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February 10, 2003
Fire Silences WHOM, WPKQ
 By
SCOTT FYBUSH
*For the first time in nearly half a century,
the top of Mount Washington, NEW HAMPSHIRE is silent
as NERW goes to press late Sunday night.
A fire Sunday afternoon destroyed the former WMTW-TV (Channel
8) transmitter building atop the Northeast's highest peak, more
than 6200 feet above sea level. While channel 8 left Mount Washington
almost exactly a year ago (NERW, 2/4/2002)
for a new tall tower in Baldwin, Maine, its transmitter building
remained behind on the mountaintop, home to generators supplying
power to the entire mountaintop. The building also continued
to house the transmitter of WHOM (94.9 Mount Washington).
The fire broke out around 4 PM, cutting off power to the Mount
Washington Observatory nearby. Four observatory staffers were
in the Sherman Adams Building that sits a few dozen yards from
the WMTW building; they were evacuated Sunday night amidst concern
that worsening weather over the next few days could leave them
stranded for several days without heat or power.
Sources tell NERW that by the time a snow tractor reached
the summit Sunday evening, the WMTW building was "burnt
to a crisp," with only the entranceway (seen at the top
of the page) still remaining. No damage was reported to the Yankee
Power Building (shown at left above), the nearby Yankee Building
(home to the transmitter and antenna of WPKQ 103.7 North Conway
NH), or to the Sherman Adams Building. It's not clear at press
time whether the WHOM antenna (seen at extreme left above) suffered
any damage.
 The WMTW building
was built in 1954 for the start of TV service on the mountain,
which had already become an important broadcast facility thanks
to Edwin Armstrong's FM experiments there in conjunction with
the Yankee Network, which lasted from 1938 until 1948.
WHOM's presence on the mountain dates to 1958, when 94.9 signed
on as WMTW-FM. Its two transmitters, shown at left, sat near
the door that connected the TV/FM transmitter room in the WMTW
building to the living quarters there. Until last summer, when
WMTW-TV removed the last of its equipment, channel 8 staffers
were stationed on the mountain all year long, working rotating
shifts and living at the transmitter building for weeks at a
time. (NERW wonders whether an on-site engineer would have caught
the fire before it could have done any damage; we may never know.)
With its transmitters destroyed, it will likely be late into
spring or early summer before WHOM can resume its broadcasts
from the mountain, which reached listeners for hundreds of miles
around - south to Boston, north well into Quebec, east to central
Maine and west to Lake Champlain and beyond. In the meantime,
Citadel, which owns WHOM and WPKQ, has moved WHOM's soft AC format
to WCYI (93.9 Lewiston), breaking the modern rock "CYY"
simulcast with WCYY (94.3 Biddeford) for the duration. We're
told WHOM will apply for special temporary authority to use the
licensed auxiliary facility of Citadel's WBLM (102.9 Portland),
running 100 kilowatts at 150 meters from a site in New Gloucester,
Maine.
As for WPKQ, its transmitter and antenna are intact at the
mountaintop but lack any source of power. The observatory, which
took over responsibility for power generation on the mountain
when WMTW left, plans to attempt to get a generator to the top
of the mountain on Monday, so WPKQ's broadcasts could be restored
this week, if weather permits - a big "if" on a peak
known for having some of the worst weather in the country. (At
the time the fire started, Mount Washington was reporting temperatures
of 1 degree Fahrenheit, 54 MPH winds, blowing snow and freezing
fog - and that's a good weather day up there!)
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Thanks to Chip Morgan of REALcoverage.com for giving
us a look at the coverage of WCYI, as opposed to the huge coverage
WHOM enjoyed from Mount Washington. (WPKQ's theoretical coverage
was just slightly less than WHOM's; in practice, it was limited
to the southwest by co-channel WKNE in Keene, N.H.)
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LATE UPDATE: As of Monday afternoon, at least
one Observatory staffer has returned to the top of the mountain,
and we're hearing reports that WHOM has a signal back on 94.9
at low power. Much more to come, throughout the week, here on
fybush.com...
TUESDAY UPDATE: The first pictures
from the summit since the fire are now posted over on www.mountwashington.org - and what a sight! The fire not only destroyed
the WMTW building but also appears to have gutted the adjacent
Yankee Power Building. It appears from the photos that the WHOM
tower next to the power building is standing, but there is no
word on damage to that structure or the transmission lines on
it.
A 30 kW diesel generator made it to
the summit Monday, but the power it provides is mainly for the
observatory; an added complication is that the fuel tanks, which
are located further down the slope of the mountain and survived
the fire, contain not diesel fuel (which would freeze in the
mountain's extreme conditions) but kerosene.
The word from investigators, meanwhile,
is that the fire was discovered quite early by an observatory
intern and, once started, was impossible to put out in the 50
MPH winds that day on the summit. So even if an engineer had
been there, not much would have changed, alas.
On the dial, WPKQ at 103.7 remains silent;
WHOM's programming continues to be heard via WCYI (93.9 Lewiston)
- and we're hearing interesting rumors from up north that it
was that very 93.9 transmitter that may have found its way over
to 94.9 for a few hours on Monday. In any case, 94.9 is silent
now.
Also silent, as it turns out, is WLOB-FM
(96.3 Rumford); J.J. Jeffrey's talk station used Mount Washington
as a relay point to get its signal from its Portland studios
to its transmitter high above Rumford. Jeffrey says he hopes
to have an alternate STL path going by Friday.
And we hear the cable feed of CKSH (Channel
9) in Sherbrooke, Quebec is missing from the systems in Maine
and southern New Hampshire that carried it; apparently the microwave
path for the Radio-Canada outlet's signal also used Mount Washington.
 *Al Makkay has
sold his three FM stations on MASSACHUSETTS' Cape Cod.
CHR WRZE (96.3 Nantucket), oldies WCIB (101.9 Falmouth) and rock
WPXC (102.9 Hyannis) make up one of the biggest clusters on the
Cape, and their new owner knows more than a little about clusters.
Frank Osborn's "Qantum Communications" (no "u"
there) is paying $32 million for the three stations (WRZE and
WCIB are full Class B facilities; WPXC is an A with a pending
application for B1 status). Osborn's name should sound familiar;
he ran the Aurora Communications cluster in Connecticut and downstate
New York (now part of Cumulus), and before that ran his own Osborn
Communications group, subsequently sold to Pilot and now part
of Citadel.
While we're down on the Cape, we note petitions to deny against
three LPFM applications on Martha's Vineyard: "Assembleia
de Deus" apps for 93.7 in Menemsha and Oak Bluffs and "M&M
Community Development" apps for 93.7 Oak Bluff. We wonder
if the latter has anything to do with the accusations that are
surfacing on several industry mailing lists about LPFM stations
violating both the letter and the spirit of the local programming
rules such stations are supposed to follow (and what of the one-to-an-owner
rule, for that matter?)
Heading back toward Boston, we note a call change at WVXN-CA
(Channel 24), which becomes WFXZ-CA for reasons I can't fathom;
it's still running MTV2, as far as we can tell.
 There's a new newscast
coming to Boston April 1, and it should be welcome news to the
Spanish-speaking community. Entravision's WUNI (Channel 27 Worcester)
is hiring staff right now for the new 6 PM show, which will apparently
be simulcast on sister station WUVN (Channel 18) down in Hartford.
There's already local news in Spanish on WCEA-LP (Channel 58),
but the WUNI show should have a much bigger budget and a more
professional look, we'd expect.
Out in Greenfield, Phil Drumheller checked in to tell us all
about his new acquisition out there. The former WGAM (WPOE for
those with very long memories) is now WIZZ (1520), running
what Phil describes as "a unique blend of nostalgia with
a mid-road pop-rock sound, spanning six decades." Phil,
better known as "Phil D." from Springfield's WHYN,
will start on the 6-9 AM shift next week. Other voices heard
on WIZZ include WHYN veteran Gary James and the rapidly-becoming-ubiquitous
(and we mean that in a good way!) Dennis Jackson. WIZZ will also
carry AP news at the top of the hour.
Springfield's WWLP-DT (Channel 11) will begin carrying NBC's
high-definition programming this week, if all goes well.
And lest there be any question about which market the new
channel 51 in Pittsfield will target, the new station applied
for calls last week: WNYA(TV), which can only stand for New
York - Albany...
*One quick bit of CONNECTICUT news:
our congratulations to Cox Radio's Dick Ferguson, who now gets
to put "executive" in front of his "vice president"
title.
*RHODE ISLAND's CBS affiliate now
has a central Massachusetts tie: sometime this week, the switch
will be thrown that will move master control duties for WPRI
(Channel 12) in Providence to the LIN hub facility in Springfield
(at WWLP-TV/DT). The Springfield hub already controls WWLP itself,
Providence's WNAC (Channel 64) and New Haven's WTNH/WCTX.
 *We'll
start our NEW YORK news in Buffalo this week, where the
Yankees have a new radio home for the 2003 season. The team Red
Sox fans love to hate moves from WGR (550 Buffalo) to sports
rival WNSA (107.7 Wethersfield), which gives the FM outlet a
major programming hook during the months when the Sabres (owned,
at least for now, by the Rigas family, who control cable giant
Adelphia, WNSA's now-bankrupt parent company) aren't playing.
(Buffalo hockey fans might argue that whatever the team is doing
right now also doesn't constitute "playing," but that's
another story...)
NERW wonders whether Entercom will fill the void in WGR's
night schedule with the AAA Buffalo Bisons, currently heard on
WGR sister station WWKB (1520). Such a move would certainly please
fans of "KB" legend Jackson Armstrong, whose 6-10 PM
shift stands to be pre-empted for much of the summer by Bisons
games otherwise.
Over at Infinity, urban WBLK (93.7 Depew) has a new PD: he's
Chris Reynolds, inbound from WDZZ (92.7) in Flint, Michigan.
A Syracuse translator is changing hands: W267AL (101.3), which
relays rocker WKRL (100.9 North Syracuse), is being sold by WKRL
owner Galaxy to "M&D Translators Inc.", whoever
that is.
On the DTV front, we hear WCNY-DT (Channel 25), which has
already been doing some testing from its new Sentinel Heights
tower, has next Monday as its target date for regular programming,
at which point it will be joined by WCNY-TV's analog channel
24 signal, moving from the WIXT (Channel 9) tower a few miles
away.
Down in Port Jervis, Venture Technologies has been granted
a new LPTV. W64CW will operate with a whopping 30 watts. It'll
operate from a site just west of "downtown" Port Jervis,
at the triangle where New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania all
come together.
We can't leave New York without mentioning two New York radio
veterans. Peter King, the upstate native whose resume includes
stops in Ithaca and Rochester, deserves special mention this
week for his major role in CBS Radio News coverage of the Columbia
disaster. He's rapidly become one of the most knowledgeable reporters
in the business when it comes to space (he's based in central
Florida, after all), and it showed last week. And the death Wednesday
(Feb. 5) of Larry LeSueur was truly the end of an era; at 93,
the CBS veteran (1939-1963, after which he worked for the Voice
of America) was the last of "Murrow's boys," that team
of reporters who invented radio journalism as we know it while
bringing the sounds of World War II to America.
*A NEW JERSEY radio station is silent
for now; WPDQ (89.7 Freehold) will return with a religious format
once a new transmitter site can be found, we're told.
 Speaking of religious formats,
WAWZ (99.1 Zarephath) relaunched last week with a full-fledged
commercial contemporary Christian format. The renamed "Star
99.1" is aiming all its imaging 40 miles away at New York
City, even though its signal there is spotty at best; will the
format find an audience there, despite the signal? We'll bet
there are some listeners in the number one market who will seek
out the station's new sound...
*It took a few years, but the hard feelings
towards Don Imus in Scranton, PENNSYLVANIA have apparently
subsided enough to return the syndicated morning show to the
air at WARM (590 Scranton).
Imus offended pretty much the entire community back in May
2000, when he threw a temper tantrum during what was supposed
to be a remote broadcast from Scranton. A hotel operator failed
to put a late-night phone call through to the I-Man's room, and
so Imus packed up at 3 AM and headed back to New York to do his
show from there, spending most of it insulting Scranton.
WARM pulled the show that day, replacing it with local news,
then with oldies, then with local talk and most recently with
Indiana's Bob and Tom. As of last week, though, Imus is back
on board the revolving door that is WARM; we'll see whether listeners
there are ready to forgive him.
Meanwhile at the Entercom cluster, a strange little application
from WGGY (101.3 Scranton): it wants to raise the listed height
above average terrain of its antenna by about 27 meters (from
338 to 365 meters), while keeping its power at 7 kilowatts. It
seems that the height of the antenna site was never recorded
properly on the original 1949 application for what was then WGBI-FM
- and a 1963 modification to the 1949 application then contained
a typo that lowered the reported height still more. Now WGGY
wants to correct the error and remain licensed with the parameters
it's been using for more than half a century anyway...
 A Monday flip in
Pittsburgh: Infinity re-imaged its CHR WBZZ (93.7) today, dropping
the longtime "B94" moniker in favor of "93.7 BZZ-FM."
Our ears in the Steel City say the music mix hasn't changed;
expect this to be the first salvo in what promises to be a reinvigorated
CHR war with Clear Channel's WKST-FM (Kiss 96.1)...
Also in the Pittsburgh market, Alex Langer was granted his
move of WFJY from 1470 in Portage (near Johnstown) to 660 in
Wilkinsburg, a move of some 80 miles. The new WFJY facility on
660 will run 270 watts daytime only from one tower of the WWNL
(1080 Pittsburgh) array up north of town.
 *The
big news from CANADA was Friday's noontime launch of Ottawa's
newest radio station, Newcap's CIHT (89.9). The station shed
its tentative nickname of "the Planet" during its pre-launch
stunting, debuting instead as "Hot 89.9" with a format
that leans much more strongly towards urban CHR than the dance-heavy
programming promised in CRTC hearings. Does CHUM's CHR entry
in the market, "Kool" CKKL (93.9), have anything to
worry about? We'll see when the next round of BBM ratings comes
out...
Down in Belleville, CJOJ (95.5) made a format change on Friday,
moving from "Hits of the 80s, 90s and today" to classic
hits. The Stones' "Start Me Up" kicked off the new
format there, we're told.
Just up the road in Peterborough, CJLF (Life 100.3) from Barrie
was granted a 500-watt transmitter on 89.3 to bring its contemporary
Christian sounds to the market. CJLF also holds a grant to put
a transmitter on in Owen Sound, at 90.1.
And Milkman Unlimited reports that "Tarzan Dan"
is out as afternoon jock at Toronto's CISS (Kiss 92.5); weekender
Kid Carson is filling that shift for now.
 *Have
you ordered your Tower Site Calendar 2003 yet? That spiffy
image of the WBEN transmitter site on Grand Island is the March
image...and it's accompanied by more than a dozen others (including
Providence's WHJJ; Mount Mansfield, Vermont; KOMA in Oklahoma
City; the legendary WSM, Nashville; 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! Calendars
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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
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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),
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