NorthEast Radio Watch 4/28: WNUC Sells Again

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

*The last major independently-owned FM station in the Buffalo market is
being sold to cable giant Adelphia Communications.  WNUC (107.7
Wethersfield) will add programming from Adelphia's Empire Sports
Network to its country format when the deal closes this summer.

WNUC is one of the oldest FM licenses in Western New York, tracing
its lineage back to 1948, when, as WFNF, it was part of the early
Rural Radio Network that relayed WQXR-FM New York across the state.
In later years, as WRRL and then as WBIV, it was part of the Christian
Broadcasting Network's "Ivy Network" that supplanted Rural Radio in
the 1960s.  

In 1982, WBIV was sold and became WUWU, a quirky rock station that
gained a following across Buffalo and into Rochester, where its signal
penetrated well (and still does).  WUWU later went jazz, then easy
listening as WEZQ.  Seller John Casciani purchased the station in 1988
as smooth-jazz WBMW, flipping it to country as WNUC "New Country" a
short time later.

Even as talks leading to the sale were taking place, WNUC modified
its format last month, becoming harder-edged country as "The Bullet" 
(leading one local wag, on hearing of the sale, to quip, "So the
Bullet missed its target?")

This is the latest sign of Adelphia's committment to the Buffalo
market; the company is also negotiating with the city of Buffalo to
build a major office building on the city's waterfront to accomodate
the space needs the company can no longer meet in its tiny hometown of
Coudersport, Pennsylvania.

*Elsewhere in NEW YORK, the morning show linuep is changing yet again
at WABC (770 New York).  As had been widely expected, the Rocky Allen
Showgram, brought over from sister station WPLJ, was pulled from WABC
in favor of veteran station hosts Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby, who move
to mornings from the 6-8 PM slot.  Another veteran WABC host, former
mayor Ed Koch, is returning to radio with a one-hour afternoon gig on
WEVD (1050).

Out in the 'burbs, PD Darrin Smith leaves WYNY (107.1 Briarcliff
Manor) and its "Y107" sisters ringing the metro to become operations
manager of inyourradio.com, yet another Net startup.

Upstate, Mike Doyle moves down the Thruway from Pilot's Syracuse group
(WNSS, WNTQ, WAQX, WLTI), where he was market manager, to become GM of
Entercom's Rochester group (WEZO, WBEE-FM, WQRV, WBBF).  Still to be
filled at Entercom: openings for a CE and a night slammer for "99BBF".

One to ponder: Our Indiana Radio Watch counterpart, Blaine Thompson,
checks in with a question concerning Auricle Communications, the
operator of WFMU (91.1 East Orange NJ) and its Catskill satellite,
WXHD (90.1 Mount Hope).  Anyone who knows why Auricle now has a CP in,
of all places, Chesterton, Indiana is asked to contact us and we'll
pass it along to Blaine....

Our condolences to family and fans of Russ "The Moose" Syracuse, who
died April 18 at age 70.  While Syracuse was better known for his West
Coast work at KYA and other San Francisco stations, his career began
in Upstate New York, with his nickname coming from a particularly
noisy entrance into the WKBW studios circa 1962.

*Moving along to CONNECTICUT, there's a new job for veteran WNEW-FM
jock Carol Miller, who joins WHCN (105.9 Hartford) as afternoon jock
and "Rock Radio Consultant."

"Univision 18"?  Sure looks that way, according to an item in this
week's "Broadcasting & Cable."  It seems that WHCT, along with WNDS
(Channel 50) in Derry NH, WFMZ-TV (Channel 69) in Allentown PA, and
WACI (Channel 62) in Atlantic City NJ, was identified as one of
several stations to be acquired by Entravision, whose stations are all
Univision affiliates.  While Entravision is now embroiled in a lawsuit
by the station broker who arranged the deals, it appears that the sale
of WHCT may still take place...stay tuned.

Monroe's WMNR (88.1) wants to add three new translators to its
network.  Among the applications this week: 91.9 in Watertown CT, 89.1
in Waterville CT, and an 88.3 identified as "Waterville, Colorado."
We have our doubts on this one...

*From MASSACHUSETTS this week comes word that WBPX (Channel 68) isn't
moving very far down Soldiers Field Road from its former home at
number 1660.  The new location?  The old Ground Round restaurant next
door to WBZ's studios at 1170, creating a "broadcast row" to rival the
one on Morrissey Boulevard.

With hockey out of season, WCAP (980 Lowell) needed something else to
fill its Saturday nights, and in steps Gary Francis, whose "Saturday
Night Sock Hop" will run from 7 till midnight.

More on the Winter Arbitrons next week, but for now we'll just note
that WBZ (1030) dominated Boston's 12+ book, as it traditionally does
each winter, putting more than three points between itself and
number-two WMJX.  Down at the bottom, WBOT (97.7 Brockton) made its
first appearance above the line, tied with new talker WTKK (96.9)
despite the latter's huge signal advantage.  Also placing well despite
a signal deficiency in Boston proper: soft AC WPLM-FM (99.1), which
tied WBOS (92.9 Brookline)...and we're *still* not gonna speculate
about what those ratings could mean for the future of 'BOS's format.

And while we don't normally mention cable TV in this column, we can't
ignore the big trade that's moving cable customers in Boston, Cambridge,
and Somerville from Cablevision to MediaOne.  In exchange, Long Island-
based Cablevision gets MediaOne's systems in the New York metro, 
consolidating its hold on just about everything in the area outside
the city itself.  (MediaOne, meantime, now dominates pretty much 
all of eastern New England...)

*A new set of calls in VERMONT: WCKP will go with the 91.9 in Putney,
joining the Christian Ministries chain that includes stations in
Barre, St. Johnsbury, and Bolton.

*Two AM frequencies in CANADA are silent now, with the end of the
simulcasting on Montreal's CIQC (600) and CKVL (850) as of last Sunday
(4/23) at midnight.  The stations have been replaced by CINW (940) and
CINF (690), with no sign -- yet -- of applications to take over their
old frequencies.  This should mean an easier time for outlying
listeners to Boston's WEEI (850) this winter; the station's signal is
often plagued by interference from CKVL to the north.

*Finally this week, a few words about the FCC's formal Report & Order
on noncommercial station licensing (which you can read yourself at
<http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Orders/2000/fcc00120.txt>):

It's not a perfect solution, but NERW thinks the FCC's plan to use a
point system to decide between competing applicants for noncommercial
stations is a pretty good one.  To recap: The plan would use a point
system to choose the winners for each contested frequency, with three
points going to local applicants, two to statewide public radio
outlets, two to those with no other broadcast outlets, and ties
decided by which applicant has the fewest other stations and pending
apps.

What we *really* like about this proposal is this: it includes
translators.  What we like even more is this: it includes an immediate
freeze on new noncomm applications of all kinds, until the new rules
can be put into effect.

So for the mammoth translator abusers, this means that any of their
applications can be easily quashed simply by the presence of a
competing local allocation.  That's the good part.

But the new rules also have a negative side to them.  Like the LPFM
rules, these rules assume that it's always in the public interest to
fill any available frequency.  That's not good news for noncomm
stations like Boston's WUMB (91.9), which has been forced into filing
defensive applications for frequencies on its own fringes to keep them
from being nibbled away by new noncomms.  (Under the new rules, which
won't apply to currently-pending applications like WUMB's, the station
would lose its 91.7 Stow proposal in favor of WAVM's power upgrade,
and would lose its 91.3 Orleans application to the competing proposal
from WOMR Provincetown for the frequency).

While we remain in favor of additional outlets for community
broadcasting, and we think the latest noncomm plan is a huge step
towards ensuring that such outlets truly belong to their communities
(though we suspect the big religious chains will start using local
"strawmen" to file their applications), we're increasingly convinced
that there has to be a way for the FCC to begin addressing the
crowding that's making huge chunks of the FM dial all but unusable in
some areas.  There's a difference between broadcast services like FM
radio and point-to-point services like cellular and PCS, but it's
getting lost quickly.  How about points for existing stations trying
to hang on to their fringe coverage without needing to add to the
noise?

*That's all for another week...see you in May!

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

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