NorthEast Radio Watch 10/26/2020: KDKA Readies For 100th Birthday

In this week’s issue… KDKA adds FM relay for centennial - Buffalo public broadcasting leader to step down - Polka battle on the weekend airwaves - A big anniversary in Scranton, too By SCOTT FYBUSH Jump to: ME - NH - VT - MA - RI - CT - NY - NJ - PA - Canada *We may as well get ahead of what would otherwise be our likely lead story next week: while you'll see all kinds of mass-media stories proclaiming November 2, 2020 as the centennial of American commercial broadcasting, pretty much every credible broadcasting historian will tell you that everything KDKA was doing in Pittsburgh, PENNSYLVANIA on November 2, 1920 had already been done elsewhere - Montreal, Detroit, Medford, Madison or San Jose - in the months and years leading up to that date. It's KDKA that got all the attention back then, and to some extent again now, for a perfectly understandable reason: if you're starting an industry that depends on consumer attention to your product, it's critically important to have good promotional skills, and it was Westinghouse back in 1920 that understood how to promote the new technology of radio broadcasting, in a way that the Detroit News or AMRAD or Doc Herrold could never muster on a national scale. In a normal 2020, the national marketers at Entercom would probably have ramped up an big public centennial celebration for KDKA, and we'd no doubt have made the drive down to report on it in person. They'll no doubt still have a day of special programming for the centennial (and they've been been doing special weekly shows for a few weeks now, some of which have made it to their podcast page , though more recent ones haven't!) But there's a certain irony to last week's announcement from KDKA: at 5 AM on the day of the venerable AM station's centennial next week, AM 1020 will be joined by a new FM signal at 100.1. That's W261AX, the translator Entercom plans to acquire from Tim Martz's Radio Power group as Martz realigns his own WAMO stations on the same morning. As we reported last week, Martz will move the hip-hop "Beat" format from 100.1 (and the HD3 of Entercom's WBZZ 100.7) to WAMO (660 Wilkinsburg) and its 107.3 translator - and in exchange for getting to move the 107.3 signal to the tower of Entercom's KDKA-FM (93.7) just across from downtown Pittsburgh on Duquesne Heights, 100.1 will go to Entercom to become the new FM home of KDKA's AM news-talk programming. While the 100.1 signal will also get an upgrade, moving from deeper in the South Hills to the KDKA-FM tower, it will still cover only a fraction of the area served by the 50,000-watt AM 1020 signal. As every national political reporter seems to be noting in these days before the election, those red-tinged counties just outside Pittsburgh have become prime targets for the sort of conservative talk KDKA does these days - but that's not where the new FM signal will reach very well, and the urban core of the market where it will be strongest are probably the areas least attuned to KDKA's current direction. Will being available on the FM dial bring KDKA to a new audience in its second century? *Away from Entercom's own promotional efforts, there will be some other commemorations of the anniversary next week. KDKA's origins were in amateur radio, as an outgrowth of Frank Conrad's 8XK from his garage in suburban Wilkinsburg, so it's only fitting that several amateur radio clubs in the area will be coming together throughout November to run several special event stations at significant KDKA-related locations. Using special callsigns K3D, K3K and K3A, as well as W8XK, the groups will operate from two former KDKA transmitter locations, its 1923-1930 site in Forest Hill that's now the Westinghouse Lodge, as well as its 1930-1939 site in Saxonburg, now home to the II-VI Incorporated factory and lab. (Will anyone at least fire up a mobile transmitter in the parking lot of the Wendy's that sits where Conrad's garage used to be?) There's more for interested ham operators here and here , including information on a special commemorative QSL card designed by KDKA's graphics department. *One more KDKA note: Wendy Bell, the controversial former TV reporter who'd been heard in afternoons until stepping over the line once too often, is now officially gone from the station. KDKA still hasn't named a permanent 3-6 PM host; more than a month after Bell was pulled off the air, it's pairing Robert Mangino with midday host Lynne Hayes-Freeland, and then Mangino is listed as solo host from 3-6. [bucket id="8276" title="Calendar Ad"] [pmpro_login show_menu="false" show_logout_link="false"] [membership level="1,3,5,7,8,9,10,11"] *It was a week for remembering history at a somewhat newer station, too. In Wilkes-Barre, WKRZ (98.5) is that rare top-40 station marking a fortieth anniversary - it was in October 1980 when the former WBRE-FM was reborn as a flamethrowing hit radio station, and the occasion was remembered Friday with a day of special programming on the station, now also owned by Entercom and still right there at the top of the ratings all these years later. It doesn't hurt, in this case, that one of WKRZ's earliest air personalities is still a fixture at the station. Jeff Walker got to WKRZ in 1982 and he's still holding down afternoons; his show Monday included interviews with some of his early KRZ colleagues, including PD Jim Rising. Other anniversary celebrations include a monthlong virtual concert series, this being 2020 and all... (Meanwhile on the AM dial, one of WKRZ's predecessors as the market top-40 giant has again fallen on harder times. Scranton's WARM 590 owned the region in the 1960s and 1970s in much the same way KRZ did later on, but it's been running with a reduced signal in recent years. WARM has been silent since July, when a storm damaged its transmitter site in rural Falls, west of Scranton, and now it's notified the FCC that it will need to extend its authority to remain silent. WARM's owner, Cumulus, has been getting somewhat ruthless lately in culling AM facilities that aren't producing revenue or that need expensive repairs - most recently, it was two AMs in Savannah, Georgia, including the venerable WBMQ 630, that had their licenses returned for cancellation. Could WARM also be on the chopping block?) *Over on the FM side at the Scranton/Wlkes-Barre Cumulus cluster, Laura G. moves up from APD to PD at country WSJR (Nash 93.7). She's also on the air in middays at top-40 WBHT/WBHD. The PD chair at WSJR has been vacant since the exit of Dave "Savage" Dunsavage a while back - and we wonder, given some of the changes Cumulus has made at other country outlets around the country, if the arrival of a new PD may also bring a rebranding as the company plays down its "Nash" brand nationwide. *In western NEW YORK , the WNED public broadcasting empire has had only two long-term leaders in more than 60 years, but the search is now underway for number three. When founding leader Michael Collins stepped down in 1998, WNED's parent organization, the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association, recruited Donald K. Boswell, already a 20-year public broadcasting veteran at KERA in Dallas, KCTS in Seattle and WVIA in Scranton. And now, after more than 22 years as president and CEO of WNYPBA, Boswell has announced his plans to retire in June 2021. When he steps down to focus on some new pursuits, including writing a musical, Boswell will leave behind a legacy of growth and change at WNED that includes the acquisition of former public radio competitor WBFO (88.7) from the SUNY system, consolidating what had previously been rival newsrooms at WBFO and WNED's former AM 970 facility (which Boswell sold to Crawford Broadcasting.) Boswell also enhanced WNED's focus on its cross-bordar audience, overseeing TV productions that included several documentaries about Canadian topics, as well as the recent rebranding of its stations as "Buffalo Toronto Public Media." Boswell, who will be 70 next year, says he plans to remain in Buffalo after he retires. *In Olean, Jeff Andrulonis' Colonial Radio Group has struck a deal to sell its remaining stations. Seven Mountains Media/Southern Belle, which has been an aggressive buyer across the Southern Tier, will pay $200,000 (with $100,000 down and the rest paid out over four years) to add Colonial's WUDE (96.7 Portville) and three translators to the stations it bought in early 2019 from Community Broadcasters, country giant WPIG (95.7) and what's now "Big Oly" WOLY (1450, plus a translator at 107.1). WUDE has been a country competitor to WPIG, running mostly automated as "Eagle Country," with programming in recent years coming from Andrulonis' new base in South Carolina; translator W256BS (99.1) has been simulcasting "Eagle," while W254BQ (98.7) is AAA "Mountain" (fed by an HD subchannel of WUDE) and W285ES (104.9) is silent. In addition to moving the 96.7 signal to a new Andrulonis-owned tower just south of the WPIG tower above Olean, we expect Seven Mountains will make use of 96.7's HD subchannels just as it's done down the road in Elmira/Corning; we'll be not one bit surprised to see some of those same formats (top-40 "Wink," classic rock "Met," alt rock "Wingz," oldies "Cool") end up on 96.7 and the translators as Seven Mountains bulks up against what's now its only commercial competitor in the market, Sound Communications' four-station cluster that includes AC "Mix" WMXO and country "Drive" WOEN. *Radio People on the Move in Albany: Mike Karolyi is the new brand manager at Townsquare's WQBK (Q105.7), returning to terrestrial radio after a detour into streaming at iRockRadio.com. Karolyi is better known for his long run at the old WCCC (106.9 Hartford CT), where he spent 25 years; at WQBK, he replaces Steve Richards, who left as Townsquare OM over the summer. *It's an odd radio format battle these days that's fought on weekend mornings - but Binghamton is an unusual market, which may explain why some of the most vibrant local radio there these days is happening in the polka format. After more than five years off the air, second-generation polka host Barb Mack has restarted her weekly show, which started in mid-October on Equinox's WCDW (Cool 106.7), where it's heard Sunday mornings from 8 till 11. Mack learned polka radio at the feet of her father, Bill Mack, in the 1960s, and took over his show after his death in 2002. (That's Mack being inducted into the Binghamton Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2013, by her then-WNBF colleague Roger Neel.) That Sunday slot on WCDW used to belong to another Binghamton polka radio veteran, Bill Flynn - but he's now moved his show to Townsquare talker WNBF (1290), where he's heard on Sundays from 7 till noon with co-host Kevin Bixby. It's a return to WNBF for Flynn, who'd been a WNBF staple earlier in his career, which goes back to 1973. (And in the way these things go full circle in a small market, Mack's previous polka radio home before she ended her original run in 2015 was... WNBF.) *On the NEW JERSEY shore, Rick Brancadora's WIBG (1020 Ocean City/Somers Point) is applying to move its translator, W267CU (101.3 Palermo), up the dial to 101.9. The translator, which serves an area primarily south of Ocean City, would remain at 250 watts but with a less restrictive directional pattern. *On the CONNECTICUT coast, Dennis Jackson's Sun Signals is applying to move translator W273CN (102.5 Westport) down the dial to 102.1, where it will run 250 watts; for now, it's on the books as a relay of WSHU-FM (91.1 Fairfield). *There's one fewer AM tower in NEW HAMPSHIRE , after one of the four towers at Bill Blount's WDER (1320 Derry) came down by accident a few weeks ago. Blount has now filed to reduce WDER's night power to 600 watts using the three remaining towers, with only a minor reduction in coverage from the 1 kW four-tower night pattern; by day, WDER remains at 10 kW with the three towers. This is the second AM in central New Hampshire to cut down on DA complexity in recent weeks; WGAM (1250 Manchester), the old WKBR, reduced its former 5 kW DA-2 setup (three towers day, four at night) to just one, non-directional, over the summer, with 670 watts daytime and 100 watts at night, augmented by its Manchester translator on 103.5. *Jack Heath, the WMUR-TV veteran whose "NH Today" had been heard on iHeart's WGIR (610 Manchester) and WQSO (96.7 Rochester), as well as on WKXL (1450/103.9) in Concord, left that show a week ago, telling audiences at the end of his Oct. 15 show that it was his last one there. (Who's replacing him? More than a week later, the WGIR website still lists Heath and still hasn't updated the station schedule.) Heath quickly resurfaced with competitor Binnie Media, where he's starting a new 9-noon show, "Good Morning NH," starting today on a network that includes WTSN (1270/98.1 Dover), WTPL (107.7 Hillsborough), WEMJ (1490 Laconia). But Heath's arrival at Binnie comes with some exits: at WTPL (which rebrands from "The Pulse" to "WTPL News-Talk"), morning co-host Peter St. James and midday host Ken Cail are both out, with Pat Kelly remaining in mornings. And at WJYY (105.5 Concord), Tara Madison is gone as morning co-host, with Nazzy remaining solo. *Still more New England Radio People on the Move: Jadd Naamani, who'd come out of iHeart's Providence, RHODE ISLAND cluster, had worked at WERZ (107.1 Exeter NH), and moved up to a PD role with the company in Tulsa before getting caught in the company's January cutbacks, has joined Townsquare in Portland, MAINE , where he's now brand manager and morning host at WHOM (94.9), as well as doing afternoons down the coast at sister station WOKQ (97.5 Dover NH). Naamani fills a hole left behind by AJ Dukette's exit from WHOM back in March. *There's a new radio signal on the air in CANADA , where Torres Media began test broadcasts last week on CKOU (93.7 Georgina), playing country music for "cottage country" north of Toronto. The official launch of the new "K Country" is slated for November 8, delayed several months by the pandemic and its restrictions on building out the new station. *And we remember Ray Zinck, who started in radio at CFDR in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in 1971, then worked at CJLS in Yarmouth and a station in British Columbia. By 1975, Zinck was back in Yarmouth at CJLS, where he worked his way up to become news director, general manager, and by 1998 president of the company and its co-owner along with Chris Perry. Zinck and Perry transitioned CJLS from a standalone AM station to a network of three FM signals covering most of western Nova Scotia before selling it to Acadia Broadcasting and retiring in 2015. Zinck died Oct. 14, at age 72. [/membership]

NorthEast Radio Watch 10/26/2020: KDKA Readies For 100th Birthday

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NorthEast Radio Watch 10/26/2020: KDKA Readies For 100th Birthday

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Site of the Week 10/23/2020: Houston’s KHCB

Site of the Week 10/30/2020: Houston’s TV Studios

Scott Fybush

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