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January 6, 2003
As The Philly Dial Turns...
By SCOTT FYBUSH
*Radio listeners in PENNSYLVANIA's
largest market can be forgiven if they're a little confused in
the morning this week - and it has nothing to do with New Year's
revelry, just some staffing changes at two Greater Media FMs.
We'll start with struggling hot AC WMWX (95.7), which brought
familiar Philly voice Glenn Kalina to its morning airwaves this
week. Mix also brought Brian Murphy (a Philly vet most recently
heard on Boston's WODS) to middays, displacing Lauren Valle,
and moved former morning guy Joe Mama to afternoons, replacing
Rick Stacy. Just to complete the shuffle, the station won't be
carrying Delilah's syndicated nighttime show any longer; her
replacement on Mix has yet to be announced.
Down the hall at WMMR (93.3), Paul Barsky's latest Philadelphia
gig has come to an end. With Barsky's contract not being renewed,
'MMR is using sports guy "Vinnie the Crumb" and former
WHFS Washington jock Graeme to handle mornings until a permanent
replacement is named.
 Meanwhile on TV,
say goodbye to the Westinghouse-style "3" logo at KYW-TV;
it's now "CBS 3" with a new on-air look.
Moving north into the Lehigh Valley, it wasn't a very happy
New Year at WYNS (1160 Lehighton). The little AM station north
of Allentown went silent for a day after owner Ragan Henry pulled
the plug, saying the station was losing money and would be put
on the block. But while WYNS' oldies format is history, the signal
itself is back on the air, under LMA to Nassau and running ESPN
sports for the moment. (Useless NERW trivia: Henry made broadcasting
history nearly a quarter-century ago here in Rochester, when
his purchase of WHEC-TV from Gannett made him the first minority
owner of a network affiliate anywhere in the country.)
Over in the Williamsport market, Backyard Broadcasting started
the new year with a new set of call letters on WSFT (107.9),
which relaunches its AC format as WRVH, "the River."
(NERW notes that Nassau was slapped with a cease-and-desist from
Clear Channel after launching a "River" in Easton last
year; this one is even closer to WRVV in Harrisburg, as it happens.)
And the FCC approved three new Pennsylvania LPFMs last week:
99.5 Brookville, from the Brookville schools; 100.3 Carlisle,
from the Fiat Educational Radio Association (and you thought
they just made little cars!) and 107.7 Altoona, from the Lay
Stewardship Educational Association.
*While the rumor mill keeps churning in Buffalo
(where both UPN viewers had to switch their dials from WNGS,
channel 67, to WNLO, channel 23 when that affiliation moved January
1), there's some actual news from elsewhere in NEW YORK.
Syracuse's new "Dog" (WWDG 105.1 DeRuyter) hired
its first jock, bringing "Scorch" over from competitor
WKRL (100.9 North Syracuse)/WKRH (106.5 Minetto). Scorch had
been doing mornings at Galaxy's K-Rock; he'll be doing the 2-7
PM shift for Clear Channel's new rocker.
 South of Syracuse,
oldies fans in the Cortland area have a station to call their
own again. A few months after WKRT (920 Cortland) switched from
oldies to talk, locally-owned WXHC (101.5 Homer) has dropped
its AC format to become "Oldies 101.5."
Former WTVH (Channel 5) GM Gary Wordlaw has been in the headlines
in Seattle; he's taking over as GM of Viacom's KSTW (Channel
11) out there, and this week he announced that he'll restore
news to that station through an alliance with Belo's KIRO-TV
(Channel 7). which will produce a 10 PM newscast for the UPN
affiliate. (It's an interesting pairing; KSTW and KIRO have passed
the CBS affiliation back and forth between them over the decades,
most recently in the late 90s when CBS left KIRO for KSTW, only
to return a few years later.)
An old familiar callsign is back on the airwaves in Albany.
WABY was the call on AM 1400 there for decades, but disappeared
last year when that frequency became WHTR, the AM simulcast of
Galaxy's ill-fated FM talk format. Now the WABY calls are back
on the air, this time on Ernie Anastos' "Moon 1160,"
the former WMVI in Mechanicville. (NERW wonders if the AM 1400
tower alongside I-90 in Albany still displays the WABY calls...)
And up in the Saratoga market, Vox's WNYQ (105.7 Queensbury)
has relaunched for the new year as "Q105.7"; no major
changes to its hot AC format, though.
 Down in the New York
market, the end appears to be very near for "Rumba 107,"
the latest format on the Big City quadcast at 107.1 (WYNY Briarcliff
Manor NY, WWXY Hampton Bays NY, WWYY Belvidere NJ, WWZY Long
Branch NJ). With the stations changing hands to Nassau soon (for
a reported $43 million), the Rumba Web site is already down and
we hear the jocks at the Spanish-English hybrid CHR are out of
work. We'll be spending some time in the New York market later
this month, so stay tuned for the latest on this one.
*One other bit of NEW JERSEY news:
fans of the old-time country on WKMB (1070 Stirling) have won
at least a temporary reprieve. While the station was to have
switched to gospel music on New Year's Day, listeners down there
are still hearing the old format at presstime, and we hear the
deal to sell the station may have hit a hitch...
*A MASSACHUSETTS talk star is
getting a new syndicator, as WRKO (680 Boston)'s Howie Carr moves
from ABC to John Garabedian's Superradio, which is promising
a new push to get more affiliates around the country for Carr,
whose primary distribution at the moment is within New England.
Fans of "Hillbilly at Harvard" host Brian Sinclair
will want to mark January 24 on their calendars; that's when
a memorial service will be held for the WHRB (95.3 Cambridge)
host, who did the weekend bluegrass show for 36 years, until
his death December 30 at age 62. The service will start at 3
PM at Harvard's Memorial Church.
*From VERMONT comes word of an awfully
small-market noncompete battle way up in the Northeast Kingdom.
It concerns Brendon Lynch, the WKXH (105.5 St. Johnsbury) jock
who moved over to WMOO (92.1 Derby Line) about a year ago. Lynch
signed a three-year, 50-mile noncompete agreement, reports the
St. Johnsbury Caledonian-Record, but when he was dismissed
from WMOO last August, he went back to WKXH, well within that
50-mile radius. A judge will hear WMOO's case against Lynch and
WKXH in March.
*The New Year stunting ended on the NEW
HAMPSHIRE seacoast without much change for WQSO (96.7 Rochester),
which went back to playing the hits of the 60s and 70s with just
one difference: instead of calling itself "Oldies 96.7,"
it's now "the Wave."
 *In
MAINE, we hear the classic rock simulcast between WFZX
(101.7 Searsport) and WNSX (97.7 Winter Harbor) will soon come
to an end. WFZX keeps the "Fox" identity, while WNSX
will be flipping to Fox Sports.
*And with CANADA's regulators taking
two weeks off for the holidays, there's not much to report from
north of the border, with the exception of two new TV callsigns
in Toronto. CJMT-TV is the call on Rogers' "OMNI.2,"
channel 44 in Toronto - matching older sibling CFMT on channel
47. And when Craig turns on its new "Toronto One" service
on channel 52 later this spring, it'll be with the calls CJIS-TV.
Now you know...
*And that's it for the first NERW of 2003. If you haven't
read our 2002 Year in Review, don't miss it - including the Year-End
Rant, coming Monday afternoon! Click
right here to continue to the Year in Review ...or to the
Year-End Rant.
 *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 all orders received by December 22 have now been
shipped. Calendars are in stock, and orders placed now will ship
within 24 hours!
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.
NorthEast Radio Watch is made possible by the generous
contributions of our regular readers. If you enjoy NERW, please
click here to
learn how you can help make continued publication possible. NERW
is copyright
2003 by Scott Fybush. |