June 25, 2007
WBZ's Sullivan Steps Down
TOWER SITE CALENDAR 2007 - SOLD OUT!!!
*Add another to the list of job openings
for talk hosts in MASSACHUSETTS - and this one's
an especially sad one.
As he continues to recuperate from his fourth brain surgery
in less than three years, WBZ (1030 Boston) evening talk host
Paul Sullivan announced last week that he's giving up the shift,
which he inherited after the death of David Brudnoy in 2004.
 In
a letter to his listeners and colleagues, Sullivan wrote, "The
toll my surgeries and treatments have taken on me makes it unlikely
that I will ever have the energy to return to a four-hour daily
talk radio program."
He'll return to WBZ this Thursday night for a final "farewell"
show, and he says he'll continue to be a presence on the station
as much as he's able, whether through commentaries, website postings
or occasional guest-hosting stints when he's feeling up to it.
We wish Sullivan all the best as he focuses on his fight against
brain cancer, of course - and we wonder who WBZ will turn to
as it tries, once again, to fill its 8 PM to midnight shift.
For the moment, weekender Jordan Rich and WBZ-TV reporter Dan
Rea have been covering his shift, but there's nothing to suggest
Rea wants the shift full-time, and we'd suspect the station wants
someone with deeper political roots than Rich.
The search comes at a challenging time for Boston talk radio:
Greater Media's WTKK (96.9) is trying to fill both the morning
shift vacated by Don Imus and the late-morning hour being vacated
by Mike Barnicle, while Entercom's WRKO (680) is struggling,
badly, with its attempt to turn disgraced politician Tom Finneran
into a morning host. (Its latest attempt this week will pair
Finneran with midmorning host Todd Feinburg.)
We'll be in Boston for Sullivan's last show Thursday night,
and we sincerely hope (and believe) we haven't heard the last
of him.
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A former WBZ talk host has found a new station in Worcester.
Upton Bell, who was heard on Worcester's WTAG (580) from 1992-1999,
is the latest addition to the growing airstaff at WCRN (830 Worcester).
Initially, he'll be offering commentary on Peter Blute's morning
show, three days a week.
Over at WGBH (89.7 Boston), the disappearance of "Open
Source" from the 7-8 PM slot Monday-Thursday won't mean
an extra hour of jazz after all, as we'd suspected last week.
Instead, WGBH has scheduled an extra run of "The World,"
the news hour it originates in collaboration with the BBC. The
7 PM "World" will run on Fridays as well, displacing
"On the Media," which will still be heard Sundays on
crosstown WBUR-FM (90.9 Boston).
Out on Cape Cod, we hear WCDJ (102.3 Truro) is back on the
air under its new owners, playing oldies as "Dunes 102."
And we're sorry to report the death of Duncan McArthur, GM3TNT,
of Avalon, Peninver, Scotland. Why are we mentioning a Scottish
ham radio operator here? Because McArthur was one of the prime
movers behind last year's centennial celebration of Reginald
Fessenden, taking part by phone in the WATD (95.9 Marshfield)
commemorative broadcast last summer and working on educational
programs to keep Fessenden's memory alive in the Scottish towns
where he conducted the European end of his pioneering transmissions
in 1906. McArthur died June 19, at 64. There's more on his life
here.
 *Why did Clear Channel transfer
142 of its stations, including most of the company's CONNECTICUT,
VERMONT and NEW HAMPSHIRE holdings, to a new San
Antonio-based trust late last week? There were plenty of questions
making the rounds of the radio industry, but few answers.
Here's what we know: some of the stations that were transferred
to the new Aloha Station Trust are among the clusters being sold
to Dean Goodman's Goodradio.TV group - but of the stations Goodradio
is buying in NERW-land, only WTSJ (1320) and WCVR (102.1) in
Randolph, VERMONT enter the trust prior to the sale.
The trust is also getting the Upper Valley stations heading
to Vox ownership - WTSL (1400 Hanover NH), WGXL (92.3
Hanover NH), WMXR (93.9 Woodstock), WTSM (93.5 Springfield VT),
WMXR (93.9 Woodstock VT), WXXK (100.5 Lebanon NH) and WVRR (101.7
Newport NH).
That much makes sense - but then we get to the rest of the
list. It includes Clear Channel's Seacoast cluster of WGIN (930
Rochester NH), WMYF (1380 Portsmouth NH), WGIP (1540 Exeter NH),
WUBB (95.3 York Center ME), WQSO (96.7 Rochester NH), WHEB (100.3
Portsmouth NH) and WERZ (107.1 Exeter NH). It also includes Clear
Channel's Hartford cluster - WPOP (1410 Hartford), WWYZ (92.5
Waterbury), WKSS (95.7 Hartford), WPHH (104.1 Waterbury) and
WHCN (105.9 Hartford), as well as one station out of the Springfield
cluster, WPKX (97.9 Enfield CT).
Also entering the trust are WALK (1370 Patchogue)
and WALK-FM (97.5 Patchogue), Clear Channel's sole Long Island
holdings, as well as three outlying signals in the way-over-the-cap
Utica market: WIXT (1230 Little Falls), WSKU (105.5 Little Falls)
and WSKS (97.9 Whitesboro).
So what gives? Here's how we understand things: as Clear Channel
tries to prepare for possible privatization later this summer,
this trust is designed to speed that transfer - if it's approved
by shareholders - through the FCC and the Justice Department,
by eliminating any possible market-cap considerations. (Because
control of Clear Channel would pass to new ownership, the company
would lose its grandfathered status in many markets.)
The Upper Valley stations will ultimately escape market-cap
issues thanks to the pending moves of WTSM and WVRR. They were
both granted CPs last week to move south into the Keene, New
Hampshire market, with WTSM relicensing to Swanzey and WVRR to
101.9 in Westminster. We're guessing that the Randolph stations
were added to the trust out of an overabundance of caution, just
in case they end up counting against the Upper Valley station
total before the sales to Vox and Goodradio close.
On the Seacoast and in Hartford, market-cap issues may force
Clear Channel to spin one station in each market to stay within
the limits, and it appears the company is trying to keep its
options as open as possible. By moving all its stations in both
markets into trust, Clear Channel can eventually sell whichever
station it needs to sell and then move the remaining signals
back into the corporate fold. (It's also possible that WPKX won't
be deemed to count against the Hartford market - it operates
completely separately from the Hartford stations, and transmits
from Massachusetts - and that no spins will be needed there.)
Utica, as we've reported, is one of the markets Clear Channel
is trying to unload in its entirety, though it's yet to find
a buyer for its stations. We're actually mildly surprised that
the entire Utica market didn't go into trust, to maximize the
company's sale options should a buyer emerge.
 As for
Long Island and WALK, that move should come as no surprise to
anyone who was reading NERW last December. In our Dec.
18, 2006 issue, we told you that Clear Channel was quietly
shopping WALK to interested buyers. The reason? Its home market,
Nassau-Suffolk, is embedded in the larger New York City market,
where Clear Channel isn't parting with its five big-city FMs.
So, to summarize: message-board hyperbole to the contrary,
there's no reason to think that Clear Channel's planning to make
a complete exit from Hartford or the Seacoast - or from Cleveland,
or Dayton, or the other markets where it's putting most of its
signals in trust. (We don't expect any format or management changes,
since the trust is expected to LMA the signals back to Clear
Channel, at least until such time as the privatization becomes
a reality.)
There's every reason to think that - if the privatization
goes through - one or two signals may be spun off for good, eventually.
There's no reason to think that this is anything other than a
paperwork maneuver in the markets that are exiting Clear Channel,
such as the Upper Valley and Burlington. And there's absolutely
every reason to believe that a lot of lawyers are making a lot
of money right now, no matter what happens in the end.
|
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we can no longer deny reality: if NERW is to continue on as the
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(A few recent issues will remain
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If you're not already a NERW
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Calendar 2008, free to our premium subscribers?
We've tried for many years to
hold off this financial reality, but it's become hard to ignore.
Not long ago, our pal Dave Hughes put part of his excellent DCRTV.com site behind a pay
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to name a few. And even with a subscription model, we've just
received word that the respected and venerable FMedia! newsletter
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We have every intention of keeping
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and for many years thereafter, and we're deeply grateful to the
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*In MAINE, the movement of Citadel's
WCYI (93.9 Lewiston) and WCLZ (98.9 Brunswick) into a trust pending
sale meant a change of simulcasts last week: WCYI is now rebroadcasting
the AAA sounds of WCLZ, instead of the modern rock of WCYY (94.3
Biddeford), which remained with Citadel. One exception to the
simulcast: WCYI is carrying the Opie & Anthony morning show,
while WCLZ isn't.
 *The
Law of Program Director Conservation was in full play last week
in NEW YORK.
At CBS Radio's revived WXRK (92.3), the PD chair last occupied
by John Mainelli (before the abrupt demise of "Free FM")
was filled by Tracy Cloherty, a familiar name in Big Apple programming
circles. Cloherty was PD of Emmis' WQHT (97.1) for many years,
before retreating to a consulting role, and now she'll trade
rap for rock as she moves uptown to K-Rock.
Meanwhile downtown at Emmis, WRKS (98.7) lost its PD. Toya
Beasley, who's been with Kiss since 1989, and its PD since 1997,
is - you guessed it - dropping back to a consultancy with the
station. No replacement has been named yet.
Radio People on the Move, NYC edition: Enrique Santos and
Joe Ferrero, late of WXDJ (95.7) in the Miami market, have returned
to New York as the new morning team on Univision's WCAA (105.9
Newark NJ). They're a pretty high-profile team (remember the
prank call on Fidel Castro a couple of years back?), which leads
to an interesting question - since Univision paid big bucks to
lure Luis Jimenez over from SBS' WSKQ (97.9) earlier this year,
presumably to do mornings on WCAA once his non-compete expires
next year, where will all that talent end up? Meanwhile, here's
a New York "Where Are They Now?" - Al Brady Law, former
PD at WABC, WNBC and WXLO, among other stations, has landed a
new gig as PD of Clear Channel's Birmingham, Alabama talker,
WERC (960).
Radio People on the Move, Upstate edition: Tim Noble moves
east along the Thruway, trading APD/nights at Syracuse's "K-Rock"
(WKRL/WKRH) for PD/afternoons at Clear Channel's WHRL (103.1)
in Albany. Back here in Rochester, Dem Jones has been promoted
to the PD chair at Entercom's WBZA (98.9 Rochester).
On the TV side of the Albany market, the impending retirement
of veteran WRGB (Channel 6) anchor Jack Aernecke means a promotion
for Jerry Gretzinger. He'll take over the 5 and 5:30 PM shows
on channel 6 when Aernecke steps down July 24, and he'll be co-anchoring
at 5:30 until then.
And there's a new set of calls - again - on Clear Channel's
Rochester-market 107.3. The former WSNP South Bristol Township,
which flipped last month from rhythmic AC to country, is now
WCRR.
*There's a morning opening in northwest NEW
JERSEY, as Jay Wulff exits morning drive at WNNJ-FM (103.7
Newton). No replacement has been named so far.
 *The big news from PENNSYLVANIA is all about
signal upgrades, starting with Greater Media's WJJZ (97.5 Burlington
NJ), which flipped the switch last week on its new class B signal
from the Wyndmoor tower just north of Philadelphia. It's now
a 26 kW/682' signal with a directional notch to the northwest
protecting WRVV (97.3 Harrisburg), and early reports suggest
a much better signal in center city Philadelphia than 97.5 enjoyed
from its old site in Trenton.
(There's one small group of WJJZ listeners who aren't enjoying
the new signal: we heard from a few smooth jazz fans way up in
Hazleton, who put in rooftop antennas just to hear the station,
only to have a new translator, W248AK, sign on right in town
and right on 97.5 last week.)
Over on the AM dial, KYW (1060 Philadelphia) took a break
from the all-news wheel overnight this week, running a combination
of promos and dead air as it tuned up its new HD Radio signal.
From our somewhat skeptical vantage point where the AM HD system
is concerned, we'll be following this particular sign-on with
great interest, and here's why: KYW is tucked in to some of the
tightest spacing of any big major-market AM signals in the country,
79 miles from first-adjacent WEPN (1050 New York) and just over
31 miles from second-adjacent WCHR (1040 Flemington NJ). The
KYW null protecting WEPN falls over a big chunk of territory
that's indubitably within the boundaries of the Philadelphia
market (think Bucks County, for instance) - and we've long held
that a good real-world test of the AM HD system would involve
taking KYW, WEPN and WCHR all to digital.
Even without WEPN or WCHR adopting the digital system, we'll
still be interested to see whether the sidebands from KYW have
any effect on its neighbors' analog signals (including WKMB 1070
in Stirling, NJ, too, come to think of it). And given that KYW
is routinely one of the strongest distant signals here in upstate
New York at night - and that there won't be anyone running HD
right away on its first-adjacent channels - we'll be trying to
pick up its digital signal once nighttime AM HD becomes a reality.
The third big piece of signal news from the Keystone State
also involves a Philadelphia station, but not the Philly market.
WXPN (88.5 Philadelphia) has reached a deal with Four Rivers
Community Broadcasting to swap sticks in the Harrisburg area.
Four Rivers will get WXPH (88.1 Harrisburg), the 540-watt signal
that's been bringing WXPN programming to the state capital since
1995. In exchange, WXPN will get Four Rivers' WZXM (88.7 Middletown),
which is presently a 200-watt signal that serves the York area
when it's even on the air, which it hasn't been. But WXPN will
build out WZXM's construction permit for 7 kW/709' from a new
tower near the WGAL-TV stick in Hallam, which will make its new
88.7 a potent signal into Lancaster and Lebanon, as well. (WXPN
will also get Four Rivers' CP for translator W259AU on 99.7 in
Harrisburg.)
*In CANADA, the CRTC is opening calls
for new radio signals in Ottawa-Gatineau and in Peterborough,
Ontario. These calls for applications are triggered by the receipt
of a single application in each market, and they don't always
result in the granting of any new licenses. Ottawa's seen a number
of new FM signals in recent years, and Peterborough just saw
a grant for CKPT (1420) to move to FM, so we'd be surprised if
the CRTC grants any big commercial signals as part of these calls.
Applications, in any event, are due August 21.
 The sale of CHUM
Ltd. to CTVglobemedia wrapped up in near-record time late last
week, but it's going through without CHUM president Jay Switzer.
He announced his resignation, and he says he'll stick around
for only a week or two under the new ownership to tie up any
remaining loose ends.
In Sherbrooke, Quebec, Corus is buying CIGR (104.5) from Groupe
Generation Rock, creating a two-station cluster with Corus' existing
CHLT (which is moving to 102.1 from 630). Corus will pay C$1.1
million for the station.
And on Prince Edward Island, the CBC is applying for a new
signal in Elmira, on the extreme eastern tip of the island. The
area received CBC Radio One service from CBA (1070 Moncton NB),
but will lose that service when CBA moves to FM shortly. The
new Elmira signal would relay CBCT (96.1 Charlottetown PEI),
running 3.15 kW DA/114 m on 92.3.
|
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!)
June 26, 2006 -
- It was originally slated to go to Pamal, but the Albany move-in
signal of WNYQ (105.7 Malta) will instead go to Regent Communications,
which announced Monday that it's buying the station from Vox.
No purchase price has been announced yet for the deal, which
will put now-silent WNYQ in a cluster with sports WTMM (1300
Rensselaer), rock simulcast WQBJ (103.5 Cobleskill)/WQBK (103.9
Albany), hot AC WABT (104.5 Mechanicville) and country WGNA (107.7
Albany).
- In Boston, Nassau has confirmed that it's negotiating with
Greater Media to acquire the signal of WKLB (99.5 Lowell) and
the intellectual property of WCRB (102.5 Waltham). The company
tells the Globe that it intends to keep the classical music going
on 99.5 once the deal is completed. Stay tuned...
- If you go looking for the most crowded FM dial in the country,
the odds are you'll end up in NEW JERSEY. So it's always pretty
big news when a station in the Garden State manages to make a
significant signal upgrade, as Press Communications did last
week when it turned on the new 106.5 Bass River Township signal
for WKOE, the station that was formerly at 106.3 in Ocean City.
In place of the "Breeze" soft AC simulcast that had
been on WKOE at 106.3, Press is using 106.5 to simulcast "G
Rock Radio" from WHTG-FM (106.3 Eatontown), creating a two-signal
adjacent-channel simulcast that blankets nearly the entire shore.
G Rock had been heard on WBBO (98.5 Ocean Acres) in Ocean County,
and the WBBO calls will soon be swapped with WKOE.
- What next for 98.5, once it gets the WKOE calls? It's unlikely
to become "Breeze," since that format's already heard
in the area on WBHX (99.7 Tuckerton) - so stay tuned for another
new format in the market in the weeks to come.
- The Albany TV market is about to get its first formal duopoly,
as Tribune exits the market and sells its WB (soon to be CW)
affiliate, WCWN (Channel 45, formerly WEWB), to Freedom Communications.
Freedom owns CBS affiliate WRGB (Channel 6), and for the last
few years it's provided some programming, promotions and sales
services to UPN (soon to be My Network TV) affiliate WNYA (Channel
51), which is owned by Venture Technologies. Freedom will pay
$17 million for Channel 45, which is actually $1.5 million less
than Tribune paid for the signal in 1999, when it purchased what
was then noncommercial WMHQ. The station began as a commercial
operation, under the calls WUSV, before becoming a secondary
public TV outlet in the late eighties. Under Freedom, it's likely
to add a 10 PM newscast this fall - and we wouldn't be at all
surprised if it picks up the WRGB-produced 7 AM newscast that
now airs on WNYA. (In fact, we won't be a bit surprised if management
of WNYA ends up passing to another Capital District broadcaster
to avoid market-concentration issues.)
June 17, 2002 -
- We didn't even know it was for sale, but WALE (990 Greenville)
in the Providence, RHODE ISLAND market is changing hands, for
a reported $1.2 million. It's not often that we say "good
riddance" to a broadcast owner, but we'll step on the editorial
soapbox and note that we're probably not the only ones glad to
see the last of Francis Battaglia's North American Broadcasting
in New England. For years now, we've been seeing fraudulent coverage
maps that claim the 50,000 watt daytime signal reaches Boston
and Worcester, when in fact it shoots just a narrow beam over
Providence and out to the ocean - and we've been hearing stories
from non-radio folks who have been offered a chance to "host"
their own radio shows on WALE. More often than not, those shows
turn out to be leased-time broadcasts fed in on bad phone lines
to no listeners - and do you think those folks will ever consider
radio as a serious advertising medium after being burned that
way?
- Arthur Liu's Multicultural Broadcasting is entering MASSACHUSETTS,
paying $1.78 million for brokered ethnic WLYN (1360 Lynn), which
has got to be some sort of record for a 700-watt former daytimer.
The sale takes Peter Arpin's ADD Media group out of the Boston
market, an exit that began last year with the sale of WRCA (1330
Waltham) to Beasley.
- After some bouts with dead air over the weekend, CNet Radio
is back on the airwaves of WBPS (890 Dedham), but not for very
long. The leased-time programming disappears at month's end,
and we hear Mega will begin leasing 890 to an outfit called "Air
Time Media," which will program a talk lineup that includes
a localized version of the syndicated Doug Stephan wakeup show
as well as Neil Boortz, Rusty Humphries and Michael Savage. (NERW
says: Is there any niche at all for syndicated talk - syndicated
right-wing talk, at that - in a market that's never warmed up
to most national talkers?)
- Down in NEW JERSEY, Scott and Casey are gone again from talker
WKXW-FM (101.5 Trenton)/WKXW (1450 Atlantic City). "New
Jersey 101.5" had pulled the duo off the air earlier in
the spring; now they're headed to afternoons at Infinity's WKRK
(97.1 Detroit), where they'll rejoin their NJ 101.5 predecessors,
Deminski and Doyle. Replacing them in Jersey is former WFAN sportscaster
Craig Carton, who'd filled in on the shift during their suspension.
- In PENNSYLVANIA, Bruce Bond has returned to the airwaves
of Harrisburg - or at least nearby Carlisle, where the former
WNNK (104.1) afternoon talk-jock resurfaced this week doing mornings
on 80s "Z102.3" WRKZ. The Citadel station also hired
Bond's WNNK sidekick "Stretch" to join him in mornings...and
no sooner had the duo launched Monday than a lawsuit arrived
from WNNK owner Cumulus accusing Bond of breaching his noncompete
agreement and stealing WNNK's trade secrets. More on this to
come, we're certain.
June 26, 1997-
- Broadcasters around the Northeast are reacting to last week's
FCC complaint against Brian Dodge with a mixture of surprise,
anger, and resignation. NERW spoke this week with Paul Lotters,
the general manager of WHAZ (1330) Troy NY, the station that's
currently being used as the primary for Dodge's "Love Radio"
translators in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The
complaint filed by Carter Broadcasting claims Dodge has illegally
taken financial support from WHAZ for the translators, as well
as illegally taking control of those translators in the first
place.
- While Lotters hasn't seen the actual complaint yet, he tells
NERW he had no idea there were any problems with the operation.
"I'm very perturbed. I'm very concerned about the whole
situation, naturally," Lotters said.
- Lotters says WHAZ's sole purpose is to bring religious programming
to its listeners in the Albany area, as well as in the adjacent
areas served by relays WMYY (97.3 Schoharie) and WBAR (94.7 Lake
Luzerne), and while he was happy to have Dodge's translators
expanding that audience, he doesn't want to do anything to get
in the way of WHAZ's main mission. And he tells NERW that WHAZ
won't continue its relationship with Dodge if he finds Dodge
has broken FCC rules. "If there's anything we shouldn't
have done, the connection [with Dodge] will be disconnected,"
Lotters told NERW in a telephone interview Wednesday morning.
Brian Dodge has not returned NERW's phone calls; we'll bring
you his response as soon as he does. (2007 update: he never
did.)
- We'll begin the rest of this week's news in NEW YORK, where
four of Buffalo's biggest radio stations have a new owner. Charlie
Banta's Mercury Broadcasting gets $62 million for oldies WHTT-AM/FM
(1120/104.1), modern rock WEDG (103.3), and classic rock WGRF
(96.9), and Banta stays on board under new owner Buffalo Broadcasting
Partners II. The company also has broadcasting interests just
down the Thruway in Syracuse, where it's the owner of Pilot Communications,
which has rocker WAQX (95.7 Manlius), CHR WNTQ (93.1), AC WLTI
(105.9), and news WNSS (1260) in its stable.
- We have an answer to last issue's questions about the dual-frequency
operation of WCGR in Canandaigua NY, thanks to Tom Taylor and
our friends at the M Street Journal. It seems WCGR owner George
Kimble went back to the FCC after putting the new full-time 1310
kHz WCGR signal on the air, to see if there was any way of keeping
the old daytime-only 1550 facility to fill in some holes to the
east in the 1310 directional pattern. The FCC obliged by "recharacterizing"
WCGR's application to change frequency, as an application for
a new station on 1310, thus allowing Kimble to keep both the
"new station" on 1310 and the original station on 1550.
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*If you were waiting for Tower Site
Calendar 2007 to go on clearance sale - sorry! As of June 1,
the shipping department (which would be Mrs. Fybush, with an
occasional assist from Ariel) informs us that the 2007 edition
is now SOLD OUT.
Many thanks to all of you who've supported the calendar over
the past six years, and stay tuned for details on the even better
Tower Site Calendar 2008, for which ordering will begin
later this summer. (You can be first on the list for the new
edition, which will be back from the printer in early August,
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2007 by Scott Fybush. |
