September 27, 2010

Disney Shutters AMs in RI, CT

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

*When Radio Disney launched back in 1996, it looked to AM radio as an inexpensive, wide-coverage way to distribute its programming to dozens of markets around the country. For nearly a decade and a half, that strategy seemed to work for Disney: it acquired AMs in large and medium markets from coast to coast, purchasing and operating them inexpensively.

But a lot has changed in the last few years: the AM signals that were at least marginally viable in 1996 have, for the most part, fallen completely off the radar for much of Radio Disney's target audience (not just kids themselves but also their parents), even as other distribution methods such as satellite radio and streaming have become much more prominent.

Over the last year or so, Disney has begun to dismantle its AM portfolio, shutting down its signals in medium markets such as Albuquerque and Greensboro, N.C. and putting those stations up for sale. Now that trend has reached RHODE ISLAND and CONNECTICUT, where Disney will pull the plug on WDDZ (550 Pawtucket) and WDZK (1550 Bloomfield) on Thursday night at midnight. (Two other Disney AMs, WDRD 680 in Louisville, Kentucky and WBWL 600 in Jacksonville, Florida will also be silenced.)

The Hartford-market stations came into the Radio Disney fold in 1997, when it (along with what's now WMKI 1260 in Boston) was purchased by Hibernia Communications, which flipped it to Disney and then sold them to Disney itself three years later. (Disney paid just shy of $50 million for Hibernia's six Radio Disney outlets, including a different Providence-market Disney outlet, the West Warwick-licensed 1450 that was WHRC and later WDYZ; it sold that facility a year later to buy 550, then known as WICE.)

With WDDZ and WDZK gone, Disney will still have a half-dozen AM outlets in the region: in addition to Boston's WMKI, it owns WQEW (1560 New York), WWJZ (640 Mount Holly NJ/Philadelphia) and WDDY (1460 Albany), and its programming is heard on Craig Fox's WOLF/WWLF/WAMF in the Syracuse market and on Birach Broadcasting's WWCS (540 Canonsburg/Pittsburgh), though as you'll read later in today's column, there are some changes in the works in the Steel City, too.

*While WDZK prepares to shut down in Hartford, another signal that's been serving the Nutmeg State is being redirected to its state of license, NEW YORK.

Citadel's WXLM (104.7 Montauk) is the latest incarnation of a news-talk format that's bounced around the dial in southeastern Connecticut, moving from WSUB (980 Groton) to the original WXLM on 102.3 in Stonington, and then to 104.7 when it swapped facilities with WMOS, the classic rocker programmed out of the Mohegan Sun casino.

Now the WXLM programming is returning to the smaller 980 facility sometime next month - while 104.7 takes on a new identity serving Long Island as WELJ, an East End relay of Citadel's big WPLJ (95.5 New York).

Why relay WPLJ way out there on the tip of the island, more than 100 miles from Manhattan? Citadel's not saying - but given the number of New Yorkers who head east to Montauk and the Hamptons, especially in the summer, it seems reasonable to suspect that at least a few of them will be carrying Portable People Meters, and exposure to WPLJ/WELJ out east will presumably count in the New York ratings just as much as it would in Brooklyn...and these days, every little fraction of a point helps.

As for Connecticut, the WXLM calls took up residence on 980 in Groton late last week, displacing the WSUB calls that have been there since 1958. Once the simulcast period with 104.7 has ended, the news-talk format will displace the Spanish tropical "Caliente 980" format that's been airing there since 2006. With 1000 watts by day and just 72 watts at night, WSUB/WXLM has adequate daytime coverage of New London, but doesn't reach north into Norwich very effectively; ironically, the same was already true of the 6 kW/315' class A signal on 104.7 from Montauk.

*Before WXLM and WPLJ/WELJ grabbed the headlines at the end of the week, the big news-talk news from the Empire State came from Albany, where Clear Channel kicked off the week with a bang when it pulled the plug on modern rock "Channel 103.1" WHRL just after midnight on Monday, replacing it with news-talk as WGY-FM, a full-time simulcast of venerable WGY (810 Schenectady).

It says something about just how stripped down an operation "Channel 103.1" was that only one person, morning host Jason Keller, lost his job when WHRL went away. (It should also be noted that the WHRL calls had been in place at 103.1 ever since the station signed on in 1966; only one other commercial station in the Albany market, WFLY, has kept the same calls longer.)

It should also be noted that in a marketplace where these AM-on-FM news-talk simulcasts have become increasingly common, WGY's move represents something new for Clear Channel, which had thus far resisted the temptation to create FM simulcasts for AM stations that already enjoyed full-market signals. Even as companies such as Bonneville and CBS and Cox have begun migrating all their news-talkers to FM, there's been no WLW-FM, no KFI-FM, no WHAM-FM. Instead, Clear Channel has moved more gingerly into FM news-talk, launching new outlets (such as Pittsburgh's WPGB) in markets where it had no significant AM presence or turning to FM simulcasts in places such as Birmingham where its existing AM signals were already compromised.

Why WGY, then? The answer may simply be that an FM facility was available with little sacrifice - or, perhaps, that the additional building penetration the new WGY-FM offers (though it's only a class A signal, it comes from a brand-new tower and antenna just across the Hudson River from downtown Albany) is just the edge WGY needs to overcome the competition from the recently-strengthened signal of talk competitor WGDJ (1300 Rensselaer). While WGY offers a mostly-syndicated talk lineup, WGDJ stays local most of the day in a market that's all about state politics - and it's already driven another competitor, Pamal's WROW (590), out of the talk format.

All of which is to say that there's no reason just yet to think that the arrival of WGY-FM portends immediate flips to FM simulcasts at other Clear Channel news-talkers in the region. In some markets (New Haven, Rochester, Manchester) there's no "sacrificial lamb" available on the FM dial; in others (Harrisburg and Springfield, for instance) there's no real competitive pressure driving such a move, which suggests that Clear Channel intends to try to preserve as much of its existing AM revenue stream as it can, holding off the "death of AM" scenario for as long as possible.

*Down the Hudson, another committed-to-AM talker is bolstering its lineup: Citadel's WABC (770), which has been getting by for the last few years with almost no truly local shows on its weekday schedule, is bringing back former New York DJ E.J. Crummey (late of WNBC and WAPP in the 80s) to take over its weekday 10-to-noon slot starting October 11.

Now known as "Joe Crummey," the former jock made the transition to talk some years back. For the last three years, he's been working in Phoenix at KTAR-FM (92.3), but he'll come back to New York to bring some local color to a slot on the schedule that was last filled permanently by the radio incarnation of "Morning Joe" with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. (Does this mean that the talk of Scarborough's radio show being "on hiatus for retooling" was really a gentle way of saying the show was cancelled?)

*Across the hall from WABC, there's a new program director at ESPN Radio's flagship, WEPN (1050 New York). Justin Craig will come to 2 Penn Plaza next month to take the seat last occupied by Aaron Spielberg; he's coming from Chicago and ESPN sister station WMVP (1000), which means ESPN will turn over PD chairs at its three biggest stations in the course of just a few months.

Another bullet dodged on Long Island: Peconic Public Broadcasting has evidently come up with the funding it needs to make its remaining $637,000 payment to Long Island University for WLIU (88.3 Southampton) by tomorrow's deadline. The East Hampton Press reports that Peconic will get much of the money loaned to it by a wealthy individual, with the rest coming from a bank loan.

Moving back upstate, Syracuse-based CNY Talk Radio is adding a third station to its simulcast. Leatherstocking Media already owns WFBL (1390 Syracuse) and WMCR (1600 Oneida), and last week it began programming WUTI (1150 Utica) on the way to an outright purchase of the station. The former WRUN had spent most of the last decade in the hands of Albany public broadcaster WAMC, but when WAMC secured a Utica-market FM signal (WRUN-FM 90.3 Remsen) last year, it traded the AM station to Bud Williamson's Digital Radio Broadcasting in exchange for a Cooperstown FM translator. Since taking control of the AM station, DRB had been running the 1150 signal as an automated music outlet, with an "all over the road" format that could loosely be described as hot AC.

Here in Rochester, WHAM (1180) talker Bob Lonsberry is returning to his "other" home market, Salt Lake City, by way of a podcast. A few months after losing his morning gig at Salt Lake's KNRS (105.7), Bob's now doing a six-day-a-week podcast aimed at the Utah market and the worldwide LDS audience. It's called the "Cumorah Studio," after the hill just east of Rochester where the Mormon religion was born, and WHAM is billing it as part of the "World Service of WHAM1180.com."

It's "Brigadoon" time for WCKL (560 Catskill): the not-quite-dead-yet AM signal in the Hudson Valley is reportedly back on the air to keep its license alive for another year. This year, WCKL is apparently simulcasting WCTW (98.5 Catskill); that Clear Channel AC station is also WCKL's landlord.

*Radio People on the Move: at WRRV (92.7 Middletown)/WRRB (96.9 Poughkeepsie), afternoon guy Shmonty has moved to Phoenix, which slides Simon Dunn from middays to afternoons, Hopkins to middays and Deuce to nights. In Ithaca, Mikey V. is moving on from top-40 WFIZ (95.5 Odessa) - he's headed to Indianapolis and nights/imaging at WNOU (Radio Now 100.9).

On TV, former WFXT Boston/WNYW New York anchor Jodi Applegate, most recently seen at News 12 on Long Island, is moving over to WPIX (Channel 11) to become the solo anchor of "PIX News at 10" next week, where she'll replace the veteran anchors Jim Watkins and Kaity Tong.

And a sad coda to the death of veteran upstate DJ Don DeRosa: the FCC has cancelled the $7,000 forfeiture it had assessed against WAMF (1300 Fulton) back in 2007. DeRosa had already sold the station by the time he was written up by the Commission for late renewal and unauthorized operation; since it was licensed to DeRosa as a sole proprietor, the FCC decided there was no reason to continue pursuing the matter after learning of his death.

*While Radio Disney slowly retreats from the AM dial elsewhere, it appears that Disney is poised to move the format to a big signal in southwestern PENNSYLVANIA. But the plan to move Radio Disney from WWCS (540 Canonsburg) to Disney-owned WEAE (1250 Pittsburgh) around the first of the year, reported late Friday in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is notable less because of what it means for Radio Disney than for what it means to WEAE's current programming.

Assuming Bob Smizik's P-G report is true (and there's no reason to think otherwise), "ESPN 1250" is becoming the first to blink in what had become an overcrowded three-way sports battle in the Steel City. While WEAE was the first to go all-sports back in 1999, when ABC/Disney acquired the station from Jacor, it was soon challenged by Clear Channel's WBGG (970) with Fox Sports - and then earlier this year by a full-time FM sports outlet, CBS Radio's KDKA-FM (93.7 the Fan).

As it turned out, the national brand of ESPN and a lineup of local hosts that includes Stan Savran, Guy Junker and Scott Paulsen wasn't enough to overcome the one-two punch of KDKA-FM's all-local lineup and FM signal coupled with the roadblock of play-by-play rights (Pirates, Penguins, Steelers and Pitt) assembled by WBGG and its Clear Channel clustermates.

Smizik reports that WEAE will let its local staff go at the end of this week, switching to the full ESPN network feed until the end of the year. That's when Disney's lease of WWCS expires, freeing up that format to be moved to 1250, and possibly freeing up ESPN Radio programming to replace Fox Sports on WBGG and starting the rumor mill spinning on the future broadcast homes of some of 1250's star talent (most notably "Stan and Guy.")

Will "Radio Disney 1250" be permanent? Don't bet on it; it seems more likely that Disney will continue to try to sell this venerable AM facility (the former WTAE), with the Radio Disney programming simply stanching the flow of losses reportedly being produced under ESPN. As for Birach's 540, the betting line seems to suggest WWCS will return to leased ethnic programming when the Disney lease ends.

*A few more bits of Pittsburgh news: even as its long-term future ownership remains uncertain, Duquesne University has moved WDUQ (90.5 Pittsburgh) from the Des Places Language Center on Stevenson Street to a new studio home across campus in the Clement Building on Forbes Avenue. (WDUQ's business offices moved to a different location elsewhere on the Duquesne campus.) Hats off to chief engineer Chuck Leavens and his crew, who worked some very long days to get the move accomplished under an unforgiving deadline: the Des Places building has an appointment with the wrecking ball later this week!

On the commercial side, Keith Clark has resigned as VP/programming at the CBS Radio cluster in Pittsburgh, where he was programming WDSY (107.9) and WZPT (100.7) and where he'd been at the helm as 93.7 went through a series of rapid-fire programming changes before landing as "The Fan." After a decade with the CBS stations, Clark is joining Velocity Broadcasting, where he'll be executive VP and "Director of Private Entertainment," overseeing custom programming delivered to VIP audiences.

*An open FM channel in the Erie market is one of the most expensive on the FCC's list of 147 construction permits it will put up for bid in Auction 91, set for March 29, 2011.

The class A facility at 92.7 licensed to the Erie suburb of Lawrence Park is the only Keystone State channel on the list, and at a $100,000 starting bid it promises to be a fairly expensive acquisition if it finds a willing bidder next year - especially since it's almost painfully short-spaced to another signal on 92.7, CJBX right across the lake in London, Ontario.

"BX93" puts a respectable signal over much of the Erie area, and the new Lawrence Park signal will not only have to overcome that, but will also have to deal with an allocations limitation requiring it to use a directional antenna to restrict radiation toward CJBX to no more than 225 watts. And here's the challenge: if the new 92.7 licensee puts the tower on higher ground south of Erie, with the rest of the market's FMs, that null toward London will fall right over the city, giving the new signal even less juice with which to try to overcome the co-channel Canadian on US soil.

(Low-power station WXNM-LP has plenty of experience in that department: the religious station sometimes has a hard time overcoming the co-channel signal on 95.9 of London's powerful CFPL-FM.)

There's an interesting note before we leave this one: it was added to the table of allocations way back in 2005, at the behest of Dana Puopolo (who was then in southern California and is now chief engineer at WURD in Philadelphia). In reporting it at the time, we speculated that an auction for the channel "probably won't happen for at least a year or two." Make that six years and change by the time Auction 91 finally gets underway...

The Auction 91 list also includes a couple of signals across the state line in New York: 95.3A in Celoron, right next door to Jamestown, will start at $45,000; 96.5A in tiny Speculator, up in the Adirondacks, will start at $2500 and 94.9A in Montauk will start at $10,000.

And while our colleague and friend over at Ohio Media Watch is on hiatus, we'll pick up a bit of his territory and note that there's a northeast Ohio FM channel in the auction, too: 96.1A in Ashtabula, an increasingly crowded market, is slated to start at $45,000.

*In the Altoona market, Frank Iorio's Radio Partners LLC is picking up one of the stations owned by the late Larry Schrecongost, who died at the wheel of his car back in June. Iorio will pay Schrecongost's Vernal Enterprises $610,000 for WHPA (93.5 Gallitzin), which plays classic hits as "93.5 the Heart."

Down by the Mason-Dixon line, a format change that spans the border with Maryland: WCHA (800 Chambersburg) is now simulcasting with WHAG (1410 Hagerstown MD). The stations were carrying the now-defunct "Music of Your Life" format, but they switched earlier in September to Citadel's True Oldies Channel.

In Philadelphia, CBS launched CBSPhilly.com late last week, merging together the websites of KYW-TV (Channel 3), KYW (1060), WPHT (1210) and WIP (610) into what looks, at least to us, like a somewhat generic portal site. The "CBS Local" group has already made the same move at the radio and TV clusters in New York and Los Angeles; will Boston be next?

In Scranton, a follow-up to last week's format change: what was WQFN (100.1 Forest City) has taken the WQFM calls that used to be on 92.1 in Nanticoke, now "Radio 92.1" WFUZ. The 100.5 signal is, as we noted last week, carrying the same ESPN lineup that's heard on sister Shamrock stations WEJL (630 Scranton) and WBAX (1240 Wilkes-Barre) and their FM translators, both at 96.1. And just to add to the relay fun, WFUZ is also now being heard on the HD-2 channel of sister station WEZX (106.9 Scranton), as well as via translator W274AO (102.7) in Clarks Summit.

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*MASSACHUSETTS has a new radio station: WFMR (91.3 Orleans) signed on as a mid-Cape simulcast of community radio WOMR (92.1 Provincetown) at "approximately 4:36 PM on Thursday, September 16," says WOMR.

The new signal at the elbow of the Cape was more than a decade in the making, and its calls (which have a long legacy in Milwaukee classical radio!) are said to stand for "Furthermost Radio," a companion to WOMR's "Outermost Radio."

And if the radio dial on the Cape and Islands isn't already crowded enough, there are two FM channels out there included in next spring's FCC auction: 98.7A East Harwich is ticketed to start at $45,000, while 97.7A in Nantucket will start at $3500.

Out in the Berkshires, an open channel in Adams (98.9A) is slated for a $60,000 opening bid when that auction begins next March.

While we're out west, we note the passing of a former owner of WWLP (Channel 22) in Springfield: A college baseball star at Holy Cross, Paul Brissette started at the station in the sales department in 1958, eventually rising into the executive ranks under station founder Bill Putnam and subsequent owner Adams Broadcasting. In 1994, he formed the Brissette Broadcasting group that bought WWLP. Brissette didn't own the eight-station group very long; he sold it to Benedek Broadcasting in 1995, and Brissette eventually retired to North Carolina, where he succumbed to pancreatic cancer on Thursday, at the age of 78.

Back in Boston, the call change at WBIX (1060 Natick) became official last week: it's now WQOM, but the Catholic programming heard there is apparently still just in test mode, since 1060 has been off the air more than it's been on the last few days. Is WQOM sticking to its originally-announced November 1 launch date after all?

*There's only one northern New England FM channel on the Auction 91 list for March, and that's in Albany, in VERMONT's Northeast Kingdom. 94.5A there failed to sell in a previous FCC auction, and this time it will be on the list with a $15,000 starting bid.

*A change of command in Manchester, NEW HAMPSHIRE: Dave Ashton is out as operations manager at Saga's cluster, where he was also PD and afternoon host at WZID (95.7). Replacing him is Pat McKay, who'd been operations manager/PD at Clear Channel in Springfield.

*In addition to the impending silence at WDDZ in RHODE ISLAND, there's a new news director at WJAR (Channel 10) in Providence, where Christopher Lanni moves up from "content brand manager," though he's been overseeing the newsroom since former news director Betty-Jo Cugini lost her job in last year's layoffs.

*In a quiet week in CANADA, the biggest news came from the AM programming departments around the Golden Horseshoe, most notably at Corus' CHML (900) in Hamilton, which unveiled a new lineup last week that showcases all-news blocks in morning and afternoon drive. With the retirement of morning host Bob Bratina, Paul Tipple now anchors mornings alongside Shiona Thompson anchor mornings, with Ted Michaels anchoring the afternoon show, displacing Scott Thompson's talk show to the noon-3 PM slot and the syndicated Charles Adler show to evenings.

And in Toronto, CFRB - er, "Newstalk 1010" - brings Mike Bullard, former host of the TV talk show "Open Mike," on board for the weekday noon-1 PM slot.

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