NorthEast Radio Watch 7/31/2023: Changes in Cape May

In this week’s issue… Format flips, sales in South Jersey – Studio move in NYC – A new “Route” in Rochester – Pittsburgh talk show ends – Remembering Finch, Teuber 

By SCOTT FYBUSH

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

(Programming note: We are moving to biweekly publication for the rest of this summer, as we begin planning to gradually wind down this column due to a steeply declining base of reader support after more than a quarter of a century. Thanks for your patience.)

*Wouldn’t it be nice to be on the shore in NEW JERSEY this time of year? If you’re on the beaches in Cape May County and you happen to still have a radio with you, there are some big changes coming to the radio dial in at least three spots.

At 93.1 on the dial in Wildwood Crest, WEZW has been the FM home of Equity’s classic oldies format for four years now, simulcasting with WMID (1340) in Atlantic City and WCMC (1230) in Wildwood, but that’s going away soon.

As Gary Fisher continues to sell off the non-core pieces of the Equity cluster outside Atlantic City, the class A 93.1 signal is headed to EMF Broadcasting, which will pay $70,000. EMF already has WLRB (102.7 Petersburg) just to the north serving Atlantic City with its “K-Love” format, and it seems likely 93.1 will be used to augment that signal into Cape May County once the sale closes. For now, at least, the WMID oldies format will continue on the two AM signals.

Another Cape May County signal that Equity is selling, WAIV (102.3), will be flipping to a talk format under new ownership as “Fine Day Radio.” Most of the programming there will be syndicated, including the “Rick & Bubba” morning show, Dave Ramsey and Sebastian Gorka, but middays will feature local host Jim Weller, broadcasting remotely from community locations across the water in Fine Day’s Delaware home base.

And at 106.3 on the dial, WJSE in North Cape May has a new coat of paint, so to speak, as owner Regional Media relaunches the station as “Planet 106.3, Real Alternative Radio.”

There’s no big change to the alternative format that’s been linked to the WJSE calls on and off for decades (originally on 102.7), but the new “Planet” brand matches a sister station in the Quad Cities market in Illinois, KQCJ.