NorthEast Radio Watch 8/2/2021: FM Auction Draws Big Bids

In this week’s issue… FCC FM auction draws action - Former LI GM sentenced - Upstate NY morning hosts move on - Saga makes shifts in New England By SCOTT FYBUSH Jump to: ME - NH - VT - MA - RI - CT - NY - NJ - PA - Canada *What's a new radio signal worth in 2021? For some broadcasters in NERW-land, well into six figures, at least based on the initial rounds of bidding in the FCC's Auction 109 offering construction permits for open FM channels around the country. The auction opened Tuesday and continues today, at least for the handful of permits where there's still competitive bidding going on. (The big prizes so far? A class B frequency in Sacramento, where iHeart led at the end of Friday's bidding with just over $5 million, and a class C3 north of Dallas, at over $3 million.) [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"] There were no such seven-figure bids for the relatively small spectrum holes still available in our region, but there was still plenty of bidding action over the initial rounds. After seven rounds, Steven Wendell had the provisional winning bid for 97.3A in Orange, Mass., the former WJDF frequency, for which he'll pay $138,000. Wendell also owns WGAW (1340) down the road in Gardner and a 98.1 translator there. There were two channels available at the eastern tip of Long Island, which helped to even out bidding there. EMF went four rounds to get to $88,000 for 103.3A Shelter Island, while Bill Evans' Bark Out Loud Dogs Media, which owns WLNG (92.1 Sag Harbor), appears poised to add a second signal with a $50,000 bid for 94.5A Sagaponack. Two more New York State permits will actually serve areas just over the state line in Pennsylvania: East of Erie, 100.9A Westfield NY appears poised to go to the ERIE Radio Company for $25,000, the second time that group has won a bid for that signal. (An earlier auction ended with ERIE winning, but an apparent bank payment error cost it the permit in the end; in the meantime, ERIE has sold off its other Erie signal, WEHP "Happi" 92.7.) Up at the edge of the Catskills, Bold Gold Media is leading in the bidding for 102.9A Narrowsburg, at $56,000, where it's poised to add that facility to its existing three-station cluster (WDNH, WYCY, WPSN) based in Honesdale, PA. In West Rutland, Vermont, a frequency that was first put on the air back in the early 1990s may finally return to the airwaves now that Vermont Public Co. is leading with a $29,000 bid for the class A facility on 107.5. And in Jefferson, New Hampshire, Lakes Media LLC's $10,000 bid was the only one for a class A signal on 97.3. Some of the other signals the FCC put up for auction in this round found no bidders, most notably a class A channel in Keeseville, NY that would have served the already crowded Plattsburgh-Burlington market; those channels will once again be recycled into the next auction, whenever it comes around. *Back to NEW YORK we go for the rest of the week's news, starting at the East End of Long Island where there's now a sentence in the fraud case of Stephanie McNamara Bitis, the former VP/general manager at Long Island Broadcasting, which owns WEHM/WEHN, WBAZ and WBEA. Bitis had already pleaded guilty to a charge of felony access device fraud for using the company's AmEx card for her own expenses. Now she's been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison, after which she'll pay $52,585 to Long Island Broadcasting and $300,000 to its insurance company as restitution. Bitis' lawyers had asked for probation, but because this wasn't her first embezzlement case - and because that first case had been settled privately with no criminal prosecution - U.S. district court judge Gart Brown ruled that prison time was appropriate in her case. *Two familiar morning radio voices are moving on at opposite ends of the Hudson Valley. In Rockland County, Steve Possell will host his last morning show on WRCR (1700 Ramapo) August 13th. Possell joined WRCR, then on 1300, right after the turn of the century, moving up the dial after a decade on competitor WRKL (910 New City), back when suburban radio was a more vibrant medium over that way. In the Albany market, Kelly Lynch will move on in early September after 11 years in morning drive on WGY (810/103.1). Lynch, whose news experience included time on TV at WNYT in Albany and WKTV in Utica, is leaving radio to handle media relations for a cybersecurity company; no replacement has been named yet for the co-host chair that Lynch shared with Chuck Custer and now shares with Doug Goudie. *Radio People on the Move in NEW JERSEY : Rashaud Thomas moves up from APD/MD to PD at WBBO (98.5 Ocean Acres). Thomas will continue to do afternoons on top-40 "B98.5" as well. *In MASSACHUSETTS , they're remembering a beloved veteran editor at CBS-owned WBZ-TV (Channel 4). Jim Murphy was just 44 when he died on July 20. A native of Haverhill, he'd worked at WBZ for 19 years, winning three Emmys and rising to the role of editing crew chief. "Murph" leaves behind his wife and two young children. *We know a little more now about Saga's technical plans for its purchase of WIZZ (1520 Greenfield) and its translator, W263DE (100.5). In tandem with its application to pay Phil Drumheller $61,000 for the stations, Saga filed to downgrade the AM signal, taking it from its present 10,000-watt, two-tower directional array to 1000 watts day, 350 watts critical hours and diplexing it a mile and a half to the south at its existing WHMQ (1240) tower. Saga will also move the translator to the WHMQ tower, where it will continue to run 250 watts. A new format will wait until the new owners actually take over at the station, which will join a cluster that includes WHMQ's talk format, AC on WHAI (98.3), country on WPVQ-FM (95.3), classic country on WPVQ (700/92.3), AAA on WRSI (93.9) and soft AC on 107.5 (fed by WHAI-HD2). *What format might Saga plug in on WIZZ? There may be a clue just to the north in the adjoining Brattleboro, VERMONT and Keene, NEW HAMPSHIRE markets, where Saga just installed the "Rewind" classic hits format on three signals last Tuesday. In Brattleboro, Rewind replaces variety hits "Bratt-FM" on WKVT-FM (92.7), while it displaces Fox Sports on WZBK (1220) and its translator at 102.3. WKVT morning host Parker Springfield and afternoon host Natalie Knowles will continue to be heard on the new "Rewind 92.7/102.3." *It's a long way from almost anywhere to Englehart, Ontario, way up there on Highway 11 south of Kirkland Lake near the Quebec border - but that's where we find the lone format change in eastern CANADA this week. CJBB (103.1) had been doing classic rock/variety hits as "The Train," but as of the start of July it's playing country as "Ranch Country," reports Canadian Radio News. [/membership]

NorthEast Radio Watch 8/2/2021: FM Auction Draws Big Bids

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NorthEast Radio Watch 8/2/2021: FM Auction Draws Big Bids

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Site of the Week 7/30/2021: More from Buffalo

Site of the Week 8/6/2021: In the Hills of Syracuse

Scott Fybush

Related Posts

NorthEast Radio Watch 9/20/2021: Cox Cuts Boston Newsroom

Site of the Week 9/17/2021: WBZ Turns 100

NorthEast Radio Watch 9/13/2021: St. Barnabas Buys Big in Beaver

Site of the Week 9/10/2021: Around Northwest Pennsylvania

Site of the Week 8/6/2021: In the Hills of Syracuse

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