September 19, 2011

Citadel Becomes Cumulus

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

*For many years now, one of the more challenging bits about being an editor of a radio industry trade publication has been trying to keep the holdings of the various "C companies" all straight. With Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Citadel and Cumulus all very active players across the region, it was always just a little bit too easy to inadvertently label a Cumulus cluster as "Citadel" or vice versa.

We won't be worrying about that anymore: as of late last week, the FCC has signed off on the Cumulus acquisition of Citadel Broadcasting - and within hours, the Atlanta-based Cumulus had taken over at the former Citadel stations, complete with new IDs on the air and new e-mail addresses for the staff.

Across most of the region, the merger came with little overlap: Citadel's clusters in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Allentown, Erie, Buffalo, Syracuse, Binghamton, New London, Providence, Portland, Augusta and Presque Isle had no in-market competition from Cumulus stations, and the Cumulus signals in the New York City suburbs and nearby Connecticut mesh nicely with the former Citadel stations in the city itself, WABC and WPLJ. (Because of the reach of WABC and WPLJ and the sprawling size of the New York metro, Cumulus will have to spin off one former Citadel station at the fringes: WELJ 104.7 is licensed to Montauk, NY, and even though it serves New London, Connecticut, it would have pushed Cumulus over the New York City market limits.)

And then there's Harrisburg, PENNSYLVANIA, where Cumulus and Citadel were active competitors. In last week's issue of NERW, we laid out the changes that were coming, including the spinoff of Citadel's WCAT-FM (102.3 Carlisle) and the Justice Depatrment-mandated format swap that's sending away the classic rock format of WTPA with the Palmyra-licensed 92.1 signal that was doing rhythmic top-40 as WWKL, "Hot 92."

What we didn't realize last week was just how fast those changes would take place.

On Friday morning at 6, WTPA moved down the dial to 92.1, while "Hot 92" moved up the dial (and a little closer to the core of the Harrisburg market) to WTPA's old spot at 93.5 on the dial.

At least for now, that's the extent of the changes: both WTPA and WWKL keep their existing airstaffs, and for the moment they're both in their existing north Harrisburg studios, which will become the home base of the combined Cumulus cluster in the next few months as WQXA-FM (105.7) and WMHX (106.7) move over from their present home in Camp Hill.

*Most of CBS Radio's recent wave of sports FM signals have been bolstered by a strong lineup of local play-by-play rights - except in Pittsburgh, where KDKA-FM ("93.7 the Fan") has managed to find success for itself even though all of the city's pro sports teams are heard across town on Clear Channel's non-sports FM signals.

Now CBS may be close to cracking that monopoly: the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported late last week that KDKA-FM had edged out Clear Channel talker WPGB (104.7) for next year's radio rights - only to backtrack on that report later in the week when the Pirates said they were still negotiating next year's deal with WPGB.

The Bucs have played on "FM Talk 104.7" since 2007, when they moved from their decades-long home on CBS' KDKA (1020). At least for now, the Steelers and Penguins remain in place over at Clear Channel, where they're heard on rockers WDVE (102.5) and WXDX (105.9) and ESPN Radio affiliate WBGG (970).

*In Philadelphia, they're mourning veteran KYW (1060) reporter Karin Phillips, who died on Tuesday (Sept. 13) at just 53. Phillips, who had also worked as a reporter, writer and editor at the all-news station, had been KYW's community affairs reporter. She also served as an adjunct professor of broadcast journalism at her alma mater, Rutgers University.

And just days later, KYW lost a second member of its news team: on Friday night, sports reporter Jack O'Rourke collapsed after covering the Phillies-Cardinals game and died shortly thereafter. O'Rourke was 80; he'd been with KYW for 15 years as a Phillies reporter. (He'd worked there once before, from 1966-1969, before joining NBC Radio for two decades, where his accomplishments included producing the network's coverage of several Olympics.)

Veteran air personality Scott Evans is the new morning man at WLEV (100.7 Allentown), where he joins Cindy Wear for "Scott and Cindy in the Morning." Evans' career includes more than a decade at WXTU in Philadelphia and some time at KPLX in Dallas as well.

*A station sale just across the state line: Erie radio veteran Bill Shannon is buying half of WWOW (1360) in Conneaut, Ohio for $35,000, and he's expected to flip the station from religious talk to oldies, similar to the format he programmed at WYNE (1530 North East) on the other side of Erie.

*It's birthday time for the oldest surviving radio station in MASSACHUSETTS: WBZ (1030 Boston) turns 90 on Monday, and there's no shortage of celebrations, both on and off the air. Steve LeVeille's overnight talk show is devoting two nights to radio history: on Monday night (Tuesday morning) at midnight, beloved Boston radio historian Donna Halper (PhD!) will be Steve's guest - and if you're reading this week's column early enough, tune in Sunday night/Monday morning at midnight to hear yours truly on the air with Steve.

On Monday night at 8, a special hour of "Nightside with Dan Rea" will be devoted to WBZ's history as well, with a guest list that includes current morning man Joe Mathieu and his longtime predecessor, Gary LaPierre.

Gary is part of the very exclusive club of "WBZ Hall of Fame" honorees, and that club will add another member on Monday afternoon. (The station's not saying who will get the nod this time, but we'll be on hand when the latest plaque outside the building is unveiled.)

MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: Today's induction will honor longtime 'BZ morning man Carl deSuze, and it's hard to imagine a more appropriate choice. Full coverage in the next NERW...

And WGBH-TV's "Greater Boston" will also feature WBZ's anniversary, Monday night at 7.

*It's not just WBZ handing out Hall of Fame inductions this week: the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame held its annual induction ceremony on Thursday. This year's class: sports talker Eddie Andelman; WBZ-TV reporter Charles Austin; TV news pioneer Jack Chase; talk host (and longtime Fenway Park announcer) Sherm Feller; writer/commentator/poet Dick Flavin; WCVB anchor Natalie Jacobson; longtime TV/radio writer Anthony LaCamera; his son, WCVB/WBUR executive Paul LaCamera; "Car Talk" hosts Tom & Ray Magliozzi; late Sox announcer Ned Martin; station owner Tom McAuliffe; talk producer and host Ken ("Muck") Meyer; WCVB "Chronicle" host Mary Richardson; Yankee Network founder John Shepard III - and Donna Halper's hero, Eunice Randall Thompson, the pioneering female broadcaster of 1XE/WGI fame in the early 1920s.

*A week after WEEI's momentous move to FM, the sports-radio war in Boston is red hot. On the CBS Radio side, WBZ-FM (98.5) came home from the NAB/RAB Radio Show in Chicago with the Marconi Award for "Sports Radio Station of the Year," an impressive win for a station that's barely two years old.

The "Sports Hub" also announced plans to launch a 24/7 Boston Bruins HD Radio subchannel. CBS has launched similar services dedicated to the Philadelphia Phillies and Dallas Cowboys, and Clear Channel has found success in Pittsburgh with an all-Penguins channel. The Bruins channel will launch the day after Thanksgiving.

Over on the Entercom side, WEEI's FM launch came with some heavy-duty publicity, including a big ad on the Green Monster at Fenway and a huge on-air push surrounding the first Red Sox game on 93.7 on Tuesday. (Which, as the historians in the crowd were quick to point out, wasn't actually the first Sox game on that frequency; some games in the 1970s aired on then-WCGY to fill in some coverage gaps in the days when WWEL and WPLM were the Sox flagship stations.)

*Where are they now? Len Weiner, who programmed former Boston ESPN Radio affiliate WAMG (890)/WLLH (1400) a few years back, has a new job in Florida. Weiner, whose resume also includes stints as program director of Chicago's WGN (720) and at the ESPN Radio mothership in Bristol, Connecticut, is the new "market program manager" for Genesis Communications' stations in Tampa: ESPN outlet WHBO (1040) and talkers WWBA (820) and WMGG (1470).

And there's late word of the death of Len Zola, best known in recent years as the founder of the "Media Gang" gatherings of Boston-area radio and TV folks...more in next week's issue.

*For many years now, observant radio folks have puzzled over CONNECTICUT Public Radio's penchant for identifying its network as "WNPR" when those calls were assigned not to its flagship station, WPKT (90.5 Meriden-Hartford) but to its Norwich-based signal on 89.1.

Puzzle no more - as of last Thursday, they've swapped those calls, putting WNPR on 90.5 and WPKT on 89.1. (And now we won't grit our teeth quite so much when hearing an NPR network newscaster identify a report as coming from so-and-so at "member station WNPR in Hartford.")

*There's late word of some big staffing changes at Cox Radio's Milford-based cluster: Marit Price is gone from the morning show at "Star 99.9" (WEZN-FM Bridgeport), leaving Tad Lemire and veteran traffic reporter Tommy Edison to host the "Tad and Tommy Show" together. Also gone, we're told, are WFOX-FM (95.9 Norwalk) afternoon host Matt Zako and WPLR (99.1 New Haven) night jock Mike Prodoti.

*RHODE ISLAND's NBC affiliate has a new general manager, and he's a familiar face to upstate New York TV viewers. Vic Vetters comes to Media General's WJAR (Channel 10) in Providence from Smith Broadcasting, where he's been serving as general manager of WFFF/WVNY in Burlington, VERMONT and WKTV in Utica - and it's from WKTV that Vetters is best known, having spent much of his career there as lead news anchor and news director before rising into upper management. At WJAR, Vetters replaces Lisa Churchville, who retired in June after a career at Channel 10 that dates back to the Outlet Broadcasting days.

*Vermont Public Radio has added another full-power signal to its VPR Classical network: WVNK (91.1 Manchester) replaces a translator at 92.5 in that southern Vermont community. The 115-watt signal transmits from Green Peak in Dorset. (VPR also signed on another new signal this week: it has upped the power of its HD Radio signal from WVPS 107.9 at Mount Mansfield to -14 dBc, resulting in improved digital coverage of Burlington and vicinity.)

*There's a tower down in MAINE, but don't worry - this one came down on purpose. WEZR (1240 Lewiston) built a new tower to replace the 44-year-old stick at Summer and Park Streets in Auburn, and last week it invited the media over to watch the old tower topple. WEZR's former tower was actually built for the now-defunct WPNE (1530); what's now WEZR moved there two decades ago to replace its original site (as WCOU) in Lewiston. (Check out WGME-TV's video of the tower toppling here.)

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*As NEW YORK's Southern Tier continues to clean up from the historic flooding along the Susquehanna River, there's some good news from our friends at WEBO (1330 Owego): it turns out they'll be able to return to their flooded downtown studio building after all.

After initial reports that the building's foundation was crumbling and it would have to be condemned, a more detailed analysis found that the century-old building could be salvaged. It's still a long road back for Dave Radigan and his crew, who are operating out of a temporary studio at Radigan's home: much of the drywall in the building will have to be replaced along with most of the flooring, and all the equipment that was saved from the floodwaters must still be reinstalled.

More good news from the region's broadcasters: the Citad...er, Cumulus cluster in Binghamton (this will take some getting used to, clearly) in fact made it through the rains without taking on water in its basement studios downtown, we're told. The water came within blocks of the cluster's Court Street facility, but things stayed dry there while newsman Roger Neel stayed on the air all night with updates.

While we don't often hear much about WCDO (1490/100.9) in Sidney, that small station northeast of Binghamton was hit by the flooding as well: owner Dave Mance tells NERW the AM side of the operation went silent as floodwaters approached, prudently moving its AM transmitter out of the building to higher ground. WCDO-FM stayed on the air throughout the flooding to keep residents there informed.

*It's reunion and awards season all across upstate New York - and the fun kicked off here in Rochester Saturday night with the first-ever Rochester Radio Reunion, which drew more than 150 veterans of the Flower City radio and TV dials.

WHAM-TV (Channel 13) anchor Don Alhart emceed the event, which was organized by veteran broadcasters Larry White, Dan Guilfoyle, Pat Grover, Orest Hrywnak and John Gubiotti. Rochester radio alumni from at least ten states came in for the event, including former WSAY/WBBF jock Dave Mason (in from San Diego), WKLX PD Cary Pall (in from Cincinnati), Rich "Albert" Petschke (now in Washington State) and many more.

The Rochester event was just the beginning of a busy week of broadcast history: on Thursday night, Buffalo's broadcasters will gather at the WNED-TV studios for the annual Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame induction ceremony, with a list of inductees this year that includes Dick Biondi, "Shane Brother Shane" Gibson and Jacquie Walker. And then on Saturday, Southern Tier broadcasters will get together for Ray Ross' biennial Binghamton Broadcasters Reunion. (We'll be in Binghamton for that one, too!)

*In Albany, Brian Sinkoff is gone from his late-afternoon "Sound Off with Sinkoff" talk show on Townsquare sports talker WTMM (104.5 Mechanicsville). The former WTEN-TV sports director had been with WTMM for just over three years, initially as PD as well as afternoon host. He's being replaced in late afternoons by Bruce Jacobs.

*And an obituary from here in Rochester: Robert Fain was known as "Rob Jason" in his many years doing radio and TV news in Ithaca, Watertown, Syracuse and Rochester, most recently on Sundays at WHAM (1180) while working during the week at Rochester Institute of Technology. Fain, who was facing some legal issues, was just 51 when he died September 9.

*It's the end of the line for an AM signal in VERMONT's Upper Valley: WNHV (910 White River Junction) has surrendered its license. The sports station went off the air in May 2010 after its transmitter failed and later lost the use of its longtime tower site - and now owner Nassau has thrown in the towel on trying to resurrect the signal.

Much of the former WNHV coverage area can hear the same "Score" sports format on sister station WTSV (1230 Claremont), which remains on the air.

WNHV, as it turns out, may be the least of Nassau's problems right now: Radio Business Report says the company has hit an impasse with its lenders, who are reportedly trying to force the company into Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would mean immediate shutdown of the company and liquidation of its assets. We'll be watching this closely to see how it develops.

*Radio people on the move in NEW JERSEY: Marc Miller is out in morning drive at WSJO (104.9 Egg Harbor City), with Tom Morgan moving from afternoons to mornings at the Townsquare (yup, we started typing "Millennium") hot AC signal. Rob Acampora, late of WSTW in Wilmington, Delaware, takes over afternoons at "SoJo 104.9."

Elsewhere on the shore, Harry Hurley is heading back to his old home base, WENJ (1450 Atlantic City) after more than five years down the dial at WIBG (1020 Ocean City).

*In a slow news week in eastern CANADA, the biggest headlines came from the world of radio sports, where Rogers-owned CJCL (FAN 590) said goodbye to one voice and hello to several more. Tim Micallef and Sid Seixeiro have joined the station after the demise of the "Score" sports channel on Sirius/XM satellite radio, while Scott Morrison comes to CJCL from CBC's "Hockey Night in Canada." But gone from 590 is Dan Dunleavy, who moves over to the Toronto Maple Leafs organization to be one of the team's play-by-play voices this fall on CFMJ (AM 640).

Over at TSN Radio (CHUM 1050), a schedule shift moves Dan Patrick from 1-4 PM on delay to 9 AM-noon live. That chops an hour of Mike Richards' morning show and shifts Bryan Hayes from 10 AM-1 PM to noon-4 PM.

*Out in the Grande Anse region of eastern Quebec, Radio-Canada wants to shut down the 10 kW transmitter at CBGA-1 (540 New Carlisle). It's applying to replace that AM signal on the Gaspe peninsula with five lower-powered FM signals: 104.5 Perce, 93.3 Chandler, 92.5 Port Daniel, 104.3 New Richmond and 98.7 New Carlisle.

*In Halifax, Nova Scotia, the CRTC has granted City Church Halifax a new low-power FM signal. CIRP (94.7 Spryfield-Halifax) will run 50 watts, offering 126 hours of local programming each week.

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