No Subject

Pansullo retired from WEEI when the station switched from news to
sports in 1991.  He had suffered numerous heart attacks and undergone
several bypass operations.  Pansullo was 74.

*VERMONT is also mourning this week, with word that Bob Lemire,
longtime host of the Friday night "Remember Then" oldies show on
WKVT-FM (92.7 Brattleboro) died January 21 at the too-young age of
59.  Lemire's son Tad, who does mornings at WCTK (98.1 New
Bedford-Providence), took over his father's shift last Friday for a
farewell show.

*Not much news from the rest of New England this week, though we do
note that former WWYZ (92.5 Waterbury CT) jock John Garabo is on the
beach after several years of mornings at WDSY (107.9) in Pittsburgh.
He's eager to talk jobs at <garabo108@aol.com>, and says he "never
should have left Hartford."

*Into NEW YORK we go, then, with a bit more on the WGR/WBEN/WWKB
consolidation in Buffalo.  The sounds of hit radio returned to 1520
last Sunday morning (1/30), as the station began a partial simulcast
with "Kiss" WKSE (98.5 Niagara Falls).  1520 breaks away from the FM
for Canisius College sports and for paid religion at night.  We'll
admit there's something fun about hearing Britney Spears on the AM
dial, but it still seems like a waste of a good 50 kilowatts.
Meantime down the dial, Chris "Bulldog" Parker indeed joined Tom
Bauerle in mornings on "WGR Sportsradio 55" (see the new logo at
<http://www.wgr55.com>), but at least one former WBEN colleague isn't
making the move.  Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff refused to join the
WGR staff, saying the station's afternoon host, Chuck Dickerson, is
biased against his team.  That team, by the way, isn't on *any* of the
Entercom stations -- it, along with the Bills, is on Citadel's FM
group.  Kudos to the Buffalo News for a cogent editorial
<http://www1.buffnews.com/editorial/20000131/1000029.htm> alerting
Buffalo to the loss of a news voice.

Two quick bits of Rochester TV news: WROC-TV (Channel 8) unveiled a
new set and a new, very classy, on-air look on Monday.  Now known as
"News 8 Now," the 5, 6, and 11 shows add Kevin Doran as anchor, coming
from WRTV (Channel 6) in Indianapolis.  Across town at WUHF (Channel
31), "The Ten O'Clock News" expands to an hour next Monday (2/7).  On
the radio side in Rochester, WHAM (1180) is acknowleging its long
history in an unusual way: a T-shirt featuring four historic logos,
including one from the pre-NARBA 1150 days.  (We hear you can get one
by sending $15 to WHAM).  The station's redesigned Web site,
<http://www.wham1180.com>, while missing niceties like a program
schedule, *is* now touting a forthcoming live Webcast, which would be
Rochester's first on the AM side.

A Syracuse correction: John Carucci is joining WSEN (92.1
Baldwinsville) for evenings, not mornings.  That shift is being filled
by former midday guy Gary Dunes, with Diane Wade moving from nights to
middays.

More religious radio is on the way to Elmira and Corning: Family Life
has been granted an 88.1 Elmira translator, W201CO, for WCII (88.5
Spencer), which is a little odd because Family Life already has its
own Elmira primary, WCIH (90.3).  Admittedly, the WCIH transmitter is
south of the border in Pennsylvania and has problems reaching into
some areas of Elmira...but still, shouldn't an Elmira translator have
WCIH and not WCII as the primary?  Just up I-86 in Corning, Family
Worship Center's mammoth translator grab includes an application for
89.5; we wouldn't be surprised to see Geneva's WEOS (89.7) mount a
challenge, and we wonder whether Binghamton's WSKG (89.3) will care,
given that its signal is now heard in Corning on WSQE (91.1).

Downstate, some well-known jocks are joining WBAB (102.3 Babylon) out
on Long Island.  Ralph Tortora comes back to the Cox rocker for
afternoons, and Donna Donna of WLIR/WDRE fame is now doing middays
after a fill-in stint at New York's WAXQ.  PD Eric Wellman is out; no
word on a replacement.

*A quiet week again in CANADA, with the only change on the horizon an
application by CKDU, at Dalhousie University in Halifax, to move from
97.5 to 88.1 and boost power from 33 watts to 520.  The CRTC's been
preoccupied with the hearings on Toronto's 740, 93.5, and 106.3, which
began Monday.  Only one development to report so far: Erin McNulty has
withdrawn her application for 93.5.  

Away from the CRTC, Canadian viewers who were watching TV via
icravetv.com are out of luck for now.  A temporary injunction issued
by a Federal judge in Pittsburgh closed down the streaming TV service
just before the Super Bowl; we'll keep you posted as the courtroom
battles continue.

*We'll close with one more obituary, this time on the national level:
Martha Jean "The Queen" Steinberg died Saturday (1/29) at age 69 in
Detroit, closing a four-decade career that all but defined black radio
in America.  Steinberg started in radio at the legendary WDIA (1070)
in Memphis, moving to Detroit in 1963 to work at WCHB, then on 1440.
In 1967, she moved to WJLB (1400/97.9), where she spent 48 hours on
the air non-stop during the riots that summer in an attempt to calm
tensions.  When WJLB's owner sought to pull Steinberg's show off the
music-oriented FM signal in 1982, she formed a group to buy WJLB(AM)
from Booth, renaming the station WQBH ("Queen Broadcasts Here").  She
bought WQBH outright in 1997.  An inductee to the Black Radio Hall of
Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Steinberg continued to host her
daily "Inspiration Time" midday show on WQBH until just a few weeks ago.  
She'll be missed.

*That's it for another week; we'll see you next Friday!

---------------------NorthEast Radio Watch------------------------
                     (c)2000 Scott Fybush

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