NorthEast Radio Watch 8/27: Maine Station Owner Dies in Plane Crash

[Scott D Fybush <fybush@world.std.com>]

*We begin this week's news up in MAINE, where J.J. Jeffrey's new
Atlantic Coast Communications has made another purchase.  As expected,
Jeffrey is adding WXGL (95.5 Topsham) to the group that already
includes WRED (95.9 Saco), WJAE (1440 Westbrook-Portland), and WJJB
(900 Brunswick).  Will the $1.3 million purchase put WXGL in a
simulcast with WRED?  Or will some creative engineering with the two
second-adjacents create a new full-market Portland signal?  We'll be
watching...

Up the coast, some sad news to report from Rockland, where WMCM/WRKD
owner Peter Orne Sr. died this week in the crash of the private plane
he was piloting.  Orne grew up in Rockland, attended Bowdoin College,
and went into TV sales and management, eventually ending up at WTNH in
New Haven, then as general manager of WVII in Bangor, a post he left
to go into radio ownership (at one time including WABI/WWBX Bangor in
addition to the Rockland stations).  Orne's son, Peter Jr., takes over
management of WMCM/WRCD.  Peter Orne Sr. was 64.  A memorial service
will be held Saturday.

*Across the border in NEW HAMPSHIRE, there's one station sale to
report and another possibly on the way, as Tele-Media moves into the
Granite State by buying Clark Smidt's oldies WNNH (99.1 Henniker) in
the Concord market.  Smidt stays on with the new owners as "director
of procurement for New England."  Tele-Media (which northeast
listeners know from the Albany WABY/WCPT/WKLI group) is reportedly
looking at Nashua's WHOB as its next acquisition -- but we've heard
THAT station mentioned in enough rumors to stock an entire issue of
Inside Radio!

*Don Imus switched MASSACHUSETTS affiliates on schedule Monday, with
WSJZ (96.9 Boston) taking over from WEEI (850) (and from Worcester's
WWTM, which also loses the I-man).  Departing WSJZ PD Shirley
Maldonado sent out an e-mail farewell to the station's mailing list
this week, mentioning the Web as the only local source for smooth jazz
all day (with sister station WMJX offering a few hours on Sunday
mornings).  

Out on the Cape, word is that WCDJ (102.3 Truro) is truly on the air
with a whopping 70 watts and a CD of jazz music.  Our Cape spies also
note that WWKJ (101.1 Mashpee) is on with the new 6kw facility at the
Mashpee Industrial Park, and that WCOD (106.1 Hyannis) is at long last
running its full licensed 50kw (it had been at 45kw for some time).

*There's a new PD at WWBB (101.5 Providence) and WWRX (103.7 Westerly)
in RHODE ISLAND, but Bill Weston is no stranger to the Ocean State.
Weston used to program WHJY (94.1) under GM Jim Corwin, who also made
the jump to B101 and WRX.  Weston had been down in New York at WAXQ
and with the MJI syndication folks.

A correction: WHKK and WXEX are Citadel stations, not Capstar (too
many C-groups out there!)

*Not much news from CONNECTICUT, except for a new GM at Radio Towers
Park in Hamden.  Jim Simonetti moves up from GSM to replace Faith Zila
in the top job at WKCI (101.3) and sister stations WAVZ (1300) and
WELI (960) New Haven.

Over in Farmington, Robin King's not sticking around at the new
office-park studios of WTIC (1080 Hartford).  Friday (8/27) was her
last day as morning co-host; she's leaving to spend more time being
her kids' mom (as opposed to talking about it on the radio!)

*Our VERMONT listeners have checked in to report that WEXP in Brandon
is indeed testing on 101.5 -- the 101.9 cited in the newspaper
articles was the old CP frequency, which was moved to make room for
WCVR Randolph to move from 102.3 to 102.1 a few years ago.  WEXP is
reportedly forcing Rutland-area listeners of WENU (101.7 Hudson Falls
NY) to look elsewhere for adult standards, which has got to be good
news for that Monty fellow out on Post Road.  

*We'll start our NEW YORK report out at the tip of Long Island, where
the AP reports WRIV (1390 Riverhead) is about to lose its transmitter
site to an expansion of the municipal sewage-treatment plant (aren't
ALL AM sites near sewage plants, after all?)  While the station looks
for another site, it plans to lease the air rights to its old site --
and transmit into a 146-foot longwire attached to a balloon high
overhead!  Guess we have no choice but to make that Long Island trip
now...

Up in Middletown (well, "down" in Middletown from our perspective,
actually), Crystal Communications is making some big changes at WALL
(1340), as the station's local programming gives way to a relay of
WEOK (1390) in Poughkeepsie.  Morning host John Moultrie was to have
remained on WALL until next Friday (9/3), but after he voiced his
opinions on the changes a bit too loudly, the plug was pulled a bit
early.  Also leaving is polka guy Jimmy Sturr, who returns to nearby
WTBQ (1110 Warwick).  Speaking of WTBQ, which we really should do more
often, Dale Anderson is departing as news director to go home to New
Jersey.  OM Chris Cordani will fill in for now.  And former morning
guy Rob McLean rejoins the station as evening jock.  

Do the northern Catskills really need a new radio station?  Any sane
person might look at the plethora of Poughkeepsie relays, "originating
stations for New Jersey translators" (speaking of which, WJUX
Monticello won a reprieve from its license-cancellation battle this
week, as the FCC overruled a staff decision that Monticello Mountain
Broadcasting had surrendered control of the station to Gerry Turro),
and newly-built, interim-programmed jukeboxes, and might conclude that
the answer is "no."  Not the folks at the FCC -- they've opened up
102.9A at Narrowsburg, over there in the hills just east of Honesdale,
PA.  

A Johnstown correction: that's WIZR on 930, not "WIZN," which is of
course up in Vergennes, Vermont (and a much more fun station to listen
to, to boot!)

Up north, WVNC (96.7 Canton) is running nothing but a loop of 70s and
80s hits as it prepares to relaunch itself on Wednesday (9/1) as "the
new 96.7" playing -- you guessed it -- 70s, 80s, and 90s hits.  WVNC
had been hot AC as "Mix 96."

Down in Elmira, Pensacola Christian Church has applied for a change of
frequency for its WPCS translator.  W209BG wants to move off 89.3 to
88.9 with a directional antenna.

And while the trades are reporting a sale of WUTV (Channel 29) in
Buffalo and WUHF (Channel 31) in Rochester, it's really not much of a
big deal.  The stations were to have been sold directly from Sullivan
Broadcasting to Sinclair, but they'll take a detour first while
Sinclair waits for the sale of WROC-TV (Channel 8) in Rochester from
Smith Broadcasting (which has ownership ties to Sinclair) to Nexstar
to clear.  So until then, WUTV and WUHF will be owned by a shell
company called BS&L Broadcasting, controlled by one Joseph Koff -- but
they'll be LMA'd to Sinclair, which will keep operating them.  Clear
as dirt?  Good...we're confused too.

*It's less confusing to look up at CANADA, where letters of intent
were due last week for the 740 channel (and the new 93.5 FM channel)
in Toronto.  All the usual suspects piled on, including CHUM Group,
Shaw, Telemedia, CHIN, "CIRC" (which operates multilingual CIRV),
Fairchild Radio, Durham Radio (CJKX Ajax), and Oakville's CHWO.
Applying for the FM, among others, was Denholm Jolly, who lost out on
the 99.1 channel to the CBC and said at the time that he wasn't going
to take 93.5 as a consolation prize.  Formal applications are due
later this month.

Over in Quebec, the CBC wants to add English-language Radio 2 service
to Sherbrooke, with a 23.4 kW relay of CBM-FM (93.5 Montreal) on 89.7,
presumably from the usual Mont Orford site.  Speaking of Montreal
radio, a group of disgruntled listeners marked Friday's first
anniversary of CHOM's cancellation of Howard Stern by staging a "Great
Montreal Radio Turn-Off."  Check out all the details at their Web
site, <http://www.cam.org/~howardg/turnoff.html>.  

Maritimes?  We've got that, too, as CJYC (98.9 Saint John NB) again
applies to the CRTC to drop power from 50kw to 12kw.  "C98"'s old
owners, NewCap, had been granted that drop (which would have allowed
them to move the transmitter from Sandy Point just north of Saint John
to Mount Champlain, halfway between Saint John and Fredericton), but
never built it.  Now Maritime Broadcasting System, the new owner, is
applying to try it again.  

*Out on the Web: "Radio's Best Friend," Michigan's Art Vuolo, has
finally put his huge collection of "video airchecks" on-line.  Pay a
visit to his Web site at <http://www.vuolovideo.com> to see the whole
list.  And if you ever listened to the "Big 8," you should have been
tuned in to NPR's All Things Considered Friday afternoon (8/27), as
the year-long "Lost and Found Sound" project presented a 20-minute
tribute to the mighty CKLW.  Here in NERW-land, we only heard the
first half, no thanks to WXXI (1370)'s decision to interrupt halfway
through for local programming (we miss our days in a multiple-NPR
market!) -- but you can hear the whole thing in Real Audio at NPR's
site, <http://www.npr.org/programs/lnfsound/onair>.  Stick around and
check out the rest of the year's offerings while you're there...

*And that'll do it for another week of Northeast radio.  Please note
that NERW will NOT appear next Friday, September 3.  We'll be out of
the region, enjoying the start of the MW DX season with our friends
from the National Radio Club in scenic Bridgeport, West Virginia --
but be with us September 10 as we recap the drive down and back (via
such hotspots as Oil City, Washington, Johnstown, and Lock Haven, PA),
as well as all the news from the NAB Radio Show in Orlando.  See you
in two weeks!

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

No redistribution permitted for commercial use, or for
noncommercial use without prior written permission.

NorthEast Radio Watch is published each Friday night and
distributed immediately to the NERW and Boston Radio
Interest mailing lists.  NERW is also made available the 
following Monday on AIRWAVES/rec.radio.broadcasting.

To be added to the NERW mailing list, send e-mail to
<nerw-request@bostonradio.org> with the word "subscribe"
as the body of the message.  You will receive a confirmation
code to return by e-mail to begin your free subscription.
Please direct any questions about the list process to
<nerw-owner@bostonradio.org>; subscription requests and
questions sent directly to NERW cannot be acted on.

NERW is archived at the Boston Radio Archives,
<http://www.bostonradio.org/radio/bostonradio.html> and
is generally made available there about a week after
publication.  

Opinions expressed in NERW are solely those of the author
and not necessarily those of MIT, LCS, or Time Warner.

NERW welcomes your news and contributions at
<nerw@bostonradio.org>.

- ------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------