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September 22, 2003
New "Power 104.1" Sparks Hartford Urban Battle
*It was a bad week for modern rock fans in
New England - and nowhere more so than in Hartford, where Clear
Channel abruptly pulled the plug on modern rock "Radio 104"
WMRQ (104.1 Waterbury) at 4 o'clock last Monday afternoon (Sept.
15), replacing it with urban "Power 104.1," a clone
of the successful WWPR (105.1 New York) that launched a year
and a half ago down in the big city. The new "Power"
is a direct competitor to Infinity's WZMX (93.7 Hartford), which
took the market by storm when it began playing hip-hop
and R&B in the spring of 2001.
 WMRQ's old format
lives on for now as a Webcast (www.radio104.com),
albeit without jocks or PD. One of WMRQ's jocks, afternoon host/APD/MD
Chaz Kelly, has already landed a new gig - she stays within the
company and moves down I-91 to become PD of top 40 WKCI (101.3
Hamden) in the New Haven market.
Another Nutmeg State note: WEZN-FM (99.9 Bridgeport) is doing
some tweaking; it remains "Star 99.9," but after years
of getting hotter and hotter in its AC presentation, it's now
promoting itself as "Soft and Contemporary" and emphasizing
the more relaxing tunes on its playlist.
*A modern rock PD is out of work in MASSACHUSETTS,
too, where WFNX (101.7 Lynn) parted ways with PD "Cruze"
amidst rumors that its format could soon be history, at least
at several of the stations that make up the "FNX Radio Network."
Kevin Mays takes the PD chair at RHODE ISLAND's
WWRX (103.7 Westerly), while Paul Driscoll moves up from assistant
music director to music director/interim PD at the other 'FNX
stations.
Another PD opening: Chris Hermann is out at Greater Media's
AAA/modern AC WBOS (92.9 Brookline); WBOS APD/MD Michelle Williams
and WROR PD Buzz Knight will oversee WBOS for the moment.
Out on the Cape, Steve McVie's back on the air, replacing
Bev Valentine in middays at WRZE (96.3 Nantucket).
*A NEW HAMPSHIRE AM station is
returning to its original frequency. WNTK in Newport used to
be WCNL, and it used to be a kilowatt daytimer on 1010 before
moving to 1020 with 10 kilowatts. But it was still a daytimer
- until Bob Vinikoor figured out that changes in FCC rules and
in the operations of other 1010 stations would allow him to move
WNTK back to 1010 with 10 kilowatts by day and 37 watts at night,
which he did last week.
Down in Keene, the old WEKW (Channel 52) tower has been dismantled.
It's been replaced by a new tower for analog and digital
TV - and thanks to Joel Huntley, you can check out a whole bunch
of nifty pictures at www.ccdx.org/scrapbook/WEKW/.
*In MAINE, Donny Webb is saying goodbye
to WMSJ (89.3 Freeport), where he was PD and morning host, as
he heads off to the seminary. Tim Collins, MD/morning host at
WHMX (105.7 Lincoln), will take Webb's job; the two are co-hosting
mornings there this week to get listeners ready for the change.
*Hurricane Isabel whipped her way across
the northeast last week, knocking many stations off the air for
at least a few hours - and taking down one PENNSYLVANIA tower.
 Philadelphia's WHAT
(1340) lost its tower Thursday night at the height of the storm.
The Inner City Broadcasting urban talker had a long history with
this tower, located on Conshohocken Avenue not far from the big
Bala Cynwyd studio cluster. For many years, this was also the
site of WWDB (96.5), the old WHAT-FM; indeed, you can see the
old FM transmission line running up the side of the old tower.
WHAT was expected back on the air today with a temporary tower
from Hill Industries in Texas; we'll keep you posted as they
work on a permanent replacement for the downed tower.
(We have a picture of the old tower around here, too; we'll
put it up Thursday as part of Tower Site of the Week, which will
get back on schedule this week.)
 *An
upstate NEW YORK talk show host is off the air this week
after making allegedly racist comments about a candidate for
Monroe County executive.
Rochester mayor (and Democratic candidate) Bill Johnson is
black - and it's not hard to figure out why people took offense
to comments WHAM (1180) midday host Bob Lonsberry reportedly
made last week about an "orangutan" in the race. (Playing
monkey sound effects didn't help, either.)
The controversy hit the Democrat and Chronicle (one
of several media outlets in town that's a former Lonsberry employer)
on Saturday, and today Lonsberry was off the air, with a substitute
host at the mike. At the end of the show, WHAM played a taped
message from a tired-sounding Lonsberry, in which he offered
a lukewarm apology and suggested that "racism is in the
eye of the beholder, not in the heart of the speaker." (We'll
grant Lonsberry this much - in his statement, he pointed out
that when he intends to offend someone, he does so without apology.
True.)
WHAM's not saying yet whether or when Lonsberry will be back
on the air.
Over in Syracuse, Crawford Broadcasting is selling its WDCW
(1390), exiting the Salt City seven years after buying the former
WFBL from Wilks/Schwartz Broadcasting. Crawford (which still
owns WDCX Buffalo, WLGZ/WDCZ Rochester and WPTR/WDCD Albany)
paid $425,000 for the 5000-watt station; it'll sell 1390 to Buckley
for $1.2 million.
Yes, that's Buckley Broadcasting, owner of the current WFBL
(1050 Baldwinsville), which has been challenging heavyweight
WSYR with a news/talk format. Until now, WFBL's been hampered
by a weak signal (2500 watts by day, 19 watts by night) - but
if WFBL's calls and format go to 1390, as is expected, WSYR will
have a contender on its hands. (And you've got to love the historical
correctness of it all!)
There's no word yet on what might become of the 1050 facility
if/when WFBL goes home to 1390; stay tuned.
Another station sale in the region: George Kimble's Radio
Group is expanding to the southern Finger Lakes, buying WFLR
(1570) and WFLR-FM (95.9) in Dundee from Lakes Country Communications.
We'd be stunned if the AM, a 5000-watt daytimer, doesn't join
the Radio Group's "Finger Lakes News Network" (WGVA
1240 Geneva, WSFW 1110 Seneca Falls, WAUB 1590 Auburn, WCGR 1550
Canandaigua); we'll keep an ear on the FM as well, which is now
running satellite AC as "Mix 96" and will join the
Radio Group's AC WNYR (98.5 Waterloo) and rock WLLW (99.3 Seneca
Falls.) No purchase price has been announced on this one yet.
Up north, Clancy-Mance has filed to change the calls of WPAC
(92.7 Ogdensburg) to WBDB, which leads us to suspect that Ogdensburg's
about to get a link in the "Border" top 40 network
that already includes WBDR (102.7 Cape Vincent NY/Kingston ON)
and WBDI (106.7 Copenhagen/Watertown NY).
Speaking of Watertown, the sale of WBQZ-LP (Channel 34) and
WLOT-LP (Channel 66) to Clear Channel has fallen through, and
now Anthony DiMarco's looking for individual investors to buy
shares of the LPTVs.
 Utica's WFXV (Channel
33) has a new owner, as Quorum Communications sells its station
group to Nexstar. The sale includes low-power UPN affiliate WPNY-LP
(Channel 11) as well as the Fox outlet; it puts WFXV under the
same ownership as Rochester's WROC-TV, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's
WBRE-TV and Erie's WJET-TV. (Quorum and Nexstar already shared
a common source of financing, Boston's ABRY Partners.)
Down in Binghamton, WMRV (105.7 Endicott) PD Glen Turner is
exiting next month; his duties will be assumed by Bobby D, PD
of Clear Channel sisters WMXW/WINR.
 Joe Rosati is coming
home to New York soon; the Long Island native and former WFLY
(92.3 Troy) night jock ("Joey Kidd") is leaving his
current night gig at KDWB in Minneapolis to take on a newly-created
10 PM to 2 AM shift at New York's Z100 (WHTZ 100.3 Newark NJ).
The move cuts Romeo back to a three-hour shift (7-10 PM) and
gives overnight guy Rich Davis a more reasonable three-hour shift
as well (2-5 AM instead of the 11 PM to 5 AM he'd been doing.)
And no, we can't go a week without another picture from New
York's 4 Times Square.
How about a transmitter this time? That shiny new Harris Platinum
unit at left is the new WKCR (89.9 New York) transmitter, which
signed on a little more than a week ago from 4 Times Square,
becoming (thus far) the only broadcaster to use the new site
for full-time use and not just as an auxiliary site.
*CANADA's capital has a new radio
station: CJLL is the callsign for the new 97.9 FM outlet in Ottawa,
owned by Toronto's "Radio 1540," the folks behind multicultural
CHIN and CHIN-FM there. CJLL applied last week to sign on from
tower C of Ottawa's Place de Ville complex instead of from the
master FM site at Camp Fortune, Quebec (increasing power from
800 watts to 1500 watts to compensate for the decrease in antenna
height), and was already reported on the air there late on Friday.
(And you've got to believe that the "JL" in the calls
stands for the late CHIN founder Johnny Lombardi...)
Ottawa's CKQB (106.9 the Bear) wants a relay transmitter to
serve the Ottawa Valley; it's applying for 99.7 in Pembroke,
with 45.2 kW at 157.5 meters AAT. Nearby in Renfrew, Jon Pole
and Andrew Dickson want to put a new AC/middle of the road station
on the air at 98.7, with 830 watts at 128.5 meters.
 In Trenton, CJTN wants to leave
the AM dial, relocating from its present 1000-watt facility at
1270 to 107.1 FM, where it would run 15 kW at 185.7 meters AAT,
with a directional antenna that would presumably put a serious
null in the direction of Toronto's CILQ on 107.1 (and will probably
make hash of what's now a decent Q107 signal on this side of
the lake.)
Just down the road in Belleville, the new United Christian
Broadcasters station on 102.3 is now showing up as "CKJJ"
in the Industry Canada database; the new 99.5 country station
in Kitchener shows as "CIKZ."
Speaking of Kitchener, Trust Communications Ministries is
applying for 795 watts on 93.7 for a contemporary Christian station.
NERW notes that 93.7 is just as co-channel to Buffalo as was
the 92.9 channel that caused nothing but headaches for the late
CIZN in nearby Cambridge, though at least the Buffalo signal
on 93.7 is somewhat less potent than 92.9.
It looks as though Toronto and Hamilton are about to get an
explosion of DTV signals: in addition to CITY-DT (Channel 53),
which is the only DTV station in regular operation in Canada
right now, last week brought a flood of applications to the CRTC
to begin DTV operation. The CBC wants to run 38 kW at 491 meters
for CBLT-DT (Channel 20) and 2.5 kW at 491 meters for its French
counterpart, CBLFT-DT (Channel 24); CTV wants 17.4 kW at 459
meters for CFTO-DT (Channel 40); Cornerstone wants 10 kW for
Hamilton's CITS-DT (Channel 21); and brand-new "Toronto
1," which just made its analog debut on Friday, wants 3
kw at 458 meters for CKXT-DT (Channel 66) in Toronto and 3.9
kw at 193 meters for CKXT-DT's Hamilton relay. All of the Toronto
DTVs would be on the CN Tower.
*And that's it for another week (though it was hardly just
another week here at NERW Central, where we're still celebrating
the birth last Monday morning of Baby NERW, aka Ariel Joy Fybush.
If you haven't seen the pictures yet, we're updating Ariel's
Page nearly every day...go check her out!)
 *The 2004
Tower Site Calendar is now available for ordering! Just as
in past years, the calendar features a dozen spiffy 8.5-by-11
inch full-color images of tower sites from across the nation
- everything from Washington's WTEM to New York's WCBS/WFAN to
Los Angeles' KHJ to WCTM in Eaton, Ohio. Unlike last year, this
year's calendar will feaure heavier paper (no more curling!)
and will be shipped shrink-wrapped on a cardboard backing to
make sure it arrives in pristine condition.
We'll be going to press soon, and hope to be shipping calendars
in time for Thanksgiving - but why wait? Order now and help support
NERW and Tower Site of the Week. Better yet, place your subscription
for 2004 at the $60 level by using the handy buttons below, and
you'll get your 2004 Tower Site Calendar absolutely FREE. What
more could you want? (Live overnight jocks, maybe?)
Don't want to order by credit card? You know the drill by
now - make those checks payable to "Scott Fybush,"
be sure to include sales tax for New York state calendar orders,
and send them along to 92 Bonnie Brae Avenue, Rochester NY 14618.
Thanks for your support!
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is copyright
2003 by Scott Fybush. |