NorthEast Radio Watch 4/21: WMJQ Comes Home

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

*It's always nice to welcome a heritage call back home.  It's even
nicer when it's NERW's own home town in upstate NEW YORK, and it's
nicer still to be able to report that NERW had a hand in making it
happen!

You may recall our musing back on April 7 about how nice it would be
to see the WMJQ calls return to Rochester after being dropped by
Buffalo's 102.5, now "Star" WTSS.  The idea struck a chord with
station owner George Kimble, who promptly grabbed the WMJQ calls for
Brockport's 105.5, the erstwhile WASB-FM.

Overly alert readers of NERW might recall that 105.5 had been granted
a call change to WRPO last June (and it turns out we weren't off-base
in thinking that might have something to do with the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra), but that call was never actually used, and
105.5 remained a simulcast of religious WASB (1590 Brockport).  

We're told the WMJQ calls will be back on the Rochester airwaves on
Monday (4/24), with a new tower site for the station to be announced
soon as well.  

Minor irony here: The original WMJQ in Rochester (92.5, now WBEE-FM)
is now owned by Entercom, the same group that dropped the WMJQ calls
in Buffalo last month.

NERW's next project: getting the "WVET" calls back on Flower City
radio...

*Elsewhee in the Empire State: Manhattan listeners to the AC sounds of
WFAS-FM (103.9 White Plains) may hear something else on Channel 280
soon.  A company called "Sports Spectrum" has been granted an
experimental license for WD2XFT, which will apparently provide on-site
broadcasts of sporting events.  The FCC's database being what it is,
we have no information yet on power or exact location, but rest
assured we'll bring it to you as it becomes available.

Over in Buffalo, WKSE (98.5 Niagara Falls) has collected more than 5
million pennies as part of this year's "High School Spirit" contest.
Last year, listeners sent in postcards to vote for their favorite high
school; this time around, the collected coins amount to a $50,000-plus
donation (and counting) to Children's Hospital.  (NERW thinks those AM
1520 listeners must be responsible for the huge growth of the contest
this year!)  The contest wraps up May 5, with the winner to be
announced a week later.

"Clear"-ing things up in Albany: It's Concord Media Group that will be
picking up WTRY (980 Troy) for $1.6 million as part of the Clear
Channel/AMFM spinoffs -- and we hear Concord will then negotiate an
LMA that will leave Clear Channel running AM 980.  We also hear a
format change from oldies is in the works for the AM.  (Concord also
gets KVET 1300 in Austin as part of the spins; it was also involved in
a three-way swap in Tampa in which it traded what was once WSUN 620
for the former Clear Channel facility on 570 in Pinellas Park,
Florida).