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December 16, 2002
Vinikoor Wins NH Court Battle
By SCOTT FYBUSH
*The big story this week comes from the snowy
northern reaches of NEW HAMPSHIRE - but it's a precedent
that broadcasters all over the country could soon be studying
as they fight local zoning boards standing in the way of broadcast
tower construction.
Longtime NERW readers are already familiar with Bob Vinikoor's
struggles to build WQTH (720 Hanover), the construction permit
he was granted five years ago for a 50,000 watt daytime, 500
watt nighttime signal that would be a counterpart to his existing
WNTK (1020 Newport), WNTK-FM (99.7 New London) and WNBX (1480
Springfield VT). The station would use four 266-foot towers on
Etna Road in Lebanon, in an area zoned for industrial use.
But Vinikoor ran up against a Lebanon ordinance that prohibits
any broadcast tower higher than 42 feet - and a city government
that was unwilling to accept the laws of physics (and FCC minimum
efficiency requirements) that dictate that no station operating
on 720 can possibly use a tower that short.
 Several years of
court battles ensued, including a setback last year when a state
trial court found in favor of the city and refused to grant summary
judgment in Vinikoor's favor.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court accepted his appeal, though,
and on September 11 Vinikoor and attorney Fred Hopengarten of
Lincoln, Mass. appeared before the court for oral arguments,
with Chris Imlay, lawyer for the Society of Broadcast Engineers,
submitting a friend of the court brief in support of Vinikoor.
The court issued its ruling on Thursday (you can read the
whole thing here), and it's a pretty clear victory for Vinikoor
and for the radio industry in general. In particular, the court
agreed with Vinikoor that the city's laws prohibiting a 266-foot
tower are in conflict with the federal regulations that require
a tower of that height for a station on 720 - and that simply
arguing that Vinikoor is not "required by federal law"
to build the station doesn't give the city's regulations precedence.
Vinikoor's next step: returning to the trial court for an
actual court order, after which he'll be free to apply for a
building permit and build the most powerful AM signal (at least
during daylight hours) in northern New England.
*One more Granite State story: Andy Mack is the new PD/OM
at oldies WNNH (99.1 Henniker).
*The big story in MASSACHUSETTS this
week was, of course, the Friday morning resignation of Cardinal
Bernard Law, and Boston's TV and radio stations were all over
it, breaking the story just before 6 AM in live reports from
Rome on WHDH-TV (Channel 7) and WBZ-TV (Channel 4) and radio
(1030). While channels 7 and WCVB (Channel 5) stayed with the
story all morning, channel 4 broke away at 9:30 for Martha Stewart,
of all things, returning to Rome at noon.
Meanwhile down in New Bedford, Edmund Dinis, owner of WJFD
(97.3), faces a $20,000 Notice of Apparent Liability from the
FCC for four morning show broadcasts on WSPR (1270 Springfield),
the Spanish-language station he sold last March. The FCC says
the WSPR morning shows included (avert your eyes if you're sensitive
about such things!) "explicit depictions of anal sex, oral
sex, excretory activities and sexual activities with a child
present."
Those of less sensitive constitutions can check out the complete
complaint, transcripts and all, at the FCC's
Web site; we expect Dinis to appeal the fine and get at least
a partial reduction.
 It's been four months
since WAAF (107.3 Worcester) pulled Rocko off its afternoon shift,
and now there's a permanent replacement. Eddie Webb comes to
the Entercom rocker from XM in Washington, where he was PD for
the "Liquid Metal" channel; before that, he worked
at KUPD in Phoenix and the old WRCX in Chicago. As for Rocko,
he's still looking for his next gig...
Sean McDonough is staying put on WWZN (1510 Boston) and behind
the mic at Boston Red Sox TV broadcasts; he passed up an offer
to go to the New York Mets next season in favor of an 80-game
TV deal with the Sox, and we're glad to see him staying with
the Home Town Team.
(Speaking of staying, the Patriots signed a reported 10-year
deal to remain on Infinity's WBCN, so Pats fans can look forward
to many more years of Gil and Gino and their excellent game coverage,
too!)
Up in Beverly, we hear WNSH (1570) has dropped most of its
satellite-delivered music programming in favor of local shows,
some live (including a 7-10 AM morning show with programmers
Chris Williams and Peter Ciani) and some automated. WNSH is also
carrying some midday talk and weekend ethnic programming.
*CONNECTICUT Public Broadcasting
will move to a new home in Hartford in a little over a year.
The TV and radio networks are selling their current home at 240
New Britain Avenue to neighboring Trinity College for $10 million;
they'll renovate a building on Asylum Avenue not far from the
state capital to serve as the networks' new headquarters, with
the move expected to take place in the spring of 2003.
(The photo above was taken in the fall of 1996, by the way;
that's a very young new NERW-mobile parked in front, a far cry
from its current barely-driveable elderly-Saturn state. But we
digress...)
On the commercial side, Lyn Tolan is the new news director
at WFSB (Channel 3), arriving from WFTV (Channel 9) in Orlando
to replace Deborah Johnson. Tolan is a native of Ridgefield,
Connecticut and a veteran of WLWT (Channel 5) in Cincinnati.
*Jukebox Radio is off the
air in northern NEW JERSEY and Rockland County, NEW
YORK, but NERW's ears down that way report that the oldies/infomercials
format continues for now on primary WJUX (99.7 Monticello).
 Why was the plug
pulled on the WJUX feed to translators W232AL (94.3 Pomona NY)
and W276AQ (103.1 Fort Lee NJ)? The Bergen Record reports
that Jukebox owner Gerry Turro received a letter from the FCC
in mid-November raising questions about a loan Turro made to
the former business partner who purchased the WJUX studios from
him. The FCC says the loan creates an impermissible business
relationship between the primary station and the two translators,
which operate outside WJUX's primary contour.
While Turro has won previous fights to keep the unusual translator
network (fed from studios in Dumont, N.J., near the Fort Lee
transmitter) intact, he tells the Record, "I'm sorry,
I no longer feel like fighting."
Turro and Wesley Weis, who owns WJUX, are reportedly trying
to sell the three transmitters to a noncommercial operator, which
would be able to legally operate the translators and the primary
together.
Heading upstate, Jonathan Lawhead is the new general manager
at Granite's WTVH (Channel 5) in Syracuse. Lawhead comes from
WXIX (Channel 19), Fox's Cincinnati affiliate; he replaces Gary
Wordlaw, who's off to Seattle to run Viacom's KSTW (Channel 11).
Here in Rochester, a fond farewell to Doc and Katy Abraham,
the "Green Thumb" couple who've hosted the Saturday
gardening show on WHAM (1180) for an amazing fifty years! Doc
and Katy, who have also written for the local paper and were
seen for many years on WOKR (Channel 13), did their final show
on WHAM this past Saturday before heading off for a much-deserved
retirement, for which we wish them the best of luck...
LATE UPDATE: After this week's NERW went up
on the Web, we started to notice some changes down the street
from NERW Central on Pinnacle Hill, home to Rochester's TV stations
(and several FMs as well). That's the new American Tower tower
rising at left in this Wednesday afternoon view from Elmwood
Avenue near Brighton Town Hall; when it's finished, it will be
home to WUHF-DT (Channel 28) and perhaps to WUHF-TV (Channel
31) as well, relocating from the candelabra tower at right that's
also home to WXXI-TV (Channel 21), which needs the space in order
to get WXXI-DT (Channel 16, but with an application for channel
41) on the air. American Tower also hopes to move WZNE (94.1
Brighton) and LPTVs WBXO-CA (Channel 15), WAWW-LP (Channel 38),
W42CO (Channel 42) and WROH-LP (Channel 47) from the little tower
adjacent to the new stick.
And on the IBOC front, those who submitted comments about
the FCC's ruling approving Ibiquity's digital system for daytime
use on the AM band received a fat packet in the mail last week
from the Glen Clark consulting firm, which is now asking the
FCC to modify its ruling to allow IBOC use 24 hours a day, skywave
or no skywave. Stay tuned on this one; we'll be hearing more
about it in the weeks to come...
*Just a few quick bits of PENNSYLVANIA
news: Gary DeFrancesco, former operations manager at WIOQ/WLCE,
is the new PD at Greater Media's struggling WMWX (95.7 Philadelphia),
where he replaced Chris Ebbott on Friday.
Up in Montrose, it seems WPEL (1250) has split from its longtime
simulcast of religious sister WPEL-FM (96.5); while the big-signal
FM (the only FM with good coverage of both Binghamton and Scranton)
continues with preaching and contemporary Christian music, the
AM side is reportedly running southern gospel.
In Shamokin, WISL (1480) made it back on the air December
3 with oldies, just in the nick of time; over near Pittsburgh,
WURP (1550 Braddock) also made it back before the one-year deadline.
It's running a loop of modern AC music, we're told...
 *It's
been a tough fall at Toronto's CHWO (740). Staffers and listeners
there are still mourning the October death of weekend host (and
longtime CFRB fixture) Earl Warren - and now comes word of the
passing of morning co-host Tom Fulton.
Fulton's Toronto career began back on the old CKFH (1430,
now CHKT), where he did afternoons in the seventies, later moving
to CING (107.9) in Burlington and CJRT (91.1) before landing
at CHWO when it launched on 740 two years ago.
Fulton had reportedly just stepped outside the station's Oakville
studio after the show last Monday (Dec. 9) when he suffered a
massive heart attack; he was only 58 years old.
*Other Canadian news: we have call letters for Aboriginal
Voices Radio's new Toronto signal on 106.5: mark down "CFIE"
for the signal, better known locally as "Jump FM."
The CRTC granted CHUC Cobourg's application to move from 1450
(with 8000 watts day, 1000 watts night) to 1580, with 10 kilowatts
full-time; the move should give CHUC wide coverage of the east
on what's been a very empty channel since CBJ in Chicoutimi,
Quebec moved to FM a few years ago.
Barrie religious broadcaster CJLF (100.3) has been granted
an Owen Sound relay transmitter; it'll operate on 90.1 with 75
watts. Meanwhile down in London, "Sound of Faith Broadcasting"
has been granted 10 watts on 105.9 to play contemporary Christian
music.
In Ottawa, Algonquin College's CKDJ is about to get a much
better signal; it was granted a move from 96.9, where its 8 watts
were getting smothered under new classical CJLX (97.1), to 107.9
and 100 watts.
Church station CFPP in Sherbrooke, Quebec was granted a move
from 89.7 to 88.1.
 And heading east to New Brunswick,
CFAN in Miramichi is in its final weeks on the AM dial. The station
plans to complete its move to FM (on 99.3) just after the New
Year, and it's being widely heard by DXers in the east on the
AM dial in the meantime. Reports on the National
Radio Club's mailing list indicate CFAN's first choice for
an FM transmitter site didn't work, so the station tried putting
its FM antenna on one of the AM towers. That, in turn, meant
going non-directional on 790 from the remaining tower, giving
DXers one last chance to hear CFAN before it leaves the AM dial
for good.
 *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 currently shipping! Look
for it in your mailbox; orders are being shipped in the order
received, and they're going out just as fast as we can get them
back from the printer. Orders received by December 18 can still
make it to you in time for Christmas!
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
pledge a little early: support NERW/fybush.com at the $60 level
or higher, and you'll get this lovely calendar for free!
How can you go wrong? (Click here
to visit our Support page, where you can make your NERW contribution
with a major credit card...)
You can also order by mail; just send a check for $16
per calendar (NYS residents add 8% sales tax), shipping included,
to Scott Fybush, 92 Bonnie Brae Ave., Rochester
NY 14618.
International orders: Calendars are US$18 to Canada,
US$20 to the rest of the world, postage included. Send checks/international
money orders (in US dollars) to the address above, or e-mail
for credit-card ordering information.
*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
publication of NERW and Tower Site of the Week, so everybody
wins!
You can order in either of two ways: to order by major credit
card, call 1-800-248-4242, ask for Irene, and tell her
you want the "NorthEast Radio Watch" discount. Or,
send check or money order for $76 ($69 + $7 s/h) to Scott Fybush,
92 Bonnie Brae Ave., Rochester NY 14618. Either way, you'll put
the most trusted, accurate information about the radio industry
in print today on your bookshelf.
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is copyright
2002 by Scott Fybush. |