In this week’s issue… Great Eastern’s latest simulcast – Cumulus makes early flip – WBZ vets retire – WTPA rocks Harrisburg again – Remembering Gary Starr
By SCOTT FYBUSH
Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada
Here we go again – it’s the start of our 29th year of providing news and information to broadcasters all over the northeastern US and eastern Canada. We hope you enjoyed all five parts of our big Year in Review 2021 special that filled this space over the holidays, and if you were lucky enough to be completely away from the screen and keyboard for the last week, catch up by clicking on the link for part one and go from there.
As always, Lisa and I (a true independent “mom and pop” operation for over two decades) thank you for all the support you show, whether it’s buying a Tower Site Calendar (there’s still a limited quantity of 2022 editions available at the Fybush.com Store) or through your ongoing subscriptions to NERW. For as little as 39 cents a week, you can get the full NERW experience, every week, all year – and make sure we’re still here for year 30 and beyond of reporting on all the stories of the region’s broadcasters.
*In VERMONT, Great Eastern is ringing in the new year with a new format in the Burlington market. When it acquired WXMS (97.9 Dannemora NY) from RadioActive for just under $100,000 last year, it installed a Christmas format there as a holiday stunt. Now we know that signal, like Great Eastern’s sister stations “Froggy” (WJKS 104.3) and “Frank” (WWFK 107.1), will be simulcasting one of Great Eastern’s signals over in the Barre/Montpelier market.
The new Penguin picks up three former on-air staffers from Burlington competitor WXXX (95.5). Pete Belair and Sarah Mitiguy had moved from WXXX to sister talker WVMT (620) back in 2019 before leaving Vox; now Belair will be doing mornings (“Pete and the Morning Chill Out”) and Mitiguy will be heard on the midday shift. Former WXXX middayer Jackie Steele, who left that station in September, takes afternoons, while Great Eastern VP/programming Matt Houseman is programming the station.
CALENDARS ON CLEARANCE

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!