October 19, 2009

"X96" Launches in New York

• MAINE
• NEW HAMPSHIRE
• MASSACHUSETTS
• VERMONT
• RHODE ISLAND
• CONNECTICUT
• NEW YORK
• NEW JERSEY
• PENNSYLVANIA
• CANADA
• CLASSIFIEDS
• FROM THE ARCHIVES

*Univision Radio relaunched its NEW YORK FM presence Thursday morning, adopting new call letters and a new slogan to go with its $33.5 million move from its former FM home, "La Kalle" WCAA (105.9 Newark), to the more powerful signal on 96.3 that was long home to WQXR.

As we told you last week, the WCAA calls made a temporary move down the dial to 96.3 on the night of October 8, when WQXR moved up to 105.9 under the ownership of public broadcaster WNYC. But the "La Kalle" slogan vanished in the move, and Univision's frequent on-air exhortations to "mark your calendar with an X on October 15 at 6 AM" made it clear that something different was coming to the 96.3 frequency.

And as NERW first reported last week, that "something different" includes the calls WXNY - and a new slogan, "X96.3, La Mezcla de New York." That translates roughly as "The Mix of New York," and it comes with a format that's not far different from the old "La Kalle" on 105.9. We're not experts on the nuances of Spanish-language radio, but it seems to be described best as some mixture of "Spanish Tropical" and "rhythmic AC," with some English-language dance tracks in there as part of the playlist, and with DJ banter that's largely, but not entirely, in Spanish.

So far, the new "X96.3" appears to be running jockless, except for the station's star personality, the Luis Jimenez morning show.

*Over on the AM dial, Mike and the Mad Dog were reunited on Friday, at least briefly, on both WFAN (where Mike Francesa has been holding down afternoons since the departure of Chris "Mad Dog" Russo last year) and on Sirius, where Russo now does a national show. Both hosts were doing their shows from Yankee Stadium before the start of the American League championship series, and after a friendly call from Francesa to wish Russo a happy 50th birthday earlier in the week, each host agreed to do an hour on the other's broadcast. Will the reunion, which found both men evidently free of the tension that marked their last year or so together on the FAN, lead to something more permanent?

There's a management change at WFAN's competition: Tim McCarthy, who's been serving as senior VP of ESPN Radio's WEPN (1050 New York) and sister station WEAE (1250 Pittsburgh), has been promoted to senior VP for the entire station group, putting him in charge of ESPN Radio's Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago outlets as well.

And way at the top of the dial, one of the signature voices of WWRL (1600 New York) died last Wednesday (Oct. 14). Hank Spann was known as "The Soul Server" during his many years on 'RL in the seventies and eighties. In later years, Spann crossed over to the record industry, working for Warner Brothers Records; recently, he'd been living in San Francisco.

Back on the FM dial, Joe Rosati is heading west from New York's WHTZ (Z100), to take on imaging duties for Clear Channel sister stations WKQI (95.5) and WDTW-FM (106.7) in Detroit. No word yet on a replacement for Rosati's 10 PM-2 AM airshift.

We can now attach a price tag to Peconic Public Broadcasting's winning bid for WLIU (88.3 Southampton): the deal is valued at $2.425 million, though the management group will pay Long Island University only $800,000 cash for WLIU. The rest of the deal includes Peconic's immediate assumption of operating costs for WLIU immediately, a three-year LMA of sister station WCWP (88.1 Brookville) that's valued at $1 million, and the costs of moving WLIU off the former LIU Southampton campus to new digs at the Wainscott Studios in Wainscott.

In Albany, the syndicated "Big Boy's Neighborhood" morning show is now being heard on Albany Broadcasting's WAJZ (96.3 Voorheesville), displacing former morning co-host Charlie to middays on "Jamz 96.3."

Up north, St. Lawrence University's North Country Public Radio has been granted a construction permit for a full-power signal in Lake Placid, winning out over competing applications from Albany's WAMC and the Northeast Gospel Network. (As we reported back in December 2007, WAMC had agreed to drop its Lake Placid application in favor of NCPR.) The new 91.7 signal will replace NCPR's present translator in Lake Placid, W219AK, which will apply to move to a new frequency and relay WAMC.

And NCPR has signed on another new signal: WXLS (88.3 Tupper Lake) replaces a translator on 91.7 in that mountain community.

Thanks to CNYRadio.com, we can now offer a full schedule for Leatherstocking's new talk format on WFBL (1390 Syracuse). There's one local show, a noon talk hour hosted by Jon Alvarez, and the rest of the day comes off the bird: "First Light" at 5, "America in the Morning" at 6, Laura Ingraham at 9, Dennis Miller at 1 PM, Fred Thompson at 4 PM, Jason Lewis at 6 PM, and then Larry King, Jim Bohannon and Phil Hendrie later at night. Alvarez' local show will kick off on October 26, we're told. (And there's no sign yet of WFBL's promised new website at CNYTalkRadio.com, while the station's old site at WFBL.com now redirects to a Twitter account for the new format.)

Here in Rochester, we're mourning the loss of one of the original program hosts from the earliest days of WXXI-FM (91.5). Richard Gladwell was a part of the station almost from its start in late 1974, and his weekend choral music show, "With Heart and Voice," continues to be offered to public radio stations nationwide. Gladwell had been diagnosed with brain cancer in June, and he died peacefully with family at his side at his Rochester home on Thursday, just short of his 89th birthday.

Earlier in the week, WXXI launched a revamped website and unveiled a new logo and branding campaign for its radio, television and interactive services. And WXXI was one of several upstate New York public broadcasters to host NPR president Vivian Schiller as she toured member stations across the region; her tour also included stops at WNED and WBFO in Buffalo. (Usual disclaimer: your editor is a part-time WXXI employee.)

Speaking of Buffalo, it's one of two markets in New York that stands to get a new noncommercial signal as a result of an FCC application window. Over the last few years, 67 channels in the "non-reserved" (92.1-107.9 MHz) FM band have been set aside for noncommercial use, and until now those allocations have been sitting idle at the FCC. But in an attempt to clear out the agency's backlogs, the FCC will open an application window for one week in November for those facilities, including a class-A signal on 92.1 in Amherst and another A on 102.5 downstate in Rhinebeck, and we'd expect a bumper crop of applications for those two channels.

(There are only three other NERW-land channels included in the window: 93.3A Susquehanna, PA, just outside Binghamton; 107.5A Liberty, PA, south of Mansfield; and 104.3A West Tisbury, MA, on Martha's Vineyard.)

In the Southern Tier, look for the new 97.1 signal in Canaseraga to be on the air within a few weeks - but you'll have to be right in town to hear it. With Equinox Broadcasting's construction permit set to expire in mid-November, George Hawras and Kevin Fitzgerald have applied to modify the CP to specify minimum class A facilities - 100 watts at 92 feet - in order to beat the expiration date. They've also got a callsign for the new station: it'll be WZHD.

Over in Bath, Kurt Goff is inbound from KSOS in Las Vegas to be the new afternoon co-host on the Family Life Network.

And in the Elmira market, two college stations are once again fully licensed - or at least will be, once they pay $7,000 fines for failing to file proper renewal applications during the last cycle. Elmira College's WECW (107.7 Elmira) has been on the air pretty regularly in the ensuing years, while Corning Community College's WCEB (91.9 Corning) was operating only sporadically.

*In PENNSYLVANIA, Jules Riley is out of a job at Greater Media's Philadelphia cluster. Riley had been PD of both WNUW (97.5 Burlington NJ) and WBEN-FM (95.7 Philadelphia), but after WNUW's flip to sports, Greater Media sent her packing last week, citing "budget isues."

(Perhaps Greater is saving its money in hopes of taking a run at the radio rights for the Philadelphia Phillies? The Inquirer's Michael Klein reported late last week that while CBS Radio's WPHT just extended its contract through the 2010 season, Greater is interested in making a bid for the Phillies in 2011.)

Christmas music has arrived on the Philadelphia airwaves, at least for HD Radio owners, with all-Christmas channels now running on both WBEB's 101.1-2 and WOGL's 98.1-2 channels.

Callsigns in the news: the venerable Pittsburgh WAMO calls have landed up in the Scranton area, on the 91.3 in Carbondale that was WCIG and then briefly WFUZ. Meanwhile down in Bedford, WHJB (1600) has changed calls to WAYC, matching its FM sister on 100.9, now WAYC-FM.

In Latrobe, WQTW (1570) quietly changed formats to classic country a few months back, but it appears none of our usual sources in the area noticed at the time, so we mention it now in the interest of completeness, if nothing else.

PROGRAMMING SERVICES DO IT RIGHT PRODUCTIONS -- Visit our Web site, doitrightproductions.net, to hear our three syndicated shows, Classic Clips, Country Roots and Gospel Doings, produced by longtime country and bluegrass lovers. We also provide demo and duplicating services. Contact Roland (Bruce) Cutler, PO Box 351, Lyons, NY 14489; or dirp650@verizon.net. You can have your ad here, for just a few dollars a week! Click here for information on the most economical way to reach tens of thousands of Northeast radio and TV people each week.

*In MASSACHUSETTS, the deal to transfer classical WCRB-FM (99.5 Lowell) from Nassau to the WGBH Educational Foundation is moving forward. The contract for the $14 million sale is now at the FCC awaiting approval, and we noted a couple of unusual items as we read through it: it obligates WGBH to buy $100,000 of advertising on WCRB or other Nassau stations during the period before closing - and it includes a clause we'd never seen in a sale contract before, obligating Nassau to transfer WCRB's Facebook and Twitter accounts to WGBH. (That clause, presumably, will soon become a standard feature of sale contracts.)

Itinerant translator W236BX (95.1 Gloucester) is getting closer to its eventual new home in Fitchburg: the latest construction permit for the station finds it heading back across the state line from Hollis, N.H. to a spot between Pepperell and Townsend - which means the next CP could be the one that finally puts W236BX in place as an FM translator for Fitchburg's WPKZ (1280). Has anyone in the area heard W236BX on the air during its hopscotch from Cape Ann to Worcester County?

*It's been a bad year for broadcast history in CONNECTICUT, where two venerable TV studio buildings have fallen to the wrecking ball in the space of just a few months. The latest demolition is in West Hartford, at the 1953-vintage studios of NBC's WVIT (Channel 30). The station is now settled in at its modern new home just behind the old studios off I-84 and New Britain Avenue, and last week its old digs were reduced to rubble. (Fortunately, we had a chance to visit last year, and we'll show you the old place in an upcoming installment of Tower Site of the Week.)

*One of the most enduring faces of TV news in VERMONT retired from the anchor desk last week. Marselis Parsons handed off his news director duties at WCAX-TV (Channel 3) to Anson Tebbetts in May, and on Thursday he signed off WCAX's 6 PM newscast for the last time, inviting viewers to watch his successor, Darren Perron.

Parsons started at Channel 3 as a reporter in 1967, and had been news director and evening anchor since 1984 - and we suspect both of those are, and will probably forever be, all-time longevity records in the region. In his retirement, Parsons will continue to file occasional stories from around Vermont for WCAX - and in the meantime, the station has put up a web page featuring all the video tributes it's been offering for the longtime face of its news department.

In Manchester, Jeff Morad moves from nights to mornings and production at WEQX (102.7), replacing former morning host Darwin.

And Goddard College has call letters for its new signal in Hardwick: the 1100-watt signal on 91.7 will be WGDH, joining Goddard's existing WGDR (91.1) in Plainfield.

*In an otherwise quiet week in CANADA, there's a frequency change coming in the Ottawa Valley: Astral's CKQB-1 (99.7 Pembroke) has been granted a move from 99.7 to 99.9, along with a downgrade from 45.2 kW to 7.5 kW. That gets the "Virgin Radio" relayer out of the way of Astral's newly-granted Ottawa signal on 99.7, when it's ready to take air.

In Peterborough, Andy McNabb is applying to relocate the FM station he recently purchased. The former CKKK (90.5) is now CJMB, and while it's still silent, McNabb wants to change the tower site it's authorized to use. The back story: CKKK was bumped from its former home on 99.5 when Corus' CKPT moved from 1420 to FM (initially on 99.3, now on 99.7) - and the tower site it intended to use on 90.5 turned out to be unavailable. If granted, CJMB's new facilities on 90.5 would be 206 watts/69 m, a big increase over the old CKKK's 50 watts/12.9 m.

And out in the Maritimes, Jack McGaw's tourist information station in Halifax is changing frequencies. CIRH was bumped from 97.9 by a new signal at 98.5, and is now operating on its new home at 107.7. The move came with a significant power increase, from 10 watts to 560 watts, though we're hearing that the new signal still can't cover all of the sprawling Halifax Regional Municipality.

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 2009 by Scott Fybush.