NorthEast Radio Watch 6/12: Good Evening, Channel 50

[fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush)]

*The big news this week comes from the Granite State, where WNDS
(Channel 50) in Derry has returned to independent programming after
would-be station buyer Global Shopping Network reportedly missed a
payment on the station.  As we reported last week here in NERW, Global
is having serious financial troubles, and it appears that WNDS's
owner, CTV of Derry, isn't willing to sit by and wait for things to
straighten out.

"Star Trek" fans across eastern New England are already celebrating;
WNDS was known for its Trek reruns, and they're already back on
Channel 50.  What's more, CTV has reportedly asked nearly all of WNDS'
dismissed staffers to come back to work, including weatherman Al
Kaprelian, a cult favorite among WNDS viewers.

In other New Hampshire news, rumors are swirling about the sales of
two Southern New Hampshire AMs, including WMVU (900) Nashua and
another nearby station.  More as we learn it...

*We have actual news from RHODE ISLAND this week, and plenty of it,
beginning with word that Capstar is adding Phil Urso's WDGE/WDGF combo
to its Providence station group.  WDGE is the modern rocker on 99.7,
licensed to Wakefield-Peace Dale, while WDGF is the dance station on
100.3 licensed to Middletown.  Capstar entered Rhode Island earlier
this year with the purchase of Tele-Media, which owned WPRO AM/FM
(630/92.3), WLKW (790), and WWLI (105.1) in Providence.  

We've also heard from someone who's actually picked up unlicensed WCTD
(1620) in Westerly.  A DXer across Long Island Sound in Montauk, NY
heard WCTD earlier this week playing R&B oldies and adult standards;
not bad for a station that claims it's operating legally under Part
15!

And we're told Wickford's WEGM (1370) is still on the air
sporadically, largely middays and weekends.

*Not much happening in MASSACHUSETTS radio this week, especially if
you ask the DJs at WAAF (107.3 Worcester).  One NERW reader called the
studio line this week to ask a question about the new simulcast on
WNFT (1150 Boston) -- only to find that the jock on duty apparently
hadn't been told he was being heard in the Hub!  

WAAF's latest promotion is causing a bit of a stir; it seems the
station is doing something called "Whip 'em Out Wednesdays," in which
male listeners are asked to put the letters "WOW" on their cars, and
female listeners are asked to respond in...well, you can use your
imagination.  

And there's late word that Ed Goldman, the erstwhile Vice President
for CBS AM Radio Stations, has been promoted from general manager of
WBZ(AM) to general manager of WBZ-TV.  Goldman is still running the
radio station for now until a replacement is named; former WBZ-TV GM
Bill Aber goes to CBS Cable as vice president of new business.

This week's zing goes to the Boston Globe, but not to the usual
suspect at the radio desk, who actually turned out a decent column in
today's paper about the effects of ownership consolidation.  No,
this week's zing goes to the Globe Online folks, who just can't seem
to fix the TV/Radio page at

http://web2.boston.com:80/globe/living/tvradio.  

After being stuck on May 29 for a few weeks, it now contains just 
June 6 articles.  Nothing like being up to date, eh...

*A MAINE radio station is back on the air fulltime.  WCME (96.7
Boothbay Harbor) is running fulltime with AC music and a prerecorded
announcer with a strong New England accent.  WCME is being purchased
by Tryon-Seacoast Broadcasting, along with WIGY (97.5 Madison), which
is now simulcasting the oldies of Tryon-Seacoast's WABK (104.3
Gardiner-Augusta).  And the Heritage Radio Society has been granted
88.3 in Yarmouth ME, with 100 watts from a transmitter on Cousins
Island just off the coast north of Portland.

*CONNECTICUT radio listeners could get a new urban FM, if the owners
of WNEZ (910 New Britain - Hartford) have their way.  They're talking
about buying an FM in the market if they can afford one, although NERW
wonders what they'll find available in this era of mega-opoly, when
almost all of Hartford's FMs belong to either SFX or ARS.  In the
meantime, "910 Jamz" carries on with urban on AM.  A few new
Connecticut radio websites to report; Bridgeport's "Star 99.9," WEZN,
is on-line at http://www.star999.com/ , and you can find Litchfield's
WZBG (97.3) at http://www.wzbg.com if you're so inclined.  And from
the unlicensed front: Southern Connecticut State University's
carrier-current WOWL (530) is reportedly being heard quite a ways
beyond SCSU's New Haven campus, while "WSPN" (1630) in Bridgeport is
actually advertising in Radio World to sell some of its used gear.

NERW Connecticut correspondent Bill Dillane went down to the
R. J. Julia bookstore last weekend to witness a Don Imus book-signing;
he says the I-man was greeted by at least 2500 fans at the Madison
store.

WMNR (88.1 Monroe) wants to extend its translator network; it's
applied for an 88.1 translator in Huntington CT.

Speaking of WMNR, it's lost a long-running effort to keep the Calvary
Chapel of Twin Falls, Idaho from putting a 91.9 translator on the air
in Meriden CT.  Calvary's application seems to be evidence not only of
how sloppy some of these translator applications can be, but also of
how the FCC doesn't seem to care.  Here's the deal:

Calvary's KAWZ Twin Falls applied for the translator last year, but
somehow ended up applying for it in "Meriden, Mississippi," a
nonexistent town that seems to have resulted from confusion between
Meridian, Miss. and Meriden, Connecticut (it all looks the same from
Idaho, right?)  WMNR filed a petition to deny in November, followed by
a reply from Calvary in December, a sur-reply from WMNR in January,
and then the FCC's decision to deny the petition to deny late last
week.

(Wondering how WMNR got mixed up in the whole mess?  So were we; it
turns out there's a 91.9 WMNR translator in Fairfield CT.)

So Calvary will get to build its 91.9 FM in Meriden (if it can figure
out the difference between Mississippi and Connecticut), but in the
meantime it's still awaiting word on an application to change
frequency to 91.3 -- an interesting move indeed, considering the
existence of the University of Hartford's WWUH (91.3 West Hartford)
just up the road!

We've editorialized enough in the last few months about these
long-distance FM translators; suffice it to say we find the call
letters for the new translator somehow appropriate: W220BS.

One more Connecticut note: Metro Networks is gearing up to provide
news to Nutmeg State radio stations from its facility on Hartford's
Asylum Street.  We wouldn't be even slightly surprised to see several
Connecticut stations dropping their local news staffs in the next few
months to take the Metro service; if ARS's history in Boston at WRKO
and WEEI is any indication, WTIC (1080) is a likely target.

*In VERMONT, the doors keep revolving at WKVT-FM (92.7 Brattleboro),
where program director and morning host Ian Taylor sent a letter to
the editor of the Brattleboro Reformer last weekend saying he'd
resigned from the station after four years.  Taylor says he has no
immediate plans, and WKVT-FM has been using satellite programming to
fill morning drive for now.

The FCC this week approved the transfer of the WKVT/WKVT-FM licenses
from Rowena Broadcasting to LB New Hampshire, the owner of WKNE AM-FM
in Keene NH.

*We're still scratching our heads over some very strange doings in NEW
YORK radio.  You'll recall that we've been telling you about WCGR
Canandaigua's move from a daytimer on 1550 to fulltime on 1310, a move
we thought would lead to the end of service on 1550.  Not so, it
seems: WCGR is now identifying itself as "WCGR 1310 and WLKA 1550."
This must certainly come as a surprise to the FCC, whose database
lists 1550 as the licensed facility and 1310 as a construction permit,
both under the WCGR calls.  WLKA, by the way, was the call used on
Canandaigua's 102.3 FM in the early 90s, after its stint as country
WFLC and before becoming WMHX, simulcasting Jacor's AAA WMAX-FM (106.7
Irondequoit-Rochester).  1310 and 1550 are still simulcasting.

The NERW-mobile headed for Auburn NY last weekend, where we caught
WAUB (1590) back on the air with standards from Music of Your Life,
plus a live local morning show from 7-9 AM.  WAUB is now the only
radio station doing local Auburn news, with WMBO (1340) all satellite
sports and talk.

The FCC has granted the transfer of the WCMF (990 Rochester) license
from ARS to Donald Crawford's Kimtron Broadcasting.  Expect 990 to
flip from a simulcast of rocker WCMF-FM (96.5) to a simulcast of
religious WDCZ-FM (102.7 Webster) in the next few weeks.

Binghamton's public radio station is increasing its reach.  The WSKG
Public Telecommunications Council has been granted a new station on
88.7 in Hornell.  The 4500 watt station will transmit from just west
of Canisteo, south of Hornell, and will likely displace W204AS, the
Dansville translator for Webster's WMHN (89.3) on 88.7.  WSKG now has
relays in Oneonta, Ithaca, Corning, and Binghamton.

The apps just keep on coming for religious radio in the Empire State.
Calvary Chapel of the Westside has filed for the new 95.5 Albion
allocation, against Jacor.  If Jacor gets it, expect to see some
tricky engineering work to move Jacor modern rocker WNVE (95.1 South
Bristol) closer in to Rochester, as well as the possible disappearance
of WNVE translator W238AB Rochester, which we heard as far out as
Auburn, some 40 miles away.  Family Life Radio has applied for a
translator on 107.5 in Greece NY, actually broadcasting from the
WKLX/WRMM/WDCZ tower on Rochester's west side.  The translator would
relay WCIY (88.9 Canandaigua).  

Incidentally, WNVE has agreed to end its current ad campaign on the
side of Rochester buses after several complaints.  The ads showed
Heaven's Gate cult leader Marshall Applewhite, with the caption
"Taking Music to the Next Level." NERW suspects "The Nerve" is getting
more publicity from the TV reports about the bus cards than it ever
did from the buses themselves.

In other translator news, Geneva's public radio WEOS (89.7) has
applied for a translator in Geneva on 90.3, using the former WEOS site
on the Hobart and William Smith Colleges campus, to fill in some
in-town gaps from the new 89.7 transmitter on Lake to Lake Road.  
William Walker has bought the CPs for translators W231AG (94.1) and
W293AE (106.5) Newburgh from Paul Reid; expect to hear them relaying
Walker's WBWZ (93.3 New Paltz) and WRWD (107.3 Highland) soon.  And
St. Lawrence University has applied for another outlet in its Northern
New York public-radio web, this time on 89.7 in Keene NY.

New TV in Syracuse: A group called Syracuse Minority Broadcasters has
won the CP for a full-power channel 56, operating from the WIXT/WCNY
site on Sevier Road in Pompey.  NERW expects to see either The WB or
home-shopping on this station, assuming it's not sold to Paxson first.
SMB beat out several other applicants for Syracuse's last full-power
TV allocation.

Remsen's WRFM (93.5) has applied for a new transmitter location and a
power change; we haven't seen the details yet, but suspect WRFM wants
to move to the Smith Hill site where the Utica FMs are located.

Binghamton's WINR (680) has applied to boost power from 1kW daytime to
5kW, night power would remain at 500 watts.  Just down the dial at
670, there's an application for a new station in Waddington NY (we had
to look it up, too; it's on the St. Lawrence River between Ogdensburg
and Massena) with 10kW day, 6kW critical hours, and 1.5 kW night.
We're betting this one will be aimed straight into Canada; its not far
from Montreal or Ottawa.  We're also not sure whether this app is
mutually exclusive with WSIV East Syracuse's plan to move to 670.  By
the way, we're told the CHCH and CITY translators mentioned last issue
are in fact on the air in Ottawa, along with a translator for
Toronto's multicultural CFMT-TV (Channel 47).  CITY-TV3 is on channel
65, with a signal that's supposed to reach the New York state line,
while the CHCH ("ONtv") signal is on channel 11 and CFMT is on 60.
We're also told that August 1 is the target date for WFFF (Channel
44), the Fox affiliate serving Burlington VT, Plattsburgh NY, and
Montreal.

One more small correction from northern NY: Malone's WICY (1490) is
running ABC's adult contemporary "Starstation" format, not the
standards format known as "Stardust."  

*Finally this week, a message for "Eric Aligo": Thanks for the e-mail,
but NERW's not a radio station, and no, we won't play the Chicago song
you requested.  You can hear some nice IDs and jingles at 

http://radio.lcs.mit.edu/radio/sounds/index.html

if you're interested, though!

*And that's a wrap for this week...see you next time with more radio
news from across the great Northeast!

- -=Scott Fybush - fybush@world.std.com=-

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