7 Montreal), CJEC (91.9 Quebec City), CFGE (93.7 Sherbrooke) and CJEB (100.1 Trois-Rivieres), along with CJFM (93.3 Quebec City). Its purchase of the Corus stations will put Cogeco over the two-FM-per-language ownership limits in Quebec City, Montreal and Sherbrooke, which means another round of station sales is likely. Meanwhile, Corus is still seeking a buyer for CKRS (98.3 Saguenay) - and licking its financial wounds after its Quebec adventure, which involved nearly C$300 million in station purchases from the old Metromedia and Power Broadcasting groups back in 2000. (Some of those stations were outside Quebec and have remained with Corus; two of the big signals that came from Metromedia, Montreal's Info690 CINF and 940 CINW, were simply pulled off the air earlier this year when Corus declared them unprofitable. It's still not clear whether those licenses have been officially revoked, or whether they might yet be sold as part of Corus' exit from the province.)
• MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: Corus' exit from Quebec radio turns out not even to be the big media deal of the week north of the border. On Monday morning, Shaw Communications, the media giant from which Corus was spun off back in 1999, announced that it's paying C$2 billion to buy the over-the-air and specialty cable holdings of Canwest Global Communications, including the Global television network. Much more next week...
• *Is Joe Scarborough history on NEW YORK radio? The MSNBC "Morning Joe" host was off the air last week at WABC (770) and his other Citadel syndication outlets, but there were plenty of conflicting stories about his radio future. The official story from Citadel and Scarborough himself is that the show, which aired in the 10 AM-noon slot between Don Imus and Rush Limbaugh, is on a temporary hiatus while it's being "retooled" as a three-hour show. But behind the scenes, there are plenty of questions about that story - not least the question of what three-hour slot Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski could possibly occupy on a schedule that's pretty well locked down with syndicated offerings straight through to early evening. (And there's no way that Scarborough and Brzezinski could do an evening or late-night show while still hitting the MSNBC TV airwaves every morning at 6...)
• The investment firm of WallerSutton is finally selling off the last of the radio assets it ended up with after the collapse of the Route 81 Radio group it funded. WS2K Radio, the licensee that took over the Route 81 stations in receivership, recently exited Wilkes-Barre/Scranton - and last week, it announced a sale of its Elmira/Corning stations. Route 81 paid Eolin Broadcasting $4.5 million for the stations back in 2003; no price has yet been announced for the latest deal, which puts the cluster in the hands of Vision Communications, which owns Corning Fox affiliate WYDC (Channel 48) and Rochester's My Network outlet, WBGT-LP (Channel 26). Vision gets AM news-talk simulcast WENY (1230 Elmira)/WENI (1450 Corning), sports outlet WCBA (1350 Corning), AC "Magic" simulcast WENY-FM (92.7 Elmira)/WENI-FM (97.7 Big Flats) and oldies WGMM (98.7 Corning); the stations are already neighbors to WYDC, whose offices are just down Corning's Market Street from the radio cluster's storefront studios.
• The fight to keep one of western PENNSYLVANIA's big public radio voices on the air is heating up. Pittsburgh Public Media, the management group at WDUQ (90.5 Pittsburgh) that hopes to buy the license from Duquesne University, says it will submit a second bid to the university after its first bid for the station was rejected. At issue is the value of the station, a number university officials have pegged in the $10 million range. In today's market, that figure is widely viewed as too high (especially in light of St. Joseph Missions' $9 million, three-station deal for the Sheridan Broadcasting stations in Pittsburgh last yeat), but Duquesne appears to believe that with multiple suitors for the station - and no immediate financial pressure to make a bargain-priced sale - that it can eventually get its price.

Five Years Ago: May 1, 2006 -

• Today's the day new programming launches at WESX (1230 Salem), as the station's new owners-to-be take control from the Asher family, which has owned the station since the fifties. Last Friday, fans of the little local station honored longtime personalities Al Needham and Betty Stavis at a ceremony at Salem City Hall that drew about 150 people. Under its new ownership, WESX will replace local programming with a format that's expected to be primarily foreign-language religious programming. That format will arrive at sister station WJDA (1300 Quincy) soon, too, though it appears the local programming on WJDA will be around for at least a few more weeks.
• On the FM dial, WBCN (104.1 Boston) has named a new afternoon team. "Toucher and Rich" come to Boston from Atlanta (where Fred Toucher was on modern rocker WNNX) and Dallas (where Rich Shertenlieb was a producer of the syndicated "Kidd Kraddick" morning show), and their arrival moves Hardy from afternoons to evenings and Mark Hamilton from evenings to overnights.
• One of VERMONT's locally-owned radio voices is being sold, but all within the station family. Tri-State Broadcasters, which has owned WTSA (1450 Brattleboro) and WTSA-FM (96.7 Brattleboro) since 1985, is selling the stations to William and Kelli Corbeil. William Corbeil began his broadcast career as an intern at WTSA and later worked at WIZN in Burlington before returning to his family's auto dealerships. Corbeil says WTSA's staff (including WTSA-FM morning host John "Clarke" Kilduff, one of the station's current owners) will remain unchanged, and that no changes are planned to the AM's sports programming or the FM's adult contemporary format.
• The battle over that controversial WFUV (90.7 New York) tower in the Bronx ended with a whimper early last week. Now that WFUV is on the air from its new site at Montefiore Hospital, Fordham University officials acted without any publicity at all to take down the never-completed tower that stood on the edge of the Fordham campus, overlooking the New York Botanical Garden. It's always nice when these things end happily, and all sides are now satisfied - the Garden has its view back (not that we ever found the tower all that ugly!), and WFUV has a better signal from the Montefiore site than it ever would have had from the Fordham tower, had it been completed.

10 Years Ago: April 30, 2001 -

• The biggest news came from QUEBEC, where a Cessna piloted by Gilbert Paquette, 38, of Ste.-Therèse struck the top of the tower between Trois-Rivières and Shawinigan that was home to most of the FM and TV stations serving the Mauricie region of central Quebec. Paquette's plane lodged a few dozen meters below the top of the 300-plus meter guyed tower, killing the pilot on impact Sunday afternoon (April 22). After studying the situation, local authorities decided it was unsafe to climb the tower to retrieve Paquette's body. Declaring the tower itself damaged, they brought it down at week's end by cutting the guy wires. Paquette's widow protested the plan, saying officials should have tried harder to recover the body before bringing it down with the wreckage and the tower itself.
• The other big news from CANADA, of course, is the impending demise of music on Toronto's CHUM (1050). Mayor Mel Lastman declared this week to be "1050 CHUM Week," and the countdown is underway for the big "Final Hours" show, to take place Monday, May 7 from 10 AM until 3 PM. Duff Rowan and Bob Laine will be hosting. CHUM Group is also making official its plans to launch the "Team" sports format in Montreal next week, with "Team 990" replacing "Oldies 990" at CKGM on May 7. The station has signed a deal to carry Expos baseball in English, returning the team to the Anglo airwaves there for the first time since the 1999 season.
• Up North in New York, the word is that the AC sounds of "The Valley" will make their permanent home on the new 96.1 Norwood signal (now WYSI), while the original "Valley" signal at 96.7 in Canton (now WVLF) will join Tim Martz' "Yes FM" hot AC simulcast, along with WYSX 98.7 Ogdensburg and WYUL 94.7 Chateaugay. Bet we see a WYSI/WVLF call swap soon...
• Working our way back down towards Albany, Vox submitted a three-part plan to the FCC that will move the "Wheels" oldies signal much closer to the Capital District from its current Glens Falls home. Here's how it works: Vox would move WHTR, now licensed to Corinth, from 93.5 to 93.7. It would then move that 93.7 allocation from Corinth down to Scotia, not far from Schenectady. And to keep a "first local service" in Corinth, sister station WFFG (107.1) would change city of license from Hudson Falls to Corinth.
• MAINE saw the launch of a new "W-Bach" outlet April 23, as WMDI (107.7 Bar Harbor) became WBQI at 6 AM, bringing classical music to the Mount Desert Island area. Just to the southwest, Gopher Hill changed calls on its WAYD (105.5 Islesboro); the standards station is now WBYA, the former identity of 101.7 Searsport, recently flipped by Clear Channel to "Fox" WFZX.

15 Years Ago: New England Radio Watch, April 30, 1996

• From the high-school front: WHHB in Holliston MA has completed its transmitter move. This little class D outlet used to run 18 watts from the roof of the high school; now, according to an article in the (Framingham MA) "Middlesex News," it's moved to a nearby cell-phone tower, giving it somewhat better reach. The article could have been a bit better researched; it gave WHHB's frequency as "91.9" (try 91.5, with a CP for 99.9), and repeated without any verification WHHB's claim to be one of only 4 high-school stations in Massachusetts. In fact, I think Massachusetts may lead the nation in high-school broadcast FM.
• The new evening lineup took effect this week at Boston talker WRKO (680). Lori Kramer and Leslie Gold, aka "Two Chicks Dishing," now hold down the 7-10pm slot last occupied by Charles Adler. Dr. Laura, who must be on just about every AM station in the country by now, takes over 10pm-1am from Phyllis Levy and "Sex Talk."