No Subject

Michael Sleezer's new 1440 in Gloversville has calls: WFNY will be the
ID on the brand-new AM there; those calls lived on a never-built
Family Radio CP in Syracuse for a while in the 80s (it eventually took
air at 90.3 as public radio WRVD).

Up north, Mike Roach checks in to report a new Web site for the reborn
WRCD (101.5 Canton); find them at www.1015thefox.com.

Downstate, the FCC is getting ready to do some shuffling in the FM
table of allocations, at the request of several would-be station
operators. Just across the state line in Sharon, Connecticut, WQQQ
(103.3) will move to 102.5, thus opening up three new FM channels in
and around the Hudson Valley: 103.3A at North Canaan, Connecticut;
102.5A at Rhinebeck, N.Y.; and 98.9A (instead of the
previously-allocated 102.5A) at Rosendale, N.Y. Both North Canaan and
Rhinebeck are reserved for noncommercial applicants, the former at the
request of Sacred Heart University's WSHU, the latter at the request
of SUNY New Paltz, one of the original applicants for 102.5 in
Rosendale (which still has ten pending applications).

In New York City, the "Save WEVD" folks have set Thursday (June 21)
for a street protest in front of the Forward Association headquarters
at 45 E. 33rd St. They're hoping to persuade WEVD (1050 New York)'s
owners to keep the left-leaning talk station rather than selling it to
Disney, as has been widely rumored. The protest is scheduled to run
from 4 until 6 PM.

On the booster front, it's not just WFUV looking to shore up the edges
of its signal against translator invaders and such; WNYU (89.1 New
York) filed an application this week for its own on-channel booster in
Manhattan. The twist here: it would only be on the air a little less
than half the week. The New York University station shares its channel
with Fairleigh Dickinson U.'s WFDU (89.1 Teaneck NJ), and both would
have to yield the channel if the United Nations ever got serious about
the little-noticed proviso deep in the FCC rulebook that allocates
that frequency for UN use in New York.

*Moving over to New England, we know a bit more about those AM
applications in MASSACHUSETTS we mentioned last week: an FCC typo put
WSRO (1470 Marlborough)'s new site in the wrong spot. In reality, the
station would move to the Lexington site of WAMG (1150 Boston) when it
changes its COL to Watertown.

Talker WRKO (680 Boston) has a new PD. Jay Clark is heading to the
Entercom station to replace the departed Al Mayers; Clark had been
VP/GM of the now-defunct Comedy World network. 

Who'll be the new news director at WHDH-TV (Channel 7)? We still don't
know, though the rumor mill was churning a bit when former ND Mark
Berryhill left his ND post at San Francisco's KRON (Channel 4) last
week. Berryhill tells the trades he does want to move back east, but
WHDH is denying that he's returning to 7 Bulfinch Place.

Down on the Cape, "Boy" Troy Smith has resigned as OM of the Boch
Broadcasting group.

We hear WNSH (1570 Beverly) has been on and off the air again
sporadically; owner Keating Willcox tells NERW health problems
contributed to his decision to sell the rest of his Willow Farm group
to Ernie Anastos' group. The reported price tag on that sale, by the
way? $2.1 million. 

Another national Murrow winner to report, again in the small market
category: Congratulations to Marshfield's WATD (95.9), which added to
its hefty collection of trophies with a Murrow for feature reporting.
 
*Radio Disney is back to a single signal in RHODE ISLAND; Hall
Communications flipped WWRI (1450 West Warwick) away from the Mouse on
Wednesday night (6/20), changing to a simulcast of the urban oldies
it's programming on WNBH (1340 New Bedford).

*Mega Communications has a second market for its Spanish-language
all-news format. In addition to "Noticias 1380" (WNNY) down in New
York City, the format is now running in CONNECTICUT as "Noticias 1230"
on WNEZ (1230 Manchester) in the Hartford market.

Up in Sharon, WKZE (1020) adds a new Saturday morning jock: Bob
Chatfield comes over from WQQQ (103.3), reuniting him for a third time
with WKZE PD Marshall Miles.

*It turns out legal IDs matter, even in northern NEW HAMPSHIRE: we
hear New Hampshire Public Radio is finally saying "WEVC Gorham-Berlin"
on its newest acquisition (WEVC 107.1 Gorham), after more than a year
of incorrect "WEVC Berlin" IDs.

The new Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League will have
plenty of radio coverage when they begin play this fall. WGIR (610
Manchester) will be the team's flagship, with outlying areas hearing
the games via WGIR relays WGIN (930 Rochester) and WGIP (1540 Exeter),
as well as WTSL (1400 Lebanon), all part of Clear Channel's New
Hampshire group. We'll still be rooting for the Rochester Amerks,
thanks...

Norm Gagnon's GGN Information Systems site (www.ggninfo.com) is a
great source of lore about the early days of FM and TV in New England,
and now he's added a page of test patterns
(www.ggninfo.com/testpattern.htm). Check it out - and if you can help
him with some of the early IDs on his want list, the radio and TV
history community would be grateful!

*One bit of MAINE news: we hear WWBX (97.1 Bangor) morning host Mike
Hale is leaving; no word yet on what will happen now that Clear
Channel's plans to buy WWBX and sister WABI (910) have been put on
hold.

*One bit of news from CANADA, too: Bill Bodnarchuk heads west from
Halifax, where he's been GM of CHUM Group's cluster there, to replace
the departing Brad Phillips as GM at CHUM-FM (104.5) and CHUM (Team
1050) in Toronto. Scott Bodnarchuk then heads east from CHUM's
Winnipeg stations to take over in Halifax.

*From NEW JERSEY comes word that TKR Cable won't have to carry the
low-budget all-news (well, news and a lot of infomercials!)
programming of WRNN (Channel 62) from Kingston, N.Y. In a rare case of
regulatory sanity, the FCC accepted TKR's argument that WRNN is too
far from its Elizabeth, N.J. cable system and too irrelevant to the
viewers there to mandate "must-carry" status, even though Kingston and
Elizabeth are both part of the New York TV market.

*The big development in PENNSYLVANIA this week was the end of yet
another rhythmic oldies format, as Greater Media pulled the plug on
"Jammin' Gold" WEJM (95.7 Philadelphia), replacing it with a modern AC
blend as "The All New Mix 95.7." For those keeping score, this is
format number three since 95.7's days as classical WFLN-FM.

On the transaction chart: Shane Imler's New Millennium Communications
picked up WSKE (1040/104.3) in Everett from Marty King's Radio
Everett, for a reported $300,000. Just over the state line, Dame is
adding two more stations to its growing cluster in Chambersburg. The
new additions are Gemini's WHAG (1410) and WQCM (96.7), both licensed
to the Hagerstown, Maryland suburb of Halfway; the price is a reported
$3.4 million. (We were just in that market two weekends ago; a
complete travel report will follow when we get home for good!)

A call change in western Pennsylvania: the 107.7 in Cooperstown that
was WMHU and then WHUG-FM becomes WUUZ; a sign that it will soon be on
the air, perhaps simulcasting classic rock "Wuzz" WHUZ (94.3
Saegertown) in the Meadville-Oil City area?

Down in the Harrisburg area, All Access reports WHYL (960 Carlisle)
flipping from adult standards to the same oldies format in use at
Citadel sister WARM (590 Scranton). Meantime, we hear WEGK (92.7
Starview) will pick up the oldies and even some of the jocks when WWKL
(99.3 Harrisburg) goes CHR as "Kiss" in a few weeks...

*And that'll be that for a few weeks, as we gas up the NERW-mobile and
head out for our big roadtrip to find interesting towers, airchecks
and stories to tell. Check out the Travel page at fybush.com to see
where we'll be, and keep checking back during the trip (June 23 - July
7) for updates and pictures from the road! 

There will be no regular NERW for Monday, July 2 as we travel; we'll
be back with our next regular issue on Monday, July 9. See you then!

-----------------------NorthEast Radio Watch------------------------
                       (c)2001 Scott Fybush
                          www.fybush.com

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