No Subject

Bye, bye, Zapis: The Cleveland-based company that owned Worcester's
WAAF for many years is now out of the game completely with last week's
sale of its Cleveland stations (WZJM, WZAK, and WJMO) to Chancellor.

The folks at Worcester's WTAG (580) weighed in with a comment on last
week's mention of the changes there since Capstar took over.  News
director Paul Tuthill says only one full-time news position has been
cut this year, leaving WTAG with four full-timers and two
part-timers.  

That notwithstanding, the folks in Worcester still seem to like their
radio locally-owned...as the latest Worcester Magazine readers' poll
amply demonstrates.  "Favorite Radio Station" honors went to WDOA
(89.3), even though Mike Malone's unlicensed outlet has been off the
air for months!

*On to the rest of New England, starting in Brunswick, MAINE, where WCLZ
(98.9/900)'s sale to Fuller-Jeffrey is about to close.  We hear F-J
plans to move the station to a new studio on York Street near
Portland's Old Port neighborhood.

Also being sold is WBYA (101.7 Searsport).  The classical station was
in an LMA with WAVX (106.9 Thomaston), but now that Jon LaVeen has
sold that station, WBYA is changing hands, too.  Moon Song
Communications, which already owns talker WVOM (103.9 Howland) in the
Bangor market, will pay $265,000 for WBYA.

Way up North, the CRTC has authorized CJCJ (920 Woodstock NB) to put
an FM station on the air at 93.5 in Grand Falls.  The 5300-watt
station, which ought to get into the Presque Isle area quite well,
will run separate advertising from the Woodstock AM, and will be
required to start its own morning show within three years.  It's
interesting to note that in approving the station, the CRTC said that
53% of whatever English-speaking listeners there are in Grand Falls
are tuned to US-based radio stations.

*In NEW HAMPSHIRE, Jack Casey is off the air after four months at WBYY
(98.7 Somersworth-Dover).  The Bay is reportedly all-satellite now.

*One VERMONT correction from last week: The guy who owns WNCS and WRJT
and is buying WLFE and WWSR in St. Albans?  That would be Steve
Silberberg, with a "b."

Across the border, the CRTC has set an August 24 deadline for
applications by Montreal stations to move to the 690 and 940 kHz
facilities being vacated next month by CBF and CBM.  

*Talent on the move in RHODE ISLAND: Carolyn Fox has returned to the
Ocean State airwaves, two years after her last stint at WHJY (94.1).
Fox has been heard filling in on Mary Ann Sorrentino's old midday
shift at WPRO (630), and is reportedly being considered for a
full-time slot at the talker.  (Speaking of which, why'd they give up
www.wpro.com?  When we went to check out the former WPRO site, we
found the domain name now belongs to some company called "Web
Professionals" in Lima, Peru!)

Meantime, former WCTK and WPRO jock Jimmy Gray has resurfaced in
morning drive over at WHJJ (920).

And the FCC has renewed the license of WKFD (1370 Wickford) -- with
conditions.  We don't know what the conditions are, yet, but we wonder
if it doesn't have something to do with WKFD's multiple extended
silent periods over the last few years, plus that interesting era in
mid-1996 when the station seemed to think its legal calls were "WEGM."

*The big news in CONNECTICUT is a format change of sorts at Hartford's
WHCN (105.9).  The classic rocker has dumped Bob and Tom in the
mornings for music, and its playlist adds harder acts like AC/DC to
the mix.  We're told WHCN's traditional black-and-green billboards
have been "defaced" with green paint.  So has the logo on the website
at www.whcn.com, which for the moment points browsers to an anti-noise
pollution web site.

Monroe's WMNR (88.1), Fairfield's WVOF (88.5), and Stamford's WEDW
(88.5) have all filed petitions to deny against the proposed KAWZ
translator at 88.5 in Norwalk.  NERW's usual rant against
satellite-fed religious translators applies here...

Programming's overrated, anyway: Hartford LPTV W11BJ is still running
24 hours of classic color bars.  So is brand-new LPTV W47BM up here in
Rochester, NY.

*And speaking of Rochester and NEW YORK, it's a big win for Jacor at
the FCC.  The Commission has approved Jacor's plan to reallocate
several of its Rochester-area stations, and when the dust clears,
it'll look like this:

WNVE (95.1) is the big winner, as Jacor gets to move its city of
license from South Bristol Township to Honeoye Falls.  That means the
big class B gets to move its transmitter down from Bristol Mountain
(some 40 miles from Rochester) to Baker Hill in Perinton, home of
Rochester-licensed WVOR (100.5) and WBER (90.5), providing a
significant signal increase for "the Nerve" in the city of Rochester
and nearby suburbs.

The trade-off is that WMAX-FM (107.3) changes city of license from
Honeoye Falls to South Bristol Township, which in practical terms
means the little class A station will cease to exist for Rochester
listeners -- but that's OK, too, because Jacor gets yet ANOTHER
signal, the unbuilt CP to the west of the city in Albion, which has
been approved to move from 95.5 to 102.1 (which probably means WNVE
Rochester translator W238AB gets to stay on 95.5).  

What becomes of the urban-oriented "Jam'n" format now on 107.3?
Here's one guess: Jacor might move "Jam'n" to the new 102.1, and then
simulcast it on the east side on Canandaigua's 102.3, WISY.  That
station now simulcasts soft AC WYSY (106.7 Irondequoit), but "Sunny
106" could continue its Finger Lakes simulcast on that 107.3 South
Bristol Township, couldn't it?  We'll see how this all plays out.

Also in Rochester, Fox affiliate WUHF-TV (Channel 31) has been granted
a CP to go to the full 5 megawatts from its Pinnacle Hill site.  We're
watching the tower from the NERW studio window right now, and we'll
update things just as soon as we see some action up there...

New calls: From the FCC's sequential list, Kevin O'Kane gets WBGJ for
100.3 Sylvan Beach and 21st Century Radio gets WBGK for 99.7 in Old
Forge (one of two unbuilt CPs there).  Pax TV (don't say "PaxNet"
anymore!) makes it official with WSPX-TV replacing WAUP on channel 56
in Syracuse.  And for you AM DXers, Pittsburgh's AM 1250 loses the
WTAE calls it's had for decades (they live on on the non-co-owned
channel 4) in favor of WEAE.  NERW is perplexed; a history-minded guy
like Jacor's Randy Michaels should have taken the station back to the
original W_C_AE.  The calls are available, unless they belong to a
ship...

The Mary V. Harris Foundation still wants to put 90.7 on the air in
Williamsville, near Buffalo.  It's asked the FCC to reconsider its
decision to deny its application.