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
(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.
And if you don’t have your Tower Site Calendar, now’s the time!
If you’ve been waiting for the price to come down, it’s now 30 percent off!
This year’s cover is a beauty — the 100,000-watt transmitter of the Voice Of America in Marathon, right in the heart of the Florida Keys. Both the towers and the landscape are gorgeous.
And did you see? Tower Site of the Week is back, featuring this VOA site as it faces an uncertain future.
Other months feature some of our favorite images from years past, including some Canadian stations and several stations celebrating their centennials (buy the calendar to find out which ones!).
We still have a few of our own calendars left – as well as a handful of Radio Historian Calendars – and we are still shipping regularly.
The proceeds from the calendar help sustain the reporting that we do on the broadcast industry here at Fybush Media, so your purchases matter a lot to us here – and if that matters to you, now’s the time to show that support with an order of the Tower Site Calendar. (And we have the Broadcast Historian’s Calendar for 2025, too. Why not order both?)
Visit the Fybush Media Store and place your order now for the new calendar, get a great discount on previous calendars, and check out our selection of books and videos, too!
In this week's episode - Top of the Tower is back with a new spring/summer season of conversations with some of the most interesting people in radio! This week, it's another joint episode, a two-way chat with my good friend Jason...
In this week’s issue… Oneonta signals go dark - Whiteoaks takes over in Niagara - Corus empties Ottawa studios - CBS-FM shuffles talent - Armstrong anniversary to be honored
In this week’s issue… Public broadcasters plead for help - Connoisseur restructures leadership - Pennsylvania AM goes dark - Succession plan for veteran college radio manager
In this week’s issue… Car dealership goes terrestrial - Lawsuit uncovers Connoisseur's attempted bids for Audacy, Cox - New newsroom for WNBC, WNJU - Remembering Buffalo's Deeb, Batavia's Platt
