In this week’s issue… JVC flips “Max” to country – Kerr celebrates 50 – Cormier out at Radio VT – Sound of Life donates network – Remembering NY’s Jorgensen, New England’s Knight – Big tower down in Hamilton
By SCOTT FYBUSH
Programming note: we were doing some much-needed traveling over the last few weeks, and now we’re deep in preparation for the big total solar eclipse coming this way April 8 and then the NAB Show right afterward. So once again, we’re grateful for your patience if our publishing schedule remains a little irregular for the next month or so – we will catch up on everything you need to know!
*Roll over Dierks Bentley, and tell Beyonce the news – while country music remains a tough sell in the heart of the NEW YORK City market, the format has a new toehold in the suburbs.
As our colleague Lance Venta first sussed out a few days ago on RadioInsight, Connoisseur Media pulled the plug on its classic hits “Max” WBZO (103.1 Bay Shore) at 10:31 on Wednesday morning (March 20), changing calls to WWWF and relaunching as “The Wolf.”
Like Max, the new Wolf is jockless so far, but it at least brings country back to most of Long Island, where the only other option in the format until now has been JVC’s WJVC (My Country 96.1), with a limited signal reach over only the eastern end of the island.
Connoisseur tells advertisers that it saw an opportunity to fill a void with the country format in the rest of Long Island, promising to “aggressively promote The Wolf in a multimedia campaign. We’ll run a blended video campaign using CTV and pre-roll, display advertising, paid social advertising, guerilla marketing, and more. We’ll be at every significant country concert on Long Island, hosting amazing tailgate parties and handing out goodies.”
The move to country takes 103.1 out of what had been a fairly robust competition for a rock-based audience; the rock-leaning classic hits on WBZO steered a narrow lane between Cox’s heritage classic rock WBAB (102.3), Connoisseur’s oldies clustermate WHLI (1100/104.7) and its harder rock WWSK (94.3 the Shark), not to mention competition from New York’s WAXQ and WCBS-FM.
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
