|
March 31, 2003
"The Duke of Portland" is Dead
By SCOTT FYBUSH
*It's always sad when we have to begin the
column with an obituary, and sadder still when it's a radio personality
who died in the line of duty - and so it is this week with Bob
Anderson, "The Duke of Portland."
 Anderson spent forty
years on the air in MAINE's largest city (a former mayor
dubbed him "the Duke" and the name stuck), with stints
at WPOR (1490), WLOB (1310), WMGX (93.1) and most recently at
oldies WYNZ (100.9 Westbrook), where he was working Saturday
morning (March 29) doing his usual weekend shift.
About 7:30, staffers at the other stations in Saga's Portland
cluster heard the silence sensor going off in the WYNZ studios
and walked in to find that Anderson had collapsed, apparently
of a heart attack. After Donna Steele of WMGX found Anderson,
Joe Lerman and Glori Marie Shanda of WPOR-FM (101.9) performed
CPR on Anderson until an ambulance could get there; alas, it
was too late to save him. (NERW notes: it is an excellent
reminder of the value of CPR training for everyone on a station's
staff, though!)
Anderson was 59; funeral services are set for Tuesday (April
1) at the Westbrook Warren Congregational Church.
Up in Milbridge (halfway between Bangor and Calais, way Down
East), the new 93.7 CP takes calls: WRMO(FM).
 *We'll go next
to CONNECTICUT and the sale of a longtime community
voice: for $1.5 million, Business Talk Radio takes over from
John Becker as the owner of WGCH (1490 Greenwich). Widely regarded
as one of America's best community stations, WGCH was founded
almost 40 years ago to provide an alternative voice to the then-commonly
owned WSTC Stamford, Greenwich Time and Stamford
Advocate - and Becker was one of the founders.
 Now he's cashing
out, but not without ensuring that WGCH will keep doing what
it does: the contract includes a provision that WGCH's current
news team will continue to have jobs for three years.
The deal also appears to solve, at least for now, the dilemma
of WGCH's transmitter site. Since the station has still been
unable to get permission from Greenwich officials to build a
new tower, it looks as though WGCH will stay put at its Putnam
Avenue site with a new (and more expensive) lease.
Down the road at WSTC (1400 Stamford) and WNLK (1350 Norwalk),
Mike Cella is out as PD and morning host - but in the best of
ways: he's staying with Cox Radio and moving to the much bigger
Jacksonville, Florida market as host of "Jacksonville's
Morning News" on WOKV (690).
*Two bits of VERMONT news: the Vermont
Department of Transportation has been granted yet another LPFM
CP, this one for 96.5 in Stowe. And VTrans has calls for its
Springfield LPFM: the 94.3 will be WSPR-LP. ("WSPR Springfield"
- where have we heard that before?)
 *Albany-based
Pamal is moving deeper into MASSACHUSETTS. Jim Morrell's
group is paying $8 million to acquire WRNX (100.9 Amherst) and
WPNI (1430 Amherst) from Tom Davis' Western Massachusetts Radio
Company, making the Pioneer Valley stations its first in central
Massachusetts.
WRNX does a rock-leaning AAA format for Amherst, Northampton
and Springfield, while WPNI operates in a partnership with the
University of Massachusetts' public WFCR (88.5), carrying a schedule
of NPR news and talk programs that complements WFCR's offerings.
What's the strategy here? One alert NERW reader has already noted
that Pamal has a 100.9 in Albany as well (soft AC WKLI)...
In Boston, another WBCN (104.1) veteran is leaving the station:
Albert O. will keep doing his weekend "Nocturnal Emissions"
specialty show, but he's dropping his overnight and swing shifts
at the Infinity modern rocker.
The RTNDA announced its regional Murrow Awards winners last
week, and by now it's become almost routine to see Marshfield's
WATD (95.9) winning New England's small market categories. This
year, Ed Perry and his crew took home Overall Excellence and
everything else except best Web site; that went to New Hampshire
Public Radio. (On the large market side, your editor's alma mater,
WBZ Boston, won Overall Excellence and three other categories;
public radio WBUR won in six others, including Investigative
Reporting, and Hartford's WTIC won for Feature Reporting.)
 *Down
in RHODE ISLAND, things are settling in at the new "103.7
FNX" (WWRX 103.7 Westerly), as it resumes an identity separate
from the rest of the "FNX Network" (WFNX 101.7 Lynn
MA, WFEX 92.1 Petersborough NH and WPHX 92.1 Sanford ME)
The lineups now look like this: on 103.7, Cruze (who's still
PD of the entire network) does mornings, followed by Bailey (formerly
of WMOS 104.7 Montauk NY) in middays, Storm and Birdsey (formerly
on the entire network) in afternoons and Bryan Slater at night;
on 101.7, Julie Kramer stays put in middays, with assistant PD
Kevin Mays handling afternoons.
*The big news out of NEW JERSEY is
the sale of yet another Mega property - this time, the first
of the group's FMs to be sold. WEMG (104.9 Egg Harbor City),
which puts a remarkably solid class A signal across most of south
central New Jersey and well into the Philadelphia market, is
about to become the latest addition to Nassau's growing Jersey
group. For now, the station is stunting with a loop directing
"Mega 104.9" listeners to the AM side of the former
simulcast, WEMG (1310 Camden NJ); we'll keep you posted as a
new format arrives on 104.9 any day now.
Down in Bridgeton, "Azariah Communications" has
been granted a new LPFM on 98.5.
*In PENNSYLVANIA, the FCC has (not
unexpectedly) flagged the proposed sale of WSOX (96.1 Red Lion)
to Susquehanna; we don't expect it to hold up that sale for good,
though.
The new 104.9 LPFM in Shawnee-on-Delaware has calls, and they're
WCSD-FM.
And we're sorry to report the death on March 25 of John Dove
Gibbs, who was general manager of Pittsburgh's KQV (1410) from
1957 until 1972 and of WWWS (970/94.5) from 1972 until the early
1980s, when he became a professor of communications at Duquesne
University. Gibbs was 80.
 *We'll
begin our NEW YORK report with a pretty picture:
thanks to the folks at ERI for this rendering of the most impressive
tower that will soon begin rising atop Four Times Square, providing
enough auxiliary (and perhaps even primary) space for every TV
and FM signal in the city.
Four Times Square is already an impressive presence on the
skyline; the new mast will make it even more visible, and we're
looking forward to watching it go up.
Across the Hudson River, the folks at WOR (710 New York) have
been granted a construction permit for their site move; they'll
soon begin building a new three-tower array just a bit north
of their current site in Lyndhurst, alongside the New Jersey
Turnpike (the old site will become a golf course once the new
one's ready to go.)
And WOR's Tom Ray reports the station switched to a new generation
of IBOC encoding software last Wednesday; we'll look forward
to our next trip down there to hear how this latest version sounds
on the air. (Hear a sample right now at WOR's IBOC site - http://www.wor710.com/Engineering/iboc/hdindex.htm).
Meanwhile, it now sounds as though April 10 may be
the start of the new format at WNEW (102.7 New York), but we'll
believe it only when we hear it on the air.
Who won the regional Murrows in the New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania
region? In the large market category, it was a nice split among
the New York stations: WOR won for best newscast, WINS for spot
news coverage and Web site, WCBS for continuing coverage, news
series and use of sound, WNYC for investigative reporting, and
WFUV for documentary and feature reporting - but the coveted
Overall Excellence award went to Philadelphia and KYW. In the
small markets, Schenectady's WGY won the Overall Excellence award,
as well as awards for spot news, continuing coverage and feature
reporting; Rochester's WHAM took home best newscast, and Albany's
WAMC won for best news series.
Two new LPFM callsigns out on eastern Long Island: 100.3 Westhampton
becomes WAPP-LP (reviving the old 103.5 Lake Success call), while
100.9 Center Moriches will be WSVV-LP (for the "Savior's
Voice" group that owns it.)
 In Binghamton, the CHR wars took
another turn Sunday, as Clear Channel pulled the plug on country
WBBI (107.5 Endwell) and replaced it with a dance-heavy CHR as
"Kiss 107."
If you've been following this small-town CHR battle, you know
that it has pitted Clear Channel's established pop-CHR "Star
105.7" (WMRV Endicott) against Citadel's newcomer, "Wild
104" (WWYL 104.1 Chenango Bridge) - and that Wild has been
making big inroads in the last few books. The latest move, then
(assuming it's not a stunt), gives Clear Channel a second competitor
against Wild, flanking it on both sides of the format.
It's not all bad news for Citadel, though: the demise of "B107.5"
removes the only competition to its market-dominant country outlet,
WHWK (98.1 Binghamton). Stay tuned to see how this all plays
out...
TUESDAY UPDATE: "Assuming it's not a stunt,"
we said - and hey, it is April Fool's Day, isn't
it? At noon today, "Kiss" went away, the folks at Wild
breathed a little easier, and their colleagues down the hall
at Citadel classic rocker WAAL (99.1 Binghamton) had their turn
to get nervous as Clear Channel launched classic rock "107.5
the Bear," with Jim Free handling PD duties. (Former B PD
Doug Mosher is still with the cluster in an off-air capacity.)
We're told this one is the real format, at least for now!
(Clear Channel's been up to some fun on the AM dial in Bingo,
too: a press release we just received here announces that its
sports outlet, WENE 1430 Endicott, will
begin broadcasting in "Schaundengud" surround-sound
technology, a new European system that requires four AM radios,
two in front of the listener, two behind. Don't believe this
exciting new innovation, which was developed by engineer "Prila
Olof" and will go into use on April 1? Just call up WENE
and discuss it yourself with the guy who sent the release...one
"Eufel Forit"! Say it out loud, slowly...)
Here in Rochester, Infinity's moving staff across the hallways
at modern rock WZNE (94.1 Brighton) and CHR WPXY (97.9 Rochester)
to fill the gap left when PXY nighttimer Busta departed for Pittsburgh's
WBZZ. "Bender" moves from the night shift at the Zone
to Busta's old slot at PXY; "Tripod" moves from swing
to nights at the Zone - and to make up for it, Dem Jones moves
from middays at PXY to middays at the Zone, with no midday replacement
yet at PXY (we heard morning co-host Sandy Waters and veteran
afternoon guy "Mayor" Pete Kennedy filling the gap
today.)
Syracuse viewers should have a stronger PBS signal within
a few days: WCNY-TV (Channel 24) is completing its move from
the WIXT (Channel 9) tower in Pompey to the new WSTM tower at
Sentinel Heights by week's end, with WCNY-DT (Channel 25) targeting
this Friday (April 4) to begin regular operation.
And in Buffalo, grandfathered superpower WBUF (92.9) wants
to make a big move. The Infinity active rocker has applied to
leave its longtime site in the Boston hills south of Buffalo,
where it runs 91 kilowatts ERP. WBUF will move to the tower behind
the WIVB (Channel 4) studios on Elmwood Avenue in North Buffalo,
where it will run 76 kW from 195 meters, using an ERI directional
panel antenna to provide protection to CHAY (93.1 Barrie ON),
CISS (92.5 Toronto) and CIZN (92.9 Cambridge ON - even though
it's about to move to 107.5 to get away from WBUF interference).
The move will make WBUF and rock competitor WGRF (96.9) towermates
on a stick with a long history - it was built for the old WGR-TV
(Channel 2) back in the fifties!
*Speaking of CANADA, two applicants
are fighting for channel 14 in Ottawa: both the Cornerstone religious
folks (CITS channel 36 in Hamilton) and Rogers' OMNI.2 service
(CJMT channel 44 in Toronto) want to operate relays on 14 in
the capital, with Cornerstone asking for 109 kW and Rogers for
435 kW). Both groups have also applied for TV relays in London,
with CITS requesting 7.7 kW on channel 14 and OMNI.2 asking for
18.8 kW on channel 20. Also in Ottawa, the CHIN folks have been
granted another extension, until October 31, 2003, to finish
building their new multilingual outlet on 97.9.
Chatham-Kent's CKUE (95.1) wants a 400-watt relay in Windsor,
also on 95.1; the Bea-Ver Communications station says it would
add local news coverage for Windsor if the application is approved.
(95.1 currently puts a fringe signal into Windsor and nearby
Detroit.)
In Quebec City, Cogeco's new 91.9 has been granted a power
boost, from the proposed 4500 watts to 14,450 watts; in Trois-Rivieres,
the Radio Ville-Marie group has been granted a 6 kW signal at
89.9 to relay CIRA (91.3 Montreal).
*And with that, we're off on the road again! There will be
no regular NERW issue on Monday, April 7, since we'll be at the
NAB in Las Vegas - but stay tuned right here at fybush.com for
updates from Sin City, and we'll be back with a regular issue
on April 14.
 *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
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. |