NorthEast Radio Watch 9/16/2024: Big Plays in Play-by-Play

In this week’s issue… Sterling returns, Castiglione retires – Bruins, Knicks name new voices – WNYC celebrates centennial, cuts jobs – Corey’s new Canadian gig – Rock moves in VT – Zandy returns to PRO-FM 

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*For an entire generation of Boston Red Sox fans, the voice of Joe Castiglione has been a constant companion for some of the team’s best moments, including that magical night in 2004 when he called the toss-out at first that ended an 86-year World Series drought.

At 77, he’s had the privilege of calling three more Series wins since then, has been inducted into the Mass Broadcasters Hall of Fame (photo below), and over the summer he received the Ford Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame. Now he’s getting ready to step away from the WEEI broadcast booth.

During Sunday’s game against the Yankees, Castiglione took a break from the action to tell listeners he’s decided the end of this season is the right time.

“After 42 years and some 6,500 games, I think its time to hang up the microphone, at least on a regular basis,” Castiglione announced, saying he’ll stick around as a Red Sox team ambassador and may return to the booth now and again.

His run with the team, which started in 1983, is the longest in Red Sox history – and we’re pretty sure that of all active local MLB announcers, Castiglione has called more World Series wins than anyone else.

For WEEI and network listeners, the transition into retirement has already been underway; last season, Castiglione cut back to an 81-game season that’s kept him mostly on home games. Will Flemming, Sean McDonough and a team of broadcasters have been helping with coverage, and that gives the Sox a deep bench to pick from as they figure out what a radio future without Castiglione will sound like.

*The voice of the Sox’ AAA farm team won’t be moving up to the big leagues, at least not in baseball. Tyler Murray, who’s spent three seasons with the Worcester Red Sox, just landed his own major league job, but his will be in the NBA, replacing Ed Cohen on New York Knicks radio broadcasts (now on WHSQ 880 in New York) and doing some fill-in for Knicks TV on MSG as well.

And there’s a new big-league hockey job for one of radio’s very good guys. With Judd Sirott’s move from Bruins coverage on WBZ-FM (98.5 the Sports Hub) to replace Jack Edwards on the NESN TV broadcasts, Ryan Johnston has finally landed the top radio job for the Bs.

The Syracuse University graduate has worked his way up steadily through the radio ranks, calling minor-league games in Lowell for the Lock Monsters and Devils, programming and hosting afternoons on WCAP (980), doing fill-ins and weekends on the Sports Hub and calling college hockey on NESN.

*Remember how we said Joe Castiglione has called the most Series wins of any “active” local radio announcer? We may need to put an asterisk there, because the former holder of that record is making at least a temporary return to the booth. John Sterling called five wins for the Yankees during his 36 years with the team before his abrupt retirement in April. Now he’s coming back to the Yankees to call postseason games, reportedly accepting an offer that originated with Audacy, which has the radio rights for the Yankees on WFAN (101.9/660).

At 86, Sterling’s return has prompted some controversy in New York sports circles, with some fans complaining that he’s stepping on the three-man team that’s been filling in on games all season, Justin Shackil, Rickie Ricardo and Emanuel Berbari. Instead of taking the lead for the postseason, they’ll be sidelined in favor of Sterling and his longtime partner Suzyn Waldman.

While Sterling’s retirement was said to have been prompted in part by a desire to stop traveling, the plan appears to be to have him and Waldman in the booth both home and away for however long the Yankees survive in the postseason. And whether that’s a quick one-and-done series or a longer stretch, it’s still likely to be the last time that Sterling, now 86, is in the booth for the team.

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*On Monday night, NEW YORK public broadcaster WNYC welcomed thousands of listeners (including your editor) to the Summerstage in Central Park for a public celebration of the 100th anniversary of the station, continuing a commemoration that started on the actual anniversary in July.

WNYC talk host Brian Lehrer served as emcee for a two-hour live show that included musical performances from Laurie Anderson, Freestyle Love Supreme and Nada Surf, a live DJ, presentations from WNYC hosts including Sean Carlson, John Schaefer, Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger of “On the Media,” Alison Stewart and Ira Glass.

There was trivia with listeners, a slingshot sending centennial swag into the audience, and the kind of good vibes that materialize when broadcasters who usually work out of sight get to interact with an actual live audience.

That’s the good news – and later this week, we’ll have a special episode of our occasional “Top of the Tower” podcast featuring interviews with some of the WNYC folks who were there that night.

As for the bad news: while listener contributions remain healthy, as New York Public Radio continues to cope with a steep falloff in underwriting support for both its broadcasts and its podcasts, CEO LaFontaine Oliver (right) announced the completion of a round of job cuts on Thursday that laid off 14 staffers and gave 12 more voluntary buyouts, an 8.5% staffing cut out of a total head count of 302 employees.

Back in August, Oliver had warned that those cuts would be necessary to address a deficit of about $12 million this fiscal year. He’d already announced the end of Kai Wright’s “Notes from America” on WNYC, but the final results also included the cancellation of two WNYC podcasts, “More Perfect” and “La Brega,” along with the end of all six podcasts produced by NYPR’s classical station, WQXR (105.9).

WQXR takes the brunt of many of the cuts, including the end of its morning newscasts and of local hosts in the overnight hours, including 42-year WQXR veteran Nimet Habachy, who’d been heard on weekend overnights.

At least one WNYC reporter, Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky, resigned after being turned down for a buyout.

*We now know who’ll be in the studio today when Hollywood Hamilton moves to mornings on iHeart’s WKTU (103.5) in New York: Astra, who’s been doing weekends and fill-ins at KTU and working on the New York Post’s “Page Six,” will return to a daily radio gig alongside Hamilton, and she’ll be joined by “Marie from Accounting,” who’s been part of KTU’s “War of the Roses” segment.

*In the Adirondacks, Loud Media has merged two of its brands, turning variety hits “Lake George Radio” (WLGR 93.5 Warrensburg) and classic hits “Star Radio” (WSSV 1160 Mechanicville/93.3 Saratoga Springs) into classic hits “Lake-FM,” running the same music on both sets of signals but selling local spots and doing some separate voicetracking in each market. Walt Adams is hosting mornings, followed by “Rick Foxx” (Rick Woodhouse from WNBZ in Plattsburgh) in middays and Marissa Lanchak in afternoons.

*Here in Rochester, Chris Hastings will become the new president/CEO of WXXI Public Media on November 11, moving down I-90 from his current post as executive producer and editor-in-chief of GBH’s World Channel in Boston. Hastings has been with GBH for more than 20 years, mostly working in various television production jobs, and before that was with BET.

At WXXI, Hastings will become only the fourth leader in the public broadcaster’s 58-year history, succeeding the ailing Norm Silverstein, who announced his plans to retire back in December as he copes with Parkinson’s disease.

*On NEW JERSEY‘s shore, Press Communications’ WWZY (107.1 the Boss) is moving Cane Peterson from nights to afternoons and Ralphie Aversa from weekends to nights, filling the opening from Paul Van Dusen’s exit from afternoons. Cane’s best known in the area for his time in mornings on the old WNYL (Alt 92.3) in New York and before that at its predecessor WXRK (K-Rock) and at WNEW in its Fresh 102.7 era.

*In central PENNSYLVANIA, Seven Mountains’ WFVY (Froggy Valley 100.1) is modifying its plan to move from the Lebanon transmitter site of sister WLBR (1270) up to the ridge overlooking Lebanon and Harrisburg. It’s filed a modification to its pending CP to move to a different site a little to the west on the ridge at Fort Indiantown Gap, with a 1.85 kW/182 m signal that will push even more signal over Harrisburg than the original CP would have.

Over in Williamsport, WCRG (90.7) is changing towers up on the ridge west of town overlooking the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The move will slightly reduce WCRG’s power, going from 3 kW/-66 m to 1.4 kW/-43 m.

In Pittsburgh, Paul Zeise is out at KDKA-FM (93.7 the Fan), where he’d been talking sports for the last few months after moving down the hall from middays at KDKA (1020/100.1).

And PBRTV.com reports the death of John Longo, who started his radio career in Latrobe at the old WTRA (1480), worked for decades in Westmoreland County and Pittsburgh radio, then came back to Latrobe in 1982 as a part-owner and eventually full owner of 1480, by then WCNS. Longo also owned WLCY (106.3) in Blairstown before selling his stations and retiring in 2014. He was 84 when he died Sept. 7 at his Florida home.

*One more MASSACHUSETTS story, way out on Nantucket: Jeff Shapiro’s Nantucket Public Radio is moving its WNCK (89.5) across the road. “Quahog Country 89.5” is applying to swap its existing site east of Eel Point Road for another tower just to the west, increasing its signal from 820 watts/35 m to 1 kW/54 m.

(Quahogs? Eels? We’re hungry now…)

*A familiar voice is back on the air in RHODE ISLAND, where Kim Zandy is back at Cumulus’ WPRO-FM (92.3) a little more than a year after she exited. Back then, of course, Zandy was working alongside legendary morning man Giovanni; now, she’ll be co-hosting with her replacement, Bekah Berger, and Jay Buff, who moved up from producer to co-host when Giovanni retired in May.

In South County, Horizon Christian Fellowship’s WXEV (91.1 Bradford) has been mostly off the air since April 2023, save for a brief return to the air earlier this year. After losing its longtime site on a smokestack at an old factory in Bradford, WXEV is now applying to move north to the WPXQ (Channel 69) tower near Hopkinton and the Connecticut state line, where it would run 180 watts/29 m DA.

*There’s a programming change underway in VERMONT, where Northeast Digital and Wireless has pulled the plug on the hot AC “Mix” format at WIXM (102.3 Grand Isle) after a dozen years, replacing it with the “Rock 103.3” format that’s been on WWMP (103.3 Waterbury).

Both class C3 signals cover Burlington decently, but the 102.3 signal will bring Rock across the lake to Plattsburgh as well, and while it loses 103.3’s coverage in Montpelier, the format is also heard on 93.3 in the state capital via a translator for simulcaster WSKI (1240) there.

Northeast is swapping callsigns as well, moving the WWMP calls to 102.3; for now, there’s a redirect loop on 103.3 pointing listeners to 102.3 and 93.3.

(And as we neglected to note last week in our story about the shutdown of Great Eastern’s WSNO 1450 in Barre, the oldies format there remains on the air in central Vermont via translator W289CH, which has shifted parents from the now-deleted WSNO to an HD subchannel of sister station WWFY 100.9.)

*After buying Burlington translator W207AX (89.3) from Family Stations, CSN International is making some changes. The translator signal had applied to move to 90.5 to get out of the way of a new full-power 89.3, but now it has instead asked to move to 88.7, the channel just vacated by Vermont Public’s WVTX. It’s also now being fed by satellite from CSN’s KAWZ in Twin Falls, Idaho.

*In NEW HAMPSHIRE, Dirk Nadon’s Lakes Media LLC is expanding the reach of its “Mountain Country” format. In addition to flagship WCGY (97.3 Jefferson), the format has now added a simulcast on Lakes’ recent purchase, WASR (1420/97.1 Wolfeboro), which flips from classic hits. And even after modifying branding from “Mountain Country 97.3” to just “Mountain Country 97,” that’s still not basic enough branding, because WASR is also soon adding a second Lakes Region translator, W241AJ (96.1) in Laconia.

*David Corey’s career has taken him back and forth from Boston to CANADA over the years, starting at Boston’s Kiss 108 (WXKS) as a teen DJ and eventually APD/MD. After a decade in Toronto as PD of CHUM-FM (104.5) and VP of radio programming for Bell, Corey went back to the States to program Boston’s WKLB and work for Cumulus, and then he went back to Canada a year ago to consult for Bell.

And now he’s coming full circle, returning to the air on CHUM-FM starting this morning as the new sidekick to morning legend Marilyn Denis. That’s been a revolving chair for a while – Roger Ashby’s retirement six years ago brought Jamar McNeil to the co-host job, but Bell moved McNeil to afternoons this past spring, with Luke Rodriguez as the temporary co-host. Rodriguez also has a new gig: he’s taking over as assistant PD for Bell’s London and Kitchener stations and will host afternoons on London’s Virgin Radio (CIQM 97.5).

Over at Evanov’s Z103.5 (CIDC), former morning host Melanie Martin returned last week to the job she held in the early 2000s as morning co-host, joining the Morning Rush with Jimmy T. Since leaving Z, Martin worked for the former Flow 93.5 (CFXJ) and for B101 (CIQB) in Barrie, and she’s been voicetracking for stations in the US and Canada.

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