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February 17, 2003
WHOM, WPKQ Recover from Fire
By SCOTT FYBUSH
(NOTE: NERW will take a week off February 24, as we're
on the road collecting more images for Tower
Site of the Week. We'll post any breaking news on fybush.com
from the road, and we'll be back with a complete new NERW March
3!)
*A week after a fire severely damaged their
transmitter facilities high atop Mount Washington, NEW HAMPSHIRE,
the radio stations (and many other users) that depended on New
England's highest peak are still struggling to get back to normal.
As you can see in the image above (photographed by Drew Knightly
of Yankee Microwave for the Mount
Washington Observatory), the former WMTW-TV transmitter building
(at center) and the Yankee Power House were completely gutted
by the blaze last Sunday, which apparently started in the exhaust
system of one of the kerosene generators in the WMTW building.
 The good news, at
least to look at the pictures, is that the WHOM (94.9 Mount Washington)
antenna, seen at the top center of the photo, appears to have
survived the blaze intact, as did the original 1937 Armstrong
tower (to the left of the WMTW building.)
But restoring FM service from Mount Washington will still
take some time.
A generator was brought to the summit last Wednesday, three
days after the fire, restoring power to the Mount Washington
Observatory - but not providing enough power yet to allow the
other services at the summit - including New Hampshire State
Police communications, the transmitter of WPKQ (103.7 North Conway)
and the studio-transmitter link for WLOB-FM (96.3 Rumford) to
resume operation.
For the moment, then, WPKQ is operating with "a few hundred
watts" from a two-bay antenna atop its studio building in
downtown North Conway, providing some service to the Mount Washington
Valley but not yet elsewhere. WHOM's programming continues to
be heard over WCYI (93.9 Lewiston), as well as on a low-powered
94.9 transmitter whose location NERW hasn't yet determined. We
hear the next step for WHOM, until it can rebuild its destroyed
transmitter facilities, will be an antenna on the new WMTW-TV
(Channel 8) tower in Baldwin, Maine.
WPKQ, whose transmitter and antenna are located in a different
building on the mountaintop, hopes to have enough power up there
by the end of this week to resume transmission from the Rock;
stay tuned for more updates right here at fybush.com!
THURSDAY UPDATE: We
hear the modern rock programming from WCYY (94.3 Biddeford) returned
to WCYI's airwaves Wednesday, with WHOM's AC programming running
on 94.9 with a signal that's at least adequate in the greater
Portland area. WPKQ will soon be back on the air from Mount Washington
as well...stay tuned!
*One other NEW HAMPSHIRE note: Mark "Nazzy"
Nazzaro is coming back to Concord's WJYY (105.5) after a stint
on nights at WPRO-FM (92.3) in Providence, R.I. Nazzaro will
be doing mornings at WJYY alongside Kid Cruise.
 *MAINE's
new Fox affiliate will have studios in Portland. The new owners
of WPFO (Channel 23) in Waterville signed a ten-year lease last
week on space at 233 Oxford Street in downtown Portland. The
Pax outlet (formerly WMPX-TV) will switch to Fox early this spring,
restoring broadcast Fox service to southern Maine a year and
a half after WPXT (Channel 51) switched to the WB.
Over at the radio side of WMTW (WMTW 870 Gorham, WLAM 1470
Lewiston, WMTW-FM 106.7 North Windham), the plug is being pulled
on Bill Nemitz and Neila Smith's "Early Edition" morning
show next month; the station will switch to an all-news format
in morning drive, presumably with a hefty dose of the AP all-news
service heard the rest of the day on the stations.
*Just one quick note from MASSACHUSETTS
this week: Willie "Tuna" Fisher is departing mornings
at WCOD (106.1 Hyannis) to go back to Denver's KIMN (100.3) as
afternoon drive jock.
*Radio People on the Move in RHODE ISLAND:
at "Hot 106" WWKX (106.3 Woonsocket), DJ Buck takes
over as PD from J Love; Love stays on board as midday jock there.
*A happy 50th anniversary to CONNECTICUT's
NBC affiliate: WVIT (Channel 30) in New Britain, the former WKNB-TV,
WNBC-TV and WHNB-TV, marked its golden birthday February 11.
 *It
wasn't a good week, at least in the public eye, for two TV news
operations in upstate NEW YORK.
Here in Rochester, the long-expected axe fell on the local
newsroom at Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate WUHF-TV (Channel 31),
as the Maryland-based broadcaster announced that it had fired
co-anchors Christine Persichette and Sherman Burdette, sports
anchor John DiTullio, as well as three other full-time and five
part-time news staffers.
WUHF's 10 PM newscast will become part of Sinclair's "News
Central" operation, based at a new facility in Hunt Valley,
Maryland. Reporter Melanie Barnas will anchor local inserts in
the broadcast, but all national news, sports and weather will
emanate from Maryland when the new format launches March 3.
NERW's comment: We sincerely hope Sinclair is underestimating
the intelligence of Rochester viewers. Our experience suggests
that local viewers are very savvy about where their news comes
from - and that people in Rochester won't take kindly to seeing
"their" news being delivered by someone in Maryland.
And we hope somebody in town snaps up talented people like Sherman
Burdette and John DiTullio soon; DiTullio, in particular, has
developed quite a local following with his raspy sports delivery,
and we can't imagine why Sinclair would completely drop local
sports coverage from its newscast.
 Meanwhile in Syracuse,
Granite's WTVH (Channel 5) is making headlines in journalism
circles for all the wrong reasons. The CBS affiliate recently
replaced its 5 PM newscast with a broadcast called "CNY
Live" (following closely the format developed by sister
station WKBW-TV in Buffalo for "WNY Live" last year),
moving anchor Donna Adamo out of the news department to host
the show.
So far, so good...until someone noticed that the show was
running suspiciously "news-style" interviews with guests
who had paid for the privilege, which would make them advertisers
- thus crossing the line between news and sales that broadcast
journalists have tried so hard to keep sacred.
After a Syracuse Post-Standard article airing
the controversy garnered national attention in the journalism
industry, WTVH managers said they'd put bigger disclaimers on
the segments. NERW wonders: can you rebuild credibility when
you've sold it away for a few dollars and a ratings point or
two?
While we're upstate, we note that Tom Langmyer, just named
VP/GM of KMOX (1120) in St. Louis, has plenty of local ties:
he's a Buffalo native and lists that city's WGR and WBEN on his
resume, as well as six years as operations manager at WSYR/WYYY
in Syracuse, before heading off to KMOX as operations director.
In Rochester, jazz station WGMC (90.1 Greece) has refiled
its application for a power boost to 15 kW; the new version of
the application tweaks the directional antenna a bit to avoid
receiving interference from WRVO (89.9) over in Oswego.
Buffalo's WFBF (89.9) has been granted a license to cover
for its new transmitter site; WFBF is now running 16 kW at 90
meters above average terrain from a tower on Chestnut Ridge Road
near North Boston.
Heading downstate, Sunrise Broadcasting will finally get to
go back on the air at AM 1200 - but not at WGNY in Newburgh,
which moved from 1220 to 1200 under Special Temporary Authority
in the late eighties but eventually had to return to 1220 when
the STA expired. Last week, the FCC granted Sunrise's application
for a new station on 1200 in Kingston; the new signal will run
2000 watts day, 400 watts at night from a five-tower array that
will incorporate the existing site of WGHQ (920) along US 9W
south of Kingston.
 And in New York City,
viewers of WABC-TV (Channel 7) bade farewell last week to legendary
anchor Bill Beutel. The 71 year old Beutel stepped down from
the anchor chair a few years back; last week, he retired from
the station completely, after spending several years on special
assignments.
Beutel had started at WABC way back in 1962; he's also worked
for the parent network, including a stint in 1975 as host of
"AM America," predecessor to today's "Good Morning
America."
*In NEW JERSEY, WWRU (1660 Jersey
City) wants to tweak its daytime signal. It's asking the FCC
to allow it to go directional with its 10 kW signal, using two
towers of the WLXE (1380 New York) array in East Rutherford,
N.J. WWRU is currently non-directional by day from one WLXE tower
and directional at night from four short towers at the WLXE site.
*A format change on the way in PENNSYLVANIA?
Forever's smooth jazz WOJZ (98.7 Pleasant Gap), just outside
Williamsport, has been running a loop of people saying "Wowie"
all weekend. We hear new calls of WOWY, and a new format, are
on the way...
In Pittsburgh, there's still no sign of WBZZ (93.7) morning
host John Cline - and it looks as though he won't return to the
"John-Dave-Bubba-Shelley" morning show at the renamed
"93-7BZZ."
 And in the York market,
we hear WSOX (96.1 Red Lion) is being sold to Susquehanna, which
owns news-talk WSBA (910 York) and AC WARM-FM (103.3 York) in
the market.
Thomas Moffitt, who's owned WSOX since its days as religious
WGCB-FM (and who continues to own religious WGCB-TV 49 and WTHM
1440 in Red Lion) had been leasing WSOX to Brill Media, which
also owned WIOV (1240/105.1) in nearby Ephrata - but Brill's
bankruptcy brought an end to that LMA.
No word yet on whether a format change might be in order for
WSOX; much more on this in the next NERW...
*And up in CANADA, CIZN (92.9 Cambridge
ON) has been granted a move to 107.5 and a power boost to 2560
watts from the current 500; the move should help CIZN reach listeners
who now hear Buffalo's WBUF on 92.9. (Hey, we predicted the interference
from Buffalo's 92.9 way back in August 1998...)
Over in Wingham, Blackburn Broadcasting (which owns CKNX 920
and CKNX-FM 101.7 there) was denied a new station on 94.5. The
CRTC says Blackburn didn't consider the implications on the CBC's
long-range plan, which calls for using 94.5 in Wingham for a
Radio-Canada premiere chaine transmitter to serve all seven Francophones
in the region...
 *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
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
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in print today on your bookshelf.
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2003 by Scott Fybush. |