NorthEast Radio Watch 10/16: WCGR Moves Again

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

*With most of the big names in radio a continent away at the NAB Radio
Show in Seattle, it's been a quiet week back here in the Northeast,
with all of one format change to tell you about.

It's in upstate NEW YORK, at the unusual two-AM combo created last
year in Canandaigua.  Alert NERW readers will recall that WCGR, the
250-watt daytimer at 1550 kHz, finally built its CP for a kilowatt
full-time on 1310 -- but then asked the FCC for permission to
"recharacterize" the frequency change as a new station application,
thus allowing WCGR to keep both 1310 (with a great signal toward
Rochester but a bit of a null towards the city of license) and 1550
(with a good signal in Canandaigua and not much else).

After a bit of confusion at the FCC, things settled down with the WCGR
calls moving to 1310, 1550 picking up the WLKA calls that once graced
a sister FM, and both simulcasting a (mostly-automated) 70s-heavy soft
AC format.  

Until this week, that is...when hitting the "1310" preset in the
NERW-mobile produced not the usual Neil Diamond, but conservative
Christian talk and USA news instead.

Here's what's happened: WCGR has LMA'd the 1310 facility to David
Wolfe's WASB (1590) in Brockport, in Rochester's western suburbs.
Under the new calls of WRSB, 1310 is simulcasting WASB 20 1/2 hours a
day, with WCGR programming still being heard from 5 till 8:35 AM on
weekdays (albeit without veteran upstate broadcaster Jack Mindy, who's
left the station).

It makes for an interesting combination, since 1310 can be heard from
Canandaigua up to the east side of Rochester, while 1590 can be heard
from roughly one end of its own property to just short of the other
end -- and that's on the days when the transmitter is actually
working.  Here at NERW Central, no more than 12 miles from WASB, the
signal simply does not exist, except on very good days with a
communications-grade receiver, a good antenna, and a high tolerance
for co-channel stations in Auburn and Salamanca.

Programming is mainly from the Wisconsin-based VCY America network.
Local IDs are done by Wolfe, a Brockport dentist, over a bad phone
line.  (The one we heard today claimed a reach from "the east side of
Buffalo to the west side of Syracuse," which we suppose is possible
with a Drake R8A and a good loop, but not otherwise).

As for 1550, it's reclaimed the WCGR calls and continues the AC
format, but with a signal that's hard to hear outside northwest
Ontario County.  We're told Wolfe has an option to buy 1310
eventually; we'll keep an eye on this one.

Elsewhere in the Empire State, Oneonta's WZOZ (103.1) is getting a new
owner.  Wireless Works is getting $575,000 for the station from James
Johnson's BanJo Communications, which recently bought WKXZ (93.9),
WCHN (970), and WBKT (95.3) in nearby Norwich.

In the Capital District, WJKE (101.3 Stillwater) officially became
WQAR "Star 101" Monday morning under new owner Ernie Anastos.  

Downstate, the oldies format that once lived on the AM side of the
dial at Port Jervis' WDLC (1490) has moved to sister FM station WTSX
(96.7), as "The Fox."  WTSX was satellite AC; WDLC now becomes
satellite adult standards.  We last heard WDLC in March, while
returning home from New Jersey.  It was a fun little oldies station
then...we hope it continues on FM.

Out on Long Island, Cox sells WGBB (1240 Freeport) to Josephine Chain
and "WGBB-AM, Inc." for $1.7 million (which seems to us like a
possible record for a graveyarder).  The leased-time programming on
nights and weekends continues, but daytime is now Chinese-language.
Cox still has FMs WBLI (106.1 Patchogue), WBAB (102.3 Babylon), and
WHFM (95.3 Southampton).

In translator news, Family Life has been granted 91.9 in Penn Yan,
relaying WCIY (88.9 Canandaigua) under the W220CJ calls.

The WUZZ calls that Forever Broadcasting parked on 1410 in Watertown
last year have now found an FM home -- in Lima, Ohio, at the former
WAJC (104.9).  WUZZ-FM, like its AM cousin in Watertown, is an oldies
station.

TV news: Albany is awash in UPN affiliates.  We heard from the folks
at WVBG-LP (Channel 25), who note that not only are they carrying UPN
on that station and on WVBX-LP (47 Glens Falls) and WVBK-LP (49
Manchester VT), but UPN is also running as a secondary affiliation on
Pax TV's WYPX (Channel 55) in Amsterdam.  It also seems that W06BT in
Greece is on the air; we heard its audio signal on the car radio in
the NERW-mobile while up that way this week, with a lot of commercials
followed by what sounded like a 1930s movie.  We're loading the TV in
the car soon for further exploration; it seems we were very close to
the listed transmitter site at Long Pond and Ridgeway, but that
29-watt signal still wasn't coming in very well.  Meantime, Rochester
LP W47BM is still all-color bars, all the time.  And WBXO-LP (Channel
15) might as well be off the air; the Box station is limping along
with a signal so weak that it barely makes it to NERW Central, just a
mile from the transmitter.  (We find this eerily reminiscent of the
last days of WAWW-LP on channel 38, which last year began declining in
signal strength and eventually disappeared without a trace).

*Moving along to MAINE, the Saga stations in Portland have a new
boss.  He's Cary Pahigian, who programmed WBZ in the 1980s and most
recently ran Ernie Boch's stations on Cape Cod.  Now he becomes: vice
president of Saga/New England, market manager of Portland Radio, and
GM of WGAN, WZAN, WMGX, and WYNZ (which is to say, all of Portland
Radio except WPOR AM-FM).  Pahigian replaces the retiring Bob Gold.

Way up in Presque Isle, Bangor Baptist Church gets a license to cover
for translator W274AF, relaying WHCF (88.5 Bangor) on 102.7.

*In VERMONT, we have an update on the Brattleboro-area broadcast
scene.  WKVT-FM (92.7) dropped the WW1 Adult Rock feed a month ago,
and is now live every morning, weekday afternoons, and voicetracked
the rest of the time.  Also automated is WKNE (1290 Keene NH), and we
understand WKNE-FM (103.7) and WKVT (1490) will be going the
voicetracking route as well in the months to come.

Radio Free Brattleboro's now promoting a 3 PM - 12 AM schedule on 88.1
MHz.

*NERW reader Paul Richards was in RHODE ISLAND, and checked in to
report that WKFD (1370 Wickford) was in the "off-again" half of its
on-again-off-again routine.  And while he didn't actually hear WCVY
(91.5 Coventry) -- and who has? -- he called them, and was told
they're on the air from 2-10 PM on school days.

*Digital TV is a step closer in CONNECTICUT.  After building a spiffy
new tower to accomodate it, WTNH (Channel 8) in New Haven was granted
its construction permit for WTNH-DT (Channel 10) this week.

Two new PDs to tell you about in Hartford: At WDRC (1360) and sister
AMs WSNG (610 Torrington), WWCO (1240 Waterbury) and WMMW (1470
Meriden), Walt Pinto's now running the show.  This is his third 'DRC
gig; he was "Kent Clark" on the station back in 1967, and did
part-time work there in the 1970s.  And Jon Robbins moves down I-91
from Springfield's WAQY to program WZMX (93.7).

*Oh yeah...MASSACHUSETTS.  Aside from noting the Boston Globe's
mention of WRPT (1350) and cringing, there's just this item this week:
Ed Dinis seems to be a step closer to building his AM in Southeastern
Massachusetts.  WLAW (1270)'s CP now gives North Dartmouth, not
Fairhaven, as the city of license...and it puts the three-tower array
on Copicut Hill in North Dartmouth.  Several recent articles in the
local papers suggest Fall River's WHTB (1400) is fighting Dinis every
step of the way, trying to keep the New Bedford-based broadcaster from
moving in on its territory 15 miles to the west.  There's a political
issue involving the lease of the city-owned site where Dinis wants to
build WLAW as well.  More on this in the weeks to come...

On the TV side, Red Sox season is over but the bidding season for the
1999 TV rights has just started.  So far, the only bid is a reported
10-year, $20 million deal from Fox for 75 games on Fox Sports New
England and WFXT (Channel 25).  Fox is also cornering baseball in the
Big Apple -- in addition to locking up Yankees broadcasts for WNYW
(Channel 5), Rupert Murdoch's Fox Sports New York now has Mets rights,
and is expected to sell broadcast rights to 50 of the games to
longtime Yanks broadcaster WPIX (Channel 11).

*Over the border...it's a reprieve for CBC fans who listen to Radio
One via CBL (740) in Toronto.  When the CBC signed on CBLA (99.1) in
Toronto on April 19, it gave the AM six months to live.  But CBL won't
be disappearing on Monday after all -- the CBC tells NERW that CBLA
still isn't reaching everywhere it's meant to go (one relay, CBLA-FM-1
on 90.5 in Crystal Beach, still isn't on the air), so CBL will stay on
for a while longer.  It may not thrill Bob Bittner, but at least it
means the NERW-mobile can keep that 740 preset for now (and with 1310
gone, it's getting harder to find worthwile AM presets up here!)

*And finally this week: Until the pointy-headed aliens return Art Bell
from wherever it was they took him, here are the Northeast stations
stuck running reruns of rural Nevada's favorite far-out talk host:

CONNECTICUT - WTIC (1080), WELI (960)
MAINE - WVOM (103.9), WGAN (560)
MASSACHUSETTS - WRKO (680), WEIM (1280), WGAW (1340), WCAP (980 -- but
just a few weekend hours), WTAG (580), WNNZ (640), WXTK (95.1), WTAG
(580)
NEW HAMPSHIRE - WTSL (1400), WGIR (610), WGIN (930), WGIP (1540)
NEW YORK - WGY (810), WBEN (930), WWSC (1450), WHUC (1450), WABC
(770), WMNS (1360), WOLF (1490), WOLF-FM (96.7), WMBO (1340), WHTK
(1280), WIBX (950)
RHODE ISLAND - WPRO (630)
VERMONT - WVMT (620)

NERW's eagerly awaiting reports from our insomniac readers on whether
these stations stick with Bell reruns, go with something else, or
whether this whole thing turns out to be a publicity stunt after all
- -- and we wouldn't be one bit surprised.  In the meantime, we think
Upton ought to change his name to "Art," move to Pahrump, and carry on
the Coast-to-Coast thing...

*That's it for this week...see you next Friday.

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

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