NorthEast Radio Watch 7/30: Sorrentino Out at WPRO

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

*It's been a while since we've had a RHODE ISLAND story, but this
week's NERW begins with two of 'em:

After more than eight years on the air, Mary Ann Sorrentino's contract
with WPRO (630 Providence) isn't being renewed.  Sorrentino was
allowed on the air for the first few minutes of her 9-noon shift last
Friday to say goodbye to her listeners.  Afterward, she held a news
conference to express her disappointment with WPRO management,
particularly operations manager Ron St. Pierre.  Morning host Steve
Kass has had an extra hour added to his shift, which now ends at 10,
and WPRO is looking for a replacement host for the 10-noon show.

Down in Newport, WADK (1540) is back on the air after a series of
technical mishaps kept it mostly silent for several days.  WADK's
transmitter was damaged by lightning in June, and a transformer blew
last Friday morning, knocking the station off the air for the
weekend.  The station was back to normal by Tuesday midday, according
to Providence newspaper reports.

*Next stop, MASSACHUSETTS, where there's a new AM station on the air
in Boston -- well, sort of.  We're told the folks at the Central
Artery/Tunnel project have a new TIS on the air in the South End area,
and it's on 1610 kHz.  Hey, guys, anyone mention to you that there's a
licensed 1600 in the neighborhood?  NERW wonders whether WUNR
Brookline has asked them to move yet.

Two more digital TV CPs have been granted in Boston: WHDH-DT will be
on channel 40, while WFXT-DT will operate on channel 31.  The next big
question: now that Boston's "big four" affiliates all have their
digital CPs, who'll be the first to air with a digital signal?  (Our
bet's on WHDH, if for no other reason than that Channel 7's policy of
not leasing space on its tower means there's no problem at all
mounting a DTV antenna there.)

Speaking of WHDH-TV, can it really be five years already?  It was on
this week in 1993 that the Sunbeam folks blew into town and changed
the face of Boston TV news forever.  Your editor fondly remembers that
afternoon in another newsroom across town, looking up at the flashy
red-and-black "new look" of 7 News for the first time.  In the years
since, everyone in town has increased story count, shortened newscasts
(those hour-long 6 PM newscasts were probably obsolete even in 1993,
anyway), and shuffled talent to compete.  Like 'em or not, here's to
WHDH and Sunbeam for shaking things up (and giving us plenty to write
about over the years).

Congratulations to WBZ (1030) for winning two NAB Marconi Award
nominations, one for Major-Market Station of the Year, an award it won
in 1995 (an event we at NERW remember fondly, since your editor also
wrote the winning entry), and another for Legendary Station of the
Year.  Also nominated was WBCN (104.1) for Rock Station of the Year.
Listen for the whoops of joy (or dejected sighs of defeat) from
Soldiers Field Road and Boylston Street on October 17 when the winners
are announced.

While we're thinking of CBS, the Boston Globe ran an AP story
mentioning how CBS was last to the plate with live video from
the Capitol shooting last Friday, and how WBZ-TV (Channel 4) stayed on
the air until 7 PM with CNN video, running Dan Rather 30 minutes
late.  The story went on to describe how CBS's "WKYW-TV" in
Philadelphia handled its coverage.  We'll be sure to mention it to the
KYW-TV folks down in Philly...

Radio People on the Move: After more than two years at WSRS (96.1) in
Worcester, midday jock/APD Moneen Daley has driven down Asnebumskit
Hill for the last time.  Daley was at Boston's WMJX for six years
before her Worcester stint, and she tells NERW she's looking for a new
gig in Boston.   The 55 minutes of silence heard on WSRS and WTAG
(580) Wednesday afternoon weren't in her memory, by the way -- we hear
power to the entire town of Paxton was out, forcing the Capstar
stations to a backup generator.

More Worcester news: We hear unlicensed "WSCW" (94.9) at Worcester
State College isn't programming this summer -- but they've left their
transmitter up with dead air anyway (and wasn't it a similar "Summer
Full of Dead Air" adventure that claimed WSCW's old carrier-current
transmitter when it overheated a few years back?).  "WDOA" at 89.3 is
still dead, but its frequency isn't; there was rock music there on
Monday, and now we hear it's a mono simulcast of WICN (90.5).

Last weekend's Lowell Folk Festival drew rave reviews from the music
critics, but only a "so-so" from NERW's listening audience in the
Merrimack Valley.  We hear most of the stations stayed close to the
Boarding House Park stage, never getting to the wide variety of music
at the city's other stages, with the exception of the folks at WJUL
(91.5) at UMass Lowell.  Technical problems also kept both AM stations
in town from filling as many hours with live Folk Festival coverage as
they'd hoped.  NERW has one request: how about a live audio stream
from any of the stations covering the Fest next year?

And from the "where are they now" file: former WXKS-FM
(107.9) morning co-host Lisa Lipps will be appearing this weekend
hawking makeup at the South Bay Shopping Center K-Mart in Boston,
according to the Boston Herald.  

*Moving north, we find no news in NEW HAMPSHIRE but plenty in MAINE,
where Tryon-Seacoast closed on its purchase of WCME (96.7 Boothbay
Harbor), flipping it to a simulcast of Augusta country station WKCG
(101.3) at 6 PM Monday.  Tryon-Seacoast is itself being bought by
Cumulus, but that deal has yet to close.

A few new calls: F. James Whalen's 101.1 in Machias has been granted
WBEO, but that's a sequential assignment and we suspect it will be
changed before the station ever hits the Down East airwaves.  Back in
the Portland TV market, Waterville's Channel 23 is WBDJ for now -- but
that's sure to change when PaxNet buys the as-yet-unbuilt CP.  The
Paxson folks filed for the sale this week.

And amidst the mourning for "Buffalo" Bob Smith, who died today at his
North Carolina home, we remember that after his "Howdy Doody" TV
career, Smith became a radio station owner as well, buying several
Maine stations including WQDY in Calais.  Smith suffered from cancer.
He was 80 years old.

*On to VERMONT, where public radio flagship station WVPS (107.9
Burlington) has been granted a move of towers high atop Mount
Mansfield.  WVPS will go from 35 kilowatts on the tower of sister
public TV station WETK (Channel 33), perhaps clearing the way for a
DTV antenna there, to 47 kilowatts on the nearby WVNY (Channel 22)
stick.  The WVPS 50kw CP on the WETK tower has been cancelled at VPR's
request.

Last week's mention of Radio Free Vermont and its website at
http://www.sover.net/~rfv triggered a testy response from webmaster
Monty Butterfield, which spent more time sniping at NERW's writing
style (a few hints: we put the state name in CAPS at the start of
every state's section every week, and how about looking up "royal we"
in any writing textbook?) than in defending the, um, interesting legal
justification for RFV's "legality" (see the website for more
details).  In any event, "we" now understand that RFV is in Rutland,
and sure enough, we've heard from a NERW reader who says he's heard
something or other occupying the 96.5 frequency there.  RFV also
claims more than five years on the air, something NERW can't confirm
from years of driving through Rutland spinning the dial in the
NERW-mobile.  And just for clarification: NERW is as much a journal of
opinion as it is of news (as we state in the boilerplate that appears
at the end of NERW when "we" feel like putting it there), and we
reserve the right to offer whatever opinions strike us about any
station information and websites submitted to us.  If we like a
station, we say so (hence all the nice things that get said here about
WMVY, WRSI, WXRV, et al), and if we think something's not right, we
say so, too (just ask any radio station that cuts news staff or local
programming).  If you've been reading us for a while, you'll note that
we've swung both ways when it comes to unlicensed stations over the
last few years.  We don't think our readers would want it any other way,
and anyone who does can go read one of the "big time" trades...or come
argue their position at our sister mailing list.

OK, off the soapbox, down I-91 (or US 5; it's a nicer drive), and back
to the news:

*In CONNECTICUT, the FCC has granted WYBC's purchase of WNHC (1340 New
Haven).  Our Nutmeg State readers tell us 1340 is still dark, but
crosstown pirate "La Nueva Radio Musicale" remains on the air despite
an FCC order to shut down.

*Our NEW YORK news starts with a station sale in the Albany market:
funky little AAA WXLE (104.5 Mechanicsville) passes from Foley
Broadcasting to the decidedly un-funky folks at Capstar, with a
reported $2.6 million going the other way.  It joins the former SFX
Albany group -- WTRY (980 Troy/98.3 Rotterdam), WPYX (106.5 Albany),
and WGNA (1460/107.7 Albany) under the umbrella of the Hicks, Muse
folks from Texas.  Staying in the Capital District for a moment, we
note a series of changes at Brian Larson's religious stations north of
Albany, with WNGX (91.9 Argyle) changing to WNGN and the former WNGN
(97.5 Hoosick Falls) taking the WZEC calls in preparation for its
future as a simulcast of Auritaur's WBEC-FM (105.5 Pittsfield MA).
W04DA in Troy becomes WNGX-LP, just to keep the calls in the Larson
family.  And congratulations to veteran Albany broadcaster (and friend
of this column) Joe Condon of WROW/WYJB.  He's been nominated for
"Medium Market Personality of the Year" in the Marconi awards, and you
can guess who NERW'll be rooting for come October.  (Other Empire State
Marconi nominees: New York's WQEW (1560) for Adult Standards Station
and WSKQ (97.9) for Spanish Station of the Year.)

In the Hudson Valley, it looks like WVIP (1310 Mount Kisco) won't go
permanently silent after all.  Jonathan Becker's Suburban
Broadcasting, which owns WGCH (1490) just over the Connecticut state
line in Greenwich, has agreed to pay the estate of Martin Stone
$675,000 for the dark station.  You'll recall that WVIP was silenced
last fall by a fire that destroyed its studio.

The doors at 3136 South Winton Road just stopped swinging, and here's
the results of the changes at WPXY (97.9) in Rochester: "98PXY"
morning show sidekick Krista Bettino has left the station after just a
few months to return to her old stomping grounds of Buffalo.  Her
predecessor, Athena, is also gone after several months as
very-early-morning jock and morning show producer.  Her new gig is in
Fresno, as morning sidekick at KVSR (101.1).  Replacing Athena is Jeff
Walker, late of WNKI (106.1 Corning, or "WINK Elmira" if you believe
their top-hour IDs).

What's the callsign, Lowell?: There's still a lot of confusion over
the call letters of the future PaxNet stations upstate.  Batavia's
(or, if you're PaxNet, "Buffalo/Rochester's") WAQF (Channel 51) is
still listed as such in the FCC database, but on the website at
http://www.pax.net it becomes WUPX (which should just thrill the Fox
folks at WUTV Buffalo and WUHF Rochester).  Syracuse's Channel 56
appears on the website both under its current WAUP calls and its
future identity as WSPX.  From what we hear, neither station will be
ready for air when PaxNet launches August 15.

A few tidbits from market number one: Fox flagship WNYW (Channel 5)
has been granted a digital CP.  WNYW-DT will be on Channel 44.  And
out in the 'burbs, the long-expected sale of WJHR (1040 Flemington NJ)
from Carl Liu to his father, ethnic broadcaster Arthur Liu, was
finally announced this week.  Dad's paying $1.4 million for his son's
station, which just signed on last spring as a locally-run AC outlet.
NERW readers with long memories may recall that WJHR was the station
that kicked the NERW tower-hunting crew out of the building during a
Jersey expedition last spring.  For once, we actually hope this one
goes to an all leased-time format...

A few more tidbits from the ratings bin, as the last of the Spring
books trickle in: It's a flip-flop in Albany, as WGNA returns to its
customary #1 position from its (almost too close to call) third-place
Winter 12+ finish.  WFLY and WGY again make up the rest of the top
three, followed by a dropping WYJB and a surging WQBJ/WQBK.  In
Syracuse, country monster WBBS stayed at the top despite a slight dip
in ratings, followed by Cox sister stations WSYR and WYYY.  Pilot's
WNTQ and WAQX were next, with WNTQ's CHR challenger WWHT picking up
steam to make number six.  And down the road in Rochester, it's a 12+
tie between last book's number one and two finishers, country WBEE-FM
and news/talk WHAM.  AC WRMM-FM stays at third, with CHR WPXY gaining
in fourth, followed by hot AC WVOR, the biggest gainer, in fifth.
Among the newcomers, it's still probably too soon to evaluate the
effects of oldies WKLX dumping the satellite to become WBBF; it stayed
flat this book.  Also flat were Jacor's soft AC duo of WYSY/WISY,
while new rhythmic CHR WMAX-FM ("Jam'n 107") doubled its minuscule
ratings from its last book as smooth jazz WRCD.  

*Finally, two notes from outside the region, one happy, one not:

In Toledo, Ohio, WVOI (1520) has applied to change calls to WDMN. So
what, you may ask?  Well, NERW hopes that this may mean that 1520
actually intends to use its real calls on the air now.  For years,
everyone who's passed through the area has noted that WVOI has been
ID'ing -- even at the top of the hour -- as "WJCM, Toledo," which
would be fine if those calls didn't belong to AM 960 in Sebring,
Florida.  Oddly, the FCC never seemed to notice or care...

And anyone who's ever used the Broadcast Station Location Page at
http://www5.jagunet.com/~kodis/station.html will be saddened, as we
were, to learn that creator John Kodis has been forced to take the
service off-line because it was putting too much load on his ISP.
Kodis' page was unique in its ability to map out every station within
a specified distance of a specified point, and we here at NERW used it
often in planning our trips.  The good news is that Kodis has offered
the code he used to create the page, and we sincerely hope that
somewhere out there in NERW-land is someone who's both able and
willing to host this extremely valuable service.  If you can help
John, and by extension, the entire radio community, please contact us
here at NERW and we'll put you in touch.  Some things are too good to
lose, and this is one of them.  

*It's summer, and that means a NERW road trip almost every weekend
while the weather holds out.  This time it's down to Olean and Rock
City for the Worldwide FM-TV DXers Association convention.  We look
forward to meeting some of you down there, and for the rest, expect
all the latest on the Southern Tier radio scene in next week's issue.
See you then!

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

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