NorthEast Radio Watch 9/2 and 9/9/2024: It’s TJ Time

In this week’s issue… NY’s 98.7 enters stunt mode – Double shifting at WBLI – WICC, WFOX simulcast with talk – New country in Toronto – Big booster project in western Mass

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada

[Programming note: after an unusually heavy few weeks of late summer news, we’re going to try to take a week off and return with a new NERW on Sept. 16 – but if there’s something big breaking, we’ll be back next week anyway. And watch this space for some special features in the meantime…]

*It was, for a while, the very best kept secret in broadcasting: when Good Karma Brands’ lease of WEPN-FM (98.7) in NEW YORK came to an end Friday night, what would Emmis begin programming as it took back operation of the station?

There’s an answer now, but if anything, it leaves even more questions hanging. There was no ceremony to the end of ESPN programming on 98.7 after a dozen years. What had been the local 9 PM to midnight show, hosted by station veterans Larry Hardesty and Gordon Damer, broadcast its final episode Thursday night as Good Karma let the pair go. (Why? Apparently a bit of cost-cutting as the ESPN New York programming moves to WHSQ 880, but along with that the reality that with the addition of the Mets, there’s not going to be much space for a local night show on the station now.)

Listeners to 98.7 heard a few seconds of static before midnight as audio sources were switched around at the Empire State Building and the station’s HD Radio signal was turned back on after many years – and then it was into “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon and the revelation that listeners were now hearing “TJ 98.7, a pop-up radio station.”

What’s that about? As the hot AC tunes began to spin (with a legal ID noting that the automation for the pop-up is coming from radio.cloud, which puts automation, yes, in the cloud, feeding it through an internet connection to an output device at the transmitter site), some clues began to emerge. What was longtime WINS news anchor Judy DeAngelis doing on the new station talking about her hometown of Westwood, New Jersey? And what’s the “special treat” arriving on 98.7 Tuesday morning after a commercial-free weekend?

[pmpro_login show_menu=”false” show_logout_link=”false”]

[membership level=”1,3,5,7,8,9,10,11″]

*The link tying all these seemingly-unconnected little bits together is syndicated morning show host T.J. Taormina, another Westwood native who studied at Fairleigh Dickson University in NEW JERSEY under DeAngelis before going on to a career at New York’s Z100 working for Elvis Duran, then hosting mornings at Boston’s former AMP 103.3 (WODS).

Until now, Taormina’s show, which launched a year and a half ago, didn’t have a New York affiliate, and it may not have one permanently, since the new “TJ 98.7” is “here until we’re not.” But for a little while, at least, syndicator United Stations and consultant Mike McVay have a temporary beachhead in the big city to get the “TJ Show” a lot of industry attention and to give Emmis something to keep 98.7 going until it finds a buyer or a new LMA tenant to take over the station.

That’s what we do know. There’s a lot, of course, that we still don’t know – especially that question of how close or how far Emmis might be to a permanent disposition of 98.7. Outside of the radio obsessives who were staying up late on Friday to hear what would become of the signal, will most New Yorkers have any idea there’s something new on the frequency? If they do, its hot AC temporary format could do a little gnawing away on the closest format competitors in town, especially Audacy’s “New 102.7,” WNEW. (The TJ 98.7 format isn’t exactly like WNEW’s – indeed, it’s probably closest to what the old WPLJ 95.5 was until it went religious a few years back.)

We don’t know, outside of the spot load that comes along with Taormina’s syndication, whether there will be any other attempt to sell ads on 98.7 if it sticks around for a while. We do know there’s no local studio, making this the largest market in which radio.cloud gets to try out its innovative automation system.

It’s an unusual and unexpected new chapter in 21st-century radio, and in the weeks to come we’re hoping to be able to bring you more of the story behind the scenes of how it came about, and what comes next.

*Out on Long Island, Cox’s WBLI (106.1) has inaugurated its own new chapter in 21st-century radio with a double shift for one of its rising stars. After Kiana Singh left the station to take nights at Z100 in the spring, morning co-host Ally Ali is now also doing afternoons, calling her 3-7 PM shift “Coming Home with Ally Ali.” Victoria “Tory” Onorato, who’d been filling in on afternoons, moves to middays, the longtime domain of Al Levine before Cox cut him loose in June. Traffic reporter/fill-in host Cat Sodano fills out the new lineup on the evening shift.

Way out on the East End, the former WFTU (1570 Riverhead) is back on the air under new owner JVC Media, broadcasting from a longwire at the site of co-owned WRCN (103.9). For now, 1570, which will take the WBZO calls, is simulcasting WRCN’s talk format on AM and on its 104.9 translator.

*Over at iHeart, Bob Morgan is adding more markets to his duties as one of the company’s area presidents. Morgan has already been overseeing his home base here in Rochester as well as Syracuse and Binghamton, and now he’s picking up the Albany, Poughkeepsie and Sussex, NEW JERSEY markets as well.

Morgan’s new markets had been overseen by Howard Greiner, who recently moved to the company’s Nashville clusters.

*Also here in Rochester, Sinclair has launched its new “ARC” (“Authentic, Relevant and Community-Driven) mid-morning news format on WUHF (Fox Rochester). The talk show replaces the 8-9 AM hour of “Good Day Rochester” and extends news on WUHF into the 9-10 AM hour for the first time.

*Back in New York, Fatman Scoop is being mourned for his rap career and for his time as a DJ on WQHT (Hot 97), which first brought him to prominence in the 1990s. The legendary hypeman was on stage performing in Connecticut on Friday when he collapsed and later died. He was 56.

*There are job cuts in the Garden State as Beasley continues to nationalize more of its programming: on the shore, Robyn Lane’s 28-year career at WRAT (95.9) came to a close last week. “Rockin’ Robyn” had been the station’s midday host and music director. Over at WJRZ (100.1), Barbara Farragher is also out on middays, replaced by weekend host Joanne Cruise, starting today.

*On the New York-PENNSYLVANIA border, Bold Gold is signing on its newest FM signal. WBMG (102.9 Narrowsburg NY) joins Bold Gold’s WDNH (95.3 Honesdale) and WYCY (105.3 Hawley) at Vince Benedetto’s transmitter site near Beach Lake, Pennsylvania, bringing Bold Gold’s “Thunder” country format into the Honesdale-Hawley area, joining the existing Thunder signals in the Catskills (WDNB 102.1 Jeffersonville and WHNB 104.5 Hancock NY).

*As we wait for Tuesday’s big MASSACHUSETTS news, the swap of Bloomberg to the main WBOS (92.9) signal and “Rock 92.9” to WBOS’ HD2 and WRCA (1330) and its 106.1 translator, there’s a station sale to the north in the Merrimack Valley.

Jose Villafane’s Costa Media Boston has been operating WCCM (1490 Haverhill) and its 103.7 translator under an LMA from the unrelated Costa-Eagle Radio Ventures for three years, and now Costa Media Boston is buying the AM and translator outright.

While the $1.25 million purchase price for Spanish hits “Exitos 103.7” may look like a lot on paper, most of that total has already been accounted for by the LMA payments Villafane has been making since 2021, so it’s likely that not much more cash is actually changing hands at this point.

Costa-Eagle retains the rest of its Merrimack Valley cluster of AMs and translators, including WNNW (800 Lawrence), WMVX (1110 Salem NH) and WUBG (1570 Methuen).

*To the west, WEIB (106.3 Northampton) is the latest station looking to try its hand at improving its signal with the use of synchronized on-channel boosters. Carol Cutting’s Cutting Edge Broadcasting filed applications last week for eight boosters at four locations that will blanket nearly all of WEIB’s existing coverage area in the Pioneer Valley.

At each of the locations – one southeast of Amherst, one north of Westfield, one near South Hadley and one on Mount Tom – the plan appears to be to use a pair of antennas aimed in opposite directions for each booster, using the MaxxCasting system that the FCC recently approved with the ability to separate out localized advertising on each booster.

We’ll be watching closely to see how this works on two fronts. First, in the rough terrain around the valley, will it work technically when there’s split audio and listeners driving around between all those booster signals? And second, is there enough additional revenue to be garnered from Belchertown or South Hadley to sustain the considerable cost of all those extra transmitters and tower sites?

*On TV, Cox’s WFXT (Channel 25) in Boston is shedding almost all of its syndicated fare next week, as the Fox affiliate prepares for a new schedule starting Monday that will feature local news 18 hours every weekday. Much of it will be replays, as the morning show will extend to 1 PM, followed by three hours of syndication, a 4-7 PM news block, Fox’s prime time, and then the 10 and 11 PM local newscasts will replay in an all-night block until the following morning.

*In last week’s NERW, we mentioned that VERMONT Public’s WRVT (88.7 Rutland) was getting a signal upgrade that required the deletion of little WVTX (88.7 Colchester), but we neglected to point out that it’s part of an even bigger project up on the Grandpa’s Knob transmitter site that the public broadcaster operates in tandem with its WVER-TV (Channel 28).

There’s a lot more happening now on the knob, since two commercial FM stations have now joined WRVT there. Rutland’s WZRT (97.1) and WJJR (98.1), which have long operated from the top of Killington Peak to the east of Rutland, have now relocated to the Grandpa’s Knob site to the west. The move shifts those class B stations’ signals slightly, reducing their signal reach into the Connecticut River Valley but improving their reach towards Glens Falls, New York.

*In Barre, WSNO (1450) is no more. The Great Eastern-owned station was approaching the one-year anniversary of going silent in October 2023, but it filed last week to surrender its license. WSNO had been on the air in Barre since 1960.

*A surprise format change in CONNECTICUT: Connoisseur’s WFOX (95.9) in Fairfield County began playing “The History of Alternative Rock” a week ago, promising to keep the retrospective running through Labor Day – but as of Tuesday morning, all the music is gone from both 95.9 and sister station WICC (600 Bridgeport), which was mixing talk and oldies.

The AM and FM signals begin simulcasting today, with a new WICC format that will be heavier on news and information, including CBS News at the top of the hour. Is Connoisseur hoping to pick up some of the Fairfield listeners who long depended on the former WCBS (880)? We’ll be watching.

*Here’s a story you won’t read anywhere else: a small New Haven-area AM station that was just hours away from losing its license has been saved for now, thanks to the work of a few dedicated radio people who didn’t want to see it die.

WADS (690 Ansonia) went silent a year ago when it lost its transmitter site, but it’s back on the air from a most unusual location – a 10-watt STA facility using a longwire antenna in the back yard of broadcast engineer Bob Gilmore. The project came together in the space of three days, Gilmore tells us, inspired by a conversation that started a week ago at his radio barbecue gathering.

Gilmore worked with fellow engineers Dennis Jackson and Bill DeFelice to get the temporary WADS signal going, fed by an oldies format from his basement studio.

What happens next? Nobody knows yet – but for the moment, at least, WADS lives to see another day.

*Whether or not you spell it with a “u,” this particular Labo(u)r Day weekend has brought with it more format changes than we’ve seen in years, on both sides of the border.

The big news from CANADA is the latest attempt at country in the core of the Toronto market, where listeners looking for that format have had to reach for fringe signals from Durham Radio’s pair of “KX” stations to the east (CJKX 95.9 Ajax) and southwest (CHKX 94.7 Hamilton).

That changes today, as Stingray launches “New Country 93.5” on its CFXJ, where it pulled the plug last week on the “93.5 Today Radio” conversation/variety hits format it had been trying on the frequency for the last two and half years.

Blame it on the weak 93.5 signal (and the CRTC’s denial of a proposal to add two booster signals on the edges of the city), or on the fairly high amount of personality talk on music-centered competitors such as CHUM-FM (104.5), but “Today” never quite caught fire in Toronto the way that the talk/music hybrid did in other western markets.

Much of the former “Today” staff (including PD Crosby McWilliam) remains in place, as afternoon host Paul McGuire moves to mornings, followed by Stingray national host Devin McNeill in middays and McGuire’s former afternoon co-host Vanessa Newman remaining on that shift.

*Over at Zoomer Media’s CFZM (740), Sam Houston is out as morning co-host, replaced by “Producer Andy” Wilson alongside Jane Brown on the renamed “Morning Zoom with Andy and Jane.”

The previous incarnation of “Morning Zoom” had been an interesting experiment, one of the few all-women morning shows in the country.

Also gone from CFZM is newscaster Bob Komsic, who retired last week. Komsic’s career included a long stint at CFRB (1010) before moving to CFZM and sister station CFMZ (Classical 96.3).

*And we remember Bob Templeton, whose long career in Canadian radio started in Brockville, took him west to British Columbia and then back east to do sales and station management in several small Ontario markets at Telemedia Radio. That led Templeton to the presidency of NewCap Broadcasting from 2002-2009, overseeing 50 radio stations from coast to coast. Templeton was 74 when he died in Penetanguishene, Ontario on August 4.

[/membership]