• My Account
  • Your Profile
  • Member Archives
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links
No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

No products in the cart.

No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
No Result
View All Result

NorthEast Radio Watch 12/21/2020: WFUV Loses a Legend

Scott Fybush by Scott Fybush
December 28, 2020
in Free Content, Northeast Radio Watch
6

In this week’s issue… Remembering Rita Houston and Chris Tobin – LI AM sells again – Jersey LPFM swaps for translator – Emmis’ NYC exit – FCC cracks down on pirates’ landlords – CRTC gives Ontario FM a choice

By SCOTT FYBUSH

(Barring major breaking news, this is likely to be our final weekly issue of NERW for 2020. With huge thanks for your support in this bizarre and difficult year, we’re finishing things up with our usual Year In Review, which you’ll find in this space starting Monday, Dec. 28 – and we’ll be back with our first NERW of 2021 on Monday, Jan. 4. Follow us @NERadioWatch on Twitter for breaking news from our region, and of course @RadioInsight for daily updates from around the nation. We hope your holidays are good ones, and we look forward to starting our 27th year of covering our region’s broadcast news two weeks from now.) 

Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada

*It’s an especially sad end to the year at New York’s WFUV (90.7), which lost one of its signature voices on Tuesday with the death of veteran program director Rita Houston.

It had been just a couple of weeks since the Fordham University public radio station announced that Houston’s six-year battle with cancer had turned for the worse, forcing her to step down as PD (her assistant, Eric Gottlieb, has taken that role on an interim basis) and to hand off her beloved Friday night show, “The Whole Wide World,” to Delphine Blue.

Houston had been a part of WFUV for 25 years, arriving in 1994 at the start of the station’s turn to the AAA format that’s become the core of its identity on the New York airwaves. Her career began at Westchester Community College’s WARY, but she started professionally in off-air jobs, working at ABC Radio in production and engineering. She found her way back to the airwaves in 1988 at Westchester’s WZFM (107.1), working the evening airshift and playing an early version of a AAA playlist.

WZFM became WXPS, with a more pronounced AAA lean, but then shifted to harder rock as “X107,” WRGX. Houston cold-called WFUV in search of a new job, was hired for middays, and by 1996 she’d settled in as music director. In that role, she became one of the AAA format’s most important tastemakers, hosting innumerable live concerts on WFUV and in New York clubs, breaking new acts in the New York market (and beyond), and serving as mentor to musicians and DJs for decades.

Houston rose to the PD role at WFUV in 2012, bringing her early WZFM boss Paul Cavalconte back to the airwaves with a Sunday night show, “Cavalcade,” continuing an informal tradition in which WFUV became a refuge for air talents without a home in New York commercial radio.

It was another one of those commercial radio refugees, Dennis Elsas, who was on the air Tuesday to announce Houston’s death, suspending WFUV’s regular playlist for several hours of music in Houston’s memory.

And it was Cavalconte, on Friday night, hosting a special final edition of “The Whole Wide World,” recorded a few days earlier at Houston’s Nyack home as she shared her last music and words with WFUV’s listeners.

Houston is survived by her wife, WFUV new media director Laura Fedele, as well as several siblings. She was 59.

WE’RE FIRMLY IN 2023

And if you don’t have your 2023 Tower Site Calendar yet, now is the perfect time to get it. Because we have lowered the price to just $14.

The calendar has great photos of broadcast sites near and far (everywhere from Navajo Nation on the cover to Boston to Toronto to Texas, and beyond), plus a lovely “centerfold” you can keep on your wall for 2024.

It’s still shipping regularly, and you can have yours in just a couple of days!

Order your copy and you’ll see what we mean.

If you have already ordered your calendar, make sure you check out the other items in the store, too!

Log In


Join Now | Lost Password?

Share this:

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Pocket
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Facebook
Tags: BeasleyBill WestonCadillac JackCHPRChris BookerChris TobinCJLACKHKEmmisJesse KellyJim JeffersonJim RhoneKYSRMediacoNHPRRita HoustonSkip DillardW265DQWAXBWBGOWBLSWBWDWCJWWCNHWEVOWFUVWHCUWINSWJPAWLIBWMGKWMMRWNYLWOLD-LPWQHTWRKOWSPSWXSQ-LP
Previous Post

NorthEast Radio Watch 12/14/2020: Holiday Season Cuts Continue at iHeart

Next Post

NERW Year in Review 2020, Part I: The Year in Station Sales

Scott Fybush

Scott Fybush

Editor/Publisher, NorthEast Radio Watch and Tower Site of the Week

Related Posts

NorthEast Radio Watch 1/30/2023: FCC Picks Noncomm FM Winners
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 1/30/2023: FCC Picks Noncomm FM Winners

In this week’s issue… FCC picks noncom FM window winners - Audacy shifts NYC talent - ATSC 3 launches in Boston - Corus finishes Toronto morning shuffle - New FM in Quebec?

by Scott Fybush
January 31, 2023
NorthEast Radio Watch 1/23/2023: Remembering Philly’s Geator
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 1/23/2023: Remembering Philly’s Geator

In this week’s issue… Jerry Blavat, RIP - New leader at WMHT - Holy Family adds three - New morning shows in Toronto

by Scott Fybush
January 23, 2023
NorthEast Radio Watch 1/16/2023: Townsquare Silences More AMs
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 1/16/2023: Townsquare Silences More AMs

In this week’s issue… More AMs silenced - Remembering CT's Thompson, NYC's Gary Kline - WEEI completes new lineup - "Moose" roams NH lakes - New signals on Canada's Bruce Peninsula - CRTC considers revoking licenses 

by Scott Fybush
January 16, 2023
NorthEast Radio Watch 1/9/2023: Beleaguered Bills Lose Radio Voice, Too
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 1/9/2023: Beleaguered Bills Lose Radio Voice, Too

In this week’s issue… Bills' Murph suffers stroke - Belmonte moves to public radio - Remembering Brian DeMay - Quebec radio newsman killed 

by Scott Fybush
January 9, 2023
Next Post
NERW Year in Review 2020, Part I: The Year in Station Sales

NERW Year in Review 2020, Part I: The Year in Station Sales

Please login to join discussion

Log In


Join Now | Lost Password?

Get Fybush.com Updates

Get Fybush.com updates emailed directly to your inbox!

Fybush.com Twitter List

My Tweets

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.