NorthEast Radio Watch 6/15/2026: Ritter Signs Off

In this week’s issue… NYC veteran leaves desk – Bulldozers take down some Boston history – Public radio sale in PA – Family adds FM – CKNX celebrates centennial

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*After 28 years at New York’s WABC-TV (Channel 7), most of them spent holding down the anchor desk at 6 and 11 PM, Bill Ritter told his audience Friday night that they were watching his last newscast.

“After a series of tests, my doctors have told me I have Alzheimer’s,” Ritter announced during the 6 PM broadcast. “It’s ‘early stage’ Alzheimer’s, and they say the treatments I’m getting are keeping it at bay. For now. But there is no guarantee, because there’s no cure yet for Alzheimer’s. So, unless someone finds an amazing cure, and soon, tonight will be the last newscast I anchor.”

Ritter, 76, came to WABC in 1998 to cap off what was already an impressive career, including anchoring and reporting in San Diego and Los Angeles, co-hosting Good Morning America Sunday and reporting for 20/20.

Ritter told viewers he’s not leaving WABC entirely, with plans to continue reporting on Alzheimer’s treatments and the cost of fighting the disease, which killed his father in 1998 – and that he’s looking forward to spending more time with grandchildren and with his youngest daughter, who’s about to graduate from high school.

No announcement has been made yet about who’ll succeed Ritter on the 6 PM anchor desk, where he and Liz Cho have been paired since 2003, the longest anchor team in the station’s history.

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*A few blocks away from WABC’s new home in lower Manhattan, there’s an FM translator sale in the works, as Michael Celenza’s Apple 107.1 Inc files to sell W300CI (107.9) to Loam Media, the parent company of the Family Radio network, for $425,000.

The 99-watt translator, which has been carrying Radio Cantico Nuevo programming from WJDM (1530 Mineola), will become a relay of Family’s WFME (1560), bringing a clearer signal to midtown and lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, western Queens and nearby parts of New Jersey as Family continues to rebuild the coverage it once enjoyed before selling the original WFME (94.7, now WXBK).

*Seven years after taking over operation of Lehigh University’s WLVR (91.3) in Bethlehem, PENNSYLVANIA, Lehigh Valley Public Media is buying the station’s license for $55,000.

LVPM, which also owns public television stations WLVT (Channel 39)/WPPM (Channel 35), was in an expansion mode in 2019 when it entered into a partnership with the university that replaced student programming with NPR programs on the main WLVR signal, while a new HD2 signal was added for the students.

University provost Nathan Urban says students have moved away from linear radio and are more focused on other digital platforms, so it makes sense to sell off the radio license.

“Lehigh’s collaboration with Lehigh Valley Public Media has provided students with valuable professional experiences and enriched our community with essential local news,” Urban said. “As we move forward, we are excited to evolve this partnership to focus on the next generation of content creation. Our priority is ensuring that Lehigh students graduate equipped with the advanced digital fluency, AI-readiness, and multimedia skills necessary to lead and succeed in a rapidly transforming media landscape.” 

At the LVPM end of things, there have been budget cuts that have reduced the WLVR radio staffing substantially, so it’s not clear that acquiring the license is going to do much to bring more local programming to 91.3, which is also hampered by a small signal that doesn’t reach the entire Lehigh Valley, where there are also public radio offerings from local WDIY and from the neighboring Philadelphia and Scranton markets.

*There are some stations that probably get a lot more attention here and on radio message boards than they do from actual listeners, and in MASSACHUSETTS, Local Media Boston’s WMEX (1510 Quincy) is certainly one of those.

The latest chapters in that station’s ongoing turmoil have included an ownership reorganization that ousted longtime Boston radio talent Larry Justice and a switch from local oldies jocks to a nonstop feed of the True Oldies Channel – and now it appears the oldies format may be about to flip.

The station’s Facebook page disappeared for a while last week before returning, and while it was gone, alert internet sleuths picked up on a webpage promoting a new LGBTQ-focused format called “Radio Q,” with a website built on a framework used by another station in Georgia also run by Local Media partner Tyler Nye.

Leaving aside the similar branding to Audacy’s “Channel Q,” heard in Boston on the HD2 of WBGB (103.3), is there a business model that can sustain a niche format like this on a high-dial AM signal and a small translator that mainly serves Quincy and Braintree on the South Shore?

We’ll be watching, and listening, to see what’s coming next.

*It was the end of an era last week for an important address in the history of Boston radio. 99 Revere Beach Parkway in Medford was home to radio as far back as 1952, when WHIL signed on there as a daytimer on 1540, soon moving to 1430 and spawning an FM sister on 107.9. Those stations later became known as WWEL and then became major players in the market when WWEL-FM relaunched as WXKS-FM, “Kiss 108,” playing disco and top-40.

From the late 1970s until the early 2000s, Kiss 108 thrived in an expanded studio building at the Revere Beach Parkway location, which also remained home to the AM 1430 transmitter and studio – and even after Kiss joined its iHeart sister stations at new cluster studios nearby, the building remained in use for a few more years as home to iHeart’s Total Traffic operation for Boston and neighboring markets.

But with an MBTA Orange Line right next door and developers eyeing the site, its days were numbered. Total Traffic moved in with the rest of iHeart and AM 1430 (now WKOX) was sold and moved down the road to the towers of WEZE (590), and now the bulldozers have arrived to reduce the old building to rubble and memories.

*On a much happier note, the weekend brought the return of Jonny Miller to the press box at Fenway Park for the first time in three years. The longtime Red Sox reporter for WBZ (1030) retired back in 2024 amidst health problems that followed a stroke, and his presence at Fenway was dearly missed after a 50-year career in which he became the keeper of so much institutional memory.

Even though he was never heard on the air, due to a speech impediment caused by cerebral palsy, Miller was always the first to get a question in at postgame interviews, and his visit on Saturday was special enough to bring the Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy in on a scheduled day off just to help celebrate Miller’s 77th birthday.

Here’s hoping this isn’t the last time Jonny is celebrated at the park – and here’s to many more birthdays for one of radio and baseball’s good guys!

*Is a venerable MAINE AM signal heading for the exits? Saga’s WZAN (970 Portland) is the descendant of WCSH, the city’s oldest radio station at 101 years, but for the last few years the 5000-watt AM has served only to originate the “Outlaw” classic country format that’s also on translator W268CS (101.5).

But now Saga has filed to change the translator’s primary station to the HD3 of WYNZ (100.9 South Portland), a likely sign that something’s up with the 970 facility, whose aging Lingo pole towers sit in what’s now a residential area in Scarborough.

*Speaking of broadcast centennials, it’s been a few months since the actual 100th birthday of CKNX (920) in little Wingham, Ontario, two and a half hours northwest of Toronto, but the station sensibly waited for warmer weather to celebrate its anniversary.

On Saturday, owner Blackburn Radio threw the doors open and welcomed the community in to meet the staff and learn about the history of CKNX and its sister stations, a cluster that now includes not only the AM station and its full-service country format but also hot AC CKNX-FM (101.7, “The One”) and classic hits CIBU (Cool 94.5).

But that was just part of a really fascinating history, because the 1963-era midcentury modern building up on the hill overlooking Wingham was also home to the smallest local TV station in Canada, the old CKNX-TV (Channel 8) – and the former TV studio at the back of the building was packed full of memorabilia and artifacts from the history of all of the CKNX stations.

These days, the room is still used for an annual radiothon, and the old news set was still there, along with lots of CKNX alumni and a few visitors from afar who came to soak in all of the history of this great local station’s service to its community.

Here’s to stations like CKNX that still take that community focus seriously – and big thanks to everyone from the station and Blackburn Radio for being so welcoming during our visit!