Recent Issues:

May 14, 2007

May 7, 2007

April 30, 2007

April 23, 2007

2006 In Review

9/11 Plus One: The World Trade Center Broadcasters Recover

WVOX 1460 AM - WVIP 93.5 FM

radioinsight.com - The New Place to Talk Radio

Your message here - contact fybush.com to reach thousands of NERW readers every week!

May 21, 2007

Rumba Fades Away in Philly

TOWER SITE CALENDAR 2007 - SELLING OUT FAST!!!

You can have your ad here! Click here for information on the most economical way to reach tens of thousands of Northeast radio and TV people each week.

*It seemed like a sure thing - put a Spanish-language format on an FM signal in PENNSYLVANIA's biggest market and watch the ratings soar.

But Clear Channel's experiment with Spanish tropical "Rumba" on WUBA (104.5 Philadelphia) never quite caught fire after the station signed on last fall, replacing the soft AC of "Sunny" WSNI. WUBA languished at the bottom of the ratings, with revenue to match, and the advent of the Portable People Meter in Philadelphia this year confirmed that it wasn't just an issue with under-representation of the Hispanic audience.

So on Thursday, "Rumba" disappeared from the big full-market 104.5 signal, moving down to WDAS (1480 Philadelphia), displacing black gospel from that frequency and its decidedly less-than-full-market coverage. (WDAS had picked up Spanish-language Phillies broadcasts at the start of the season, which should have tipped us off that something was up.)

Replacing "Rumba" on 104.5 is Philadelphia's first commercial modern rocker since the 2005 demise of the old "Y100" (WPLY 100.3 Media) more than two years ago. "Radio 104.5" is running jockless for now, with a logo (and programming) reminiscent of the old WMRQ (104.1) in Hartford prior to its switch to urban in 2003.

MANDATORY SUBSCRIPTION FEES? They've become a fact of life for many of the most popular radio and TV websites out there. Just a few weeks ago, our pal Dave Hughes put part of his excellent DCRTV.com site behind a pay wall, and mandatory subscriptions are an established way of life at LARadio.com and reelradio.com, too, just to name a few.

Here at fybush.com/North East RadioWatch, we've managed to hold off from imposing a password and mandatory subscription fee, but we depend on your support - and that of our advertisers - to keep it that way.

If you still haven't subscribed yet for 2007, do it right now at our Support page - and enjoy another exciting year of NERW, guilt- (and password-) free. And if you have become one of our many subscribers, thank you!

*In other news from Philadelphia, there's a new morning show on WWDB (860), as the syndicated Mancow show fills Don Imus' old slot there. (Because WWDB is a daytimer, Mancow, like Imus before him, will be heard for only a portion of morning drive come winter.)

Dean Goodman's GoodRadio.TV group finally announced the full roster of markets it's acquiring from Clear Channel, and we can add a few more in Pennsylvania to the ones we already knew about elsewhere (Bangor, Augusta, Burlington and Binghamton). According to GoodRadio's FCC filings last week, the company will also pick up standards WLAN (1390) and top 40 WLAN-FM (96.9) in Lancaster and contemporary Christian WKAP (1340)/hot AC WRFY (102.5) in Reading - plus the entire Williamsport cluster, which includes talk WRAK (1400)/WRKK (1200 Hughesville), AC WKSB (102.7), country WBYL (95.5 Salladasburg)/WBLJ (95.3 Shamokin), and top 40 WVRT (97.7 Mill Hall)/WVRZ (99.7 Mount Carmel).

In Pittsburgh, there's more than just a call change at WLFP (1550 Braddock) - the former WURP has shed G. Gordon Liddy and Don & Mike as it becomes a fulltime affiliate of the Lifestyle Talk Network.

The "Saturday Light Brigade" is growing; the Pittsburgh institution is adding WIUP (90.1 Indiana) to its lineup of affiliates around western Pennsylvania.

More notes from around the Keystone State: at WLMI (103.9 Kane), Connecticut native Paul Walker is the new midday jock, voicetracked from his current home base at WABV (1590 Abbeville SC), where he's operations manager. Up in the greater Erie area, religious WCTL (106.3 Union City) adds two more translators to its lineup: W64AT (100.7 Warren PA) and W254AQ (98.7 Jamestown NY).

A call change that slipped past us a few weeks back: WHUZ (94.3 Saegertown), the Meadville half of the "Wuzz FM" classic hits simulcast that also includes WUUZ (107.7 Cooperstown/Oil City), has changed calls to WUZZ, picking up those calls from a sister station in Lima, Ohio.

Fans of the old WISL (1480 Shamokin) - and we know at least one of them - will want to know that the station's being resurrected, after a fashion, at next weekend's Anthracite Heritage Festival of the Arts at Shamokin High School. John Treese has many of the station's artifacts, and he'll be presenting them in a mock-up of the WISL studios, complete with the original Gates Diplomat board. There's more information at http://www.nccarts.com/festival.html.

And Pete Wambach, longtime host of the syndicated "This is Pennsylvania" radio segment, died Thursday at 90. AllAccess.com reports Wambach also worked at Harrisburg's WCMB and WKBO, as well as at the old WTPA-TV.

*The post-Imus fallout continues to reverberate in MASSACHUSETTS. At Imus' former Boston home, WTKK (96.9), the Mike Barnicle show that's been a temporary replacement was itself replaced last week, as WTKK picked up the David Gregory show that originated for several days from MSNBC and was simulcast over former Imus flagship WFAN (660 New York). Will the NBC White House correspondent become the permanent replacement for Imus? The buzz we're hearing suggests otherwise, which means WFAN and WTKK are still trying to figure out what to do next.

Meanwhile, former Imus producer Bernie McGuirk will return to the air later this week for a tryout on WRKO (680 Boston), where he'll co-host with Tom Finneran from Wednesday through Friday,

It's rare to see a public radio station team up with a commercial station on programming, but with the huge amount of audience that NPR news shares with commercial radio in Boston, it's no surprise to find WGBH (89.7) and WBOS (92.9 Brookline) joining forces to add 90-second news updates to WBOS' morning show. Dan Tritle, local Morning Edition anchor for WGBH's Cape and Islands stations (WCAI/WNAN/WZAI) will deliver the updates four times an hour from 6:15 until 8:15 AM. For now, WGBH is providing the newscasts without charge, but the stations are looking for sponsorship opportunities.

Boston-area viewers with HDTV sets are seeing Natalie Jacobson and her colleagues a little more clearly last week. WCVB-DT (Channel 20) was the first DTV signal in Boston, and when it began producing "Chronicle" in HD last year, that was the first regular local show to be offered in HD in the market. As of last Monday, WCVB's newscasts are all in HD as well, for another market first; no word on when WBZ/WSBK, WHDH/WLVI or WFXT will follow suit.

It may not be much more than emotional satisfaction for his victims, but former WBIX (1060 Natick) owner Brad Bleidt is now under a court order to repay more than $31 million he embezzled from investors, plus $9 million in interest. Bleidt is scheduled to be released from prison in 2016, and there's not much evidence that there are any assets in his name for victims to seize. (The station was sold at bankruptcy, and is back in the hands of previous owner Alex Langer.)

There's a new afternoon host at Sandab's WQRC (99.9 Barnstable), as Troy Smith takes on that role, along with production director duties for the entire Sandab cluster. That's the same Troy who was "Boy Troy" as PD at WFNX a few years back, and more recently he was PD/ops manager at WDVT (93.5 Harwich Port, now WFQR.)

AllAccess reports that WXKS-FM (107.9 Medford) music director Chris Tyler is now the assistant PD at "Kiss 108."

Gus Saunders, veteran Boston Herald restaurant critic and longtime host of "Yankee Kitchen" on the old Yankee Network and later on WROL (950), died last Monday (May 14) at his home in Newton. Saunders was on the air with his food show for a remarkable 56 years, signing off for the last time in October 1999.

There's a death in the WRKO family, as well. Bill Todd was on the air in WRKO's music days (1970-72) as "Johnny Williams," and later went on to work in Chicago and Los Angeles. He'd also made stops in Philadelphia (at WIBG), Atlantic City (WMID) and Trenton. He died May 13 in Phoenix, where he had been living.

*A new station in MAINE now has call letters: mark down WFGO for the 1530 construction permit in Orono.

*Our top story in NEW YORK, technically, isn't even a broadcast story. After all, Opie & Anthony are still on the air at CBS Radio's WFNY-FM (92.3 Free FM) and their other terrestrial affiliates, even though they're serving a 30-day suspension from XM Satellite Radio, and rumors abound that they won't return. The usually voluble hosts were eerily silent about their XM suspension last week, though other hosts on Free FM were talking about it. (And it didn't go unnoticed in New York radio circles, especially by those pining for a return of oldies to the city, that new CBS Radio boss Dan Mason pulled the plug on San Francisco's version of "Free" last week, replacing FM talk KIFR 106.9 with a revival of classic hits KFRC.)

We knew Clear Channel was spinning its Binghamton cluster to Dean Goodman's Goodradio.TV group, but when the list came out last week, we learned that the Hudson Valley cluster will go to Goodman's group as well. The cluster includes country WRWD (107.3 Highland)/WRWC (99.3 Ellenville), AC "Lite" WRNQ (92.1 Poughkeepsie)/WCTW (98.5 Catskill), oldies WZCR (93.5 Hudson), top 40 "Kiss" WPKF (96.1 Poughkeepsie), hot AC "Star" WBWZ (93.3 New Paltz) and standards WKIP (1450 Poughkeepsie), WHUC (1230 Hudson) and WELG (1370 Ellenville).

As for the Utica cluster for which Clear Channel has yet to announce a buyer, we're hearing strong buzzing that it's going to Ed Levine's Galaxy group, which already has a strong presence in the Mohawk Valley and would have to make some spins if it picks up the CC stations.

Memorial Day is a week away, and in New York City, that's become synonymous with "Rewound" on WABC (770), as the erstwhile "Musicradio 77" returns from the mists of time once more, through the magic of restored airchecks, for a full day (6 AM-6 PM) of classic music. The day begins with a 1981 montage, includes two hours of "The Top 100 of 1967," and wraps up with Bruce Morrow and Chuck Leonard from 1974, followed by two hours of Rewound talk with Mark Simone. And this year, sister station WLS (890 Chicago) gets into the act with its own version of "Rewound," so we'll probably be flipping between the two webcasts on Monday to catch all the action.

Two Long Island translators are changing hands: Communication Ventures Ltd. is paying Michael and Tammy Celenza $152,000 for W283BA (104.5 Selden) and W235BB (94.9 Hauppage), part of the religious network based at WLIX-LP (94.7 Ridge).

Jim Harriott was best known for his work at KING-TV in Seattle and at the Voice of America, but the veteran news anchor spent much of the sixties in New York at WMCA, WNBC, WCBS and ABC News. Harriott died a week ago in Seattle of complications from a stroke; he was 71.

It's become almost a tradition by now that nearly every time Clear Channel changes format on its Rochester rimshot at 107.3 (currently WSNP South Bristol), it stunts with country for a few minutes before adopting whatever format it's really moving to. The latest 107.3 flip, which took place Friday afternoon, didn't include that stunt - because this time around, the format du jour is, in fact, country. "Country 107.3" is the new moniker, and we'd note that the previous occupant, rhythmic AC "Snap 107.3," lasted all of eight months and change, which means that maybe we weren't all that far off the mark, after all, when we called it a stunt format last September. (Conventional wisdom says putting country on 107.3 will serve as a flanker to shave just enough ratings points off Entercom's market-leading WBEE 92.5 to put Clear Channel's WHAM at the top of the ratings; we'll see how well that turns out.)

*An era has ended at CONNECTICUT's big country station, as Floyd Wright exits afternoon drive at WWYZ (92.5 Waterbury) after 20 years on the air there. Wendy Steele moves from middays to afternoons, and the midday shift is now being voicetracked from WGAR (99.5 Cleveland) by Kat Jackson.

An era has ended in Hartford TV, too - after 45 years of transmitting from the Avon Mountain tower of WTIC-FM (96.5), Connecticut Public TV flagship WEDH (Channel 24) has signed off for good from that site. In what may be the last full-power analog site to be built from scratch, WEDH has turned on its new facility over at Rattlesnake Mountain, where the WTIC-TV (Channel 61) tower has been extensively rebuilt for the coming of digital TV. Where's WEDH-DT? Still hung up in proceedings over its final channel election, as its tentative assignment of channel 45 conflicts with WABC-DT in New York, so for now CPTV is using 45 at WEDN-DT in Norwich (eventually to move to channel 9), while waiting for authorization to use 45 in Hartford.

Still more change on the way in the TV market: NBC's WVIT (Channel 30) hopes to break ground in August on a new $20 million studio/office building at its present site in West Hartford, to replace the 1954-vintage building there that the station has long since outgrown. The current building will be razed and will become a parking lot for the new studios when the project is completed in late 2008.

In Norwich, WCTY (97.7) morning co-host Shelly Martinez is recovering from a car crash May 11 on Route 2 in Preston. Police say Martinez' truck was hit from behind by a drunk driver. The truck was pushed off the highway and rolled several times, leaving Martinez in critical condition. She was airlifted to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where her condition was upgraded to serious late last week. (The drunk driver fled the scene, but was later caught and charged.)

There's some good news from Arizona about Connecticut broadcaster and station owner Dennis Jackson, who was in a motorcycle crash in southern Utah a week ago. We're told he's making a strong recovery, and was briefly able to breathe without assistance. Initial reports of multiple broken bones proved to be unfounded; in fact, he cracked five ribs in the crash. It's still a long road back, but he's well on the way.

*Another venerable music station will be celebrating its heritage next weekend. CANADA's legendary CHUM (1050 Toronto) will mark the 50th anniversary of its 1957 flip to top 40 with a free concert May 26 featuring Gordon Lightfoot, as well as an open house at its Yonge Street studios. The station is also bringing back veteran DJs and celebrities for an "all-star DJ week" starting this morning.

In Cobourg, the CRTC has granted CHUC-FM (107.9) a power increase, from 1030 watts to just over 6 kW average ERP. The increase will allow CHUC to shut down its AM transmitter on 1450, which has remained on the air to solve some reception problems with the FM signal; it comes over the objections of CJXY (107.9 Burlington), which was concerned about ducting interference over Lake Ontario, and CHUM Limited, which claimed CHUC wanted the power increase to better serve the Peterborough market.

Out in Nova Scotia, another AM-to-FM move is about to take place: CHER (950 Sydney) is testing its new FM signal on 98.3.

And in Hamilton and Haldimand/Norfolk, they're mourning Bob "Sparky" Sherwin, morning host at CKNS (92.9) in Haldimand/Norfolk since its debut last year, and longtime fixture on the Hamilton radio scene before that. Sherwin was at CKOC (1150) for more than two decades beginning in the mid-seventies, then at CHML (900) before moving to CKNS. Sherwin died Wednesday (May 16) after suffering a heart attack. He was 52.

*Our look at independent minor-league baseball on the radio continues with the Can-Am League this week, just ahead of the league's May 24 opening day:

The Brockton Rox stay on their flagship station under new calls, as WXBR (1460 Brockton, ex-WBET) picks up all 94 games this year. In Lynn, the North Shore Spirit return to WWZN (1510 Boston), while the Worcester Tornadoes move to WTAG (580), helping to fill the void caused there by the Red Sox' move to WVEI (1440) and WCRN (830).

The New Haven County Cutters will have their Saturday-night games on WAVZ (1300 New Haven), as that station enters its first summer as an ESPN Radio outlet.

Les Capitales de Quebec will return to CHRC (800 Quebec City) this season.

There's no local radio for the Atlantic City Surf (heard last year on WLFR 91.7), the Nashua Pride, the New Jersey Jackals or the Sussex Skyhawks.

One more independent league has two teams in NERW-land, both in western Pennsylvania: the Frontier League's Washington Wild Things will be heard on WJPA-FM (95.3 Washington), with some games also on WOMP (1290 Bellaire OH), WSTV (1340 Steubenville OH), WFGI (940 Charleroi) and WYJK (1340 Connellsville), while we can't find any radio yet for the new Slippery Rock Sliders.

And we've been remiss in not mentioning the one South Atlantic League single-A team in NERW-land: the Lakewood Blue Claws in New Jersey play on WOBM (1160).

We'll wrap up our annual baseball preview with the New York-Penn League when that short-season single-A league starts play next month. (Go Muckdogs!)

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 and ten years ago this week, or thereabouts - 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. Thanks to LARadio.com for the idea - and thanks to you, our readers, for the support that's made all these years of NERW possible!)

May 22, 2006 -

  • It's been an interesting week for WBAB (102.3) in Babylon, NEW YORK. First there was the flap over a morning-show comedy bit that we reported in our last issue, and now the station's engineers are chasing a technically-adept prankster who interrupted the station's "Roger and JP" morning show last Wednesday by overriding the station's studio-to-transmitter link. For about 90 seconds, the pirate operator broadcast a rap song filled with racial slurs - and because the station's transmitter control was also handled over the STL link, engineers weren't immediately able to turn off the transmitter and silence the unauthorized broadcast. (Initial reports said the interrupting signal was also heard over simulcast WHFM 95.3 on Long Island's east end, but we haven't been able to confirm that.)
  • "Clearly, someone has a bone to pick with WBAB, and understands the broadcast business well enough, to know how to hack into our signal, and has access to this equipment and obviously was able to gain access to our broadcast," said a statement from the station, which offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to a conviction of the pirate. (NERW notes: there's a long history of engineering pranks and practical jokes among Long Island engineers; this, however, seems to go more than a little beyond the bounds of good, clean fun. It also seems to have required a fairly specialized knowledge of radio engineering, which makes for a relatively small pool of potential suspects.)
  • On the TV side of things, the new CW network signed two more affiliates in the Empire State this week. In Elmira, it'll be seen on a subchannel of WENY-DT (Channel 55), while in Watertown, the CW will show up on a subchannel of WWTI-DT (Channel 21). WWTI is a Clear Channel station; so is WTTX-CA (Channel 30) in Elmira, the current UPN affiliate that will be left without a network when UPN folds this fall. (My Network TV lands on new WJKP-LP in the market, and it's not clear what becomes of WTTX now.)
  • Clear Channel is adding to its holdings in western MASSACHUSETTS, acquiring WRNX (100.9 Amherst) from Pamal in a trade for several yet-to-be-named stations elsewhere in New England. Pamal was left as a single-station operator in the Springfield market after its deal to buy WBEC-FM (105.5) from Vox fell through last year. The spinoff of adult alternative WRNX will give Clear Channel a fifth station in the market, adding to its existing cluster of news-talk WHYN (560 Springfield), sports WNNZ (640 Westfield), hot AC WHYN-FM (93.1 Springfield) and country WPKX (97.9 Enfield CT). What will Pamal end up with in exchange? It's widely believed that the other end of the deal will be up in VERMONT, where Clear Channel's small holdings in the Rutland-Randolph area are in competition with Pamal's WJEN/WJJR.
  • In northern NEW JERSEY, Salem's WWDJ (970 Hackensack) is applying for a power increase. As part of a coordinated interference agreement with WAMD (970 Aberdeen MD), which will reduce its power, WWDJ wants to boost day power from 5 kW to 50 kW, providing more solid coverage of New York City from its existing three-tower array in Hackensack. Night power would remain at 5 kW.

May 20, 2002 -

  • MAINE gets digital public TV across most of the state tomorrow (Tuesday), with the official launch of three of the planned five DTV outlets for Maine PBS. WCBB-DT (Channel 17) in Augusta, WMEB-DT (Channel 9) in Orono and WMEM-DT (Channel 20) in Presque Isle will all transmit a four-channel digital multiplex that includes the main Maine PBS service, PBS Kids, PBS YOU (the national network's "how-to" channel) and PBS Plus. (It appears Maine PBS plans to use the actual DTV channel numbers, instead of programming the PSIP capability to mimic the old analog channel numbers, which seems like an odd choice if the network eventually intends to return Augusta and Presque Isle to their VHF analog channels; we have no idea why.)
  • MPBC says the remaining two transmitters, WMEA-DT (Channel 45) in Biddeford and WMED-DT (Channel 10) in Calais, will be on the air by this fall, putting Maine far ahead of any of the region's other statewide public broadcasters in the DTV race.
  • NEW YORK could soon have a new classic rocker. WDRE (98.5 Westhampton) will soon break from its simulcast of modern AC WLIR (92.7 Garden City) to become "the Bone". It will join a crowded rock market in eastern Long Island, competing against Cox's WHFM (95.3 Southampton, relaying WBAB Babylon) and Barnstable's WRCN (103.9 Riverhead), not to mention AAA's WMOS (104.7 Montauk), which is now targeting a cross-Sound audience in Connecticut but still puts a solid signal across the East End.
  • In NEW JERSEY, the FCC gave the go-ahead to Millennium's purchase of the Nassau stations in the Monmouth/Ocean market, allowing Nassau to take control of standards WADB (1310 Asbury Park) and WOBM (1160 Lakewood), modern AC WJLK (94.3 Asbury Park), AC WOBM-FM (92.7 Toms River) and CHR WBBO (98.5 Ocean Acres), despite market-concentration concerns. Millennium will have 64% of radio revenues in the Arbitron-defined "market" (where one end can't hear most of the stations from the other end) when the Nassau stations are combined with its other recent purchases, including WKXW (New Jersey 101.5) in Trenton, which has a sizable audience in the area.

May 22, 1997-

  • NERW went back to Boston this past weekend, only to find yet another station added to the American Radio Systems megaopoly. WNFT (1150 Boston) is ARS' newest acquisition, to the tune of a reported $4.5 million from Greater Media. 1150 has been a troubled spot on the Boston radio dial for more than a decade, including stints as oldies WMEX (quashed by WODS's arrival on FM), business WMEX (killed off by the recession of the early 90s), Spanish "Radio Continental", leased-time ethnic brokered by WRCA (1330), the recent brief run as KidStar's Boston affiliate (which ended when KidStar went out of business), and plenty of interim periods simulcasting WMJX 106.7 or WBCS/WKLB-FM 96.9.
  • ARS isn't saying much about its plans for 1150, but rumor has it that the station will pick up some of the sports conflicts (Red Sox/Celtics, for instance) from WEEI (850). There's also a pretty credible rumor that ARS will move 1150 to the WRKO transmitter site in Burlington, demolish the three AM towers and the FM backup tower on the WNFT site in Lexington, and build a taller FM tower there that can be leased out by subsidiary American Tower Systems. That could be profitable enough by itself to make WNFT's profitability irrelevant, in fact...time will tell.
  • And one more personnel note: Steve Murphy is heading west after a five-year stint as PD and operations manager at classical WBOQ (104.9 Gloucester). Steve started at classical WFCC (107.5 Chatham) in 1988, detoured into easy listening at WQRC (99.9 Hyannis) in 1990, then arrived at WBOQ in 1992. Now he's off to classical WFMI in Milwaukee, where he'll be director of broadcast operations. Steve may be taking his life in his own hands -- he's vowing to keep wearing his Patriots attire in the heart of Packer country. Steve is also a past member of the board at the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association, which has created a new award to honor the state's best broadcasters. It's called the Alan Okun Award, and it's named for the late owner of Webster's WGFP (940) and WXXW (98.9). Okun was named posthumously as the award's first recipient.
  • It will be licensed to New Hampshire, but the story of WLPL (96.3 Walpole) is really our VERMONT news this week: The Vermont Environmental Board is hearing another appeal to the 110-foot tower that WLPL owner Gary Savoie wants to build on Bemis Hill near Athens VT. Two adjoining landowners, Sarah Ann Martin and Veronica Brelsford, have kept Savoie tied up in appeals for several years, and in the meantime WLPL remains on hold. Meantime, WMXR (93.9 Woodstock) is crossing the border in the other direction, moving its studios from Woodstock across the Connecticut River to 52 Main Street in West Lebanon NH. And the next piece of the WVMX (101.7 Stowe) mystery has revealed itself: Sage Broadcasting has applied to sell the station to "Radio Vermont Classics," which could be related to the Radio Vermont that owns WDEV AM/FM (550 Waterbury/96.1 Warren) and WLVB (93.9 Morrisville). Rumor has 101.7 going classical eventually.
  • Up in MAINE, a new station is about to make its debut. WHRR (102.9 Dennysville) has been testing its transmitter, starting back on May 12. Perhaps in response to the upcoming competition, WQDY-FM (92.7) in nearby Calais has gone to 24-hour broadcasting. Sister AM WQDY (1230) remains on a 7AM - 10PM schedule. And over in Eastport, we're told high school outlet WSHD (91.7) is back on the air after some recent weather-related antenna damage. Advising the station is WQDY news director Tom McLaughlin, a onetime Boston broadcaster on WBCN (104.1) and the old WTBS (88.1, now WMBR). Moving down the coast, LPTV W20BN in Bangor has been deleted by the FCC, in large part because it was never built. As for the 830 in "Lorring ME" mentioned last week? There's speculation that it's in the FCC database as a formality, just to remind Canada that the US has a claim on that frequency (much the same way the CRTC database contains all sorts of Canadian allocations that may never be built, but must still be protected on this side of the border).

You can sponsor this new weekly feature! Click here for information!

*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 only about 25 copies remain, and we expect to sell them all in the next few weeks.

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.