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December 3, 2002
Floodgates Open for New Quebec FMs
By SCOTT FYBUSH
*LATE UPDATE: We've just received word from
CONNECTICUT that Bob Steele has died at the age of 91.
Steele was an institution at WTIC (1080 Hartford), the station's
longtime morning man and still active with a monthly Saturday
broadcast, more than sixty years after beginning his career at
the station. Much more on the life of Bob Steele in next Monday's
NERW...
*The CRTC's call for new radio applications
in four Quebec cities has produced a flood of applications that
will keep CANADA's regulators busy for months to come.
At a hearing to be held in Montreal next February 3, the CRTC
will consider more than two dozen applications for stations in
Montreal, Trois-Rivieres, Sherbrooke and Saguenay (the new municipality
that encompasses the former Chicoutimi and Jonquiere, way up
north), including proposals from the TVA network to create a
new chain of stations playing pop hits from the 60s to the 90s,
from Genex for a network of alternative rock stations and from
Cogeco to expand the "Rhythm FM" service from CFGL
(105.7 Laval-Montreal) to the rest of the province. Here's how
it looks:
- MONTREAL: Radio Nord and Metromedia both want 91.9,
the former with 900 watts for a jazz/blues service, the latter
with 602 watts for an English urban/dance station. TVA wants
4500 watts on 100.1 for its proposed 60s-90s hits station, while
Aboriginal Voices Radio wants 1000 watts on the same frequency
for its growing network (more on that in a bit), while Azzahra
International Foundation wants 100.1 with 468 watts for a new
ethnic station. Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio, which has long
operated cable radio "CHCR" with ethnic programming,
wants to move to FM with 141 watts on 105.1. At 106.3, Genex
wants 275 watts for alternative rock, while Global wants 550
watts for a jazz format. The CBC wants to put a 98 watt transmitter
on 104.7 at Sherbrooke Street West and Cavendish Street to relay
CBME (88.5)'s CBC Radio One programming to the Anglophone West
Island communities, a further admittance that the move from 940
AM cost the CBC dearly in signal reach. Speaking of AM, Radio
Chalom wants 1000 watts on 1650 for ethnic programming, while
Gilles Lajoie and Colette Chabot want to return 1570 (former
home of CKLM Laval) to the airwaves with 10 kilowatts day and
night, programming French-language oldies. And over in Ste.-Hyacinthe,
CFEI (106.5) wants to boost power from 3000 watts to 33.2 kW.
- SAGUENAY: Two groups want 104.1, with TVA asking for
49 kW for its 60s-90s hits format, while Cogeco seeks 23.72 kW
for "Rhythm FM." On 98.5, "Groupe Radio Antenne
6" wants 23,811 watts for a French nostalgia format.
- SHERBROOKE: Cogeco wants two transmitters for "Rhythm"
here, 1650 watts on 93.7 in Sherbrooke and 360 watts on 98.1
in nearby Magog, which competes with an application from Radio
Communautaire Missisquoi for 800 watts on 98.1 in Lac-Brome.
TVA wants 1600 wants on 96.5 for the 60s-90s hits format, while
Genex wants 1580 watts on 103.5 for alternative rock. Also applying
for 103.5 here is Radio Nord, which wants 3800 watts for a hits
and classic rock station. Andre Gagne wants 1300 watts on 104.5
for a rock format, and the CBC wants to put a new Radio-Canada
premiere chaine transmitter on 106.9 in Magog with 1010 watts,
acknowledging that the network's signal there has been weak since
CBF Montreal moved from 690 to 95.1 FM a few years back. (This
application is tied in with some proposed changes in Trois-Rivieres,
below...)
- TROIS-RIVIERES: Cogeco seeks 43.05 kW on 100.1 here
for "Rhythm," while TVA wants 24 kW on 93.9 for the
60s-90s hits. That application conflicts with a CBC plan to change
frequencies on two of its transmitters here, with CBMZ (CBC Radio
One) moving from 106.9 to 93.9 and doubling power to 9.3 kW and
CBF-FM-8 (SRC premiere chaine) moving from 88.1 to 96.5 and going
way up to 66.7 kW. The CBC transmitters have been running at
low power from temporary sites since their tower was hit by a
small plane a couple of years ago; these applications would restore
full service from a new site 1.9 km away from the old "Westower."
(You can read more about that tower and its demolition at www.implosionworld.com/cbc1.htm,
by the way). The 96.5 application conflicts with Radio Nord's
plans here, which call for 67 kW of hits and classic rock. And
Montreal's religious "Radio Ville-Marie" (CIRA 91.3)
wants a relay here on 89.9, with 6 kW.
It will be a while, of course, before we know the fate of
most of these applications, but we have one note in the meantime:
it's interesting that nobody seems to want to try applying for
some of the vacated AM signals in these communities, such as
600, 850, 1410 or 1470 in Montreal, 1140 in Trois-Rivieres, 1510
in Sherbrooke or the big 1580 signal in Saguenay that used to
be CBJ.
One more Quebec application of note: CKVM (710 Ville-Marie)
wants to make the move to FM, on 93.1 with 26 kW (and a relay
in Temiscaming on 92.1 with 10 watts). CKVM has been on 710 for
more than 50 years, and this move will eliminate a big source
of interference to 710 signals in the eastern U.S., most notably
WOR in New York.
 Heading over to Ontario,
Gary Farmer's Aboriginal Voices Radio finally took to the air
in Toronto on Monday (Dec. 2), with just a few hundred watts
on 106.5. No calls yet for "Jump FM," and there are
already reports that the signal suffers tremendously from co-channel
WYRK just across the lake in Buffalo. (AVR has an application
in to move the station one channel over to eliminate the interference.)
It's the end of an era at CHUM Limited, as founder Allan Waters
steps down as chairman and president. Replacing Waters in the
chairman's seat is his son Jim, who's been executive vice president
of CHUM Limited and president of CHUM Radio. Jay Switzer, who's
been president of CHUM Television, will be the new president
and CEO of CHUM Limited. And Ron Waters will replace another
CHUM veteran, Fred Sherratt, as vice chairman; Sherratt will
remain on the board of directors.
Over at Standard Broadcasting, Bob Harris is inbound from
CJAY in Calgary to serve as OM/PD of CKFM (Mix 99.9) in Toronto
and VP of Standard's rock-formatted stations; Brian Depoe adds
similar duties for Standard's AC stations to his duties as PD
of CJEZ (EZ Rock 97.3). CJEZ went all-Christmas music last week,
by the way, becoming the first station in Canada to make that
flip for the holiday season.
Down in the Niagara Region, CHTZ (97.7 St. Catharines) morning
show co-host Ben McVie tried and failed to break the record for
"longest airshift" set not that long ago by Glen Jones
at New Jersey's WFMU. McVie passed out last Wednesday (Nov. 27)
after 58 hours on the air, far short of Jones' 100-plus hours;
after getting some rest and fluids, he was back on the air Friday.
(Meanwhile, CHTZ/CHRE/CKTB general manager Clyde Ross has left
the building to "pursue other interests.")
 *Across
the border to NEW YORK we go, to a newly expanded cluster
just across the river from eastern Ontario.
Classic rock WPAC (92.7 Ogdensburg), talk WSLB (1400 Ogdensburg)
and oldies WGIX (95.3 Gouverneur) are the latest additions to
the Clancy-Mance group out of Watertown, which includes talk
WATN (1240), rock WOTT (100.7 Henderson), CHR WBDR (102.7 Cape
Vincent)/WBDI (106.7 Copenhagen) and AC WTOJ (103.1 Carthage).
Clancy-Mance is paying $1.45 million to acquire the three Ogdensburg-based
stations from Chris Coffin and Patricia Tocatlian's Wireless
Works, which has owned WSLB/WPAC since 1972 and WGIX since the
mid-nineties.
(It was an interesting night last week for WATN, by the way,
as it carried the state championship women's soccer game that
featured Watertown's Immaculate Heart Central High School. The
game ran into four overtimes before ending in a 0-0 tie with
Allegany-Limestone; both teams were declared co-champions, and
we bet announcer Wayne Fuller was pretty tired!)
And as long as we're up that way, WTOJ is one of many Empire
State stations doing the all-Christmas thing for the next month.
So are WYYY (94.5) in Syracuse, WISY (102.3 Canandaigua) in Rochester,
WJYE (96.1) and WTSS (102.5) in Buffalo, WRNQ (92.1) in Poughkeepsie,
WMXW (103.3 Vestal) in Binghamton and WALK-FM (97.5 Patchogue)
out on Long Island; New York's WLTW (106.7) is now polling listeners
on when they'd like to hear the holiday tunes start running.
A late addition to the list: just tonight, we noticed Clear Channel's
WLCL (107.3 South Bristol), a sister station to WISY, has ditched
its "Cool 107" rhythmic oldies format to become "Rudolph
Radio" with all holiday tunes. Will "Cool" be
back on December 26? We wouldn't bet very much on it...
New Schenectady talker WVKZ (1240) has its first local host,
and it's a well-known name: Bob Cudmore, a veteran of WGY (810),
began doing the 7-9 AM shift there this week. Meanwhile, WGY
has named Scott Allen Miller, formerly of KCMO Kansas City and
KFAQ Tulsa, to be its permanent afternoon host. Temporary host
Ed Martin returns to weekend duties (and his full-time job running
the state racing and wagering board), and J.R. Gach finds out
any day now whether he's still employed at WGY..stay tuned.
Down in New York City, Don Rojas is the new general manager
at WBAI (99.5); meanwhile in Brooklyn, the Rev. Dr. Philius Nicolas
has persuaded the FCC to reduce his fine for running a pirate
FM station from $10,000 to $1,000.
 And we're sorry to
report the death on November 30 of longtime WMCA (570) afternoon
talk host Andy Andersen. He had been WMCA's 2-4 PM host since
Salem bought the station in 1990; we remember him, though, from
his 1971-1986 stint as a TV anchor up here in Rochester, where
we watched him on WOKR (Channel 13) and WROC-TV (Channel 8).
Andersen was 80.
(We weren't in town when he died, but a quick check of the
relevant Web sites suggests that Andersen's death passed unnoticed
by both TV stations and what passes for the local newspaper,
which suggests just how short memories are in this business...)
On the DTV front, WSTM-DT (Channel 54) in Syracuse made it
to the Central New York airwaves last week, reportedly with just
2 kW of power from its new tower on Sentinel Heights (though
it's being seen with full HDTV here in Rochester); we expect
WCNY-DT (Channel 25) to join it any day now up there.
 In Binghamton, WBNG-DT (Channel
7) is also on the air, we're told; don't hold your breath looking
for Fox affiliate WICZ-DT (Channel 8) to join it. WICZ filed
for another extension of time to build its DTV facility, but
we can't tell you exactly why; owner Stainless Broadcasting asked
the FCC to seal its application, saying "this private commercial
and financial information is proprietary and highly sensitive.
Its public release would be harmful to the competitive position
of Stainless in all the markets in which it and its affiliates
operate." Sheesh...
Here in Rochester, the top end of the AM dial is lighting
up with new TISes. Philip Dampier, who keeps track of such things,
checked in to tell us the calls on the new 1610 outlets are "WPWC517,"
and the two transmitters already on the air are at the 590/104
interchange east of Rochester and the 104/Salt Road interchange
in Webster. Monroe County is apparently planning seven of these
transmitters to carry travel information; we could have used
more of those as we slogged back in the snow Sunday night from
the midwest, when neither WHAM (1180) nor Buffalo's WBEN (930)
had any local news or traffic information to help us navigate
through the jammed roads south of Buffalo.
And speaking of Buffalo, we saw the new master control for
WIVB-TV/DT (4/39) and WNLO (Channel 23) last week - in Indianapolis!
LIN's move towards "centralcasting" (yes, we know
that's somebody else's trademark...) has the Buffalo stations
moving much of their operation to sister station WISH-TV/DT (8/9)
in Indy, where they'll be run right alongside stations in Dayton,
Fort Wayne and Lafayette, Indiana. WIVB's news and sales operations
remain right where they've always been in North Buffalo; it's
just traffic and master control making the move west. (A similar
facility at WWLP in Springfield, Mass. serves New Haven's WTNH/WCTX
and Providence's WPRI/WNAC-TV.)
Still speaking of Buffalo, congratulations to Steve Cichon,
who moves up from the producer ranks at sports WNSA (107.7) to
become PD!
 *The
big story out of PENNSYLVANIA this week concerns
Saul Frischling's WLTJ (92.9 Pittsburgh) and WRRK (96.9 Braddock)
and the music licensing company known as "SESAC," the
RC Cola to ASCAP and BMI's Coke and Pepsi. SESAC may not seem
very important, but if you're playing "Grandma Got Run Over
by a Reindeer" or anything by Bob Dylan, just to name two
disparate examples (and, come to think of it, that's a
cover I'd pay good money not to hear), you need to pay SESAC
for the privilege. WLTJ and WRRK let their SESAC license lapse,
and the company took the stations to court - where a jury ruled
that they had infringed on 31 SESAC copyrights, awarding the
company $1.263 million. Is an appeal likely? Probably just as
soon as you hear "Grandma" on the radio...
That little stick on the left is WURP (1550 Braddock), and
it's coming back on the air after being silent for nearly a year.
The little daytimer is apparently being leased out to Radiowerks,
which operates talker WBZV (1400 Loretto) up near Altoona and
Johnstown; we hear Don & Mike's syndicated afternoon show
will be among the talk offerings on the revived WURP (and would
it be too much to hope for new calls while they're at it?)
Mike McGann is coming back to Pittsburgh, where he's still
remembered from his stint at 96.1 in its WXKX days, not to mention
later Pennsylvania gigs in management at stations like WRKZ Hershey,
WLEV/WEST Easton, WISR Butler and WPRR Altoona. Most recently
regional manager of Tele-Media's stations in Vermont and New
Hampshire, McGann is heading to Renda Broadcasting to serve as
operations manager of WJAS (1320) and WPTT (1360 McKeesport).
He'll also take an airshift, following "Chilly Billy"
Cardille in afternoons on WJAS.
Don't go looking for WSAJ (1340) in Grove City for the next
few months; we hear the automatic timer that put the little relic
of an AM station on and off the air for a few hours each week
has failed, and that repairs aren't at the top of the agenda
(the station only simulcast WSAJ-FM 91.1, after all). But we're
assured that WSAJ(AM) will get back on the air sooner or later;
we'll keep you posted.
Another Christmas station to report in central Pennsylvania:
Clear Channel flipped "Bill Country" (WBYL 95.5 Salladasburg
and WBLJ 95.3 Shamokin) last week; they'll go back to country
after the holidays.
 Larry Kane will
retire from Philadelphia's KYW-TV (Channel 3) on December 23,
ending 33 years as an 11 PM news anchor in the City of Brotherly
Love. Kane started on the old WFIL-TV (Channel 6, later WPVI)
in 1966, where he was the mainstay of "Action News"
before moving to New York and WABC-TV for a year in 1977. Kane
returned to Philadelphia at WCAU-TV (Channel 10). He's been at
KYW since 1995; he'll continue to contribute pieces to KYW (1060)
in his retirement.
Congratulations to WXPN (88.5 Philadelphia) general manager
Vinnie Curren, who's been named senior vice president of radio
for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He'll start his
new gig with CPB early in 2003.
And we're sorry to report the passing of John Lawrence, who
was station manager at WYCR (98.5 Hanover) in the seventies,
as well as serving as YCR's morning host. Lawrence later did
sales at WSBA/WARM in York. He was 52.
 *We
don't know just why Charles River Broadcasting, owner of WCRB
(102.5 Waltham) in Boston, wants a daytime-only AM station in
southern RHODE ISLAND, but the company is buying WJJF
(1180 Hope Valley) from John J. Fuller for a reported $585,000.
Fuller put WJJF on the air in the late eighties, one of the
last daytimers to sign on in the northeast; it's been running
a nifty classic country format for quite a few years now. Charles
River does own classical WCRI (95.9 Block Island) nearby, so
perhaps 1180 will end up relaying that signal. We'll keep you
posted...
Former Providence mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci signed
off his latest stint as a WPRO (630) talk host last week, taking
farewell calls from listeners on Friday before heading south
to begin serving what's expected to be about a five year federal
prison sentence for corruption charges. NERW fully expects to
hear Cianci back on the air in the Ocean State just as soon as
he's a free man again...
And we note the death on Nov. 29 of Jeff Lalumiere, former
director of engineering for the Tele-Media group in Providence.
He had been battling cancer for some time, we're told.
 *More
small station sales in MASSACHUSETTS: WGFP (940 Webster)
changes hands from the Chowder Radio Group to Barry Sims' "Just
Because, Inc." WGFP will continue in a joint sales agreement
with Chowder's WORC (1310 Worcester); while several trades have
reported that WGFP will keep simulcasting WORC, we know better;
WGFP broke out of that simulcast a year or so ago to go country
as "Cool Country 940."
WGFP's old sister station, WORC-FM (98.9 Webster), flipped
to all-Christmas last week; it'll go back to oldies on December
26, says owner Citadel.
Jerry Williams is back on the air in Boston; the veteran of
WBZ, WMEX and WRKO is now doing 2-3 PM weekdays on WROL (950).
Clear Channel was granted its move of WKOX (1200 Framingham)
last week; the hard work is yet to come, though, as the company
seeks permission from neighbors on the Newton-West Roxbury line
to replace the current two towers of WUNR (1600 Brookline) with
a new array for WKOX, WUNR and WRCA (1330 Waltham).
WGBH (89.7) is trying again to get FCC permission to move
from its namesake Great Blue Hill in Milton to the WBZ-TV (Channel
4) tower in Needham; the station refiled its application for
the move last week, saying the recent grant to WBUR (90.9) to
go non-directional eliminates some interference concerns between
WGBH's proposal and Boston College's WZBC (90.3 Newton).
Kenny O'Keefe has a big promotion within Infinity's radio
group; the company dismissed three veteran national managers
(Bill Figenshu, David Pearlman and Don Bouloukos) on Tuesday,
putting O'Keefe in charge of Infinity's East Coast radio operations
from a base in Boston.
And we've just gotten word of the November 26 death of Jeff
Scheidecker, former operations manager at Springfield's WGGB
(Channel 40). Schedecker, who'd most recently been working as
executive director of the Springfield Area Council for Excellence,
had also worked in upstate New York at WTKO (1470 Ithaca) and
WTVH and WIXT in Syracuse. Scheidecker was just 46; he had been
battling lymphatic cancer.
*In VERMONT, WEZF (92.9 Burlington)
is on the Christmas music bandwagon, we're told; ditto for oldies
WQSO (96.7) in Rochester, NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Just down the road, Brandon Terry arrives as the new afternoon
drive jock at WHEB (100.3 Portsmouth); he comes from Clear Channel
sister station WRXL (102.1 Richmond VA).
*And MAINE is getting a broadcast
Fox affiliate again; once WMPX (Channel 23) in Waterville changes
hands from Pax to Corporate Media Consultants next spring, it
will pick up the Fox affiliation that WPXT (Channel 51) in Portland
dropped a while back.
 *Have
you ordered your Tower Site Calendar 2003 yet? (Yes, the
very calendar that we had the honor of presenting to Paul Harvey
himself during his Rochester visit - and the delightful surprise
of hearing him praise on the air!)
Hear
what Paul Harvey had to say about his visit to Rochester...and
the 2003 Tower Site Calendar! (MP3,
3 min.)
It's no Oreck vacuum, or even Bose Wave radio, but if you
liked last year's calendar, you'll love this one: higher-quality
images (including Providence's WHJJ; Mount Mansfield, Vermont;
Buffalo's WBEN; KOMA in Oklahoma City; the legendary WSM, Nashville;
Harvey's flagship WGN, Chicago and many more), more dates in
radio history, a convenient hole for hanging - and we'll even
make sure all the dates fall on the right days!
This year's calendar is on the presses right now, and the
first copies will go out in the mail by the weekend. Order now,
and you'll have yours in just a week or so!
And this year, you can order with your Visa, MasterCard, Discover
or American Express by using the handy link below!
Better yet, here's an incentive to make your 2003 NERW subscription
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How can you go wrong? (Click here
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You can also order by mail; just send a check for $16
per calendar (NYS residents add 8% sales tax), shipping included,
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International orders: Calendars are US$18 to Canada,
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money orders (in US dollars) to the address above, or e-mail
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*And we're also happy to announce that
our good friends at M Street have released the 11th edition of
the M Street Radio Directory. With the disappearance
of the old Vane Jones log and the declining accuracy of the Broadcasting
Yearbook, the M Street directory is widely regarded as the most
accurate, most comprehensive source of information on the US
and Canadian radio scene - and we're thrilled to be able to offer
it to you at a substantial discount!
The directory includes power, frequency, ownership, key personnel,
formats, ratings and much more information for every radio station
in the U.S. and Canada, and now runs almost 900 pages in an 8.5"
x 11" softcover book. List price is $79 (plus $7 shipping/handling),
but if you order through fybush.com/NorthEast Radio Watch, you
can get this invaluable resource on your shelf for $69 (plus
$7 s/h) - a $10 savings! And your purchase benefits the continued
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wins!
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