NorthEast Radio Watch 2/18: Consolidating in Bangor

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

*Suppose Stephen King is scared yet?  His MAINE hometown of Bangor
will soon be home to two multi-station groups competing with his own
WZON (620) and WKIT (100.3 Brewer).  Cumulus came first, assembling a
four FM, one AM group (WDEA, WEZQ, WWMJ, WQCB, WBZN) in 1997-98.  Now
a company called Communications Capital Managers is assembling a five
FM group in two separate purchases.

CCM, which is headed by a former principal in 62nd Street
Broadcasting, is buying talker WVOM (103.9 Howland) and adult AC WBYA
(101.7 Searsport) from Jerry Evans' Moon Song Broadcasting, and
combining them with three stations from Mark Osborne and Natalie Knox:
hot AC WKSQ (94.5 Ellsworth), country WLKE (99.1 Bar Harbor), and
country WBFB (104.7 Belfast).  We hear the price on the Osborne/Knox
stations was $8.2 million; no word yet on the Evans properties.  The
usual "no format changes are planned" applies here; we'll wait and
see.