No Subject

In MASSACHUSETTS, veterans of WFCR (88.5 Amherst) are mourning Fred
Calland, who died Oct. 22 at his home in Fairfax, Virginia.  While
better known as a longtime NPR music producer, Calland was a host at
WFCR in the 1960s.

Tele-Media is making all the news in NEW HAMPSHIRE, adding not only
WKNE (1290/103.7) Keene, as we told you last week, but also picking up
WHOB (106.3 Nashua) from Mario DeCarlo, who put the station back on
the air in 1987 after WOTW-FM lost its license for the frequency.
DeCarlo says at age 77, it was time to sell, but he says the hot AC
format is likely to remain in place.  Tele-Media entered New Hampshire
a few weeks ago by purchasing WNNH (99.1 Henniker), which received FCC
approval this week for its tower move from Pat's Peak to Gould Hill in
Contoocook.  

Over to VERMONT we go, and another Tele-Media acquisition: the company
also gets WKNE's sister stations in Brattleboro, WKVT AM-FM
(1490/92.7), from Richard Lightfoot.  Meantime up in Saint Albans,
WWSR (1420) is on its new tower just east of the old one (as of
October 15), and now John Kimel is getting ready to take down the
1941-vintage 210-foot self-supporting tower behind the WWSR studios.
Anyone in need of a tower is invited to call John at WWSR for more
information.  (Hmmmmm...wouldn't THAT look nice in the backyard of the
new NERW Central?)

MAINE voters are just a few days from deciding on that Maine Public
Broadcasting DTV bond issue, and we were tickled to see NERW quoted in
the Casco Bay Weekly addressing the issue.  Just to be clear about it,
we've got nothing against public broadcasting (especially with what
promises to be a fine Ken Burns film on Rochester's own Susan
B. Anthony airing next weekend), and we hope every public broadcaster
is able to make a successful DTV conversion.  But we think MPBN has
been awfully heavy-handed in recent months, first with the clumsy
handling of the WMHB frequency grab, then with the scare tactics being
used to push the bond-issue vote.  It's a lousy way to make friends,
guys...

Dan Mason is leaving the Pine Tree State behind, as the WMME (92.3
Augusta) PD gives the Moose a goodbye Kiss.  He's making a big jump in
market size to go to work for Clear Channel's Cleveland CHR, WAKS
(104.9 Lorain).  Congratulations!

Northern Broadcast Ministries has applied for a new 90.7, presumably
religious, up in Caribou -- which is already home to religious WFST
(600).  

And the former W219CC in Bangor is moving from 91.7 to 91.5 to become
W218BJ, relaying California religious station KLVC.

*Up in CANADA this week, the CRTC weighed in on the new FM allocation
in London, Ontario, awarding it to Toronto's CHUM Group, which until
now has had no radio presence in the market (it owns CFPL-TV and has a
nearby relay of Toronto's CITY-TV).  Losing out in the fight for 102.3
were Affinity Broadcasting, CKSL (1410) in London, and CKOT (1510) in
nearby Tillsonburg, which thus gets to remain Canada's last daytimer.
Still to come from the CRTC are rulings on new FM channels in
Hamilton, Belleville, and Kingston.  (And for those who think living
in a fantasy world is just an FCC thing, check out the CRTC decisions
on the last remaining FMs in Victoria, British Columbia, where the CBC
appears to be seriously trying to add not one but two French-language
services to a market that has essentially no Francophone population.
Incroyable!)

Back to the East for one moment: CKDX (88.5 Newmarket) will get a big
boost in serving its territory north of Toronto, with a power increase
from 500 watts to 11,300 watts.  Maybe now we can aircheck their new
country format successfully...

*And that's it for this week.  We'll be a bit early next Friday, as we
head for the airport and a vacation in Seattle, Vancouver, and, mais
oui, Victoria -- and then a bit late the following weekend (November
12) as we recover from the red-eye flight home.  Until then, we
suggest a visit to <http://www.reelradio.com> on or after Halloween --
we hear the folks who revamped WVWA, Pound Ridge back in the 70s are
(NINE!) at it again...

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

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