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October 20, 2003
Forever Adds Two in Altoona
 *Forever
Broadcasting is already a mighty big player in western PENNSYLVANIA,
but it's about to get even bigger in the Altoona market with
a $2.1 million purchase of Vital Licenses' top 40 WPRR (100.1
Altoona) and sports WVAM (1430 Altoona).
Forever already owns four stations in the heart of the market:
news-talk WFBG (1290 Altoona), country WFGY (98.1 Altoona), oldies
WALY (103.9 Bellwood) and classic hits WMAJ-FM (104.9 Hollidaysburg)
- not to mention two simulcasts to the east, WXMJ-FM (99.5 Mount
Union, simulcasting WMAJ) and WWLY (106.3 Huntingdon, simulcasting
WALY.) And while Johnstown is a separate radio market from Altoona,
it shares a common TV market and some signal overlap - and Forever
has two AMs and three FMs there and is adding another one of
each.
NERW notes that the seller here, Vital, is controlled by Kristin
Cantrell, the daughter of Forever principal Kerby Confer - and
that when Vital bought WVAM/WPRR back in 1999, crosstown competitor
WRTA (1240) raised the issue of common control of the stations,
which both sides adamantly denied. At the time, Forever's four
stations controlled 58.5% of the market's revenue, while the
WPRR/WVAM pair had 18.8%.
(One more note here: Forever was selling its WVSC 990 in Somerset,
south of Johnstown, to Vital - but that transfer was dismissed
by the FCC this week. We wonder if the new ownership rules make
it possible for Forever to hang on to WVSC, which relays classic
country from WLYE 850 in Johnstown.)
 *Elsewhere in the Keystone State,
WJAC-DT (Channel 34) in Johnstown filed for its license to cover
this week.
And just over the state line in DELAWARE, Clear Channel's
WJBR (1290 Wilmington) will flip from satellite standards to
Fox sports on Friday. NERW wonders if a call change will follow,
to differentiate the AM signal from no-longer-co-owned WJBR-FM
(99.5)...
*Two NEW YORK stations are among
seven receiving admonishments from the FCC for dragging their
heels on the DTV buildout. The FCC says all but 141 of the nation's
commercial TV stations are now on the air with at least minimal
digital facilities, and it's willing to grant extensions for
104 of them with unavoidable issues (zoning, Canadian frequency
coordination, the World Trade Center disaster.) Thirty more stations
are designated as satellites and get a free pass for now, though
a few of them (like WCDC in Adams MA) have built DTV anyway.
That leaves WKBW-DT (Channel 38) in Buffalo and WICZ-DT (Channel
8), as well as WJAR-DT (Channel 51) in Providence, RHODE ISLAND and
four other stations outside our region, on the FCC's list.
Granite-owned WKBW told the FCC back in April that it had
experienced financial troubles that delayed the start of its
DTV conversion plan, followed by delays in getting engineering
work completed on tower reinforcement and transmitter building
expansion, all of which would keep WKBW-DT from making its October
deadline. NBC's WJAR told the FCC that its delays stemmed from
the addition to its existing analog site of not only WJAR-DT
but also public broadcaster WSBE-DT and - late in the design
process - Freedom's ABC affiliate WLNE-DT. And we have no idea
what Stainless Broadcasting's WICZ told the FCC, since it asked
the commission to keep its filing confidential - but we'd guess
it has something to do with the relocation of WSKG-TV (Channel
46) off the WICZ tower.
In any case, the admonished stations now have six months to
complete their construction or face fines. We'll keep you posted!
 *Other New York news: Batavia's
WBTA (1490) is changing hands from Kevin Doran (not the same
Kevin Doran who anchors the news on Rochester's WROC-TV) to HPL
Communications, whose principal is Daniel C. Fisher (the same
Dan Fischer who's the general manager of Vox's WKSN/WMHU in Jamestown.)
Sale price: $275,000, not a bad deal for the only commercial
station in Genesee County.
Speaking of Vox, Chris Carter is the new PD of WMXO (101.5)
and WOEN (1360) in Olean; he was the production director at Vox's
WSNO/WWFY/WORK in Barre-Montpelier, Vermont.
And speaking of Batavia, a translator application on 106.9
there from Radio Assist Ministries (the mysterious Idaho applicant
believed to be a Calvary Church front group) is one of two in
the state that will be granted in two weeks if there's no petition
to deny. The Batavia translator would relay Calvary's WZXV (99.7
Palmyra); the other one on the list is down in Manorville on
Long Island, on 96.9, owned by Bridgelight Corp. and serving
as a relay of its WRDR (89.7 Freehold NJ).
Lonsberry update: the former WHAM (1180 Rochester) talk host
returned to his other job, morning man on Clear Channel's KNRS
(570 Salt Lake City), on Thursday. We're not sure where he's
doing the KNRS show from, and there's no sign so far of any other
Rochester station rushing to pick up Lonsberry's show locally.
Across town, WZNE (94.1 Brighton) marketing director Jeff
Sottolano has been promoted to music director at Infinity's "Zone."
Way upstate, WMUD-LP (89.1 Moriah) has applied for a license
to cover.
 Out on Long Island,
Barnstable is adding WLVG (96.1 Center Moriches) to its owned-and-operated
list. Barnstable's been leasing the station from Arthur Liu's
Way Broadcasting and programming soft AC; now the company will
pay $3.75 million for the class A facility.
And we're awfully sorry to report the death sometime early
last week of Robin Taylor, the overnight jock on "Lite 106.7,"
WLTW in New York.
Taylor, an Emerson College graduate who had been with WLTW
for 14 years, called in sick to work on Monday night. Her brother
found her body in her apartment on Tuesday. The New York Post reports
Taylor had a history of heart problems, but the cause of her
death was unclear.
*RHODE ISLAND's WPRO (630 Providence)
was one of two Rush Limbaugh affiliates around the country to
announce last week that they wouldn't be carrying the substitute
hosts being offered by Premiere Radio Networks during Limbaugh's
monthlong absence for drug addiction rehabilitation. Instead,
WPRO PD David Bernstein planned to bring his old WOR colleague
Joan Rivers to the 630 airwaves - until Premiere stepped in and
put pressure on WPRO, as well as Baltimore's WBAL, to stick with
the fill-in hosts. WBAL actually carried its own hosts in place
of Limbaugh for a few days; WPRO was to have put Rivers on the
air today but reversed its decision late Friday afternoon.
*MASSACHUSETTS Attorney General Tom
Reilly is stepping in to the fray surrounding the Dennis and
Callahan suspension from WEEI (850 Boston). The Boston Globe says
the AG's civil rights division wants to meet with WEEI officials
to discuss the comments that led to the team's two-week suspension,
which ends at the end of this week.
 The student radio
station at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell is about to
get its third set of calls. Originally WLTI ("Lowell Technological
Institute"), then WJUL ("University of Lowell"),
the 91.5 facility is about to become WUML, reflecting the school's
current name. The station's student leaders, still sore over
university officials' decision to hand the morning hours on 91.5
over to the Lowell Sun, say they're not happy about losing
their longtime calls but are powerless to do anything about it.
(They also say UMass leadership is planning similar call changes
for WSMU at what's now UMass-Dartmouth and for WMUA at the flagship
UMass campus in Amherst, and NERW notes that WUMD and WUMA are
both available calls...)
More from the callsign front: we hear Salem may need new calls
for its soon-to-debut WJTK (1150), since Greater Media's not
pleased about the similarity to its talker, WTKK 96.9. And out
west, the new CBS affiliate in Springfield will debut as WSHM-LP
("Springfield-Holyoke, Massachusetts") instead of W67DF.
 *A
morning show shift in MAINE: WGAN (560 Portland) parted
ways with Jim Crocker after his October 11 show, replacing him
with attorney and frequent fill-in host Ken Altshuler, who's
now paired with Mike McCardell as "WGAN Morning News with
Mike and Ken."
This was Crocker's second go-round at WGAN; he'd returned
to the station in 1999, a few years after making an acrimonious
departure to host the midday show at WCSH-TV. No word on what
he's up to now.
*In NEW HAMPSHIRE, former WXRV (92.5
Haverhill MA) PD Joanne Doody has found a new job, programming
Tele-Media's top 40 WHOB (106.3 Nashua).
New Hampshire Public Radio's getting a new translator. It's
been granted 170 watts on 103.9 in Portsmouth, transmitting from
a building downtown.
And on the TV front, WPXG-DT (Channel 33) in Concord is granted
its license to cover.
*VERMONT Public Radio has applied
to officially designate WBTN-FM (94.3 Bennington) as a noncommercual
facility, several years after flipping the former commercial
station to noncomm operation.
*And what with it having been Thanksgiving
last Monday in CANADA, it was apparently a quiet week
up there. More next week, perhaps?
 *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.
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2003 by Scott Fybush. |