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October 27, 2008
CBS Arrives in Elmira
*For almost six decades, one of the quirks
of TV in NEW YORK's Southern Tier has been the lack of
a CBS affiliate in the Elmira market. While that small city has
had an NBC affiliate (WSYE, now WETM-TV 18) since 1956 and an
ABC affiliate (WENY-TV 36) since 1969, viewers in Elmira and
Corning (and their cable systems) have pointed their antennas
60 miles east to Binghamton all those years to watch CBS on channel
12, WBNG-TV.
In early 2009, that will change, thanks to WENY-TV. Owner
Lilly Broadcasting signed a contract last week to bring CBS to
Elmira on a subchannel of WENY-DT, displacing WBNG from cable
systems in the Elmira market.
 The
new CBS service from WENY will apparently launch first on cable,
since WENY-DT never built out its interim channel 55 allocation.
Instead, WENY will build its DTV signal (also on channel 36)
at the Higman Hill transmitter site above Corning, leaving behind
the site on Hawley Hill in Elmira that it's shared with WSYE/WETM
for forty years. WENY's analog signal has been at low power in
recent years, anyway, since a fire destroyed its full-power RCA
transmitter.
(NERW notes that the startup of CBS service on WENY-DT will
leave only two markets in New York without a full portfolio of
"Big Four" network affiliates: there's still no CBS
in Utica, where viewers watch Syracuse's WTVH, and no NBC in
the Watertown market, served by Syracuse's WSTM and Plattsburgh's
WPTZ.)
 Between Elmira and
Binghamton, Owego's little WEBO (1330) is growing. Owner - and
ex-Rochesterian - Dave Radigan flipped the switch Friday morning
on his new FM translator, W300BV (107.9), and not only was NERW
there to see the Scala antenna get installed on the Tioga County
public safety tower just north of Owego, we were also able to
hear the new FM signal quite clearly on the west side of Binghamton
all weekend.
(W300BV is still awaiting special temporary authority to relay
WEBO's AM programming; for the moment, it's carrying religion
from the Family Life Network's WCII 88.5 in Spencer instead.)
In Binghamton itself, public broadcaster WSKG is marking the
70th anniversary of "War of the Worlds" with a special broadcast
Thursday night on both TV and radio. A crew of local actors and
WSKG personalities will recreate the famed 1938 broadcast in
the WSKG studios, complete with sound effects, and based on what
we saw of the preparations last week, it should be quite a show!
In Buffalo, the Ryan Seacrest juggernaut is claiming the late-morning
slot at Entercom's WKSE (98.5 Niagara Falls). The arrival of
the syndicated "On Air" show in the 10 AM-1 PM slot
shifts Shannon Steele (who'd been heard from 10-3) to 1-6 PM.
DJ Anthony moves back from 3-7 PM to 6 PM-midnight, displacing
Miguel from his evening slot.
Here in Rochester, Brother Wease has picked a staff for his
new WFXF (95.1 Honeoye Falls) morning show, set to debut November
17. Joining Wease on "The Fox" will be comedian and
Rochester native Jamie Lissow, who returns here from New York
City, where he's been appearing on Fox News Channel's "RedEye"
show, along with a female sidekick from New York named Lilly,
who's worked with syndicated hosts Ron & Fez and Opie &
Anthony. Producing the new show will be Anthony Cruz, who's produced
morning shows in New York at the old WNEW and WWPR.
In Albany, the "Darwin and Cat" morning show on
WZMR (104.9 Altamont) has split up, as Darwin exits the station
for a new, as yet undisclosed, radio gig. Darwin also served
as music director at "The Edge," a post that will be
filled by APD "Mike the Enforcer."
New York's WAXQ (104.3) has named a new PD. Q104 veteran Eric
Wellman came to the station from Long Island's WBAB in 2000,
and has been serving as APD/music director under Tom Poleman,
who relinquishes the PD reins as he rises in the Clear Channel
corporate ranks, where he's now senior VP of programming overseeing
New York as well as Philadelphia, Boston and Miami.
There's word from California that budget cuts at Cumulus have
claimed the job of Kerry Richards, who went from New York's WOR
to the chief engineer's office at KNBR/KFOG/KSAN in San Francisco.
He's looking for work, and says he's willing to relocate. (We'll
put anyone who's interested in touch with Kerry; just drop us
a line.)
In baseball news, the New York Mets are sticking with CBS
Radio's WFAN (660) for a new "multi-year" deal. The
Mets just marked their 22nd season with WFAN (even longer if
you include its predecessor station on 1050, WHN), and now they're
also being heard on WFAN's new FM HD relay, via WXRK-FM (92.3)'s
HD3 subchannel. And we're sure it's just coincidence that it's
also been 22 years since the Mets were last world champions...or
maybe we're just still bitter about Game 6 of that particular
series.
In TV news, New York City's TV stations will join forces Tuesday
night just before 6 PM to test viewers' readiness for the DTV
conversion. For two minutes, most of the city's stations will
replace their usual analog broadcasts with a message warning
viewers that they'll lose their analog signals for good in February,
and alerting them to the government's coupon program for DTV
converters.
 And
one more CBS note before we move on from the Empire State: Lou
Dorfsman, who died Wednesday (Oct. 22), was part of the unparalleled
team that gave the CBS of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s a corporate
visual identity like nothing else the broadcasting industry has
ever known. While he didn't design the iconic eye logo (that
honor went to Bill Golden), Dorfsman was responsible for all
the many ways the eye - and later the distinctive CBS Didot font
- were used in the company. After Golden's death in 1959, Dorfsman
became the network's art director, and with the support of network
president Frank Stanton he created a distinctive look and feel
for all things CBS, from the stationery with the famous dot showing
secretaries precisely where to start typing, to the custom-made
elevator panels with back-illuminated CBS Didot numerals, to
the "Gastrotypographicalassemblage"
that graced the Black Rock cafeteria.
Dorfsman retired in 1987, as CBS was farming out more of the
tasks he'd long handled in-house, and we wonder what he'd thought
of some of the design coming out of the network in recent years.
(CBS old-timers knew, for instance, that the "eye"
logo was reserved for the sole use of the TV network, yet after
the Group W and Infinity stations were merged into the CBS Radio
operations, the division unveiled a logo that included - yup
- the eye.)
Lou Dorfsman was 90 years old.
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*In PENNSYLVANIA, CBS Radio is bringing
in some outside-the-market programming help for KDKA (1020),
as Mark Mason, PD of sister station WINS (1010 New York) comes
on board to help take some of the load off cluster PD Keith Clarke.
Mason will work with KDKA director of news and programming Marshall
Adams to keep the AM station competitive against Clear Channel's
FM news-talk competitor, WPGB (104.7).
(After trying to hear KDKA after dark in several spots well
within the Pittsburgh metro, we'd suggest a good start might
involve turning off the HD Radio signals at sister stations WINS
and WBZ, which wreak havoc on KDKA's signal starting even before
sunset - but that's not a programming decision, and of course
it plays into some complex politics within the CBS Radio family...)
*The Entercom cuts claimed one job at the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
cluster: "Psycho Mike" is out as producer and sidekick
on the "Rocky and Sue" morning show at WKRZ (98.5 Freeland).
*We have not one, but two pieces of news
this week concerning staffers of the late, lamented "Spectrum"
show that emanated from NEW JERSEY on shortwave radio
a decade or so ago. Co-host Dave Marthouse, a veteran of Jersey
stations that included WSUS and WCTC, is selling the Virginia
radio station he owned with longtime Jersey engineer Tony DeNicola.
 Their
D&M Communications bought WODI (1230 Brookneal VA) back in
1996, and after 12 years of operating the little
AM south of Lynchburg, D&M fetches $135,000 from The
Rain Broadcasting.
Meanwhile, "Spectrum" founder Mark Emanuele is partnering
up with John Forsythe (who runs WNJC 1360 Washington Township
PA) to operate WIFI (1460 Florence Township), operating the station
as a leased-time outlet for would-be broadcasters hoping to reach
into the Philadelphia market.
(And, yes, your editor was also one of the founding staffers
of "Spectrum" way back in the early nineties...)
Edited by NERW's own Scott Fybush - on sale now as
an e-book or printed volume!
 *The big news from MASSACHUSETTS was all
about Reese Hopkins, the WRKO (680 Boston) talk host who lost
his job amidst the Entercom cutbacks a week earlier.
It turns out WRKO narrowly avoided yet another public relations
headache when it let Hopkins go: last week, Hopkins was arrested
on charges that he raped a 12-year-old girl in New York City
in 2004.
The girl claims that she was visiting a friend at her Manhattan
apartment, and that the friend's mother was dating - and living
with - Hopkins.
Police arrested Hopkins Wednesday night at his home in Malden.
He was arraigned Friday in Manhattan, where he denied the charges.
Hopkins says he was living in Connecticut at the time the incident
allegedly occurred, and that he wasn't in New York on the day
in question.
"No one in radio will touch me again, even if I'm found
innocent," Hopkins told the Boston Herald on Friday.
*Best wishes to WODS (103.3 Boston) morning co-host Bob Lobel,
who's home and recuperating after undergoing back surgery for
the second time in five months. Lobel will be broadcasting from
home for a while as he recovers.
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*Cox Radio is the latest big group to go
through a wave of cutbacks, and among them in the CONNECTICUT
cluster was Ed Sabatino, longtime PD of WPLR (99.1 New Haven).
Sabatino had been with WPLR for six years, having moved up within
the Cox family from the PD chair at sister station WEFX (now
WFOX) in Norwalk. No replacement has been named.
*We have call letters for a new construction
permit in Laconia, NEW HAMPSHIRE: the 91.5 signal there
will be WANH.
 Congratulations to the broadcasters in the Upper
Valley - they banded together on Monday to raise $41,000 during
their 13-hour "Polly's Think Pink Radiothon," funding
breast cancer research in memory of veteran air talent Pauline
Robbins-Loyd, who died in January. This was the second "Think
Pink" event; the first, held last year as Robbins-Loyd was
dying, raised $37,000.
*The student-run station at the University
of MAINE's main campus is getting a big power increase.
WMEB (91.9 Orono) now operates with just 600 watts from a short
tower at the university's Witter Farm, but it's been granted
an increase to 10 kilowatts, non-directional.
*Just one tiny bit of news from CANADA
this week: the CBC has received permission to move CBZW,
its Radio One repeater in Woodstock, New Brunswick, from 91.9
to 95.3. That clears the way for Radio-Canada's CBAF-FM-21 in
nearby Bon Accord to implement its move from 107.5 down to 91.7.
|
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!)
October 29, 2007 -
- The urban radio war in CONNECTICUT's biggest market is over,
and CBS Radio's WZMX (93.7 Hartford) is the survivor. Thursday
morning at 10, Clear Channel pulled the plug on the "Power
104" hip-hop format at WPHH (104.1 Waterbury), a little
more than four years after it went up against "Hot 93.7."
While WZMX had an all-local lineup, WPHH used syndicated talent
in morning and afternoon drive (Steve Harvey and Wendy Williams,
respectively), and its ratings never quite measured up to its
CBS competitor, even before the eventual arrival of the Portable
People Meter in the market, with all the ratings headaches it's
brought to urban formats in the markets where it's already launched.
- So just as it did in Philadelphia, where Clear Channel killed
off Spanish tropical "Rumba 104.5" in favor of modern
rock "Radio 104" at WRFF (104.5), Clear Channel went
to a modern rock format on the newly-renamed "FM 104one"
in Hartford. And therein lies an irony: the "Radio 104"
image that landed in Philly came right out of the old WMRQ in
Hartford - an image valuable enough, apparently, that Clear Channel
was keeping the old Radio 104 website alive in Hartford years
after the format change to "Power," complete with an
automated webstream. (That site quietly went away after the "FM
104one" launch last week, replaced by a page that forwards
to the new WPHH site.)
- In other Nutmeg State news, Antonio Gois' Gois Communications
is paying $2.65 million to buy Spanish tropical WLAT (910 New
Britain) and Spanish news-talk WNEZ (1230 Manchester) from the
bankrupt Freedom Communications. Gois is no stranger to the Connecticut
River valley; he sold WSPR and WACM in Springfield to Davidson
a couple of years ago, and he still owns WORC (1310) over in
Worcester. He'll take over the Hartford-market stations via an
LMA November 1.
- Crossing the border to NEW YORK, our week's news begins with
a new morning show at WWRL (1600 New York), which axed its Armstrong
Williams/Sam Greenfield morning entry on Thursday, replacing
them with former WABC/WWOR host Richard Bey and erstwhile Air
America talker Mark Riley. (WWRL is an Air America affiliate
for most of the day, but it does its own thing in morning drive.)
- Down the road at WYSL (1040 Avon), owner Bob Savage is taking
his fight against nighttime HD Radio interference to the next
level: he's just filed a formal complaint against CBS Radio's
WBZ (1030 Boston) over the interference that he says is destroying
his signal within what's supposed to be his nighttime interference-free
contour after dark. We'll have full details on the complaint
in next week's issue. (Bob's also got a new morning show: he's
just picked up the "Quinn and Rose" show from Pittsburgh.
There's a connection there - Bob hired Jim Quinn back at the
'Burgh's 13Q way back when...)
October 27, 2003 -
- The roster of living top-40 legends gets smaller every day,
it seems, and last week we lost another one. On Friday morning
(10/24), Dean Anthony died at age 68. Anthony put down radio
roots at Washington's WPGC before coming to NEW YORK in the fall
of 1964 to become one of the "Good Guys" at the legendary
WMCA (570). Anthony held down the overnights at WMCA for four
years, then left (with most of the other staffers) in 1968, only
to return a few months later and stay through the start of WMCA's
talk format in 1970. Later, Anthony worked at "97DJ"
(WWDJ 970 Hackensack) and did mornings on WTFM (103.5 Lake Success)
before joining the staff of WHLI (1100 Hempstead) in 1981. For
the past 22 years, he served as program director (later VP/PD)
and midday jock at WHLI, giving up the airshift just a few weeks
ago as his cancer progressed.
- In MASSACHUSETTS, Salem is indeed picking new calls for its
soon-to-launch talker on 1150 in Boston. After contemplating
"WYTS" and then "WJTK," it now appears that
the station will be WTTT when it launches in early November.
(Those calls have a long Bay State history, having spent four
decades on what's now WPNI 1430 in Amherst.)
- Up in Lowell, the former WJUL (91.5) began using its new
WUML calls last week.
- In Athol, the oldies on WAHL (99.9) gave way to classic rock
under the new ownership of Steven Silberberg's Northeast Broadcasting
last week. What was "Oldies 99.9" under Citadel is
now "Eagle," with new calls of WNYN-FM pending.
- CANADA's newest radio signal is in the Kitchener-Waterloo
market, where CanWest Global began testing last week on CKBT
(91.5 Kitchener), the new "91.5 the Beat." Initial
signal reports suggest the 4000-watt signal is making it almost
to the western suburbs of Toronto, at least for DX aficionados.
October 30, 1998 -
- Digital TV is on the air in New England. The folks at WCVB-TV
(Channel 5) moved up the debut of WCVB-DT (Channel 20) a few
days to broadcast the launch of John Glenn's shuttle mission
on Thursday. Boston was one of just two Northeast markets to
see Glenn in HDTV (well, at least those with $15,000 to spend
on an HDTV set); the other was New York, where WCBS-DT (Channel
56) is on the air. The HDTV transmission came from Harris, working
in a joint venture with Rochester's Eastman Kodak, which handled
film-to-HDTV transfer of the 1962 mission films. (NERW got to
see a demo of those a few hours before launch time, and they
looked very nice indeed!)
- In other MASSACHUSETTS news, the FCC paid a visit to Worcester
State College on Monday to shut down "WSCW" (94.9),
the campus station that moved from carrier current to unlicensed
FM a few years back (and was leaving a dead carrier up all summer,
to boot). An article in the campus newspaper says the station
was assured by the local radio engineer who supervised the move
to FM that it was completely legal, and that the FCC said it
hadn't actually received any complaints. WSCW is now returning
to carrier-current and cable audio, and considering Real Audio
and an application for licensed FM in Worcester.
- It's official: Mega Broadcasting, the buyer of WNFT (1150
Boston), is also picking up WBPS (890 Dedham) from John Douglas'
Achievement Radio Holdings for $4 million. If NERW remembers
correctly, there was already some cross-ownership there...and
we wonder whether this sets the stage for a duplicate of Mega's
Hartford situation, with one station (WLAT 1230 there, WBPS in
Boston) doing Spanish, and the other (WNEZ 910 there, WNFT in
Boston) doing R&B oldies.
- Up in VERMONT, Burlington's former top-rated morning show
is back together after a year. Steve Cormier and Coach Tom Brennan
left the airwaves a year ago on WIZN (106.7 Vergennes) when Howard
Stern came in. When Cormier's six-month non-compete ended in
April, he went to WCPV (101.3 Essex), and with the end of Brennan's
one-year non-compete on October 22, he was free to rejoin Cormier
for their "Corm and the Coach" show. The duo kicked
off with a live show in front of 600 people at the Burlington
Sheraton.
- This NERW is coming out a few hours later than usual because
the NERW-mobile spent Friday night on the road to Buffalo, enjoying
the plethora of "War of the Worlds" remakes that filled
the airwaves of the Queen City. WNUC (107.7 Wethersfield) kicked
it off at 7 with Orson Welles' 1938 classic. Then at 8, WWKB
(1520) pulled out the tapes of the WKBW 1968 version -- and,
not to be outdone, WGRF (96.9) and WEDG (103.3) both launched
into their own modern versions. It's a good thing we had plenty
of tape decks on hand, because the WGRF and WEDG version didn't
start off as a simulcast. Each station used its own format and
jocks for the first hour, and then once Buffalo was under full
Martian attack, the two joined for a simulcast that ended with
Irv Weinstein (now a WKBW-TV anchor, but back in 1968 one of
KB radio's top newsmen) as the last man alive in a Martian-ravaged
downtown Buffalo. And when the simulcast split again, WGRF returned
to its classic rock format with David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust,"
while WEDG went back to modern rock with the help of REM's "It's
The End of The World As We Know It." All in all, a most
enjoyable night of radio, and one more stations ought to emulate.
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