NorthEast Radio Watch 11/2/2020: Carton In, Benigno Out at WFAN

In this week’s issue… Benigno out, Carton back at WFAN - Albany morning duo returns - Coombs heads east - Christmas radio rolls in By SCOTT FYBUSH Jump to: ME - NH - VT - MA - RI - CT - NY - NJ - PA - Canada PITTSBURGH - We haven't been traveling much lately, for obvious reasons, but we promised ourselves long ago that when the calendar read "November 2, '20," we'd do anything we could to be in close proximity to KDKA on the occasion of its centennial. No, it wasn't the "first" radio station by any kind of strict historical analysis, but Westinghouse had the publicists, and it had the marketing pull to push radio over the line from a hobbyist experiment to a real business, which is all the reason we needed to head down to KDKA's historic sites (keeping a careful social distance, of course!) to pay homage. It's also the morning when KDKA is due to launch its new simulcast on translator W261AX, which had been one of the two "WAMO" formats run by Tim Martz's Power Radio group. In better times, there'd have been a big celebration in public here, no doubt; perhaps we can remedy that next September when former Westinghouse sister station WBZ marks its centennial - and yes, we'll be somewhere around East Springfield for that one, too. *While Entercom marks the KDKA centennial here, it's also looking to its past at WFAN (660/101.9) in NEW YORK , where former morning co-host Craig Carton ended the suspense (such as it was) on Thursday with the announcement that now that he's out of prison, he's coming back to the station to take over afternoons, starting a week from today. Carton's return (after serving just over a year of a three-year-plus sentence for running a ticket-resale pyramid scheme) means the 2-7 PM shift on WFAN will be home to a new "Carton & Roberts" show, pairing him with Evan Roberts - and that in turn means veteran WFAN talker Joe Benigno will do his last show with Roberts this Friday before retiring from full-time WFAN duty. Benigno just marked 25 years at WFAN, a tenure that started with winning a fan contest to become a host for a day; that led to overnights and then a long run in middays, followed by the move to afternoons last year after Mike Francesa's second retirement. It's something of an ungraceful exit for the workhorse Benigno, who'll at least get to do fill-in shifts through next year; as for Carton, polarizing though he is, will his return give WFAN the competitive strength it's been missing in afternoons since Francesa's first exit? [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"] *Meanwhile at the top of the New York AM dial, iHeart was scheduled to take over operation of WWRL (1600) at midnight, bringing its Black Information Network programming to a bigger audience than can hear it now on the HD2 of WWPR (105.1). (And what to make of the filing from Family Stations' WFME 1560 that its directional array in Maspeth, Queens was damaged by a crew taking soil samples at the site? That's often a sign development is on the way... and perhaps that a broadcast facility will be on the move. Stay tuned...) *Upstate, Sean and Andrea McMaster weren't gone for long from Pamal's Albany Broadcasting cluster. Two months after budget cuts pulled them off the air at AC WYJB (B95.5), they've returned to country sister station WKLI (100.9 the Cat). It's part of a Pamal reorganization in which WKLI PD Jon Reilly moves from mornings on the Cat to afternoons on B, where he also becomes operations manager. Chad O'Hara, who'd been doing afternoons on B, moves to mornings there. Up the road in VERMONT , Nik Rivers signs on for Saturday afternoons on WEQX (102.7 Manchester), getting him back on the air after he was let go from his PD/afternoon gig with Entercom's WLKK in Buffalo over the summer. At Vermont Public Radio, the search is on for a new host for the daily "Vermont Edition" newsmagazine, with Jane Lindholm's announcement that she'll step back from her daily duties there in February. Lindholm stays with VPR to produce special news projects and produce her podcast for kids, "But Why." She's been with VPR at "Vermont Edition" for 14 years. *Radio People on the Move Along I-90: Dave Coombs, the veteran central New York jock who's been co-hosting mornings on Townsquare's WLZW (98.7) in Utica and tracking middays on sister station WOUR (96.9), is moving east to Springfield as the new morning man at Saga's "Lazer" (WLZX-FM 99.3 Northampton/WLZX 1600-98.5 Springfield) - and yes, that means he's moving up to the very next station on the list, alphabetically!) When Coombs starts his new Lazer gig on Wednesday, he'll replace Pat Kelly, who's now doing afternoons at sister station WAQY (Rock 102) in Springfield. Back in Utica last week, Coombs transitioned listeners to the "Dave and Beth" morning show to a new "Dave," his Townsquare colleague Dave Wheeler. Wheeler, who's in charge of programming for Townsquare Utica-Rome, will continue to be heard in afternoons on "Big Frog" WFRG (104.3) as well as in his new morning role alongside Beth - who just happens to be Coombs' wife, too. (For now, they'll have a commuter marriage, with Beth staying in Utica while Dave Coombs is in Springfield on weekdays.) *Along the PENNSYLVANIA state line, Dave Radigan is expanding his broadcast empire with the $450,000 purchase of WATS (960 Sayre PA) and WAVR (102.1 Waverly NY), which go from Chuck Carver's WATS Broadcasting to Radigan's WATS Up, LLC in an LMA that started Sunday. The deal consolidates Radigan's hold on the area between Elmira and Binghamton, where he's already got a solid lock on the New York side with his WEBO (1330 Owego) and its four translators that blanket Tioga County, including a 105.1 signal that competes directly with WATS/WAVR in Waverly. *Down in Johnstown, Family Radio is making a move ahead of next year's noncommercial FM filing window: it's applied to move WFRJ (88.9) to 88.5, with 10 kW/257 m, moving to a new transmitter site near Indiana with a less directional pattern that will reach from Indiana to Johnstown. *Ho ho ho! It's starting to sound like Christmas on the FM dial across NERW-land; with the new month come many of the usual flips to holiday music. After Cumulus' WWIZ (103.9 West Middlesex/Youngstown) went very early, the latest converts this week include WROZ (101.3) in Lancaster, WARM-FM (103.3 York), and across the state line WKXP (94.3 Poughkeepsie), WPBZ (103.9 Albany) and WTSS (102.5 Buffalo) in New York, with more no doubt ready to follow this week or next. *In NEW JERSEY , Dave McKay is out after a very long run at Townsquare's WPST (94.5 Trenton), where he spent 27 years on the air (most recently as morning co-host) and the last 24 of those as PD. WPST recently moved in with sister station WKXW (New Jersey 101.5), and it appears WKXW PD Anne Gress takes over as WPST PD. *Some news from around eastern CANADA : in Saint John, New Brunswick, CINB (96.1) has begun testing its new 2.5 kW signal. When it finishes its upgrade from 50 watts, CINB will flip from religious to classic hits as "Oldies 96," reports Canadian Radio News , with "New Song FM" continuing as a stream. Up the road in Fredericton, the CRTC has approved Bell's application to take down two of three towers at CKHJ (1260), reducing night power from 10 kW down to 32 watts. Daytime will remain 10 kW non-directional, and of course "Pure Country" has two FM relay transmitters in the market as well, on 103.5 and 95.5. In Toronto, "Indie 88" has finally launched a full format on its HD2. CIND (88.1) now has "Real Rock Toronto" with active rock on the HD2, as well as on a stream; it's one of only a few Canadian stations doing a separate HD2 format instead of just simulcasting a sister station. Up north, Vista Radio has rebranded several stations as "Moose FM," bringing CKVV (97.5 Kemptville, ex-"Juice FM") and CKPP (107.9 Prescott, ex-"Coast FM") under the "Moose" brand along with CJNH in Bancroft and CHBY in Barry's Bay. Joel Lamoureux is the new morning host for the Moose stations there. [/membership]

NorthEast Radio Watch 11/2/2020: Carton In, Benigno Out at WFAN

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Scott Fybush

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

Site of the Week 11/6/2020: KDKA At 100

Scott Fybush

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