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March 24, 2003
Bond Returns to Harrisburg Airwaves
By SCOTT FYBUSH
*One of the best known broadcast voices in
central PENNSYLVANIA came back to the air last Thursday
(March 20).
 Bruce Bond was a fixture in afternoons
at WNNK (104.1) until December 2001, when the Cumulus station
shifted from CHR to hot AC and let him go. Bond and sidekick
"Stretch" quickly found a new home at Citadel's classic
hits WRKZ (102.3 Carlisle) - but Cumulus soon filed suit to enforce
Bond's one-year noncompete agreement, which left Stretch working
mornings solo on "Z102."
His absence from the airwaves (and a paycheck) hasn't been
easy for Bond; a note on his brucebond.com Web site asks for
donations from listeners to help him pay his bills.
Over in Pottsville, WPAM (1450) has returned to the air after
being silent for a short time after its LMA by crosstown WPPA/WAVT
ended. The station is now being run under a five-year LMA to
Bob Murray (a former WPAM PD); it signed back on March 16 with
a day of Bruce Springsteen singing "The Rising," followed
by a day of Irish music; the permanent format at the new "Phoenix
1450" is classic rock.
Allentown's WAEB (790) is rearranging its schedule to add
Michael Savage at night; Phil Hendrie's show gets pushed back
to 10 PM - 1 AM as a result.
*NEW YORK is seeing some talk schedule
changes as well; WABC (770) has pulled George Noory's "Coast
to Coast AM" (the old Art Bell show) and installed Steve
Malzberg in the 1-5 AM slot. That gives him four solo hours instead
of the two hours he was sharing with Richard Bey from 6-8 PM.
(Monica Crowley is filling that seat now.)
Sorry to report (belatedly, at that) the death of Jim Harlan,
a veteran personality on stations such as the old WKTU (92.3),
WVNJ (1160 Oakland NJ) and WNEW (1130), where he was part of
that station's final airstaff. Harlan died March 13 of complications
from brain surgery; he was just 53.
Upstate, rumors are swirling about the fate of WNSA (107.7
Wethersfield Township), the Buffalo-market sports station that's
owned by bankrupt Adelphia. WNSA's afternoon host Howard Simon
is now being seen on TV as well, with a 3-6 PM "Simoncast"
on sister cable network Empire Sports; that pushes the "Fan
TV" talk show back to 7 PM.
*Some Radio People on the Move in NEW
HAMPSHIRE: At WERZ (107.1 Exeter), it's goodbye to morning
jocks Jeff Paradis (after 7 years) and Sarah Sullivan; they're
being replaced by Kid Cruise (now the morning jock down the road
at WJYY in Concord) and Suzanne Foxx, who had been down in New
Jersey at WJLK and was part of Kevin Hilley's old morning show
at WJYY before that.
And when Kid Cruise leaves WJYY (105.5) on March 28, Marc
"Nazzy" Nazzaro will come back to the station (after
a stint in Providence) to take over the morning show, which will
no longer be known as "the Breakfast Jam."
 *Congratulations
to MASSACHUSETTS radio manager Don Kelley, who won't
just be the PD at Greater Media's WMJX (106.7 Boston). He's been
promoted to vice president of the station, a title that doesn't
exist anywhere else in the company. Nice going!
Down on Cape Cod, Vince Cremona is the new market manager
for the cluster (WRZE/WCIB/WPXC) that Qantum is buying from Makkay.
Cremona and Qantum owner Frank Osborne go way back together -
Cremona sold WICC/WEBE in Bridgeport, CONNECTICUT to
Osborne's Aurora group back in 1999 and stayed on to manage the
stations until Cumulus bought out Aurora last fall.
And a familiar New England voice is apparently coming to middays
on WROR (105.7 Framingham); Carolyn Fox has been heard doing
some weekend shifts at the Boston-market classic rocker.
 *Down in RHODE
ISLAND, the "O" word is becoming a thing of the
past at Clear Channel's WWBB (101.5 Providence). That's "O"
as in "Oldies" - the music B101 is playing is now going
under the moniker "Big Hits of the Sixties and Seventies."
This is a (forgive the pun) "Big" thing these days;
we've seen similar shifts up the New Hampshire seacoast at WQSO
(96.7 Rochester) and over in Utica at what's now WUCL (93.5 Remsen),
and we expect to see more of these "non-Oldies" oldies
stations in the months to come.
We'll have more on this when we get back to home base next week (we're coming to you from South Carolina at the moment, as we gather new pictures for Tower Site of the Week) - but some local sound is coming back to WWRX (103.7 Westerly). It's getting detached from the FNX Radio Network up in Boston, with PD Cruze taking over mornings and afternoon guys Storm and Birdsey becoming WWRX-only. Details on the 31st...
*Which brings us to BASEBALL, and with opening day
just around the corner, there's good and bad news for fans of
the national pastime this year.
 The Boston Red
Sox continue their radio deal with Entercom's WEEI (850)
and a big regional network (including Hartford's WTIC, the vital
50,000 watt link to the western reaches of Sox Nation after dark),
but they shift broadcast TV partners this year, dropping from
68 games on Fox's WFXT (Channel 25) and a regional network last
year to 28 games on Viacom's WSBK (Channel 38) and WBZ-TV (Channel
4) this year. (All but four of the game show up on channel 38,
according to the initial schedule.)
- The New York Yankees enter their second season on
Viacom's WCBS (880); a few changes in the network lineup include
the replacement of Buffalo's WGR (550) with WNSA (107.7) and
the addition of WORC (1310) up in Worcester, deep in Sox territory.
On TV, the YES network finally has full-market coverage now that
it's settled its dispute with Cablevision; WCBS-TV (Channel 2)
will carry about 20 games as well.
- The New York Mets remain on WFAN (660) and a
smaller regional network than the Yanks; WPIX (Channel 11) carries
about 50 games with the remainder on MSG, just like last year.
- The Philadelphia Phillies play their final season
at the Vet and their second season on WPEN (950) and a regional
network that stretches into central Pennsylvania. On TV, Viacom's
WPSG (Channel 57) takes 42 games, with the season opener next
week on sister station KYW-TV (Channel 3) instead; the rest of
the games go to cable on Comcast SportsNet.
- The Pittsburgh Pirates and KDKA (1020) are now
in their 83rd season of the longest-running partnership in baseball
broadcast history; alas, there will be no broadcast TV for the
Bucs this year, though cable viewers will see the games on Fox
Sports Pittsburgh.
- Across the border, there's no broadcast TV for the Toronto
Blue Jays this year, either; CBC/Radio-Canada has ended its
long relationship with the team, leaving Rogers SportsNet, which
shares common ownership with the team, to carry about 120 games
(with TSN taking the rest.) On the radio, Rogers owns CJCL (590
the Fan), so no change there.
- And then there's the sad shell of a team that is the Montreal
Expos. No TV this year, except for a handful of games against
the Jays that will show up on TSN or Rogers SportsNet - and no
English radio, either, as talks between the Expos and CKGM (Team
990) have broken down. (CKGM stepped in mid-season last year
to pick up a shortened schedule of home games.) That leaves French
radio, and we believe the Radiomedia stations, including Montreal's
CKAC (730), will step up to the plate again for what's almost
certain to be the last Expos season in Montreal. (As for Spanish
radio when the team plays some of its home games down in San
Juan, we'll have to wait and see...)
(Thanks to Joseph Gallant for helping us keep track of who's
where and what's what this year!)
We're on the road this week, visiting the towers of the Carolinas;
we'll be back next Monday with all the news - plus the all-important
AAA baseball listings! See you then...
 *Have
you ordered your Tower Site Calendar 2003 yet? That spiffy
image of the WBEN transmitter site on Grand Island is this month's
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
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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,
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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!
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