NorthEast Radio Watch 3/26: Standards Return to New York

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

*The big-band sounds that disappeared from WQEW (1560) just before New
Year's are back on the air in NEW YORK, at least in the parts of the
market that can hear WNJR (1430) from Newark, New Jersey.  Arthur Liu
began stunting his new format on "Sunny 1430" Monday morning, with a
full roster of DJs (including latest hire Julius LaRosa) to start
March 29.  The station's initial 5AM-7PM schedule will go to 24 hours
as additional leased-time contracts at WNJR expire.  Liu has bought
the remains of the old WNEW record library, which ended up at WJUX
("Jukebox Radio") before the Bergen County (er, Monticello NY) station
went to an oldies format.  He's also reported to be negotiating with
CBS for the WNEW calls, but the price is said to be in the high six
figures.

Just a bit to the north, WRKL (910 New City) returned to the Rockland
County airwaves this week, with a simulcast of the Polish-language
programs from sister PolNet station WNVR (1030 Vernon Hills IL), now
claiming a "New York-New Jersey-Connecticut" relay on 910.  We were
remiss last week in overlooking Rockland County's other commercial AM,
little WLIR (1300 Spring Valley), ex-WGRC, WRRC, etc.  The station is
playing adult standards with little, if any, local content.  We've
been reading about 1300's history, as well as more than 150 other New
York-area AM stations, in an incredible book called "The Airwaves of
New York," by Bill Jaker, Frank Sulek, and Peter Janze (McFarland,
1998).  We thought we knew a lot about New York radio history, but
these guys have done their homework -- there are stations in here we
never even heard of before now!

WRKL's former sister FM, now WYNY (107.1 Briarcliff Manor), is now
Webcasting along with its "Y107" country quadcast-mates.  Find it at
the Y107 website, <http://y107.fm>.

And we'll wrap up the downstate report this week by noting that Sound
of Life has been granted the calls W206AW for its new 89.1 Pawling
translator.

In the Albany area, Sinclair is officially dropping its plans to buy
WMHQ (Channel 45) from public station WMHT TV/FM.  No word yet on what
the WMHT folks will do now; they'd hoped to use proceeds from Channel
45 to fund DTV conversion and a new studio facility.  NERW wonders whether
the financially-strapped Sinclair will go forward with its plan to buy
Buffalo's secondary public station, WNEQ (Channel 23); those plans are
apparently in some doubt now as well.

The new modern AC station on 104.9 in Altamont, ex-WSRD Johnstown, is
applying for the "WAAP" calls as "the Point."  Its new PD and morning
talent is Pat Ryan, who comes across the hall from nights at WYJB
(95.5).  And over at WABY/WKLI-WKBE, Paige Laimers succeeds former
co-owner Bill Hunt as general manager.

The 99.7 formerly allocated to Old Forge has been granted a change of
city of license to Newport Village, which in reality will mean 1400
watts from up in the hills east of Utica.  Calls on this yet-unbuilt
rimshotter are "WBGK" for now.

It was "back to basics" when a storm took out power to Ithaca's Eagle
Broadcasting stations (WHCU, WTKO, WYXL, WQNY), forcing engineers to
cobble together some portable equipment, a phone line, and a
flashlight to get WTKO (1470) back on the air from a closet with
emergency information.  Now THAT's radio...

Houghton College in Allegany County is teaming up with Rochester
public broadcaster WXXI to expand the reach of classical WXXI-FM (91.5
Rochester).  If we're reading the FCC filings right, it appears WXXI
will take over Houghton's WJSL (90.3 Houghton), while Houghton applies
for a new campus-based station on 91.1 with 360 watts.  Last we heard
WJSL, it was using the Bath-based Family Life religious network.

Rochester's "Mix 100.5" has ousted much of its airstaff.  The
Jacor-owned AC station dismissed the morning team of Michael Gately
and Shari Smith and afternoon guy (and ex-Boston jock) Tom Sheridan
this week.  Gately and Sheridan were both veterans of AAA WMAX, which
Jacor bought and killed last year.  Smith came down the hall to Mix
(aka WVOR 100.5) last year from Jacor news-talker WHAM (1180).  More
on the replacement staffers next week.

We heard the new "WMNY" legal on Buffalo's AM 1120 (ex-WHTT) today,
but that was the only change to the gospel daytimer.  Over at sister
station WHTT-FM (104.1), PD Tom Schuh is planning the "Buffalo Radio
Reunion" June 25-27.  Contact him at <htt104@aol.com> for more
information on what promises to be a fun weekend.  And if you like
that, you'll love the "Buffalo Radio Roots" site
<http://listen.to/buffaloradioroots>, a very cool RealAudio
compilation of classic airchecks.

Down in the Elmira market, little WEHH (1590 Elmira
Heights-Horseheads) has applied for reinstatement of its expired CP
for 470 watts from a directional array at night.

And across the border in Canada, the CRTC has rejected the application
of CKPC (1380 Brantford) for a 98.9 FM relay in Simcoe, Ontario.  Up
in Quebec, the CBC has applied for another relay in Ste. Anne de
Beaupre, this time 124 watts on 89.9 MHz to rebroadcast the 
"Chaine culturelle" programming from Radio-Canada's CBVX (95.3) in
Quebec City.

Here's a Web site for Canadian radio fans: William Demmery up near
Ottawa checked in to tell us about his Canadian Radio Pages,
<http://www.entrenet.com/mizar/radio.shtml>, which include AM DX news,
a Canadian AM directory, and more.

*This week's top story in MASSACHUSETTS was storm damage to the
"FM128" tower in Newton shared by many Boston FMs.  The transmission
line to the master antenna on the Chestnut Street tower ended up with
water inside, forcing several stations to reduce power or switch to
backup sites.  Affected stations included WBOS (92.9 Brookline), which
used its backup antenna on the UHF candelabra nearby, WBMX (98.5) and
WCRB (102.5 Waltham), which used reduced power from one bay of the
master antenna, and WJMN (94.5), which has its own backup antenna on
FM128.  Two other stations which use FM128, WBUR (90.9) and WODS
(103.3), have their own antennas and were not affected.

The three people with AM stereo receivers in Greater Boston may be
pleased to know that WBZ (1030) has fixed its stereo generator and is
once again available in glorious C-QUAM.  (Okay, we're being
sarcastic...but it's getting to the point where even at night, it's
hard to find anything that lights the stereo indicator on any of this
writer's five AM stereo radios...)

Newton's WNTN (1550) now has a Web presence at <http://www.wntn.com>.

Down on the Cape, there's a new morning host at WCIB (101.9
Falmouth).  Frankie Foxx is out, and Kim Luve, formerly of WXEX (99.7
Wakefield-Peace Dale RI), comes on board.  

You'll have a while longer to submit your comments to the FCC on
low-power FM; the comment deadline has been extended from mid-April to
June 1.

*Up in MAINE, the days of "Mount Rialto Radio" are numbered.  WCDQ
(92.1 Sanford) and sister AM WSME (1220 Sanford) are being sold to
Boston's Steve Mindich and Phoenix Media Group.  When the sale closes,
WCDQ's eclectic rock format will give way to a relay of Mindich modern
rocker WFNX (101.7 Lynn), with the new calls "WPHX" being requested.
(Those with particularly long memories will recall that Mindich wanted
to use that callsign in the early '90s when he planned to purchase
Channel 46 in Norwell, then WHRC-TV and now WPXB).  WSME will
apparently stay with its syndicated talk format (and, NERW wonders,
maybe even bother to legal ID once in a while?)

At WGAN (560 Portland), budget cuts led to the elimination this week
of the morning-show producer position.  Out, as a result, is Adam
Wolf, who moved up to WGAN from Boston's WBZ a couple of years ago.
NERW's sorry to hear that; Adam is a former WBZ colleague and a good
radio guy.

Cumulus has named new market managers for its Maine clusters.  Tim
Gatz will be based in Gardiner and oversee the Augusta-market cluster
of WFAU/WSKW-WHQO/WCTB-WCME/WKCG/WABK-WIGY/WTOS, while Al Perry will
oversee the Bangor-market cluster of WDEA/WBZN/WEZQ/WQCB/WWMJ.

And up in Winter Harbor, WAKN (97.7) has applied for a license to
cover.  Anyone hearing anything up there yet?

*A programming change in the NEW HAMPSHIRE Seacoast market: WTSN
(1270 Dover) is dropping local afternoon programming, in favor of
Dr. Joy Browne from 3-7 PM.  Howie Carr also disappears from WTSN in
the process; he had been on from 3-5 PM.  WTSN is now local in morning
drive and from 11 AM-12:30 PM.

More surprise programming shifts at the always-unpredictable WKBR
(1250 Manchester) this week, with ESPN Radio replacing One-on-One
sports early in the week, then going back to the One-on-One folks
later in the week.  Huh?

Paul Parent's new syndicated gardening show will be heard Sunday
mornings (as it was on Boston's WRKO until recently) on WGIR (610
Manchester) and Seacoast relays WGIN (1540)/WGIP (930).  

And in the Upper Valley, Bob Vinikoor is looking for a co-host to
share morning duties with Pete Ferrand on talker WNTK (1020
Newport/99.7 New London).  Contact him at <wntk1020@aol.com> if you're
interested.  Bob reports he's going to court to fight zoning
restrictions that have kept his WQTH (720 Hanover) from being built.

*The RHODE ISLAND DJ who got his station fined by the FCC has been
fired.  Back Bay Broadcasting dismissed Mike Neal from WWKX (106.3
Woonsocket) this week.

Across town, we hear ENCO automation is replacing several live DJ
shifts at Citadel's WPRO-FM (92.3 Providence) and WWLI (105.1
Providence).

*We'll start CONNECTICUT's news this week with a bit of a format
change.  The syndicated "Music of Your Life" is replacing much of the
talk programming middays, evenings, and overnights on WATR (1320
Waterbury).  Howie Carr holds down afternoons from Boston, and local
morning and noontime programming remains unchanged.

A correction: Greg Roche is still the PD at WWYZ (92.5 Waterbury), and
checked in to tell us he's not going anywhere, no matter what we
reported last week.  NERW sincerely regrets the error.

New Haven's WELI (960) is adding a familiar voice to the Jerry
Kristafer morning show, and, like Kristafer, he's a Hartford radio
veteran.  Gary Lee Horn was half of the "Picozzi and the Horn" show on
WHCN (105.9) until he was fired two years ago.  He joins WELI next
week.

Revival Christian Ministries has applied for an 89.7 translator in
Vernon -- but the application says it's supposed to relay "WESU,"
which is the 88.1 student-run station at Wesleyan University in
Middletown.  Once again, "Huh?"

And a Federal judge has cut the sex-discrimination award to former
WFSB (Channel 3) anchor Janet Peckinpaugh.  A jury awarded her $8.8
million earlier this year; now that's been reduced to $3.79 million.
Former WFSB owner Post-Newsweek says it still plans to appeal the
verdict.

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- -=Scott Fybush - NorthEast Radio Watch - (c) 1999=-

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