NERW 5/14: Greater Media Buys in NJ

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

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                               May 14, 2001

IN THIS ISSUE:

*NEW JERSEY: Greater Media Buys WMTR, WDHA, WRAT
*NEW YORK: Station Swaps Begin on Long Island
*SPECIAL: We Visit Phoenix

-----------------------------by Scott Fybush-----------------------------
-------------------------<http://www.fybush.com>-------------------------

*It's been a long time since Greater Media added to its station count,
but this week we're able to start our update in NEW JERSEY with word
of a four-station sale to the New Brunswick-based group.

New Jersey Broadcasting Partners will sell adult standards simulcast
WMTR (1250 Morristown)/WWTR (1170 Bridgewater), modern rock WDHA
(105.5 Dover) and active rock WRAT (95.9 Point Pleasant) to Greater
Media for an undisclosed amount, adding the four stations to Greater's
existing Central Jersey combo, full-service WCTC (1450 New Brunswick)
and AC WMGQ (98.3 New Brunswick).

Will WMTR/WWTR begin sharing programming with WCTC, extending its
reach in the Jersey suburbs?  We'll keep you posted...

Elsewhere in the Garden State, a call change way down in Salem County:
WNNN (1510 Salem) becomes WFAI, matching the religious station's
"Faith 1510" nickname.  The WNNN calls came over to the AM side a few
years ago from a long run on 101.7 FM, now WJKS and targeting
Wilmington, Del., across the Delaware River.

*Next stop, NEW YORK, and we'll begin with some changes in the Big
Apple.  On the air, fans of Laura Schlessinger will have to stay up
late to hear her advice show starting May 29, when WABC (770) moves
her from 10 AM to 11 PM.  No word yet on how WABC's schedule will
shift to fill Laura's old slot, which was already cut down to two
hours earlier this year.

Meanwhile, WKTU (103.5 Lake Success) PD Frankie Blue addeed another
station to his duties this week, with the departure of Joel Salkowitz
as PD of Clear Channel sister WTJM (105.1 New York).  What will happen
now to the fading "Jammin' Oldies" format?  We'll be watching closely.
Also in the Clear Channel family, WHTZ (100.3 Newark) middayer Lisa
Taylor will be leaving her shift to move to Nashville and start her
own business.  Taylor's been in that spot on Z100 since 1996; now PD
Tom Poleman has two slots to fill, as he continues to search for a
night jock as well.

Out on Long Island's East End, some changes at AAA's four-station
group: the very soft satellite-fed AC of WBAZ (101.7 Southold) showed
up this week as a simulcast on WBSQ (102.5 Bridgehampton), formerly a
slightly harder-edged satellite AC as "Q-Bright."  "Z-Light" will
apparently move to the 102.5 signal soon, leaving 101.7 to do
something new, though it's not yet clear what that might be.

In the Hudson Valley, Frank Osborne's Aurora group closed on its $53
million purchase of Crystal Radio, adding oldies WCZX/WZAD, talk
WEOK/WALL, modern rock WRRV/WRRB, rock WPDH/WPDA and Kingston's
full-service WKNY to its roster of stations in Westchester and
Connecticut.

Moving upstate, WKGB (92.5 Susquehanna PA) has filed its application
to make the move closer in to Binghamton.  WKGB is swapping
communities of license with tower-mate WCDW (100.5 Conklin), and while
the Susquehanna-licensed WCDW will stay on its tower in the hills east
of Binghamton, WKGB plans to move to the Windy Hill site of fellow
Clear Channel outlet WINR (680 Binghamton).  With 1430 watts from 206
meters above average terrain, presumably from the old WINR-TV 40 stick
that still stands at the WINR site, WKGB should have much improved
coverage of Binghamton from its new location if the FCC approves.

Over in Oneonta, Mars Hill Network wins approval for a new WMHR
translator.  W212BS will operate on 90.3, despite a petition to deny
that the FCC rejected.  

Is Clear Channel closer to taking over at WVOA (105.1 DeRuyter)?
We've got to think the answer is yes; this week, the WVOA calls
swapped places with WVOQ (103.9 Mexico). The 103.9 signal, now
officially WVOA, is where the religious/ethnic format will stay once
105.1 changes hands.

Family Life Ministries has applied (again) to boost power at WCIY
(88.9 Canandaigua). An earlier CP to increase power from 70 watts to
500 watts atop Bristol Mountain expired unbuilt; now FLM has applied
again to make essentially the same upgrade.  Twenty miles or so to the
northeast, a sharp-eyed NERW reader spotted a new antenna at the WVOR
(100.5 Rochester) site atop Baker Hill on the Victor-Perinton line. We
checked it out ourselves over the weekend, and there is indeed a new
WVOR antenna on the old tower. We're not convinced, though, that the
new antenna is a sign that WNVE (95.1 Honeoye Falls) will finally
build out its CP to move to Baker from Bristol.

Over in Buffalo, we thought the WNSA translator on 107.3 sounded a lot
stronger as we returned home from Toronto and the end of CHUM, and we
were right. The all-sports signal has moved W297AB (107.3
Williamsville) from the attic of its old Main Street studios to
LaSalle Avenue on the Buffalo/Amherst line, and is now running 50
watts from either the WUFO (1080 Amherst) stick there or from the
nearby cable tower. We'll check it out next time we're out Buffalo
way...

*In CONNECTICUT, Mega Broadcasting pulled the plug on urban "910 Jamz"
this week, switching WNEZ (910 New Britain) to a simulcast of
Spanish-language "Mega 1230," WLAT Manchester. We won't be surprised
to see a format change on 1230 at some point. NERW suspects the 910
format change was inevitable, now that the urban format WNEZ was
running has moved to FM on Infinity's WZMX (93.7 Hartford).

On the AM dial, WTIC (1080) makes an overnight lineup change,
replacing Joey Reynolds' WOR Network show with Art Bell's Premiere
offering.

*From RHODE ISLAND comes word of an actual LPFM construction permit
being granted.  The Newport Musical Arts Association is the lucky
permittee, winning the right to put a 100-watt signal on the air on
105.9 in Newport.  The antenna, which will be 42.3 meters above
average terrain, will be on the west side of historic Bellevue Avenue,
just south of Pelham Street and the Old Stone Tower.  

We still don't know just what Hall is planning for its new
acquisition, WHRC (1450 West Warwick), but at least we know what the
new calls will be.  Hall is reaching way back into history to return
the original WWRI calls to the station, ex-WKRI, ex-WHIM, ex-WDYZ.

*MASSACHUSETTS radio is playing musical chairs again: John Osterlind,
longtime midday guy ("O-Zone") on active rock WAAF (107.3
Worcester), is moving across the hall at Entercom to join Peter Blute
on the morning show at talker WRKO (680 Boston). Osterlind fills the
seat left vacant since the death earlier this year of Andy
Moes. Meantime, rumor has former WAAF afternoon guy Tom Birdsey
following former boss Bruce Mittman to WFNX (101.7 Lynn) and the
afternoon shift, competing against former WAAF partner Rocko in the
timeslot. And while Osterlind arrives at WRKO, PD Al Mayers
is gone; he's reportedly headed to New York to be station manager at
Bloomberg newser WBBR, says M Street.

On the North Shore, WNSH (1570 Beverly) is back on the air with its
usual talk programming, though NERW's correspondents up that way say
the station's signal still isn't anything much to write home about.

Out on Cape Cod, Living Proof Inc. has modified its proposal for a new
station on 90.7 in Wellfleet. Instead of seeking 6 kilowatts
directional at 48 meters, the new application calls for 1 kilowatt
directional at 47 meters, with a broad null to the south and west that
would send just about all of the station's signal north from the
proposed site off Gross Hill Road, east of US 6. (In other words, the
station would protect basically the entire continental US, sending all
its signal north up the Lower Cape towards Provincetown and east
towards the fishies!)

*Up in NEW HAMPSHIRE, the FCC accepted for filing an application that
was apparently filed some two and a half years ago, for 91.9 in
Conway.  Not terribly exciting?  Consider this: the application from
the New Hampshire Educational Radio Foundation (isn't that Brian
Dodge's organization?) would put 90 watts at 1149 meters above average
terrain - high atop Mount Washington. What are the odds of another
station getting approved to go up on The Rock? We don't figure them to
be very high, especially with all the questions about what will become
of the existing radio tenants when WMTW-TV takes its transmitter,
generator and engineers off the mountain in a few years.

WYRY (104.9 Hinsdale) gets a license to cover for its new facility,
jumping from 1550 watts nondirectional to 4100 watts directional, with
a null to the northeast.  Antenna height for the country station drops
a bit, from 139 meters to 122.
 
*VERMONT's WDEV-FM (96.1 Warren) has been granted a power boost. The
station would jump from 140 watts non-directional at 700 meters AAT to
a directional signal with 400 watts at 694 meters.

Down in the Albany market, WEQX (102.7 Manchester) has a new PD, but
Alexa Tobin is a familiar face. A few years after leaving the station
(for a series of stops that included Providence's WBRU), Tobin came
back to Manchester to take the PD chair that's been vacant since Kyle
Guderian's departure last December.

*A few quick PENNSYLVANIA notes: We still don't know what Nextmedia
will do with its new Erie signal, but we know what the initial calls
will be on that Fairview-licensed 93.9: WRPL.  One other Keystone
State call change, along the Maryland line: WCHA-FM in Greencastle
changes to WIHR.

Just south of Elmira, DuBois Area Broadcasters (the WDBA 107.3
religious folks) are selling WREQ (96.9 Ridgebury) to the CSN
International folks. The price tag on the little religious outlet?
$300,000.

And in Philadelphia, Steve Williams comes on board as the new program
director at urban WDAS-FM (105.3), moving east from Sacramento's KSSJ
(101.9 Shingle Springs CA).

*In CANADA this week, the CRTC put out the call for new TV applicants
for Toronto, Hamilton and Kitchener. The commission has to call for
other applicants if it receives one application, and in this case the
Toronto Star folks filed for three low-power TV licenses, thus
prompting the opening for others to submit their proposals. Letters of
intent are due in Hull July 9, with full applications due in August 8.

Speaking of TV and Hull, Radio Nord wants to boost power on its Quatre
Saisons affiliate there. CFGS (Channel 49) would move to channel 34 in
order to increase from 17.6 kW visual to 117 kW, under the proposal
approved this week by the CRTC.

Deeper into Quebec, CJAN (1340 Asbestos) was granted its move to 99.3
FM with 6 kilowatts.  And back in Ontario, just as we'd predicted last
week, CJRN (710 Niagara Falls) and tourist information CFLZ (105.1
Niagara Falls) applied to swap frequencies.

In Toronto, things are getting back to normal at 1331 Yonge Street
after the "end of 1050 CHUM" festivities, though we hear things were
awfully subdued inside the CHUM building for the first few days of the
Team sports format. If you missed last week's recap of the final
hours, it's not too late - check it out at
<http://www.fybush.com/nerw-chum.html>.

*With a fairly light week's worth of news, let's make good on our
promise to recap some of the highlights of our April trip west, shall
we?

The flights in and out of Phoenix were just enough less expensive than
Vegas to offer a reasonable excuse for the detour, so we touched down
at Sky Harbor Airport on a nice Friday morning to begin our weeklong
odyssey. Picking up the rental NERWmobile (it's kind of like Air Force
One, you see: whatever we're driving becomes the NERWmobile for the
duration), we headed for the west side of town: Tolleson.

A turn off the dusty main street brought us to KMYL (1190)'s three
towers, with the old "KRDS" calls still on the transmitter
building. Just a bit to the east, we found the two top-hatted sticks
of the other Tolleson station, religious KXEG (1010).