NERW 7/23: Life After Rush in NH

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

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                               July 23, 2001

IN THIS ISSUE:

*NEW HAMPSHIRE: WNTK Loses Rush, Counters with Local
*MASSACHUSETTS: Marino Returns to Boston
*NEW YORK: WFAS Flips to Standards

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

*Clear Channel has been awfully aggressive lately when it comes to
moving its signature talk talent to its own radio stations, but in the
Upper Valley of NEW HAMPSHIRE, one small station owner is fighting
back.

As we told you last week, Bob Vinikoor's WNTK-FM (99.7 New London)
lost the Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Dean Edell shows, both syndicated by
Clear Channel-owned Premiere, to Clear Channel-owned WTSL (1400
Lebanon), with the programs moving to their new homes on Thursday
(July 19).

But Vinikoor didn't take the move lightly; he tells NERW he spent the
last few months trying to persuade Premiere it was making a mistake by
moving from WNTK, whose FM signal covers much of western New
Hampshire, to the little 1000-watt WTSL, which is strong in Lebanon
and nearby Hanover but decidedly a distant signal in New London and
Newport, more than 30 miles away. Vinikoor's efforts included a
videotape showing the scenery in his coverage area -- and the weak
WTSL signal on his van's radio. The tape was returned, unwatched, by
Premiere executives, leading Vinikoor to try to get it to Limbaugh
himself.

And when it became clear that the battle was lost, Vinikoor switched
to a new plan: hiring former gubernatorial candidate Deborah "Arnie"
Arneson to fill Limbaugh's old shift on WNTK. Arneson's show debuted
Thursday on the station, bringing Vinikoor media attention that
included Manchester's WMUR-TV and several area newspapers.

Meanwhile on the AM side, we're told the Americana format is back on
WNTK (1020 Newport) after a brief simulcast with the talk FM; a
staffing change caused the temporary hiatus in the music. 

Vinikoor also updated us on the status of his construction permit for
WQSO (720 Hanover). The 50 kilowatt daytimer will require a few more
court battles before construction can start, thanks to a judge who
declined to hear an appeal of the Hanover regulation limiting towers
to 47 feet in height. An AM directional array on 720 will obviously
require towers more than five times as high, and Vinikoor says his
next step will be either New Hampshire's highest court or the federal
court system.

*Elsewhere in the Granite State, a well-known name is getting back
into the ownership game with the purchase of WBNC (1050/104.5 Conway)
and WMWV (93.5 Conway). Ron Frizzell sold his Portland/Lewiston
cluster to the Harron folks (WMTW-TV) last year; now he's buying the
Mount Washington Valley stations from Lawrence Sherman's North Country
Radio. It's always fun to see the old-fashioned names Frizzell uses
for his companies ("Wireless Talking Machine" was the usual one in
Maine, Massachusetts and upstate New York in years past); this time
it's the "Mount Washington Radio and Gramophone, L.L.C" buying the
stations. The WBNC simulcast does country, while WMWV is AAA; purchase
price hasn't been announced yet.

*Ralphie Marino is coming back to MASSACHUSETTS, a year after
departing WJMN (94.5 Boston) for the morning gig at New York City's
WKTU (103.5 Lake Success). Look for Marino over at the new Entercom
complex, taking Charlie Wilde's old seat at the middle of the WQSX
(93.7 Lawrence) morning show, alongside Karen Blake, Heather Gersten,
and "Survivor" Richard Hatch.

Out west, we're told WCAT (700 Orange) is indeed silent, with the
clock ticking at the FCC towards license cancellation in
November. NERW suspects Citadel will sell or donate the license before
that happens; we're sure there are religious or educational operators
who could put the little daytime signal to some use.

*The morning staff is moving around at one RHODE ISLAND AM
station. After several months of working a six and a half hour shift
on WPRO (630 Providence), Steve Kass is getting a bit of relief:
operations manager Ron St. Pierre is going back on the air for a
5:30-8:30 AM shift at the Citadel talker.

St. Pierre will get his sidekick by long-distance: Liz Bonis, health
reporter here in Rochester at WOKR (Channel 13), will do the WPRO show
from the Flower City. Kass will join Bonis and St. Pierre at 8, then
take over solo from 8:30 until 11:35 AM.

*We'll start our NEW YORK news in Westchester County, where WFAS (1230
White Plains) marked its seventieth anniversary by changing
formats. After a few years as a talker, WFAS flipped to adult
standards this week, locally generated (and with a few of the talk
shows continuing outside drive time for the moment).

The FCC sorted out its confusion a bit further up the Hudson Valley
this week, issuing a revised ruling on the many proposals for adding
new channels to the FM dial on both sides of the New York-Connecticut
border. The original ruling, quickly withdrawn, moved WQQQ (103.3
Sharon CT) to 102.5 - and allocated a new 102.5A in Rhinebeck NY, just
a dozen miles away! 

The new ruling leaves WQQQ at 103.3, keeps 102.5A in Rhinebeck as a
new noncommercial allocation (look for SUNY New Paltz' WFNP 88.7
Rosendale to apply for this channel to end its share-time with WMHT
relay WRHV 88.7 Poughkeepsie), and changes the open 102.5A Rosendale
commercial allocation to 98.9A (which will eventually be opened for
auction).

The loser here seems to be Sacred Heart University in Connecticut; it
had hoped for a new Connecticut 103.3 noncommercial allocation had
WQQQ been able to move, but that won't be happening.

Moving up the Hudson to Albany, the glory days of WPTR (1540) are now
being remembered with a new tribute site; check out
www.fifteenforty.com for historic sounds, charts and pictures from one
of the classic top-40 stations of the sixties and seventies!

Some good news for the Entercom cluster here in Rochester: the FCC
this week approved the allocation shift that will transform 93.3A
Avon, 20 miles south of Rochester, into 93.3A Fairport, just a few
miles east of Rochester. In practical terms, it means a real city
signal for WBBF-FM, once the paperwork is filed that will move its
antenna from a rimshot tower down in Livingston County to the WBEE-FM
(92.5 Rochester) stick on Five Mile Line Road in Penfield. (On a
historical note, that tower was the original "WBBF-FM," since that was
the first call on what's now WBEE-FM back in 1961 - and on 101.3 MHz
back then, to boot!)

Opie and Anthony *are* coming to Rochester - but not live. Infinity's
WCMF (96.5) will begin running their show July 30, delaying it from
its afternoon drive slot elsewhere to an 8-midnight schedule. Look for
promos touting Gregg "Opie" Hughes' brief stint as an intern for
WCMF's Brother Wease back in the late 80s...

On the TV front, our condolences to WROC-TV (Channel 8) lead anchor
Linda Allen on the death of her father last week. Allen had cited his
failing health as one reason for her upcoming departure from the CBS
affiliate, but we hear his passing won't change her decision to
leave. No replacement has been announced yet.

The FCC's been getting flooded with applications from the region's
low-power TV stations to upgrade to "Class A" status, which would give
them some protection from being forced off the air by future DTV
channel shifts. Among the applicants, though, are the several LPTVs
(including WBXO-LP Rochester and WOBX-LP Syracuse) that used to run
"The Box" and had more recently been "MTV2" affiliates. That struck us
as odd, since Class A status requires three hours a week of local
programming, and we've never seen a thing on WBXO-LP, at least, that
didn't originate from out of town. The question just might be moot,
though: WBXO-LP has been off the air all week. Hmmm....

And one "Radio People on the Move" entry for the Empire State this
week: "Holly C." of WLNG down on the East End of Long Island becomes
"Cricket" of WFRY (97.5 Watertown) as she departs Broadcast House
after a decade or so. Under her new name, she's part of the new
morning show at market-leading "Froggy" up there in the North
Country...congratulations!

*Working our way back down to NEW JERSEY, the FCC has been busy
working its way through all the big cluster transfers on its
plate. Greater Media won approval last week for its purchase of WDHA
(105.5 Dover), WRAT (95.9 Point Pleasant) and WMTR (1250
Morristown)/WWTR (1170 Bridgewater), while Charlie Banta's Millennium
group had its proposed purchase of Nassau's WOBM (1160 Lakewood),
WOBM-FM (92.7 Toms River), WADB (1310 Asbury Park), WJLK (94.3 Asbury
Park) and WBBO (98.5 Ocean Acres) flagged for ownership-concentration
review.

*In PENNSYLVANIA, Greater Media gets new calls to go with its new
"Mix" format on Philadelphia's 95.7: WEJM becomes WMWX, a call last
seen in the region on what's now WMEK (99.9) up in Auburn,
Maine. Harrisburg's new Clear Channel "Kiss" changes calls from
WWKL-FM (99.3) to WHKF, as long expected, while up in Erie, 102.3
changes again from WLKK to WQHZ-FM, just a few weeks after trading its
longtime WJET calls with WLKK(AM) on 1400.

While we're up that way, we hear that WEYZ (1530) over in North East
has ditched its satellite country format to simulcast the full-service
sounds of sister WWCB (1370 Corry); we'll have to check that out the
next time we're passing through.

And across the state line in OHIO, the call changes from the big
format/facility swap in Cleveland are beginning to take shape. We've
heard Cleveland's 1220, ex-WKNR, using the "WHKC" ID as it waits to
take its new "WHK" identity (those calls having been parked at the
former WCCD 1000 Parma), and we know Clear Channel temporarily moved
the "Kiss" WAKS calls from 104.9 Lorain to 98.1 Canton (ex-WHK-FM)
in preparation for swapping them with the WKDD calls still on 96.5
Akron (which is hiding its calls with a "WKDD Akron has moved to 98.1"
announcement once an hour!). We know WCLV-FM's calls moved with the
classical format from 95.5 Cleveland to 104.9 Lorain - and now we know
that the WFHM calls that replaced it on 95.5 are also showing up down
in the Youngstown market, where Salem took the dark 1440 facility that
had been WHKW and changed the calls to WFHM(AM). Whew...

*That'll wrap things up for another week. If you haven't checked out
the pictures and stories from last month's Big Trip, don't miss them -
you can see Part One at Tower Site of the Week until Wednesday, when
it will give way to Part Two, featuring all those legendary Chicago
clear channels. Don't miss it - <http://www.fybush.com/featuredsite.html>

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

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