Citadel Adds "Hot" in Providence

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*It's a hot New Year in RHODE ISLAND, thanks to Citadel's purchase of urban "Hot" WWKX (106.3 Woonsocket) and WAKX (102.7 Narragansett Pier) from AAA Entertainment.

The deal adds "Hot" to an already significant Citadel presence in the Ocean State: talk WPRO (630 Providence), sports WSKO (790 Providence) and WSKO-FM (99.7 Wakefield-Peace Dale), CHR WPRO-FM (92.3 Providence), AC WWLI (105.1), as well as the adjacent New Bedford cluster of news-talk WBSM (1420), CHR WFHN (107.1 Fairhaven) and rocker WKKB (100.3 Middletown RI).

For the $16 million purchase price, Citadel also gets to add one more station to its regional cluster: WMOS (104.7 Montauk NY), the Long Island station that markets to southeastern Connecticut from its studios at the Mohegan Sun casino in Ledyard, Connecticut. More on this deal next week...

So much for "Star 93.3" - Clear Channel is now calling WSNE-FM (93.3 Taunton MA) "The New 93.3," having decided not to fight Entercom's complaint that the Providence-market AC station was courting confusion with "Star 93.7" (WQSX Lawrence) in the Boston market.

*CONNECTICUT's Sebastian is about to add a station in his home state to his lineup, as WAVZ (1300 New Haven) picks up his 3-6 PM sports show from WNNZ (640 Westfield) in the Springfield, MASSACHUSETTS market. Both Clear Channel stations are imaging as the "Zone" already, so it won't disrupt the flow too much - and Sebastian's already familiar to New Haven listeners from his long run on FM in Hartford, anyway.

(One bit of Nutmeg State TV news: David Nelson is departing WFSB in Hartford, where he was the morning anchor, to become the lead anchor at WAVY in Portsmouth, Virginia.)

Over in Worcester, WWFX (100.1 Southbridge) shook things up a little last week, adding current active rock tracks to its classic rock lineup and ditching syndicated morning hosts Bob and Tom. PD Chris Engle is doing mornings there now, and he's eagerly seeking a co-host.

One bit of Boston news: WBPS (890 Dedham) is airing something called the "Sports Terminal Radio Network" overnight now, though we hear it's turned out to be just dead air for at least a few nights...

Out on Cape Cod, WCDJ (102.3 Truro) is nearing the end of the one year of silence it's allowed before the license disappears Feb. 1 - could this be the reason some DXers on the Cape are hearing music in mono with no IDs on that frequency?

And we're very sorry to report the death of Will McDonough on Thursday. The veteran Globe sports columnist was also a frequent guest on radio and TV sports shows, most recently as a semi-regular on WTKK (96.9 Boston) - and was, of course, the father of WWZN (1510) host and Sox announcer Sean McDonough. Will McDonough was 67.

*VERMONT Public TV will sign on its first DTV outlet later this week. WVTA-DT (Channel 24) will serve Windsor from Mount Ascutney.

*New calls for MAINE's new Fox affiliate: Pax takes its "PX" callsigns with it when it sells its stations, and so WMPX (Channel 23) in Waterville will become WPFO ("Portland's FOx"?) when it picks up the Fox affiliation later this spring.

Down the coast, Gannett's WCSH (Channel 6) from Portland and WLBZ (Channel 2) from Bangor are opening a joint mid-coast news bureau this summer. To be staffed by Don Carrigan, who spent more than two decades with both stations before joining Maine Public Broadcasting in 1994, the new bureau will make it easier for the stations to cover the region from Ellsworth to Bath during the busy summer months, when traffic can make it hard to get stories back to home base otherwise.

When Clear Channel flips WNSX (97.7 Winter Harbor) to sports next month, the station will still be carrying Bob and Tom in the morning, the last relic of its current simulcast with WFZX (101.7 Searsport). The rest of the day on WNSX will include Jim Rome and a heavy dose of Fox Sports Radio; Fox will also go 24/7 at WRKD (1450 Rockland), which now mixes ESPN and Fox. And while we're in the neighborhood, we note that WBYA (105.5 Islesboro) has changed hands to Mariner; it's now running Jones' "Music of Your Life," still as "the Bay."

*Kevin Fennessy has sold one of his two PENNSYLVANIA AM stations. Holy Family Communications, which owns WLOF (101.7 Attica) in western New York and WPAO (1470 Farrell PA) in the Youngstown market, is buying WAAT (750 Olyphant); Fennessy keeps WFBS (1280) in Berwick.

*From NEW YORK comes word that the Metropolitan TV Alliance, the group of broadcasters trying to restore full service in the wake of the World Trade Center destruction, is throwing its support to a new tower site in Bayonne, N.J. A competing plan had called for putting a new 2000-foot tower in Jersey City, near the Liberty Science Center, but the broadcasters say they prefer the security of the Bayonne site. The plan still faces numerous regulatory hurdles before the huge tower can begin rising.

Upstate, Ted Baker is the new program director for the Finger Lakes News Network (WGVA 1240 Geneva, WCGR 1550 Canandaigua, WSFW 1110 Seneca Falls and WAUB 1590 Auburn); he's the former PD at WHMP in Northampton, Mass.

In Syracuse, Steve Medicis tells us W249BC (97.7) has switched simulcasts, returning to "K-Rock" WKRL (100.9 North Syracuse) from WZUN (102.1 Phoenix) in apparent reaction to Clear Channel's new "Dog" WWDG (105.1 DeRuyter) and its weak downtown signal.

A few shakeups along the Rochester TV dial: veteran WROC-TV (Channel 8) anchor Jerry Fiore left the CBS affiliate after the New Year. Fiore, who had a long track record in Syracuse and Utica before coming to Rochester, says he wants to stay in the area, but he says the contract offer WROC made him wasn't acceptable. Fiore had been anchoring the morning show with Melissa Long; he'll be replaced by Cathy Orosz there, and Long will anchor the noon newscast solo. WROC also lost meteorologist James Monroe last week.

Across town at WHEC-TV (Channel 10), meteorologist Richard McCollough didn't have his contract renewed; chief meteorologist Kevin Williams will add the 11 PM show to his 5 and 6 PM duties. And the rumors are growing that Sinclair's Fox affiliate, WUHF (Channel 31), will move production of its 10 PM newscast to Sinclair's central news hub in Maryland later this year. WUHF already let its local weather staff (including chief meteorologist Michael Gouldrick) go late last year, replacing them with weather from Maryland.

On the radio side, Gina Jones, formerly of WYJB (95.5 Albany), comes to Crawford's contemporary Christian WDCZ (102.7 Rochester) for morning drive; Ben Martin moves to middays at "the Light."

Up in Watertown, WLOT-LP (Channel 66) has been spotted on eBay, of all places! The little LPTV, which lost its UPN affiliation last year and vanished from cable when its owner declined to keep paying for the privilege, can be yours for $950,000; the wags over at Newsblues.com calculated that as $85 per viewer!

And over in Buffalo, we noticed crews at work last week taking down a Western New York TV landmark: the old channel 4 tower in Colden. Built in 1952 for what was then WBEN-TV, it was by far the tallest structure in the region; it's since been supplanted by a new tower next door that holds WIVB-TV/DT and WTSS (102.5).

*Just a little bit of news from CANADA: Listeners in Montreal heard tests last week on 105.1; the frequency study was being conducted to see if the application for a new jazz station on that frequency will work.

The CRTC gave CITY-TV (Channel 57) in Toronto the go-ahead to become Canada's first DTV broadcaster. CITY has been testing on channel 66, but will use channel 53 for its DTV transmissions from the CN Tower, with 6 kW of power. Expect to see CITY-DT on cable before it shows up on the air, we're told...

In Ottawa, Newcap is testing its new dance station on 89.9; expect "the Planet" on the air for real in a few weeks.

CFAN-FM (99.3 Miramichi-Newcastle NB) signed on Friday; "99.3 the River" is being simulcast on CFAN (790) for 90 days, until the AM goes dark for good.

Way out in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, CJFX will soon be leaving the AM dial. The station has already been simulcasting its 580 AM signal on 2750-watt CJFX-FM (98.9); now the CRTC has granted permission to make the FM the only signal there, with a power boost to 75.39 kW. The move comes over opposition from the CBC, which had hoped to use 98.9 over in Prince Edward Island to relay its Radio-Canada premiere chaine service. (The CRTC says the CBC has plenty of alternate channels to pick there.)

And if you haven't read them yet, 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 placed now will ship within 24 hours!

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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 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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