No Subject

Down there in the New York market, WBAH (1660 Elizabeth NJ) will go
all-Catholic sometime in September, now that John Lynch's Catholic
Radio has closed on its purchase of WBAH and many other Children's
Broadcasting Company outlets.

And "we wuz misled": No matter what M Street said last week,
Kingston's WBPM (94.3) continues to crank out dance-CHR.  Hmm...maybe
whoever thought they were changing to standards heard one too many
Cherry Poppin' Daddies songs...

*Finally this week, "NERW On The Road" made a highly unexpected
weekend visit to San Francisco, and here's what we noticed during our
36 hours or so in the Bay Area:

The ARS/CBS/Jacor frequency shuffle continues to work its way through
the system.  The KOME calls that long graced 98.5 in San Jose stayed
with CBS when the station went to Jacor, and are now being warehoused
on 1470 in Sacramento.  Meantime, 98.5 has taken the KUFX calls that
used to be at 104.9 Fremont, having moved there last year from 94.5
Gilroy.  "K-FOX" is simulcasting on 98.5 and 104.9 for now -- well,
sort of.  The two stations run parallel in morning and afternoon
drive, but at other times they're actually obeying FCC non-simulcast
rules and running a 24-hour tape delay at the 104.9 spot (now legally
KLDZ).  A new format is expected at KLDZ shortly.  Jacor's KSJO (92.3
San Jose) is going area-wide, with the addition of an East Bay
simulcast on 92.1 KZWC Walnut Creek, and soon a San Francisco
simulcast on 92.7 KZSF Alameda.   The KZSF calls have moved to the
former KKSJ (1370 San Jose).

On the X-band, it's KDIA now for the 1640 in Vallejo, which puts a
nice strong signal into the South Bay.  The longtime home of the KDIA
calls, 1310 in Oakland, is now Radio Disney's KMKY.  On 1650, we heard
KKTR Costa Mesa, "K-Traffic" with 24-hour traffic reports for the
24-hour traffic jam they call Southern California.  And at 1660, Utah
checked in with Brigham City and KXOL, the X-band simulcast of KSOS
(800)'s oldies format.  No sign, alas, of some of the new Oregon and
Washington X-banders we'd hoped to hear -- but back home, we ARE
hearing Iowa on 1700, KBGG Des Moines, with business talk that's
migrated up the dial from now-defunct KKSO 1390.

We love the Bay Area noncomm scene, and especially enjoyed nighttime
music offerings on San Francisco's KALW (91.7) and Sunday morning folk
on KFJC (89.7 Los Altos Hills).  

KKHI (1510 San Rafael) has built its new 4-tower directional array on
a (very big) warehouse rooftop in the East Bay, and its new 8000-watt
daytime signal gets out far enough to the south to pose a real
challenge to adjacent-channel KSJX (1500 San Jose) in areas like
Palo Alto.  

Good listens: We liked the classic soul format on KISQ (98.1 San
Francisco), had fun with the classic rock on the reborn KSAN (107.7
San Mateo), and always enjoy the AAA offerings of KFOG (104.5 San
Francisco and KFFG 97.7 Los Altos).  CBS' newly-acquired KEZR (106.5
San Jose) is taking its "Mix" moniker seriously -- from logo to
format, it's a near-duplicate of WBMX in Boston.  The CHR that's now
on 95.7 in San Francisco (KZQZ) seemed a bit bland, and still a bit
disconcerting after all those years when classical KKHI occupied that
spot on the dial.  

*That's about it for this week; see you next Thursday!

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

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