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December 15, 2003
WCMF's Unkle Roger Killed
*The longest-running DJ on a single station in
Rochester - and, we think, in all of NEW YORK - was
shot to death Friday night in what appeared to be a robbery attempt.
"Unkle Roger" McCall joined
the staff of WCMF (96.5 Rochester) in 1974, and for most of the
three decades that followed he served as the rock station's overnight
jock and as the resident expert on local music, hosting the "Homegrown"
show that spawned several CDs along the way.
 Police
say McCall was collecting rent payments from tenants in a house
he owned on Madison Street in Rochester when he was shot in the
torso about 5:50 Friday evening.
As the news broke on Saturday, WCMF's
jocks took to the air for a spontaneous remembrance of their
colleague. It will continue throughout this week, when WCMF will
open its phone lines each night at 10 for listeners to call in
with memories of McCall.
"He was one of the most beautiful
people anybody has ever known," said WCMF morning host Alan
"Brother Wease" Levin. "I am positive Unkle Roger
didn't have one enemy in the world," he told WROC-TV (Channel
8).
McCall, who was 59, is survived by his
wife Denise and son Jason. At press time, no arrests had been
made in the killing.
*The northern half of Syracuse's "TK
99/TK 105" classic rock simulcast wants to move south. WTKV
(105.5 Oswego) has already been granted a reallocation to Granby,
in southern Oswego County, and now the Galaxy station has applied
for new facilities just south of Fulton. If the move is approved,
WTKV would move from its current 4kw/121m just south of Oswego
to a new tower on Wilcox Road, just off NY 48, about 10 miles
closer to Syracuse, where it would run 3.9kw/125m.
Speaking of the "TK" stations,
afternoon jock Rick Deyulio is leaving after eight years - he's
heading back to college.
Here in Rochester, contemporary Christian
WDCZ (102.7 Webster) will take on a new identity January 1, when
the station changes calls to WRCI. The old calls came from the
now-defunct simulcast with Buffalo sister station WDCX; now "The
Light" wants calls that better reflect its identity as a
Rochester Christian station.
Our best wishes go out to former Buffalo
jock Tony Magoo (WJJL, WPHD, WBYR), who's suffering from a form
of cancer ("metastatic squamous cell carcinoma") that's
had him undergoing intensive radiation and chemotherapy and losing
his teeth. That's bad enough - but on top of all that, he was
fired from his job as morning host at Citadel's WFBE (95.1 Flint
MI) a couple of weeks ago. There'll be a benefit auction for
Magoo next month; stay tuned for all the details.
One TV note this week: New York's WABC-TV
(Channel 7) was off the air for 20 minutes during "Good
Morning America" on Friday - blame a fire in some equipment
in the station's basement, we're told.
 *A busy broadcast week in
MAINE - and before we get to the update on the WMGX/WYNZ
tower collapse, we have the arrival of a brand new player on
the New England ownership scene.
Nassau Broadcasting, until now confined
to New Jersey and Pennsylvania (with a brief foray into upstate
New York and Connecticut), is paying $18.3 million for the six
stations of Mariner Broadcasting. Louis Vitali and Alexander
and Woody Tanger had assembled a cluster that included four classical
"W-Bach" stations (WBQQ 99.3 Kennebunk, WBQW 106.3
Scarborough-Portland, WBQX 106.9 Thomaston, WBQI 107.7 Bar Harbor),
standards WBYA (105.5 Islesboro) and soft AC WQEZ (104.7 Kennebunkport).
Will Nassau keep the classical format? Stay tuned...
 On
to the Portland tower collapse: as we told you in last Thursday's
NERW Update,
the 528-foot tower of WMGX (93.1 Portland) and WYNZ (100.9 Westbook)
came crashing to the ground last Thursday afternoon, smashing
several cars and trucks and narrowly missing a beer distributor's
warehouse. (Though the tower was within a few hundred yards of
I-295, the pull of its guy wires kept the wreckage confined to
within a few hundred feet of the tower base and well away from
the busy highway.)
WYNZ's oldies stayed on the air from
an auxiliary site, but WMGX went silent when the tower went down.
(Fortunately, the Arbitron book had just ended a day earlier!)
 WMGX
quickly turned to Saga sister station WPOR (101.9 Portland),
whose site on Blackstrap Hill north of town sprouted a new set
of antenna bays on Friday, as WMGX set up shop there with a temporary
facility that allowed it to be back on the air barely 24 hours
after the tower collapse.
What brought down the tower, which was
only 17 years old? They're still investigating - but weather
didn't appear to be a factor; as you can see in the pictures
of the wreckage (thanks to NERW reader Dave Cedrone), there wasn't
any snow on the ground and winds were relatively light. The next
step for the stations will be to rebuild, likely on the same
site and probably quite soon if all goes well with the insurance
company.
*Across the border
in NEW HAMPSHIRE, new PDs are in place to fill Harry Kozlowski's
shoes at the Vox cluster in Concord: Joe "AJ" Dukette
is handling WJYY (105.5 Concord), while Matt Forrest is holding
down the fort at WNHI (93.3 Belmont).
 *That "CBS 3" logo
is showing up on channel 67 for over-the-air viewers in western
MASSACHUSETTS, as WSHM-LP in Springfield takes on its
new identity as the hometown CBS affiliate the market has never
had.
WSHM has a Web presence (www.cbstv3.com)
and, soon, a better UHF dial position (it has a pending application
to move to channel 45 and boost its power), but it doesn't have
cable coverage just yet, as parent company Meredith negotiates
to have WSHM replace Hartford's WFSB (Channel 3, also Meredith-owned)
on Pioneer Valley cable systems. We're still waiting to see whether
WSHM starts its own news operation, or if it continues to simulcast
WFSB's newscasts.
 And
while Springfield has "CBS3," Boston now has "CBS4,"
the new on-air identity for WBZ-TV (Channel 4). The rebranding
follows similar moves at other CBS owned-and-operated stations
around the country.
Over at sister station WBZ (1030), we're
hearing from several listeners who've noticed a reduction in
audio quality during the day. The reason? Ibiquity's "HD
Radio" digital broadcasting is now in daily use at WBZ from
9 AM until 6 PM or thereabouts - and we're told it sounds quite
good for the handful of engineers who have digital radios to
listen on. (The rest of us may get a chance sometime in 2004
as receivers begin to hit the market...)
Up in the executive ranks at Infinity/Boston,
Tony Berardini moves from GM of WBCN (104.1)/WZLX (100.7) to
a VP position that'll be mainly a consultancy role. Mark Hannon,
GM of WBMX (98.5), will add WZLX and WBCN to his portfolio.
Over at Greater Media, Michele Williams
is promoted from music director to PD at WBOS (92.9 Brookline);
promotions director David Ginsburg takes over MD duties.
*VERMONT's UPN
affiliate appears to have met its demise: we'd heard that WBVT-LP
(Channel 39) in Burlington and its relay stations were having
financial problems, and now we're told that the stations are
broadcasting an error message slate. The station's Web site has
gone dark as well. (We'd also note that cable systems across
the Green Mountain State carry Boston's WSBK, so UPN fans aren't
completely out of luck.)
*An all Christmas-music
pirate? That's what we're hearing about from CONNECTICUT,
where the 98.1 in Derby that's usually "Rock 98" is
reportedly spinning nonstop holiday tunes...
*The newest talk station
in PENNSYLVANIA is taking shape: sometime after the
holidays, what's now WJJJ (104.7 Pittsburgh) will be reborn as
"WPGB," and in addition to Jim Quinn's morning show,
it'll carry Glenn Beck (9-noon), Neal Boortz (noon-3), Sean Hannity
(3-6) and Michael Savage (8-11 PM). Clear Channel is reportedly
seeking a local host for 6-8 PM, as well as overnight and weekend
programming.
 The Pittsburgh
moves are resonating to the west in Wheeling, WEST VIRGINIA,
where three more staffers have departed WWVA (1170) in the wake
of the dismissal of morning man Jim Harrington last week. Talk
host George Kellas and news director Tammy Beagle lost their
jobs - and reporter Dave Demerest followed them out the door
in protest. WWVA will simulcast WPGB's morning show, with local
news inserts - and it sounds as though some of the rest of WWVA's
day will now come from the Pittsburgh talk station as well.
Meanwhile, Quinn himself will be replaced
by the syndicated "Bob and Tom" show at his present
home base of WRRK (96.9 Braddock), effective January 1.
More Clear Channel/Pittsburgh developments:
after the sweep at "Kiss" WKST-FM (96.1 Pittsburgh)
that ousted APD/MD/middayer Dino Robitaille, afternooner Chris
Mann ("Reno") and production director David Jaye, new
PD Mark Anderson has hired a new afternoon jock. Scotty Gunther
comes to Kiss from WIOG (102.5 Bay City/Saginaw MI), which is
also where Anderson came from.
And on the noncommercial end of things,
WYEP (91.3 Pittsburgh) will move its studios in 2005, relocating
to a building the station will buy from board member Marco Cardamome.
The station says it's outgrown its rented quarters, and hopes
its move to the old Weiss Provisions building on Pittsburgh's
South Side will be its last.
*One DELAWARE note this
week: WXPZ (101.3 Milford) will drop its contemporary Christian
"Light" format January 2, flipping to oldies as "Kool
101." Delmarva Broadcasting says it couldn't make the format
support itself with advertising, though it'll continue as a Webcast
at www.thelightfm.com. In the meantime, WXPZ is playing - what
else? - Christmas music.
*Just one note from
CANADA, too: Hollis T. ("Mac") McCurdy, who
built Montreal's CJAD (800) into the dominant voice of Anglophone
Quebec, died last week at age 84. McCurdy served as president
and CEO of Standard Broadcasting before his retirement.
 *The
2004 Tower Site Calendar is now back from the printer
and shipping out to hundreds of tower fans across the US, Canada,
and even the Netherlands and the U.K. - so don't wait to place
your order!
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
(shown at left) to Los Angeles' KHJ to WCTM in Eaton, Ohio.
Other featured sites include Cedar Hill in Dallas, Lookout
Mountain above Denver, CKLW Windsor, WELI New Haven, WPTF Raleigh
NC, WBT Charlotte NC, WAJR Morgantown WV, WMT Cedar Rapids IA
and the mighty 12 towers of KFXR (the old KLIF 1190) in Dallas.
Unlike last year, this year's calendar features heavier paper
(no more curling!) and will be shipped shrink-wrapped on a cardboard
backing to make sure it arrives in pristine condition.
All orders placed by December 12 have now been
shipped, and we've already heard from recipients as far away
as Tacoma, Washington and Kitchener, Ontario, so if you've already
ordered, you should be enjoying your calendar any day now.
If you haven't ordered yet, what are you waiting for? Place
your order by the end of the week and we'll ship it in time for
Christmas gift-giving! So 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? (Local news on the weekends, 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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is copyright
2003 by Scott Fybush. |