NorthEast Radio Watch 8/27: Mergers and Spinoffs

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

*In what has to be the biggest one-day set of radio transactions ever,
Capstar is merging with Chancellor, while CBS is spinning off its
radio operations under the old Infinity Broadcasting name.

We'll start with the Capstar-Chancellor deal, which has been rumored
ever since Hicks, Muse began building two of the nation's biggest
broadcast groups.

Chancellor was the big-market operator, with Boston's WJMN and
WXKS-AM/FM and New York's WHTZ, WKTU, WAXQ, WBIX, and WLTW - along
with WALK AM/FM on Long Island.

Capstar was the smaller-market broadcaster, with WZNN, WTMN, WMYF,
WXHT, WSRI, WHEB and WERZ on the New Hampshire seacoast; WGIR AM-FM in
Manchester; WEAV, WEZF, WXPS, and WCPV in Burlington-Plattsburgh; WTAG
and WSRS in Worcester; WHJJ, WSNE, and WHJY in Providence; WHMP AM-FM
in Northampton; WPKX serving Springfield; WPOP, WWYZ, WKSS, WMRQ, and
WHCN in Hartford; WPLR (and an LMA on WYBC) in New Haven; and WTRY AM-FM,
WGNA AM-FM, WXLE and WPYX in Albany.

The $4.1 billion deal makes the combined Capstar/Chancellor the
largest radio operator in America, with 463 stations in more than a
hundred markets -- not even counting Hicks, Muse's substantial TV
holdings.

Meantime, more than two years after CBS bought Infinity Broadcasting,
the Infinity name is coming back.  CBS is spinning off its radio
assets, along with some billboards, into a new company bearing the
Infinity name.  Mel Karmazin stays in charge of the new Infinity,
along with his post as President of CBS Corp., which will continue to
own 80% of the new radio company.  

In our region, that puts the Infinity name on Boston's WBZ, WNFT
(still being held in a trust), WBMX, WZLX, WODS, and WBCN; Hartford's
WTIC AM-FM, WZMX, WRCH; New York's WFAN, WCBS, WINS, WXRK, WCBS-FM,
and WNEW; Rochester's WZNE, WCMF, WPXY, and WRMM; and Buffalo's WECK,
WLCE, WBLK, WJYE, and WYRK.

It's a far cry from the original Infinity -- WZLX, WBCN, WFAN, and
WXRK, plus the since-sold WBOS and WOAZ in Boston and WZRC New York.

*Until the big deals hit the wires on Thursday, the NERW mailbag was
full of a lot of miscellany and nothing huge...so just for variety's sake
we'll kick off the rest of the week's news in MAINE, where Al Weiner's
shortwaver, WBCQ, has been heard testing from way up there in
Monticello on 7415 kHz.  When the NERW-mobile was up that way in June,
we didn't even see any towers, so Weiner must have had a busy summer
getting things built.  Look for WBCQ to do a lot of relays of former
pirate stations, among other leased-time fare.

*NEW HAMPSHIRE's week found a new program director being hired at
WGIR-FM (101.1 Manchester) and WHEB (100.3 Portsmouth), with Todd
Thomas returning to the Granite State from a tour of duty programming
WXVO in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Thomas is bringing 'XVO music director
Kristin Burns back up with him; she'll do middays.

On the TV side of things, WNDS (Channel 50) in Derry has signed a
"news alliance" with Boston's WBZ-TV (Channel 4).  While we don't
expect to see Al Kaprielian filling in for Ed Carroll, the deal will
give WNDS' new 10pm newscast access to WBZ's Boston video, as well as
giving 'BZ first crack at WNDS' New Hampshire stories.

*Northern VERMONT won't be able to listen to Howard Stern out of
Canada any more; Montreal's CHOM (97.7) has dropped him despite
respectable ratings.  CHOM's owner, the CHUM Group, was under heavy
pressure from the CRTC to take Stern off the air, especially after
planning to add Stern's TV show to its CITY-TV (Channel 57) in
Toronto.  Stern's lone Canadian outlet now is CILQ (107.1; "Q107") in
Toronto, and NERW wonders if it too will dump Stern to curry the
CRTC's favo(u)r, since Q107 owner WIC is trying to sell its radio
properties to Shaw.

In any event, Stern can still be heard on WIZN (106.7) in Vergennes.

*There's a new simulcast in central MASSACHUSETTS.  Just as NERW
predicted a few weeks back, Chowder Broadcasting is now simulcasting
the talk programming of WORC (1310 Worcester) on WGFP (940 Webster),
including a local morning show, G. Gordon Liddy, Don & Mike, and Tom
Leykis.  WGFP helps fill in a huge null in WORC's coverage to the
south -- in fact, it was only a few years ago that WORC applied for,
but never built, a synchronous station in Dudley to help serve the
southern part of Worcester County better.

While we're in Worcester, a clarification on last week's story: The
"Worcester Magazine" reader's poll winner for best station was WTAG;
defunct pirate WDOA was actually the editors' choice.  WTAG talker
(and ex-mayor) Jordan Levy was the readers' pick for best show on
Worcester radio.

Ready for hockey season?  Lowell's WCAP (980) is -- it'll be home to
the inaugural season of the Lowell Lock Monsters of the AHL this fall.
WCAP's Kevin Dunn will do play-by-play.

*RHODE ISLAND cable viewers will lose Boston's WHDH (Channel 7) when
Pax TV launches Monday on WPXQ (Channel 69) Block Island.  Cox Cable
is adding the station, the former WOST, to its systems on channel 7,
deleting WHDH in the process.  Cox viewers in southern Rhode Island
will get WPXQ on channel 14, while Media One customers in the Westerly
area will find WPXQ replacing another Pax Net signal, WHPX (formerly
WTWS, Channel 26 New London) on their systems.  On the Massachusetts
side of the border, Cox has backed down from plans to dump WHDH.

We now know how much Keating Willcox' Willow Farm is paying to add
WOON (1240 Woonsocket) to his chain - $380,000.

Former WOON sister station WWKX wants to crank up its power; the 106.3
dance-CHR outlet has applied to go from 1150 to 2450 watts.

And Myrna Lamb is the new permanent occupant of Mary Ann Sorrentino's
old 10-noon spot on WPRO (630 Providence), but don't count out Carolyn
Fox just yet -- we hear she may resurface in place of Howie Carr in PM
drive eventually.

*Hartford's WHCN (105.9) continues to be the attention-getter in
CONNECTICUT, unveiling a new hard-rock lineup that includes music
director Peter DeLauro in mornings.  The 'HCN playlist adds Ozzy
Osbourne and Led Zeppelin to the usual Beatles, Santana, and such.
There's still no new content at www.whcn.com.

The DTV applications were flying in the Hartford market, with WTIC-TV
(Channel 61) applying for channel 5, WFSB (Channel 3), applying for
33, and WVIT (Channel 30) looking for channel 35.

*We'll start in downstate NEW YORK just for a change, where Big City
Radio (you know 'em from the Y107 country quadcast) is selling its
lone AM property, WRKL (910 New City), to PolNet.  The Chicago-based
company runs ethnic programming on its suburban Chicago AMs, WNVR
(1030 Vernon Hills) and WKTA (1330 Evanston).  

Upstate, the FCC has granted a CP for Pensacola Christian College's
latest WPCS translator, W205BK (88.9 Ithaca), despite an informal
objection that the translator would interfere with WDWN (89.1
Auburn).  

Ever wonder why the FCC can't seem to get anything productive done --
like, say, the long-overdue freeze on satellite noncomm translators?
Check out the decision that granted WNVE and WMAX-FM their swap of
cities of license.  You can find it at:

http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Orders/1998/da981574.wp

NERW wonders whether any of the FCC lawyers at least allowed
themselves a chuckle as they drafted this document carefully assessing
whether the little village of Honeoye Falls merits "its own, local"
class B allocation -- knowing all the while that the "local" station
in question will have neither studio nor transmitter in Honeoye Falls,
and aside from what they mumble after "WNVE" will be entirely
indistinguishable from any station licensed to Rochester.  

Up on the soapbox for a minute: The FM allocations procedure
currently in place is a farce, plain and simple.  It's a waste of both
taxpayers' money and Randy Michaels' (or should that be Sam Zell's?)
money to jump through these silly legal hoops about how one dot on the
map has 2,400 people while another has only 1,300, when in the end,
neither dot will get anything that even remotely resembles "local"
service from the stations in question.  

The FCC knows it, too -- just look at the recent proposal to change
the main studio and public file requirements that would allow a
Rochester station to have its offices anywhere between Buffalo and
Syracuse if it chose.  Is it time to start allocating stations to
markets instead of individual communities of license?  NERW thinks
so...

Sinclair strikes again: The broadcaster is paying $33 million to pick
up WNEQ (Channel 23) in Buffalo from the local public broadcaster.
Sinclair says it'll sell the station's license assets (presumably to
partner company Glencairn, owned by the mother of Sinclair's David
Smith) but keep LMA'ing the station in conjunction with its WUTV
(Channel 29) in Buffalo.  Programming will be typical indie fare,
since (at least for the moment) every network is spoken for in
Buffalo.

Meantime, Pax TV is more or less admitting it won't get WAQF (Channel
51) Batavia-Buffalo-Rochester on the air any time soon.  The
network-to-be has struck a deal with Buffalo UPN affiliate WNGS
(Channel 67) Springville to run Pax TV programming out of pattern.
NERW wonders if this is a prelude to Pax eventually buying WNGS (which
holds an unbuilt CP to improve its almost-nonexistent signal to a full
5 megawatts), UPN moving to the new 23, and 51, if it's ever built,
being used solely to serve the Rochester market.

A correction to a correction: The source for August 13's erroneous
report of a format change at WBPM in Kingston was FMedia, not M
Street.  The FMedia! report sounds a lot like somebody was hearing
WKXZ (93.9 Norwich) or one of its translators via trop.

This tidbit from the Southern Tier: We hear Watkins Glen's WGMF (1490)
has replaced its simulcast of WNGZ (104.9 Montour Falls) with one of
WWLZ (820 Horseheads), which itself sometimes relays WPGI (100.9
Horseheads).

In Salamanca, WQRT (98.3) has applied to boost power from 1600 watts
to 3500 watts with a directional antenna, protecting WKSE Niagara
Falls on 98.5 to the northwest and WVIN Bath on 98.3 to the east.