NorthEast Radio Watch 5/30: WNEQ, RIP?

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

*Say goodbye to the number-two public TV station in Buffalo.
The Western New York Public Broadcasting Council voted last
week to sell WNEQ (Channel 23) in order to pay for the digital
conversion of flagship public broadcaster WNED-TV (Channel 17).  

WNEQ signed on in 1987, with the stated intention of offering viewers
in Western New York and Southern Ontario a more diverse diet of public
television.  In the ensuing years, however, WNED made the (in NERW's
opinion, misguided) decision to leave its antiquated-but-functional
studios for a huge (and hugely expensive) brand-new broadcast palace
in downtown Buffalo.  The costs of that project made it difficult for
WNED to program Channel 23, and (at least according to published
reports) contributed to the decision to sell WNEQ.

WNED will need to do some fancy footwork at the FCC to sell WNEQ as a
commercial station.  Channel 23 is allocated noncommercial to Buffalo,
but Channel 17 is allocated as a commercial license, a relic of its
days as pioneering NBC O&O WBUF-TV in the 1950s.  WNED hopes the FCC
will agree to reallocate channel 17 as noncomm and channel 23 as
commercial.  We'll keep you posted...

In other news from NEW YORK, there's a new station on the air in
Eastern Long Island.  Jarad Broadcasting's WXXP (105.3
Calverton-Roanoke) went on at noon on Wednesday, as dance-CHR "Party
105."  Jeff Levine, PD of sister stations WLIR (92.7 Garden City)-WDRE
(98.5 Westhampton), handles PD duties for WXXP as well.

The former WNWK (105.9 Newark NJ) is now New York's latest
Spanish-language station.  Heftel Broadcasting flipped the switch to
"Caliente 105.9, tu pulso Latino" this week.  No word yet on how New
York's WQHT -- "Hot 97" -- feels about another station using the
Spanish translation of its name.

One of the longest-serving veterans of Hudson Valley radio is
retiring.  Bob Lloyd has worked in the region for fifty years, the
last thirty of them at WFAS (1230/103.9) in White Plains.  His
retirement will take effect at the end of June.

In the Watertown market, there are two new translators to report.
WTOJ (103.1 Carthage) already has a Watertown relay at 104.1; now it's
adding W282AH, 104.3 in Alexandria Bay.  The 10-watter runs from the
roof of the Edward J. Noble/Samaritan Hospital on Fuller Street.
(Obscure radio connection: NERW believes the hospital is named for the
same Noble who bought the NBC Blue Network, today's ABC, in the early
1940s).  And oldies WOTT (100.7 Henderson) has been granted a CP for 
W261CP, 100.1 in Lowville.  Watertown's WCIZ (93.5) has changed its 
non-ID from "CIZ 93-5" to "Z93," possibly in preparation for the 
station's upcoming move to 93.3.

Confirming what we'd suspected, WIGS (1230) in Gouverneur is indeed
dead and gone, reducing the "FSR Network" to WGIX (95.3 Gouverneur)
and WSLB (1400 Ogdensburg).  Now we're told WSLB is only being
mentioned in top-hour legal IDs, with "95.3" the sole identification
at other times.  Further up route 11 in Chateauguay, WYUL (94.7) has
reportedly turned on its permanent oldies format.

Family Life Radio's WCIY (88.9 Canandaigua) has applied for a
translator in Penn Yan on 91.9.

Morning show movement: Buffalo's "Alice," WLCE (92.9), is now getting
its morning show from sister ARS station WTIC-FM (96.5) in Hartford.
The "Craig and Company" show started this week on WLCE, after a
weekend of heavy promotion.  Krista Bettino moves down the Thruway
from WHTT (104.1 Buffalo), where she was Danny Neaverth's morning
sidekick, to WPXY (97.9 Rochester), where she'll do the same with
Scott Spezzano.  WPXY also adds Music Director duties for night guy
Mike Danger.

Another PXY note: NERW has noticed all of Jacor's Rochester-market
stations running occasional drop-ins saying "Pixy is for kids."  We
thought it might be just a Rochester thing...until we saw what was
going on with Jacor in its home market of Cincinnati.  Check out
http://www.q102.com (Jacor's spoof site) and http://www.q102online.com
(the real site of ARS' WKRQ Cincinnati) to see how Randy Michaels
handles competition at home.

Congratulations to Chris Kapostasy, who leaves her anchor position at
Albany's WNYT (Channel 13) after 17 years, to go to work for NBC.

Over the borders: In the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market, oldies combo
WSGD (94.3 Carbondale)/WDLS (93.7 Dallas) has flipped to country as
"Cat Country."  WDLS used to be country until it entered the simulcast
a few years back.  And in Canadian news, get ready to say goodbye to
CKSL (1410) in London, Ontario; it's been granted a move to 102.3 on
the FM dial.  NERW can't wait to hear the summertime trops between
London and that other 102.3, WJET-FM Erie, just across the lake.

And was that "Musicradio 77" on New York City's AM dial on Monday?  It
sure was...as WABC (770) gave its talk hosts the day off and ran
oldies for the day, complete with vintage jingles from the
"W-A-Beatle-C" days.

*It's a game of PD musical chairs in MASSACHUSETTS.  Rick Shockley,
program director of CBS oldies outlet WODS (103.3 Boston), has left
the building for the warmer climates of Phoenix and oldies KOOL
(94.5).  Next door at Greater Media's smooth-jazz WSJZ (96.9), Bill
George has departed as well, for the even more hospitable climes of
Honolulu and a PD gig at KUCD (101.9) and KKLV (98.5).  And out at
WJMN (94.5 Boston), assistant PD/music director Cat Collins is headed
for Denver and KQKS (104.3).  Chris Tyler joins WJMN for overnights
from WERZ (107.1) Exeter NH.

Thunderstorms took Haverhill's WXRV (92.5) off the air for a few hours
Friday afternoon; one Boston listener reports he was hearing
Connecticut's country station WWYZ (92.5 Waterbury CT) instead.

Howie Carr nationwide?  We're hearing that the WRKO (680 Boston) talk
host will be entering national syndication this summer.

*Up in MAINE, there's a new CHR on the air.  Pilot's WCRQ (102.9
Dennysville) went up this week.  Becky Nichols joins "CRQ 102-9" as PD
and morning host from WQRB Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Tom Mitchell, PD of
Pilot's WNTQ (93.1 Syracuse), is consulting WCRQ.  NERW looks forward
to hearing this one next month as we drive through the Calais area.

Last week, we told you WWWA (95.3 Winslow) was on the air with
religion.  What we didn't tell you was that WWWA has taken over the
programming that used to be on WMDR (1340 Augusta), which has in turn
moved to a children's format.

WXGL (95.5 Topsham) midday jock "Shoe-Man" served a one-day suspension
this week.  He's accused of insulting a station sponsor on the air.

*A station sale in NEW HAMPSHIRE: Cumulus Media is adding to its New
England group with the purchase of WKNE AM-FM (1290/103.7) in Keene.
More on this one next week.

What's up with WKBR (1250) in Manchester?  Every week, it seems
there's another piece of mail in NERW's mailbox about technical gaffes
at the sports outlet.  This time, we're hearing from listeners who
tried to tune in the Nashua Pride baseball team on WKBR -- only to
hear the game replaced midstream with a Chicago White Sox game,
complete with local spots from the Windy City's WMVP (1000).  The
Pride are also being heard on WSMN (1590) in Nashua.

On the Seacoast, WTSN (1270 Dover) has added the Yankees to replace
the Red Sox play-by-play that's now on WTMN (1380 Portsmouth).  At
WERZ (107.1 Exeter), Jay Michaels becomes solo music director, with
the departure of former co-MD Chris Tyler to Boston's WJMN.

*A station sale in VERMONT: Springfield's WCFR AM-FM (1480-93.5) has
reportedly been sold to Robert and Shirley Wolf, owners of WMXR (93.9)
up in Woodstock.  Burlington's WCAX-TV reports the purchase price as
$650,000.

Brattleboro's WKVT-FM (92.7) makes some changes at the end of July.
The CNN Radio affiliation is out -- and so is the Westwood One Adult
Rock & Roll satellite format the FM has been using.  'KVT-FM will
reportedly keep a classic rock format, but we're not sure yet whether
it will be local or another bird-based format.

*In CONNECTICUT, a bankruptcy judge will sit down next Wednesday to
review the bids for WNHC (1340 New Haven).  The New Haven Register
reports the Yale Broadcasting Company (WYBC-FM 94.3) submitted a bid
for $672,250.  YBC's bid for WNHC has prompted complaints from New
Haven's black community, whose leaders fear that YBC will replace
WNHC's urban format with student-run programming.

We hear Bloomfield's WRDM (1550) will change calls to WDZK to go along
with its new Radio Disney format; no sign of the change in the FCC
database yet.

In Hamden, WKCI (101.3) has withdrawn its zoning application to build
a new tower.  The station is reportedly considering possible sites in
other towns for a new transmitter site once it's evicted from the
WTNH-TV (Channel 8) stick in Hamden, if it's unable to convice Hamden
officials to allow it to build a new tower.

*Oh yeah...there was a satellite failure last week, too.  When Galaxy
IV spun out of control Wednesday evening, it affected more than just
pagers across the Northeast.  At public radio stations across the
region, the feed of All Things Considered suddenly went dead about
6:15, leaving them to scramble for programming.  WGBH (89.7 Boston)
switched over to its homegrown "The World."  At Rochester's WXXI
(1370), engineers dialed up a phone-line feed of ATC.  Later in the
evening, several stations that depended on G4 for overnight
programming went dark instead, including WEVO (89.1 Concord NH).
A tip of the NERW antennas to the engineers who worked together to
keep the programming flowing.  For example, WXXI was able to take an
NPR feed off the PBS satellite by Thursday morning...and then sent it
by ISDN to WEOS (89.7 Geneva), which then sent it somewhere in
Connecticut, we're told.  

*A few quick notes from our Midwest journey of last weekend:

Jacor is really "Mix"-ing it up across Ohio.  We heard the same "80s,
90s, and 70s" format on WMVX (106.5 Cleveland), WMTX (102.7 Sandusky,
ex-WCPZ), and WMLX (103.3 St. Marys-Lima) that we hear at home on WVOR
(100.5 Rochester).  WVOR and WMVX have both gotten mentions in their
local newspapers for the "Win $5,000" contest that ALL the Mix-es are
running...without making it really clear to listeners that the $5,000
winner each day could be anywhere from Rochester to Des Moines.

The WCPZ calls, by the way, have landed on 100.9 in Clyde OH, ex-WNCG.

It's definitely prime FM DX season; we were hearing trops from Detroit
as we headed down to Akron, with Motor City outlets like WGPR 107.5
booming in.  In the morning, upstate New York FMs like WWSE 93.3
Jamestown (not to mention WRRN 92.3 Warren PA) were overwhelming
semi-local co-channels from Cleveland Heights and Youngstown.

We had a nice visit with the DX Audio Service's Fred Vobbe at WLIO-TV
(Channel 35) in Lima, Ohio.  That market has been built up
considerably in recent years, although about half of it is
Jacor-owned.

Over in Fort Wayne, WEJE (96.3 Churubusco) has ditched the "Edge" for
"Extreme 96.3," while "Star 94.1," WYSR Roanoke, is now being
simulcast on co-owned WGL-FM (102.3 Auburn).

*Are you a NERW reader in Maine, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island,
or Quebec?  Now's your chance to get in touch with us as we finalize
plans for next month's NERW "field trip," as we head from Boston up
the coast of Maine, and then across New Brunswick, on to (and then off
of) PEI, up through Aroostook County, Maine, and then back home
through Quebec, Montreal, and Ottawa.

We always enjoy meeting our correspondents in person (especially when
it includes a station visit)...and we're already making plans to see
several of you en route.  Drop us a line if we haven't heard from you
already, and we'll add you to the itinerary.

NERW will not publish a regular issue on June 25; instead, we'll be
publishing trip updates every day or so from the road June 19-27.

*And that's it for another week of NERW.  Thanks to everyone who wrote
in about the delay in this week's issue; there was a death in the
family earlier in the week, right on the heels of the Midwest trip,
leaving exactly no time for a Thursday issue.  All is well now, and
we'll be back with another action-packed edition next Thursday.

- -=Scott Fybush - NorthEast Radio Watch - (c) 1998=-

------------------------------