No Subject

On the web: WKLB-FM (99.5 Lowell) is on for real now, at
<http://www.wklb.com>, and you can see a tribute to Yiddish
centenarian broadcaster Ben Gailing at <http://www.yv.org>.

And if you haven't read January's "Popular Communications," be sure to
pick it up -- Boston Radio Archives contributing editor Donna
Halper leads off the issue with an excellent summary of her
research on women in the early days of radio.  Nice work, Donna!

*In CONNECTICUT, the roofers are out at WTNH (Channel 8) in New Haven,
after a leak at the station's Elm Street building forced Thursday's
newscasts out of the studio and into the newsroom.  Without a
chromakey wall to stand in front of, WTNH's meteorologists were forced
to do their forecasts as simple voice-overs. 

Up in Hartford, WFSB (Channel 3) news director Steve Sabato has been
promoted to station manager.

On the radio side, WKSS (95.7 Hartford) was broadcasting a remote from
the "Stadium" nightclub in Bristol last Saturday night when a fire
broke out at a nearby box factory, forcing the remote crew to
evacuate.  NERW wonders why Kiss had to go to dead air for a while,
though -- wasn't anybody running the board back at the studio?

Operations Manager Mike Raub has departed WELI (960) and WAVZ (1300)
in New Haven.

*NEW YORK's big news begins with a $7.5 million station sale in
Albany.  Paul Bendat is cashing out on WABY (1400), WKLI (100.9),
WABY-FM (94.5 Ravena), and WKBE (100.3 Warrensburg), which go to
Tele-Media of Eastern New York.  No word yet of any format or
personnel changes at standards WABY AM-FM or the hot AC "K-100" simulcast.

Downstate, a heritage call sign is back on the air for the first time
in a few years.  WYNY, last heard with the demise of country music on
103.5 Lake Success-New York, is the new callsign for what was WWXY
(107.1 Briarcliff Manor), the north suburban part of Big City Media's
"Y-107" quadcast.  (Oddly, Big City's press release calls the new
WYNY-FM just "New York," and almost every single trade we've seen has
swallowed it whole...)  The other three parts of the 107.1 simulcast
- -- WWVY Hampton Bays, L.I.; WWYY Belvidere NJ; and WWZY Long Branch NJ
- -- keep their calls.

WNEW (102.7 New York) has hired Steve Mason as its new morning host.
Mason comes from Jacor's "XTRA Sports" (XETRA Tijuana/KXTA Los
Angeles) out West, and was also the last host of the "Late Late Radio
Show" on CBS.  By the way, we neglected to mention last week that
Scott Muni's new Big Apple radio home is at classic rocker WAXQ
(104.3).

Upstate, WASB-FM (105.5 Brockport) hit the airwaves for real last
Sunday (12/13), with a simulcast of the religious talk and music from
WASB (1590 Brockport) and WRSB (1310 Canandaigua).  As we'd expected,
the signal on the east side of Monroe County is so clobbered by
co-channel WTKV Oswego as to be unlistenable -- but it gets out nicely
to the west, anyway.

Speaking of co-channel, CSN has applied for a translator in Arcade
(about 20 miles east of Buffalo) on 89.5, which just happens to be the
same frequency used by American Family Association's W208AM a few
miles away in Batavia.  Once again, we'll suspend the usual rant in
advance of our Jan. 1 editorial...

And NERW's new favorite TV station, W47BM here in Rochester, has been
sold by Equity Broadcasting to Tiger-Eye Broadcasting.  NERW's hoping
and praying that Tiger-Eye doesn't change W47BM's innovative format of
"All Color Bars, All The Time!"

*Outside the region, we found out why 102.3 Pittston PA is now calling
itself WSHG: Seems "Wish" changed its mind about switching to a
simulcast of the WILK news-talk network...but its old WWSH calls had
already been taken by the former WKXE (95.3 White River Junction VT),
so they had to settle for next-best.  103.1 in Freeland PA returns to
WWFH from WILP-FM.

And out in Charlottetown, PEI, CHLQ (Magic 93.1) has reportedly
flipped from hot AC to CHR.  Hmmm...could a NERW return trip be in
order now?  (We'd go back to PEI anytime!)

*That's almost it for this week...except for one little request to all
of you out there in the region: We want to see how many stations out
there kick off the New Year with you-know-what Prince song.  We'll be
rolling tape on our likely local suspects (in fact, we hear one of
them is considering running nothing but "1999" for a few hours on
12/31/98), and we'd love to hear your local stations sliding into the
new year as well.  Send us tapes...or at least let us know what you
hear...and in our January 8 issue we'll party like it's, well, you
know!

*Next week: Part One of NERW's 1998 in Review.

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

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