NERW 10/29/2012: Sandy Takes Aim at NERW-land (with Friday update)

From the NERW Archives

Yup, we’ve been doing this a long time now, and so we’re digging back into the vaults for a look at what NERW was covering one, five, ten and – where available – fifteen years ago this week, or thereabouts.

Note that the column appeared on an erratic schedule in its earliest years as “New England Radio Watch,” and didn’t go to a regular weekly schedule until 1997.

One Year Ago: October 31, 2011 -

*Some weeks, it just hurts to sit down and write this column. Over 17 years, we’ve chronicled a lot of ups and downs in the radio business all over the northeast, and in the last few years it seems like there have been more downs than ups many weeks.

But this past week – this past Wednesday, to be specific – set a new level of ugly, as dozens of talented, hard-working, dedicated radio people all over the region found out their jobs had been pulled out from under them, and by several different companies all at once.

Industry gossip leading up to Wednesday made it pretty clear that local Clear Channel Radio employees in small and medium markets would be the targets of some pretty extensive firings as part of the company’s plan to centralize more of its operations. (We could reprint the press-release PR-speak about “improving local service” and whatnot, but really, why bother?)

It wasn’t just Clear Channel Radio making cuts on Wednesday, though: Townsquare Media pulled the plug on local airstaff in one of its markets, Cumulus eviscerated one of its big markets out west, affecting several New York veterans along the way, and Clear Channel’s traffic services, operated separately from the radio stations, went through their own Black Wednesday, leaving at least one local office reportedly unable to fully service its clients on Thursday.

So what shows up in place of all those local radio people? We’ll spare you the “new paradigms” and “program-delivery efficiencies” and all that; the expectation on the ground is that most of those shifts will end up being filled, at least for now, by Clear Channel’s “Premium Choice” satellite service, which might provide some cute anecdotes about whatever it is J-Lo is up to, but probably won’t be very useful when there’s a surprise late-October snowstorm bearing down on a small market…about which, more later in this week’s column.

*At least two NEW YORK broadcasters have another year of job security: the Yankees have extended their broadcast deal with CBS Radio’s WCBS (880) through the 2012 season, ensuring another year of overly-dramatized outfield fly ball calls from John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman in the booth – and another year of speculation about where the Yankees’ radio rights will land for a longer-term deal starting in 2013.

*In Utica, Steve Doerr is the new general manager for Smith Media’s WKTV (Channel 2) – and like his predecessor in the job, Vic Vetters, he’ll also hold the same title up in VERMONT, where he’s also overseeing Burlington-market WVNY (Channel 22)/WFFF (Channel 44). Doerr’s arrival completes an inadvertent market-for-market swap with Providence, RHODE ISLAND: he’d been running WLNE (Channel 6) there until April, while Vetters left Smith in Utica and Burlington to become GM at WJAR (Channel 10) in Providence.

And we close the Empire State portion of the column this week with an obituary for Dan Burke, who was a key part of the Capital Cities Communications executive team for almost half a century. Burke came to Capital Cities’ WTEN in Albany in 1961 and worked his way up the corporate ladder to become CEO in 1990. By then, Capital Cities had emerged into national prominence with its 1986 purchase of ABC, and Burke remained at the helm of the combined company until his retirement in 1994. Burke died Wednesday in Rye, New York, at age 86.

*A station sale in northwestern PENNSYLVANIA: Chris Lash’s Whiplash Radio is taking over at WHYP (1370 Corry) under an LMA-to-purchase deal with Vilkie Communications.

Lash is a native of the region – and, reports PBRTV.com, he even worked at the station (formerly WWCB) while he was in high school.

Lash will take over operations in Corry on December 1. No purchase price has been announced.

Near State College, Magnum Broadcasting’s WQKK (106.9 Renovo) has flipped formats: it’s dropped its “Qwik Rock” simulcast with WQCK 105.9 in favor of soft AC as “Y106.9.”

In the Philadelphia suburbs, the identity shift at the former WPAZ (1370 Pottstown) is complete: last Monday’s reimaging as “The Buzz” came with new calls, WBZH, as well. While WBZH continues to struggle with an ailing transmitter – it was off the air for much of Friday and Saturday – its old calls have been parked up the road at a construction permit belonging to Four Rivers Community Broadcasting, which flipped WZMV (89.1 Mohrsville) to “WPAZ” last week.

*The big, and rather unexpected, story from New England as we write the column on Sunday night is the snowstorm that blustered its way up the coast over the weekend, taking down power and phone lines from the mid-Atlantic states up into the Canadian Maritimes.

Thankfully, there have been no reports so far of any downed towers – but plenty of signals were silenced as the storm made its way through the region, most notably in the Merrimack Valley, where we’re hearing that every signal in Lowell was silent early Sunday morning. Much of CONNECTICUT was affected as well, with some areas taking on two feet of snow from the freak storm.

*A few new signals to report in MASSACHUSETTS: in Marshfield, WUMT (91.7), the new relay of Boston’s WUMB-FM (91.9), has applied for its license to cover, while out west in “Baptist Village” (in reality, Hampden, east of Springfield), construction on the new religious outlet WJCI (89.5) wrapped up just before the snow started flying.

MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: At midnight, Clear Channel pulled the trigger on its big facility shift in the Springfield market, killing off WRNX (100.9 Amherst) and flipping the frequency to country as “Kix 100.9.” For now, it’s a simulcast of WPKX (97.9 Enfield CT) – but not for long, since the 97.9 facility is moving south to Windsor Locks, Connecticut, with a new transmitter site in downtown Hartford.

Five Years Ago: October 29, 2007 -

*The urban radio war in CONNECTICUT‘s biggest market is over, and CBS Radio’s WZMX (93.7 Hartford) is the survivor. Thursday morning at 10, Clear Channel pulled the plug on the “Power 104″ hip-hop format at WPHH (104.1 Waterbury), a little more than four years after it went up against “Hot 93.7.”

While WZMX had an all-local lineup, WPHH used syndicated talent in morning and afternoon drive (Steve Harvey and Wendy Williams, respectively), and its ratings never quite measured up to its CBS competitor, even before the eventual arrival of the Portable People Meter in the market, with all the ratings headaches it’s brought to urban formats in the markets where it’s already launched.

So just as it did in Philadelphia, where Clear Channel killed off Spanish tropical “Rumba 104.5″ in favor of modern rock “Radio 104″ at WRFF (104.5), Clear Channel went to a modern rock format on the newly-renamed “FM 104one” in Hartford. And therein lies an irony: the “Radio 104″ image that landed in Philly came right out of the old WMRQ in Hartford – an image valuable enough, apparently, that Clear Channel was keeping the old Radio 104 website alive in Hartford years after the format change to “Power,” complete with an automated webstream. (That site quietly went away after the “FM 104one” launch last week, replaced by a page that forwards to the new WPHH site.)

*In other Nutmeg State news, Antonio Gois’ Gois Communications is paying $2.65 million to buy Spanish tropical WLAT (910 New Britain) and Spanish news-talk WNEZ (1230 Manchester) from the bankrupt Freedom Communications. Gois is no stranger to the Connecticut River valley; he sold WSPR and WACM in Springfield to Davidson a couple of years ago, and he still owns WORC (1310) over in Worcester. He’ll take over the Hartford-market stations via an LMA November 1.

*Crossing the border to NEW YORK, our week’s news begins with a new morning show at WWRL (1600 New York), which axed its Armstrong Williams/Sam Greenfield morning entry on Thursday, replacing them with former WABC/WWOR host Richard Bey and erstwhile Air America talker Mark Riley. (WWRL is an Air America affiliate for most of the day, but it does its own thing in morning drive.)

Over at ESPN Radio’s WEPN (1050 New York), another ESPN network shift is now being covered up locally, as Gordon Damer takes the 2-6 AM weeknight slot. (Which means, oddly, that there’s now live, local talk all night on New York’s two sports stations, while its mainstream talkers are both running nationally-syndicated fare, even if the Joey Reynolds show at least originates at WOR.)

The big ownership shuffle that clears Clear Channel out of the Utica/Rome market closed Thursday, and the new owners wasted no time rearranging much of that area’s radio dial. Here’s how it’s all playing out so far:

Galaxy Communications bought the Clear Channel stations, and the big prize that it’s keeping is classic rocker WOUR (96.9 Utica), which moved from Clear Channel’s downtown Utica studios on Genesee Street to Galaxy’s New Hartford studios. For the moment, we’re hearing that the syndicated Bob & Tom show remains in morning drive, with Galaxy talent from Syracuse voicetracking the rest of the day.

Galaxy also gets hot AC WUMX (102.5 Rome), which is running automated outside of its syndicated drivetime shows, as well as sports talkers WRNY (1350 Rome) and WIXT (1230 Little Falls), which will end up as a sports simulcast with Galaxy’s WTLB (1310 Utica), flipping from standards.

Galaxy immediately spun several other Clear Channel signals to Ken Roser, who’s made no changes yet to top 40 “Kiss” WSKS (97.9 Whitesboro)/WSKU (105.5 Little Falls). Roser also gets the other two signals that had been part of the “Sports Stars” simulcast, and we’re told WUTQ (1550 Utica) and WADR (1480 Remsen) will end up simulcasting Roser’s “Bug Country” WBGK (99.7 Newport Village), at least for the moment. (Will Roser end up with Clear Channel’s Mayro Building studios, or will Kiss and the AM signals move up Genesee Street to the Bug studios? We don’t yet know.)

The third piece of the spinoff involves EMF Broadcasting, which is picking up one of Clear Channel’s stations, classic hits WOKR (93.5 Remsen), and one station that had been in Galaxy’s hands, big-signal classic rocker WRCK (107.3 Utica). We’d thought EMF would put its flagship “K-Love” contemporary Christian format on the 107.3 signal, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Instead, 107.3 flipped to EMF’s Christian rock “Air 1,” leaving K-Love on EMF’s existing WKVU (100.7 Utica) and now on WOKR as well. (An EMF press release talked about closing a signal gap between EMF’s existing signals in Syracuse and Albany, but the addition of WOKR to the K-Love network doesn’t add much to WKVU’s current reach in that department, whereas WRCK would fill a big gap between Syracuse rimshotter WSCP-FM and the Utica area.)

In Albany, we know more about the impending sale of Regent’s WTMM (1300 Rensselaer) to a group headed by former WROW (590 Albany) morning host Paul Vandenburgh. The group is doing business as “Capital Broadcasting, Inc.,” and until it closes on its $850,000 purchase of the AM signal, it plans to launch its talk format under an LMA with Regent from Regent’s Schenectady studios. Other principals in Capital, which plans to rebrand the station as WCBI (did anyone tell Channel 4 in Columbus, Mississippi, which has been WCBI-TV for years?) include Robert McCormick, the CEO of Trustco Bank, as well as several local attorneys and stockbrokers who hosted weekend shows on WROW.

Now that Michael Doyle’s been promoted from Rochester market manager to a regional vice president at Entercom, sales manager Susan Munn is moving up to take Doyle’s old job in the Rochester cluster. (Doyle will continue to be based here as well.)

And an obituary just in to us here at NERW: we’re very sorry to report the passing on Sunday of Craig Kingcaid, the veteran Rochester engineer who spent many years at WEZO/WNYR, and later as chief engineer at Clear Channel’s local cluster.

Kingcaid had been battling cancer for several months, we’re told.

*In western PENNSYLVANIA, the simulcast of WBXQ (94.3 Patton) and WBRX (94.7 Cresson) has come to an end after 16 years. While 94.3 keeps its classiic rock format and longtime “Q94″ identity, 94.7 has flipped to AC as “Mix 94.7,” using a Jones satellite service for now.

*In CANADA, we offer congratulations to Wayne Herrett’s Seaside Broadcasting, which has won CRTC permission to increase the power at CFEP (Seaside 94.7) in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia from its current 50 watts to 1.4 kW. Herrett’s been dreaming for a long time of having a full-signaled station, and this is definitely a case of one of the “good guys” winning.

In Toronto, Rogers has found a new home for CITY-TV (Channel 57) and its OMNI stations (CFMT/CJMT). They’ll move to the “Olympic Torch Building” at 35 Dundas Street East, ending City’s run on Queen Street West (where the “ChumCity Building” will continue to house MuchMusic and other cable channels that are now in CTV’s hands) and moving the OMNI channels from their longtime home on Lake Shore Boulevard.

Ten Years Ago: October 28, 2002 -

It’s been ten months since Christian contemporary station WWJS (90.1) in Watertown, NEW YORK went silent, the victim of a nasty spat between owner Charles Savidge and his father-in-law, Rev. Robert Bryant, who owns the Liberty Christian Center that was the station’s home. And with the FCC’s strict rule about deleting stations that remain dark for a full 12 months, the deadline was fast approaching for something to happen with this frequency up there. And while it looked a little iffy (and sparked a new battle between Savidge and Bryant), WWJS made it back to the airwaves last Wednesday (Oct. 23), according to NERW North Country bureau chief Michael Roach. Actually, WWJS would have been back a few days earlier — but, Roach reports, Bryant hired workers to go to the WWJS transmitter site east of town on Champion Hill (also home to WWNY-TV and WTOJ 103.1) to remove, yes, the transmitter!

But the mess has caught the attention of Watertown’s other broadcasters, and in stepped David Mance, owner of WTOJ (as well as WBDI/WBDR, WATN and WOTT), who’s letting Savidge use one of his auxiliary transmitters for the moment. Expect another round (or three or six) of lawsuits, including one in which Bryant is apparently claiming that he owns the WWJS call letters! (NERW notes: there’s no trademark on “WWJS,” and nobody actually owns call letters, according to established case law.)

Elsewhere in the Empire State, Sunrise Broadcasting has moved another step forward in its attempt to get something back on the air at 1200 kHz in the Hudson Valley. You may recall that Sunrise’s WGNY in Newburgh occupied that channel under special temporary authority for most of the 90s, in an attempt to win a permanent upgrade from its longtime spot at 1220 on the dial. But the upgrade of New York’s WLIB on 1190 doomed a fulltime 1200 signal in Newburgh, and WGNY had to slide back to 1220 a few years back. But Sunrise didn’t give up, and now its application for a new station on 1200 in Kingston, some 40 miles north of Newburgh, has been accepted for filing at the FCC. The new 1200 would run 2000 watts day from two towers and 400 watts night from five towers, which would require a rebuild of the existing WGHQ (920) site off Route 9W just south of Kingston.

Mega Communications has sold its lone central MASSACHUSETTS property: WARE (1250 Ware) goes to Marshall Sanft’s “Siccess Signal Broadcasting” (hey, it’s radio, spelling doesn’t matter!) for a reported $250,000. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Sanft used to own WESO (970) in nearby Southbridge; his father owned WOKW (1410 Brockton, now WMSX) in days gone by.

And on the TV side, WWLP-DT (Channel 11) in Springfield took air this week, running 1.95 kW from the WWLP-TV (Channel 22) tower high atop Provin Mountain.

Fifteen Years Ago: October 30, 1997 -

It’s an early Halloween for pirate broadcasters in New England, and they’re not getting any treats from the FCC. On Tuesday afternoon, FCC agents visited Radio Free Allston (106.1) at its studios in an Allston art gallery, as well as Worcester pirate WDOA (89.3), ordering the stations off the air and threatening fines and jail time if broadcasts continued. RFA founder Steven Provizer was manning the board at the station when the agents arrived. He says they photographed RFA’s equipment and transmitter readings but did not confiscate anything, and he’s promising a renewed fight in court to make RFA legitimate. Provizer says the FCC told him it had received complaints from a licensed broadcaster (he says it’s WROR (105.7) that made the complaint). Other area pirates aren’t waiting for the FCC to come trick-or-treating; they’ve voluntarily suspended operations while waiting for things to quiet down. The web page for Rebel Music Radio in Boston (105.3) displays only color bars and the words “Sorry it had to happen…we’re off the air.” Also off the air is Radio Free Chelmsford, 88.3, according to its web site.

The battle between the pirates and the FCC is far from over; Provizer is already getting assistance from the ACLU in his case and he’s promising to see things all the way through in court. We’ll keep you posted…

In other news from MASSACHUSETTS this week: Keating Willcox’s Willow Farm Broadcasting has closed on its purchase of WPEP (1570 Taunton); staying at the station are George and Donna Colajezzi and their local morning show. A follow-up to last week’s mention of the sale of WBET (1460) and WCAV (97.7) in Brockton: new owner KJI Broadcasting has the same ownership as Pittsfield’s WBEC (1420/105.5) out in the Berkshires.

One of CONNECTICUT’s largest broadcast groups is for sale. At a staff meeting Tuesday morning, Capstar employees were told the company’s Fairfield radio group is on the block. Capstar’s Connecticut properties include news-talk trimulcast WSTC (1400 Stamford)/WNLK (1350 Norwalk)/WINE (940 Brookfield), oldies WKHL (96.7 Stamford), classic rock WEFX (95.9 Norwalk), and rocker WRKI (95.1 Brookfield). Rumor has Clear Channel eyeing the stations to add to its own 2AM-1FM group in nearby New Haven.

In NEW HAMPSHIRE, the simulcast between WJYY (105.5 Concord) and WNHQ (92.1 Peterborough) started last Friday, more than a week ahead of schedule. Up in Manchester, WKBR (1250) has flipped back to the One-on-One Sports format, supposedly for good this time. WKBR was apparently having trouble getting a clear satellite signal from One-on-One; they’ve built a new dish to fix that problem.

Could little WGOT (Channel 60) in Merrimack become Boston’s latest network O&O? WGOT owner Lowell Paxson is talking about using his own group of UHF stations to create a seventh network. Labelling WGOT as the “Boston” affiliate would be a bit of a stretch; while the station has cable carriage through the northern half of the market and a translator (W54CN) in Needham, its over-the-air signal is weak to nonexistent in Boston proper. Paxson also controls WHRC (Channel 46) in Norwell, Mass. through an LMA; it too might become part of the network. Elsewhere in the region, Paxson stations include WTWS (Channel 26) New London CT, WPXN-TV (Channel 31) New York, WHAI-TV (Channel 43) Bridgeport, and the not-yet-built WAQF (Channel 51) Batavia-Buffalo.

Also making network noises is Barry Diller’s Silver King group, which includes WHSH (Channel 66) Marlborough-Boston, WHSE (Channel 68) Newark-New York, and WHSI (Channel 67) Smithtown, L.I. With Diller’s acquisition of the USA network this week, there’s growing speculation that he’ll use the Silver King stations as the core of a new broadcast network (in addition to his CityVision local programming plans).