NERW midweek update: Boston fire affects Pru FMs

*It was a scary night for thousands of people in Boston’s Back Bay on Tuesday, when a transformer fire knocked out power to an area that included the Prudential Tower. Other media sources have provided plenty of coverage of the evacuated hotel guests and closed restaurants and such – but if you’re a NERW reader, you’re no doubt wondering “what about the radio stations on the Pru,” and for that, we’re here to help:

The Pru, of course, is normally home to seven FM signals: Greater Media’s WBOS (92.9 Brookline), WTKK (96.9), WROR-FM (105.7 Framingham) and WMJX (106.7); CBS Radio’s WZLX (100.7) and WBMX (104.1) and Clear Channel’s WXKS-FM (107.9 Medford). The word from transmitter-site guru Mike Fitzpatrick of NECRAT.us is that only the four Greater Media stations had backup generators at the tower, so they stayed on the air with only a brief blip as the generators came up to speed.

CBS recently built a new FM auxiliary site at the “candelabra” tower in Needham (in the old WSBK-TV 38 analog transmitter space), and its two stations jumped over to that site (and are still there as of midday Wednesday). And “Kiss” has a backup transmitter at the “FM-128” tower in Newton, sharing space with sister station WJMN (94.5); that backup, too, is still on the air as of midday Wednesday.

It’s a testament to the importance of backup sites in a big market – you just never know when something like this will happen, and the price of preparedness is relatively low compared to the cost of lost revenue from being off the air.

*Some of the other stories we’re following for next week’s NERW:

New England’s Quinn and Cantara have resurfaced as the new morning show at Albany’s WPYX, with some morning changes coming down the Hudson Valley, too.

The CRTC rejects a bid for multilingual content at Montreal’s CJLV

Boston’s WCVB turns 40

Portland’s WPME sells for a bargain price

And of course more on the Rush Limbaugh fallout, too…all next Monday here on fybush.com.