July 23, 2007
Galaxy-CC Deal Rocks Utica/Rome
TOWER SITE CALENDAR 2008 - COMING SOON!!!
 *The upstate NEW YORK market of Utica/Rome
has been a problem for Clear Channel ever since the company announced
it was shedding most of its smaller-market stations. With a cluster
that exceeds current market caps, in an over-radioed market that's
at best stagnant, the group of four AMs and five FMs wasn't included
in the list of stations Clear Channel is selling to the Goodradio.TV
group (which isn't "Goodradio.TV" anymore, but we'll
get to that later in this week's issue), and for a while it looked
as though the company simply wasn't finding a willing buyer for
the stations.
That changed on Thursday, when Ed Levine's Galaxy Communications
announced a deal under which it will buy the Clear Channel cluster,
spinning off four of the CC stations to another local broadcaster,
Ken Roser, and one of the CC stations and one of Galaxy's existing
Utica stations to EMF Broadcasting.
Here's the way the market looks now:
|
Clear Channel |
Galaxy |
Roser |
EMF |
Regent |
|
WIXT 1230/WRNY 1350/WADR 1480/WUTQ
1550 (sports)
WOKR 93.5 (cl hits)
WOUR 96.9 (rock)
WSKS 97.9/WSKU 105.5 (top 40)
WUMX 102.5 (hot AC) |
WTLB 1310 (standards)
WKLL 94.9 (modern rock)
WRCK 107.3 (classic rock) |
WBGK 99.7 (country) |
WKVU 100.7 (K-Love) |
WIBX 950 (news-talk)
WODZ 96.1 (oldies)
WLZW 98.7 (ac)
WFRG 104.3 (country) |
And here's how it will look when all the deals close:
|
EMF |
Galaxy |
Roser |
Regent |
|
WOKR 93.5
WKVU 100.7
WRCK 107.3 |
WTLB 1310/WRNY 1350/WIXT 1230
(sports)
WKLL 94.9 (modern rock)
WOUR 96.9 (rock)
WUMX 102.5 (hot AC) |
WSKS 97.9/WSKU 105.5 (top 40)
WBGK 99.7 (country) |
WIBX 950 (news-talk)
WODZ 96.1 (oldies)
WLZW 98.7 (ac)
WFRG 104.3 (country) |
So what does it all mean? For Levine, who just exited the
Albany market with a sale of two stations (plus a Syracuse rimshot
FM) to EMF, it means a much stronger position in a Utica/Rome
market  that's
suddenly far less crowded. Galaxy's two rock FMs, modern rock
"K-Rock" WKLL and classic rock-leaning WRCK, had been
locked in a tight battle with Clear Channel's rock WOUR and classic
hits "River" WOKR. Levine tells NERW that WOUR's strong
brand and long rock history in the market persuaded him to keep
the competitor he's acquiring, while shutting down his own WRCK
(and taking it out of commercial competition by selling it to
EMF.)
Levine says he'll combine the existing "Sports Stars"
programming from the two AMs he's acquiring (WIXT 1230 Little
Falls and WRNY 1350 Rome) with the Syracuse University sports
package Galaxy recently landed and with the strong signal of
his existing WTLB 1310 Utica to create a new three-station sports
network with a much more potent reach than the existing "Sports
Starts" quad-cast, and he says no changes are planned right
now for "Mix" WUMX.
For Ken Roser, the deal represents a homecoming: he'd owned
97.9 and 105.5, then "Wow FM" WOWZ/WOWB, before selling
them to Clear Channel in 2002. Back then, Clear Channel paid
$2.15 million for the two FMs and the Little Falls AM on 1230
(then WLFH). While prices aren't being announced yet for the
latest deal, it's a pretty solid bet that Roser is paying far
less than that to buy back his old FMs, as well as daytimer WUTQ
(1550 Utica) and WADR (1480 Remsen). We're hearing that Roser
will keep the "Kiss" branding and top-40 format on
the FMs, with no word on what becomes of the AMs. We also don't
know yet whether Roser will end up with the Genesee Street studios
downtown that Clear Channel has been using; (Those studios came
along with Clear Channel's 1998 acquisition of WOUR and the rest
of the then-Dame group; Galaxy will be moving WOUR out to its
WTLB studio/transmitter facility in Washington Mills.)
 For EMF, which has
been growing with impressive speed across upstate New York, the
deal will likely mean a move of its flagship "K-Love"
contemporary Christian format from class A drop-in WKVU (100.7
Utica) to the massive class B WRCK signal on 107.3, transmitting
from the market's main Smith Hill tower farm. (Only the true
Utica radio geeks will recall that 107.3's origins, way back
in 1962, were as standalone FM'er WUFM - and that WOUR, for that
matter, began as a relay of Syracuse standalone classical station
WONO.) That, in turn, means 100.7 will probably flip to EMF's
second network, Christian rock "Air One." What about
WOKR, the 93.5 rimshot signal from Remsen, north of Utica? It's
never reached Utica well, and would probably end up as another
Air One relay if EMF keeps it at all.
As for personnel changes, new calls and all that...we'll keep
you posted as it all develops. (Staffing levels at both Clear
Channel and Galaxy in Utica are already pretty light - WRCK and
WOUR both carry out-of-town morning shows, "Gomez and Dave"
from WTKW in Syracuse and "Bob and Tom" from Indianapolis,
respectively, while WOKR is largely voice-tracked - so the impact
may not be that huge, even if there are some cuts.)
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PD openings considered as well. Contact Roy Fredriks, broadway@si.rr.com.
212-459-4705. 8/6
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*As for the "Goodradio.TV, LLC" group that was buying
many of the other Clear Channel spinoffs, including the clusters
in Binghamton and the Hudson Valley (as well as Williamsport,
Lancaster and Reading in Pennsylvania; Burlington, Vermont; and
Augusta and Bangor, Maine), it's switching management teams.
 Former
Pax TV executive Dean Goodman is out, and Connoisseur head honcho
Jeff Warshaw is in as the new operator of the group. The behind-the-scenes
financing from American Securities Capital Partners doesn't change,
but the group's name will - when (and if?) it closes on the 187-station,
$452 million deal, it will be under the name "Frequency
License, LLC."
Where are they now? Former Binghamton PD Al Brock is looking
for work; he's out as PD of Nashville's WRQQ (97.1) after some
restructuring down there. Meanwhile in Cincinnati, former WHRL
(103.1 Albany) PD Lisa Biello is the new afternoon jock and web
content editor for Bonneville's WSWD (94.9 the Sound).
A quick construction update on the newest AM transmitter site
in the state: the tower bases and guy-wire anchors are now in
place at WHIC (1460 Rochester)'s new three-tower site in Henrietta.
The transmitter building has a floor and walls, too - but no
roof or doors just yet. (And while there's been nothing about
WHIC's move in the local daily rag just yet, the weekly Henrietta
Post did notice the move, which was mentioned in a short
article last week.)
For now, WHIC remains on its STA setup a couple of miles to
the north, at the WROC (950) site.
And a few quick notes about some changes at Rochester's public
broadcaster: Mike Black joins WXXI (1370)/WRUR (88.5) in the
newly-created role of "Radio Program Manager," overseeing
WXXI's relationship with University of Rochester-owned WRUR and
programming on both WRUR and WXXI(AM). Mike was general manager
of WEOS (89.7 Geneva) at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for
19 years.
WXXI is also inagurating its HD Radio services August 1. The
HD2 channel on WXXI-FM (91.5 Rochester) will carry a new lineup
of news and talk programming, while the HD3 channel will rebroadcast
AM 1370 to listeners who lose the station's directional signal
at night. The new HD Radio services will be the topic of a special
edition of "1370 Connection" at noon on AM 1370. (Full
disclosure: your editor works at WXXI in the newsroom and as
host of the weekly "Mixed Media" segment, and will
be hosting that "1370 Connection" show as well.)
|
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*Veteran NEW HAMPSHIRE broadcaster
Dick Osborne has been charged with soliciting prostitution as
part of a sting by police in Kingston, N.H. Osborne was one of
six men caught in the Wednesday sting, where police say he arrived
in a car bearing the insignia of the New Hampshire Technical
Institute, where he's the communications director. Osborne, 64,
is also the play-by-play voice of University of New Hampshire
hockey, as well as being the former owner of (and longtime staffer
at) Concord's WKXL (1450). Osborne is scheduled to be arraigned
Aug. 27; it's not clear yet whether he'll be able to keep his
NHTI or UNH jobs.
In happier news from the Granite State, there's a new FM signal
on the air in the Littleton area. Steve Silberberg's WXRG (99.1
Whitefield) signed on last week with an adult hits/variety format
as "Free 99.1 FM," broadcasting from the New Hampshire
Public TV tower on Mann Hill just outside Littleton.
 *A longtime MASSACHUSETTS broadcaster had
a run-in with police as well - but it may end up with a police
apology to Barry Scott when it's all over. Scott, whose "Lost
45s" airs on WODS (103.3 Boston), was DJing a party in Provincetown
last weekend when police were called on a noise complaint. What
happened next is in dispute - Scott says he made an announcement
saying that "the Provincetown police have asked me to turn
the music off, and they don't seem to like us very much, and
at this point we don't like them very much." A police report
on the incident quoted the remark as "The Provincetown Police
are here to ruin our night. We hate them."
Scott says officers then shoved him into a wall, cutting his
nose, leg and foot and brusing his toe - and he says his partner
ended up driving him to a Boston emergency room after Provincetown
police charged him with disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct
and resisting arrest. (Scott also says police denied his partner
needed medications and access to a bathroom; after spending almost
four hours in a cell, Bryan Richardson was released without being
charged.)
Lawyers for Scott are asking Provincetown officials to investigate
possible civil-rights violations. Scott will be in court today
in Orleans; we'll keep you posted on what happens.
Over at WFNX (101.7 Lynn), production director Jim Murray
is taking an on-air role. Starting today, he'll take over afternoon
drive from PD Keith Dakin. (Keith's a busy guy today, what with
the launch of FNX's new "Sandbox" morning show and
all...)
 Just
a week after announcing her departure from WCVB (Channel 5),
Natalie Jacobson said her goodbyes last week, first in a special
"Chronicle" on Tuesday night and then at the end of
her final newscast Wednesday. "It is not easy to walk away
from this," Jacobson said in her closing remarks. "But
life moves on and I, like many of you, am ready for a new challenge."
That Jacobson is still saying little about what that new challenge
might be (some sort of multimedia venture aimed at retirement-age
baby boomers, apparently) reinforces our sense that the abrupt
departure isn't as voluntary as Jacobson and the station are
saying - especially when we look back at Jacobson comments in
which she said she planned to be at WCVB for a while - "I
do see myself staying here and yes I am happy here," was
the exact quote to the Herald as recently as late March.
In any event, WCVB rounded up all the usual tributes - Red
Sox management, Ted Kennedy, rival WBZ anchor Liz Walker - as
well as a smallish batch of old clips for the "Chronicle"
tribute, which had the feel of something hastily assembled, short
of the tribute properly due to Jacobson, who truly paved the
way for women in Boston television. After a remarkable 35-year
run at one station, it's not hard to think that Jacobson deserved
a bigger send-off.
*In all our coverage of the rebirth of WCBS-FM,
we neglected to note another nice moment for fans of classic
radio: the Radio Greats Weekend that just wrapped up over at
NEW JERSEY's "Breeze" (WWZY 107.1 Long Branch/WBHX
99.7 Tuckerton). Not only did the weekend bring great voices
like Herb Oscar Anderson, Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy and Dan Ingram
back to the airwaves - it also marked a nice bit of cooperation,
with former Breeze jock Bob Shannon coming back to the Shore
to fulfill the committment he'd made to being there. That's class
(on the part of his new employers at CBS-FM, too.)
One more note on the Radio Greats Weekend - it was apparently
simulcast over sister oldies outlet WHTG (1410 Eatontown), to
judge by the IDs we were hearing.
*In PENNSYLVANIA, the "Free Beer
and Hot Wings" morning show disappeared from the airwaves
for listeners around Philadelphia when WTHK (97.5 the Hawk) gave
way to smooth jazz WJJZ (97.5 Burlington NJ) earlier this year.
Now Greater Media is putting the Michigan-based show (also heard
in the region on WWZZ 107.1 in the Easton area and WCHR-FM 105.7
at the Jersey Shore) back on the air in Philly, albeit at night.
They'll be heard on tape delay from 10 PM until 1 AM Monday-Thursday
on WMGK (102.9 Philadelphia) beginning July 30.
 Back
up in the Lehigh Valley, the morning team of "Ken and Kitty"
(Ken Anderson and Kitty McVay) are coming home. They left WCTO
(96.1 Easton) for Cincinnati in the fall of 2004, but now they're
returning - this time to the morning slot on "Hawk"
WODE (99.9 Easton).
*In CANADA, another AM station is
heading for the FM dial, but not completely. The CRTC has granted
Blackburn Radio's CHOK (1070 Sarnia ON) permission to add an
FM relay, but not at the frequency it requested. CHOK wanted
to put the 615-watt FM booster on 100.9 to alleviate what it
says are reception problems in Sarnia caused by the area's petrochemical
plants. The CRTC ruled that the CHOK booster wouldn't "utilize
the full potential" of that class A channel, and ordered
Blackburn to find a different frequency for the booster within
90 days.
Up north, JOCO Communications didn't win its bid for a new
FM signal in Sudbury, but it is getting a new FM in Espanola,
50 miles or so to the west. Espanola once had an AM station,
CKNS (930), that was eventually subsumed into CKNR-FM over in
Elliot Lake. Its new FM station will operate on 99.3, with 794
watts, using a classic hits format.
(And speaking of CKNR on 94.1, it's applied for a booster
to improve its signal in Elliot Lake proper, where it suffers
some signal problems because of the 80 km distance from the 94.1
transmitter on Manitoulin Island to the town. If granted, the
booster would run 50 watts on 98.7.
In Peterborough, the CRTC has granted religious CKKK (99.5)
a move to 90.5, which comes with a power increase from 50 watts
to 230 watts and a change in status from unprotected low-power
to protected Class A1. The application from station owner King's
Kids Promotions Outreach Ministries drew a complaint from the
Canadian Association of Broadcasters, complaining that it should
have been part of a CRTC call for new applications because of
the change to protected status. The CRTC disagreed, noting that
the CKKK move is being forced by the grant of an AM-to-FM move
for CHUM Ltd.'s CKPT (1420), which is going to 99.3.
Radio People on the Move (with thanks to Milkman UnLimited):
Jeff Brown is leaving CHEZ (106.1 Ottawa), where he's been PD/afternoons,
to take the PD chair at CJAQ (Jack 92.5) in Toronto. Heading
in the other direction up the 416 is Shadoe Davis, who leaves
CIKR (K-Rock 105.7) in Kingston to become a co-host of the morning
show on CKQB (106.9 the Bear).
|
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!)
July 24, 2006 -
- The Citadel corporate mandate to install the syndicated Opie
& Anthony show at most of its rock stations nationwide landed
especially hard in western NEW YORK this week. With only one
logical place in the Buffalo market for the O&A show - modern
rock "Edge" WEDG (103.3) - this morning's arrival of
Opie & Anthony meant a big move for one of the Queen City's
top-rated (and longest-running) morning shows.
- After 11 years on WEDG (and its predecessor, WUFX, "the
Fox"), Ted Shredd and Tom Ragan will move their "Shredd
and Ragan" show to the 3-7 PM slot beginning this afternoon.
The duo used their last morning show Friday to gamely promote
the move, blowing up their alarm clocks on the air in a nice
bit of radio theater.
- In Halifax, Nova Scotia, Maritime Broadcasting System (MBS)
launched the FM replacement for CHNS (960) at noon on Wednesday,
pulling the plug on the oldies format heard on AM in favor of
classic rock as "89.9 Hal FM. With the debut of the new
format on CHNS-FM, the AM signal will go dark within 90 days.
- Over on Prince Edward Island, we hear that Newcap has begun
testing its second FM signal. In addition to new CHTN-FM (Ocean
100.3), "K-Rock 105.5" is now being heard, announcing
calls CKQK. (There's still no timeline for MBS' CFCY 630 to complete
its move to FM in Charlottetown, leaving PEI with no full-power
AM signals.)
- Returning to Nova Scotia, CFAB (1450 Windsor) has applied
to make its own move to FM, with 100 kW DA/159 m on 92.9. The
CFAB move to FM is just one of many on the agenda for a CRTC
meeting September 11 in Quebec City; the bigger story, by far,
is a set of four Corus applications to move its network of AM
talk stations to the FM dial in most of Quebec.
- Here's how those applications shake out: CJRC (1150 Gatineau-Ottawa),
which has applied for FM moves in the past, would go to 104.7
(11 kW DA/95 m); CHLT (630 Sherbrooke) would move to 102.1 (23
kW DA/91 m); CHLN (550 Trois-Rivieres) would move to 106.9 (100
kW DA/87 m) and CKRS (590 Saguenay) would move to 98.3 (100 kW
DA/148 m). If the moves are granted, the AM dial would become
nearly silent in Sherbrooke (with only CKTS 900, the relay of
Montreal's English talker CJAD, still standing) and Trois-Rivieres
(which would have only CKSM 1220 Shawinigan, the relay of CHLN
- unless it, too, goes silent during the conversion) - and it
would be completely silent in Saguenay.
- It's an old story being replayed in MASSACHUSETTS this week:
talk show host uses "regrettable" language on the air,
talk show host is suspended, station's call letters get lots
of ink in the papers and lots of chatter on WGBH's Friday-night
"Beat the Press" show. This time out, it was WRKO (680)'s
John DePetro who used the "regrettable" language, twisting
his colleague Howie Carr's "Fat Matt" nickname for
Mass Pike chairman Matt Amorello into an anti-gay slur during
his show on Tuesday. That earned DePetro two days off, with Brian
Maloney filling in. DePetro returned to the air Friday, offering
a general apology for his choice of words but no specific apology
to Amorello, and that in turn got the whole thing another day
in the media spin cycle.
- On the TV front, Boston was the last major market without
an affiliate for the new My Network TV, but that appears to have
changed. WZMY (Channel 50), licensed to Derry, NEW HAMPSHIRE,
will announce this week that it's joining the new network in
September. The move takes away any possibility of a fight between
WZMY, which began calling itself "My TV" in late 2005,
and the new Fox-owned network over the "My" branding.
It also means that previous reports that My Network TV would
land on a digital subchannel of Fox-owned WFXT (Channel 25),
with its prime-time shows being cleared on the main WFXT channel
during the day, are now off the table.
July 22, 2002 -
- Pittsburgh's public television station is about to get at
least $20 million richer - but PENNSYLVANIA will lose its last
public TV duopoly, thanks to an FCC decision last week that will
allow channel 16 in the Steel City to be used for commercial
broadcasting.
- WQED (Channel 13) was among the first public television stations
in the country when it signed on in the spring of 1954 (KUHT
in Houston beat it on the air by more than a year, but WQED claims
to be the first community-owned station, while KUHT was and is
owned by the University of Houston); five years later, the station
took an old black-and-white transmitter and added WQEX (Channel
16) to its lineup. Initially intended to provide in-school educational
programming, WQEX eventually became an "alternative"
public TV outlet. After going color in the eighties, WQEX operated
for a time under completely separate program management from
WQED, with a schedule that included classic TV reruns and PBS
programs that weren't cleared on channel 13. By the late nineties,
though, WQED became determined to sell WQEX, to help meet what
the station said was a serious financial shortfall. In 1997,
WQEX began simulcasting WQED - something WQED hoped would be
a brief temporary move before selling the station completely.
- One plan involved the fledgling Pax network, which lacked
a Pittsburgh outlet. Pax planned to buy commercially-licensed
WPCB (Channel 40) in Greensburg from religious broadcaster Cornerstone
TeleVision, which would then purchase channel 16 from WQED and
move the WPCB programming there. A brief gasp of courage from
several FCC commissioners, questioning whether Cornerstone's
programming met the qualifications for a noncommercial channel,
quashed that deal (although the FCC later backtracked on the
new rules that were briefly put forth), and WQED then asked the
FCC to "de-reserve" channel 16, allowing it to be sold
for full commercial use. That prompted a community outpouring
of opposition, with several groups asking the FCC not to allow
the de-reservation, under which WQED proposed to sell WQEX to
ShootingStar, Inc., a new company formed by Diane Sutter, former
general manager of WWSW (970/94.5) in Pittsburgh, for $20 million.
- Last October, the FCC denied the request, but opened a Notice
of Proposed Rule Making on the case. That NPRM was closed this
week when the FCC ruled that the de-reservation can proceed.
Most of the commissioners agreed with WQED's argument that it
needs the money from the sale for DTV conversion (something the
station hasn't done yet, while working its way through the WQEX
sale) and an upgrade of the WQED facility in Pittsburgh's Oakland
district. The ruling also acknowleged that Pittsburgh is under-served
by television, with just seven commercial stations in the market
(Viacom's KDKA and WNPA, Hearst-Argyle's WTAE, Cox's WPXI, Sinclair's
WCWB and WPGH and Cornerstone's WPCB). Commissioner Michael Copps
dissented, calling public television stations the "gems"
of the television system, and noting that once a station is de-reserved,
it's gone for good. No word yet on when WQEX's simulcast of WQED
might be replaced by commercial programming (from Pax, perhaps?)
- stay tuned!
- We'll start our NEW YORK report right here in Rochester,
where WBBF (950 Rochester) broke out of its simulcast with oldies
WBBF-FM (93.3 Fairport) Friday evening just after 6, switching
to a short playlist of songs drawn from WBBF-FM and its Entercom
sister stations, classic hits WBZA (98.9) and country WBEE-FM
(92.5) - with announcements proclaiming the station to be "News
Talk 950." (All of the music in the rotation, by the way,
had either "News," "Talk," "Sports,"
"Business" or "Weather" in the title or the
name of the artist...) The 1000-watt signal on 950 covers Monroe
County quite well (in its heritage top-40 days, it was regularly
the number-one station in town by wide margins), but it's a far
cry from the market's dominant news-talker, Clear Channel's clear
channel WHAM (1180). Expect to hear Bill O'Reilly on 950 - and
we hear rumors about Dr. Joy Browne, Sean Hannity, Tom Leykis,
some sports coverage and perhaps a local morning show.
- Down in New York City, WOR (710) has signed on to test Ibiquity's
"in-band, on-channel" (IBOC) digital system. While
WOR is making the right noises publicly about staying in the
forefront of broadcast technology, behind the scenes it's clear
that this will be a critical test of the controversial IBOC system
- largely because "IBOC" is a misnomer. Ibiquity's
system sends considerable signal out on the adjacent AM channels
as well, and we expect WOR's neighbors WLW (700 Cincinnati) and
WGN (720 Chicago) to be watching this test very closely to see
what the system really does at night when the skywave kicks up.
(It's yet to be approved for nighttime use, and many engineers
are skeptical, at least in private, that it will really work
in the after-dark RF environment.)
July 24, 1997-
- We begin this week's edition with some sad news from CONNECTICUT.
Veteran newsman Walt Dibble died on Monday at age 67. Dibble
had worked in Connecicut radio for 49 years, the last 20 of them
at WTIC in Hartford. Dibble's career began in 1948 at Stamford's
WSTC (1400), and included stints at WICC (600) in Bridgeport
and WAVZ (1300) in New Haven, as well as a lengthy stay at Hartford's
WDRC (1360/102.9). Dibble came to WTIC as news director in 1977,
replacing NBC's hourly news with local news at the top and bottom
of the hour. Dibble won a national award from the RTNDA for his
investigative reporting, as well as awards from Ohio State University
in 1981 and from the Connecticut AP Broadcasters Association
(the Abrams award for excellence in radio journalism) in 1995.
- Radio reporters all over New England knew Dibble as someone
who was always willing to provide news sound out of Hartford,
and to lend advice and job tips to those new to the business.
In addition to his work at WTIC, Dibble was also an instructor
at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting and at Southern Connecticut
State University. Dibble had been battling leukemia for some
time before his death, and had just returned to work at WTIC
(although not yet to the air) when he died. He's survived by
three sons (including Fox sportscaster and former Cincinnati
Reds pitcher Rob Dibble) and three daughters, and by his wife,
Barbara. In this era of shuttered radio newsrooms, Walt Dibble
was one of the few remaining giants in the business. He will
be sorely missed.
- Plenty of news in MASSACHUSETTS this week, beginning with
the sale of Webster's WGFP (940; talk) and WXXW (98.9; oldies
and talk). Owner Alan Okun died earlier this year, and his estate
has now sold the station to Bengal Atlantic Communications LLC.
No word on how much they're paying for the southern Worcester
county outlets. We know more this week about the fate of Salem's
WPZE (1260) in Boston. Contrary to the initial reports, it seems
WPZE will go to a company called Craven and Thompson Communications
out of Philadelphia. We don't know much about them, and there's
no evidence (at least in the FCC FM database) of any other station
ownership by them. Up in the Haverhill area, there's a pirate
on 88.7 that's causing trouble for some listeners to WFCR (88.5)
Amherst's new improved signal.
- And our best wishes go out to Kirby Perkins, veteran political
reporter at Boston's WCVB-TV (Channel 5), who suffered a massive
heart attack while playing tennis on Monday and is now in a coma.
Perkins is married to Emily Rooney, the WGBH-TV "Greater
Boston" anchor/producer who's also a former WCVB news director
and ABC "World News Tonight" executive producer. (Editor's
note: We are saddened to learn that Kirby Perkins died late Thursday
night after three days in coma. He is survived by his wife and
only daughter.)
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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,
by subscribing or
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Store for information on remaining back issues of the
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