March 26, 2007

Rhode Island Public Radio Gets Local

• MAINE
• NEW HAMPSHIRE
• MASSACHUSETTS
• VERMONT
• RHODE ISLAND
• CONNECTICUT
• NEW YORK
• NEW JERSEY
• PENNSYLVANIA
• CANADA
• CLASSIFIEDS
• FROM THE ARCHIVES
• OF "RADIO PEOPLE" AND STATION VALUES - NERW'S 2007 RANT, PART 3

*RHODE ISLAND will soon have its first locally-owned public radio station. "Rhode Island Public Radio" is buying two Rhode Island radio stations - existing public radio outlet WRNI (1290 Providence) and WAKX (102.7 Narragansett Pier).

WRNI has been providing NPR news and talk to northern Rhode Island since 1998, when Boston's WBUR bought the station. It's been an up-and-down ride ever since, as WBUR has weathered management shakeups, a Rhode Island state investigation into the use of money donated by Rhode Island listeners, and an aborted plan by former WBUR general manager Jane Christo to sell WRNI and its sister station, WXNI (1230 Westerly).

Now Boston University has agreed to keep WRNI in public radio hands, selling it for $2 million (paid over a ten-year period) to the Rhode Island Public Radio group, formerly known as the Foundation for Ocean State Public Radio. WBUR will continue to provide engineering and programming assistance to WRNI for the next five years, and it will sell WXNI separately, since RIPR's other purchase announced this past week will make the Westerly AM signal redundant. (Money from the WXNI sale will go towards reducing the sale price of WRNI.)

That other purchase is WAKX, for which RIPR will pay Davidson Media $2.65 million, funded by a loan from the Rhode Island Foundation.

That signal will give RIPR coverage of much of South County and Newport for the first time. (It's currently LMA'd out with a smooth jazz format, which will continue to be heard on Davidson's WALE 990 Greenville, at least when that station's on the air - it's been off again for a few days, we're told.)

Joseph O'Connor, general manager of WRNI, will stay on the job when the station changes ownership.

*One more bit of Ocean State news: WPRO-FM (92.3 Providence) night jock Kerry Collins is moving to mornings at sister station WWKX (106.3 Woonsocket). PRO-FM is looking for a new night jock; former Hot 106 morning hosts Tessa and Baby J will continue on the air in the other market where their "Da Breakfuss Club" show was being heard, WWWZ (93.3 Summerville-Charleston SC).

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*Just in from NEW JERSEY as we go to press Sunday night: WHWH (1350 Princeton) is reportedly back from the dead. Though the Multicultural Radio Broadcasting-owned station went silent just short of a year ago, in favor of its expanded-band sister WTTM (1680 Lindenwold), Multicultural was one of several broadcasters that asked the FCC to reconsider its "five-year rule" forcing expanded-band broadcasters to surrender one of their two licenses. It argued - successfully, it would appear - that the FCC's stated aim of cleaning up the AM band wasn't being met by the five-year rule. There's no word yet on whether WHWH will return to its last format, business talk programmed by former owner Nassau under an LMA.

*NEW YORK's WNYC will partner with Boston's WGBH, the New York Times, BBC World Service and Public Radio International to launch a new morning show next year. The show will be one of two new rivals to NPR's "Morning Edition," joining a new NPR-produced "alternative" morning offering. WNYC will continue to carry Morning Edition on WNYC-FM (93.9), while the new show will air on WNYC (820). (Will Boston's WGBH, which currently runs Morning Edition at the same time as rival WBUR, carry the new show on its main signal? Stay tuned...)

Dennis Miller's new syndicated talk show has landed at least two affiliates in the Empire State: "Free FM" WFNY-FM (92.3) in New York will take the show from 9 PM-midnight on a trial basis (it's been auditioning a series of guest hosts in that slot), and Miller will be heard in the Rochester market from 3-5 PM on WYSL (1040 Avon) when the show starts today.

On Long Island, it's the end of the line (terrestrially speaking, anyway) for Scotty Hart's modern rock "Radio X" network, anchored at WLIX-LP (94.7 Ridge), with translators W235BB (94.9 Hauppage) and W238BA (104.5 Selden). Next Sunday (Easter Sunday, as it happens), the stations will flip to a religious format, and they'll soon add two more translators, W268AN (101.5 Plainview) and W243BF (96.5 Shirley). Radio X will live on, for a while anyway, on its webcast at radiox.fm.

Radio People on the Move: in Poughkeepsie, Jimi Jamm is departing Clear Channel, where he's PD of WPKF (Kiss 96.1) and MD of WBWZ (93.3 New Paltz); he's joining Howard Rosen Promotions next month. Sonia Rincon, who's worked at WLAD in Danbury and WGAN in Portland, is moving from Philadelphia's KYW, where she was an anchor-reporter, to New York's WINS (1010) as a reporter. In Olean, "Aaron James" (Glenn Topolski) is departing WMXO (101.5), where he was PD and afternoon jock; he'll continue doing part-time air work at Buffalo's WJYE (96.1).

And there's a new signal on the air in the Adirondacks: WSLP (93.3 Saranac Lake) has been testing its transmitter, with regular programming set to launch soon. No word yet on what the station's format might be.

*Other than the news from WBUR, it was a quiet week in MASSACHUSETTS, unless you're at a Boston AAA station. WBOS (92.9 Brookline) middayer Joanne Doody has exited the Greater Media station, with music director Dana Marshall replacing her in that airshift. Both Doody and Marshall are veterans of WXRV (92.5 Haverhill), which has a new morning show. Boston Radio Watch (no relation, but we've both been at it for a long time!) reports PD Ron Bowen has replaced Scott Lucas on the early shift at "The River."

A slightly belated happy birthday to WNBP (1450 Newburyport): former owner Bob "Doc" Fuller checks in to recall that he was a junior in high school when he signed the station on the air for the first time at 10 AM on March 10, 1957. "It seems like yesterday...scary!" says Fuller, who now splits his time between Maine and California.

And we're sorry to report the passing of a Springfield television veteran. Gilbert Lefkovich retired in 1990 after a decade as general manager of WGGB-TV (Channel 40), where he had worked since 1956. (Before that, he was at the now-defunct WKNY-TV in Kingston, N.Y.) He later spent some time as executive director of Longmeadow Community Television. Lefkovich died March 16, on his 77th birthday.

*The residual effects of Citadel's deal to acquire ABC Radio from Disney will be felt in the Portland, MAINE market. As part of the FCC's approval of the transaction, Citadel will lose its grandfathered market-cap status there - and that means it will have to spin off two stations.

WCYI (93.9 Lewiston) and WCLZ (98.9 Brunswick) will be among 11 Citadel stations being placed in the "Last Bastion Station Trust" while the company seeks a buyer. WCYI is half of the modern rock simulcast with WCYY (94.3 Biddeford), while WCLZ programs an adult album alternative format.

Down East, WRMO (93.7 Millbridge) has returned to the air after an absence of several months following the death last year of its former owner, Lyle Robert Evans. The station has moved about two miles west to the Bushey Enterprises warehouse in Steuben, where it's playing "Songs You Know, Music You Love," a mix of standards, oldies and AC.

A correction from last week's issue: WABI veteran George Hale is not, in fact, retired - he's just spending some time in Florida this winter.

*It didn't take long for a new VERMONT FM station to hit the airwaves. WTNN (97.5 Bristol) began testing its signal late last week. We're told it's stunting at the moment as "Quick FM," playing music-testing hooks (where have we heard that before?) and ID'ing as "Bristol-Rutland"; no word yet on what the permanent format at that standalone station will be. (Licensee Fine Arts Broadcasting is owned by Connecticut broadcaster John Fuller, who was in the headlines last week for the opposition his Red Wolf Broadcasting filed against the ABC-Citadel deal.)

Vermont Public Radio won't be buying WWPV (88.7 Colchester) from St. Michael's College after all; after students and alumni objected to the proposed purchase, college administrators reconsidered, and now plan to keep the station. WWPV's partnership with VPR, which programs its "World Channel" service on the college signal when students aren't around, will continue - and VPR says it still intends to find a home in the Burlington market for its new all-classical service.

Over in Springfield, WTSM (93.5) has dropped its simulcast of the news-talk format from WTSL (1400 Lebanon, NEW HAMPSHIRE); it's now simulcasting "Kixx" country from WXXK (100.5 Lebanon) once again. (The previous "Kixx" simulcast on 93.5 lasted from 2001-2004, under the calls WXKK.)

*There's a new afternoon jock at "Star 99.9," WEZN-FM in Bridgeport, CONNECTICUT. Steven Roy, former afternoon guy at WLTW (106.7 New York), is now being heard on the Cox Radio AC outlet, replacing Chris Reno, who was briefly doing afternoons after a run in morning drive there.

*We know more this week about the new FM talk entry in western PENNSYLVANIA. When CBS Radio relaunches WRKZ (93.7 Pittsburgh) on April 2, it'll have new calls, WTZN, and (as rumored in last week's issue) a new identity, "The Zone." Opie and Anthony remain on board for morning drive, followed by Dennis Miller's new syndicated show at 10 AM, John McIntire (formerly of KDKA) at 1 PM and Scott Paulsen (late of WDVE) at 4 PM. The new "Zone" is being billed as a talk station designed specifically for men, whatever that might mean.

Over on the AM dial, BusinessTalkRadio.Net is buying WURP (1550 Braddock) from Inner City Broadcasting. BTRN will replace WURP's "Edge" talk format with its own network talk programming and some local talk.

In Philadelphia, the Dennis Miller show lands on Salem's conservative talker, WNTP (990), where it displaces Michael Savage from the 9 PM-midnight slot. (Our colleagues over at Ohio Media Watch note that Salem has apparently struck a group deal for the Miller show - will it land on Boston's WTTT 1150 as well?)

14 callsigns in less than four years? That's what we noticed when yet another call change came through a couple of weeks ago for the LPFM on 92.9 in Gap, east of Lancaster. The former WOMB-LP, WGCP-LP, WOMB-LP, WLDW-LP, WOBS-LP, WGPQ-LP, WLBX-LP, WOBS-LP, WLRI-LP, WLIZ-LP, WTPP-LP, WOMB-LP and WPAG-LP is once again WLIZ-LP. (We'd use a pencil to mark that down, if we were you...)

Two Lehigh Valley AM stations will be making format changes next weekend. In Easton, WEST (1400) will drop its oldies format on Sunday and begin simulcasting the Spanish tropical "Hola" format of its new sister station, WHOL (1600 Allentown).

On Monday (April 2), Clear Channel will replace the contemporary Christian "Hymn 1470" format on WYHM (1470 Allentown) with Fox Sports Radio. "Hymn" lasted just over six months on the frequency, which will apparently be returning to an old callsign, WSAN, when it becomes "Sports Radio AM 1470 the Fox."

Sad news from WQXA (105.7 York): weekend jock Lyndi Starr (real name: Myers) died last Tuesday (March 20) of complications from childbirth, just 10 days after giving birth to a daughter.

Starr was 23; she'd been working Saturday and Sunday evenings at the station since 2003. The station is planning a benefit concert to create a trust fund for Starr's daughter, who's reported to be healthy.

*Another AM station in CANADA is on its way to the FM band. The CRTC has granted CHUM's CKPT (1420 Peterborough) permission to move to FM, where it will operate on 99.3 with 5.7 kW. The move will displace CKKK (99.5 Peterborough); that religious station is applying to move to 90.5, where it will go from its current 50 watts to 230 watts/26.4 meters. Rival operators Pineridge Broadcasting and Corus had objected to the CKPT move, with Pineridge claiming that CHUM would end up with three FMs in the market, counting CKLY (91.9 Lindsay). The CRTC says Lindsay's a separate market, and it says if Corus chooses to apply to move the last remaining AM in Peterborough, CKRU (980), to FM, it will consider that application on its own merits.

In heavily Francophone northern New Brunswick, Radio-Canada is getting a new FM outlet: the 26.5 kW signal on 107.5 in Bon Accord will fill in some gaps in the signal from CBAF-FM-4 (100.3 Edmundston) in areas such as Grand Falls and Woodstock, not to mention across the border in northern Maine. (It'll share a transmitter site with CBZC 103.3, the CBC Radio One outlet in the area.)

Down in Saint John, campus radio station CFMH has been granted permission to move from 92.5, with 50 watts, to 107.3, with 250 watts. The move will eliminate an interference issue with CFRK (92.3 Fredericton).

Up in Quebec's Saguenay region, the CRTC has granted Carl Gilbert a new classic rock station at La Baie. He'll have to find a new frequency, probably 103.3, since his proposal to use 99.9 with 6 kW conflicts with the recent grant of a La Baie relay at 99.7 for CKAJ (92.5 Saguenay).

In the Ottawa-Gatineau market, we hear CJRC (1150) has begun testing its new FM signal at 104.7; we'd expect the AM to be gone by year's end, at this rate. Even as 1150 goes away, though, there's a new AM headed for the Ottawa airwaves: the CRTC approved the application from Fondation Radio Enfant du Canada for a 1000-watt signal on 1670 providing French-language children's programming.

And on Ontario's Manitoulin Island, CFRM (101.1 Little Current) moved down the dial to 100.7 at 1 PM last Monday (March 19), making a huge jump in power from 45 watts to 1830 watts/164.5 meters; "100.7 the Island" has a new website up and running at theislandfm.com.

*Spring must be in the air...because it's time again for NERW's annual look at Baseball on the Radio across the region, starting this week with the major league teams.

We start this year with the Boston Red Sox, not only because we have a well-known bias toward the most recent world champions from NERW-land, but also because they're one of two teams in the region with a new radio flagship (and who wants to lead with the Pirates, anyway?)

That flagship, of course, is Entercom's WRKO (680 Boston), which is banking on the team's popularity to draw listeners to its struggling talk format. It's a big investment - a 10 year deal that's valued at somewhere north of $10 million a year - but Entercom is hoping it makes sense for the promotional value it can bring not only to WRKO but to the team's former flagship, Entercom sports-talker WEEI (850 Boston).

WEEI will continue to carry some Sox games on its Boston signal, and it will carry the entire season on its outlying affiliates - WEEI-FM (103.7 Westerly RI) in the Providence market, WVEI (1440) and WVEI-FM (105.5 Easthampton) in the Springfield market. And of course it'll be nonstop Sox talk on WEEI's local talk shows all season, not that it isn't already. (Who's that hot new pitcher again?)

Two of those markets represent affiliate changes, too - in Springfield, the Sox move to WVEI-FM from Clear Channel's WHYN (560) after many years, and in Worcester...well, Worcester's just an odd situation, since the Sox will appear on two competing stations. One is WVEI(AM), but that station's limited night signal doesn't do much to fill the very big gap between Worcester and Boston that will be created by the Boston move to WRKO. Areas as close to the Hub as Natick will have trouble hearing WRKO after dark, and the last thing Entercom wants to do is to alienate the entire MetroWest branch of Sox Nation. So the Sox games - complete with local Worcester ads sold by WVEI - will also air on Carter Broadcasting's WCRN (830 Worcester), with its new 50 kW night signal. WCRN won't see any ad revenue from the games, but if it gets some new attention for its talk format, it still has the potential to come out a winner.

There's a change in the broadcast booth, too, with Jerry Trupiano out as color announcer, replaced by a tag team of Dave O'Brien and Glenn Geffner keeping Joe Castiglione company. This column always happy to see any former Rochester Red Wings make it to the big time, so we're delighted to see Geffner (a former Wings announcer) getting an on-air break with the Sox, where he's been working the PR office for a few years - but we're going to miss Trupiano, too.

Sox fans west of New England will continue to hear the games at night via WTIC (1080 Hartford), at least until night IBOC fires up in Baltimore, and the games will again be heard in Spanish on WROL (950 Boston).

And Sox fans without cable or satellite are in for another year without seeing many games; except for the handful of Fox network telecasts, it's all NESN, all the time.

*Not much changes this year for the Yankees, in English anyway, with flagship WCBS (880 New York) and announcers John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman all signing new contracts. The team's Spanish-language radio presence is another matter, as a new deal brings the games to Univision's WQBU (92.7 Garden City).

On the affiliate front, there are few changes around the team's territory: the impending LMA of Springfield's WNNZ (640 Westfield) to public radio WFCR means the Yankees lose their Pioneer Valley outlet (unless WNNZ's sister station WHYN pulls a Johnny Damon), and if WPDA (106.1 Jeffersonville NY) was on the affiliate list last year, I must have missed it.

On TV, nothing changes this year, either - the team's YES Network produces the games, and WWOR (Channel 9), along with a small network of upstate stations, will carry a small slate of broadcasts, with the rest only on YES.

*The Mets and WFAN (660 New York) are now among the longest-running partnerships in baseball, and there are two more seasons left on their contract, so there won't be any affiliation change while the team still calls Shea Stadium home. There's no network here, just the big WFAN signal, but that's more than enough to reach the team's fan base in and around New York. Spanish-language radio continues on WADO (1280 New York).

On TV, it's the second season for the Mets' SNY (SportsNet New York), which will put 25 games on WPIX (Channel 11), as well as a small selection of cable games in Spanish on Cablevision's "iO en Espanol."

*The Phillies have settled down on WPHT (1210), with few changes of note in their English-language network for the 2007 season. The impending format change at affiliate WYHM 1470 in Allentown means the Phillies won't be sharing airtime with contemporary Christian, as they were for the end of the 2006 season. And there's a new gap in the network in York, where former affiliate WOYK (1350) is switching to the Orioles, with former O's outlet WSBA (910) picking up the minor-league York Revolution this season. The nearest Phillies affiliates are WLBR (1270 Lebanon) and WGET (1320 Gettysburg).

Spanish-language Phillies broadcasts will air on WDAS (1480 Philadelphia), an interesting break from the station's usual black gospel format.

Phillies' TV games are split among Comcast Sports Network, its sister network CN8, and WPSG (Channel 57), with opening day on KYW-TV (Channel 3).

*So what about the Pirates? After many decades with KDKA (1020), the team starts a new era this year with Clear Channel's WPGB (104.7). Even without the big 50,000-watt AM signal, the team still has an extensive network that stretches from Marietta, Ohio south to Clarksburg, WV and east to Chambersburg. (Oddly, there's no affiliate right in Erie; the closest is WWCB 1370 in Corry.)

There's no change in the broadcast team, as veteran play-by-play man (and Rochester native) Lanny Frattare enters his 32nd season with the Bucs.

FSN Pittsburgh carries a partial TV schedule; there's no broadcast TV again this year.

*Across the border, the Blue Jays and CJCL (590 Toronto) will be together as long as Rogers owns both the team and the station. (Someday, we'll even learn to start calling it the "Rogers Centre," not SkyDome.)

The team continues to have the only coast-to-coast network in baseball, with affiliates from Halifax to Vancouver, including wide-coverage CHML (900 Hamilton) for Jays fans all over the eastern U.S. South of Buffalo, WSPQ (1330 Springville) continues as the lone U.S. affiliate for the Jays.

Most of the Jays' TV games are on (surprise!) Rogers Sportsnet, with a handful on TSN.

*Next week, we'll start our look at the minors...see you then!

*It's here! As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Chicago Sun-Times, and soon on WCVB's "Chronicle," Tower Site Calendar 2007 is not only now shipping - it's close to a sellout! If you're waiting for the 2007 edition to go on clearance sale, don't keep waiting - the word from the shipping department is that fewer than 200 copies remain, and we expect to sell them all in the next month or two.

This year's edition features what we think are the finest tower images yet - from the cover image of WCCO Minneapolis all the way to the back-cover centerfold of WBZ in Boston, and from KGO San Francisco to KOIL Omaha to Philadelphia's famed Roxborough tower farm, captured in a dramatic dusk shot with the lights all aglow.

This sixth annual edition once again contains plenty of historic dates from radio and television history in the Northeast and beyond, and as always, it comes to you shrink-wrapped and shipped first class mail for safe arrival.

You can even get your 2007 calendar free with your new or renewal subscription to NERW at the $60 level.

Visit the Fybush.com Store and place your order today - and be among the first to get the Tower Site Calendar 2007!

NorthEast Radio Watch is made possible by the generous contributions of our regular readers. If you enjoy NERW, please click here to learn how you can help make continued publication possible. NERW is copyright 2007 by Scott Fybush.