NERW 8/27: Bad Blood at the Blood Drive

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

------------------------------E-MAIL EDITION-----------------------------
--------------------------NorthEast Radio Watch--------------------------
                              August 27, 2001

IN THIS ISSUE:

*MASSACHUSETTS: O&A - Bad Blood at the Blood Drive
*NEW YORK: Entercom Morning Show "Buzz"es to New Markets
*CANADA: The Call Letters You Never Knew

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

*We begin this week's update, reluctantly, in MASSACHUSETTS, where
resident Infinity bad boys Opie and Anthony are at it again. No sooner
did the duo's New York-based show begin airing in afternoons on
Boston's WBCN (104.1), than the two were back in the news for another
stunt.

You'll recall that Opie and Anthony were forced out of Boston for
their April Fools' Day stunt back in 1998 in which they declared
Boston mayor Tom Menino to be dead for an entire afternoon. It seems
they haven't quite forgiven WAAF (107.3 Worcester) for showing them
the door after that incident (even though it landed them at WNEW in
New York and now in syndication), at least judging by the scene at a
WAAF-sponsored blood drive at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Natick.

WBCN staffers reportedly visited the blood drive with megaphones in
hand, and one assaulted WAAF afternoon jock Matty Blake. The
Entercom-owned station says it has pictures of the WBCN employees
involved, and intends to press charges. We'll keep you posted.

On a much classier note, Charles Laquidara is being heard from again,
a year after his final morning show on WZLX (100.7 Boston). The
longtime WBCN "Big Mattress" host tells the Tab's Ed Symkus he's
enjoying the anonymity of life at his new Hawaii home. Laquidara says
he's learning Japanese, Chinese and Italian, and enjoying driving his
motorcycle too fast. As for a return to the airwaves, Laquidara says
he'd probably be "assassinated" if he went on the radio in Hawaii to
air his views on sugarcane farming and other local issues...

A bit of Boston TV news: Over at WCVB (Channel 5), chief meteorologist
Dick Albert is giving up the 11 PM newscast (the station says it's for
"personal reasons"), moving David Brown from mornings and noon to the
killer split shift of noon and 11 PM. Weekend guy Mark Rosenthal will
move to weekdays to handle the "Eyeopener" morning show, and Albert
will keep his early-evening duties.

*There's a new signal on the air in CONNECTICUT, and even though it's
just a watt, we'd bet plenty of people can tune in W220CE (91.9
Southington). That's because the new WMNR (88.1 Monroe) translator
sits high atop West Peak in Meriden, shoulder-to-shoulder (well,
bay-to-bay) with most of the big FM signals in Hartford and vicinity.

*The final days of talk on NEW YORK's WEVD (1050 New York) are
apparently upon us, and so is another protest from Chuck Zlatkin's
"Save WEVD" group. This time, they're planning a candlelight vigil
outside WEVD's studios at 333 Seventh Avenue, to begin at 9:30 PM on
Friday (August 31) and end with the candles being snuffed out at
midnight, when 1050 will reportedly become ESPN Radio under ABC
management.

On the TV side, we hear October 1 will be the debut of Univision's
second network, to be known as "Telefutura." WHSE (Channel 68) in
Newark, N.J., WHSI (Channel 67) in Smithtown, WHSP (Channel 65) in
Vineland, N.J. and WHUB-TV (Channel 66) in Marlborough, Mass. will be
the initial affiliates in NERW-land; we'd expect some call changes
down the road.

Some TV news from the Utica area: Fox affiliate WFXV (Channel 33) will
be adding a 10 PM newscast in September, part of the network's push to
get news on all its affiliates around the country (in NERW-land, only
WFFF in Burlington and WUTV in Buffalo are still holdouts, and WFFF
says it will be doing news next year). WFXV's news will be produced by
NBC affiliate WKTV (Channel 2), which will itself be adding a 5:30 PM
show next month. WKTV also promotes news director Vic Vetters to
general manager.

Heading west, our DX buddy Rick Lucas tells us he's seeing color bars that
just might be the new channel 52 in Ithaca testing. Anybody down that
way know more about it?

*As we head off to PENNSYLVANIA (more on that in a minute), we note
that listeners in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre are getting a little bit
of Rochester on their morning radio. The new "Breakfast Buzz with
Kimberly and Beck" show on Entercom's 80s-pop WBZA (98.9 Rochester) is
being simulcast to the company's other 80s "Buzz" stations, WBZJ
(102.3 Pittston) and WBZH (103.1 Freeland). By the way, that "WBZJ"
call is now the correct one for Pittston, picked quickly after the FCC
realized the initial "WUBZ" call for the station was already in use
across the state in Phillipsburg!

*We'll start this week's news from CANADA with word that CBC's Radio
Two service will soon be available in Quebec City. As part of the
CRTC's mandate to broaden the reach of CBC/Radio-Canada services, the
CBC won permission this week to put a new CBM-FM (93.5 Montreal) relay
on the air in Quebec City. The new signal, with 308 watts, will be at
96.1, the former home of noncomm CKIA ("Radio Basse-Ville"), which is
moving (or perhaps has already moved) to 88.3.

Anyone hoping to build a new radio station in the Toronto area will
have to wait a bit longer. The CRTC extended its suspension of a call
for new applications while Industry Canada continues its study of FM
spacing, in hopes of making still more short-spaced channels available
for new Toronto broadcasters.

And when we visited Radio Canada International in Sackville, New
Brunswick a few summers ago, we had no idea that the giant shortwave
transmitter site had its very own call letters. Yet there it was in
the CRTC's releases this week: a renewal for Sackville under the calls
"CKCX." Who knew?

*A program note: We'll be spending this Labor Day weekend, as usual,
at the National Radio Club convention (this year in Pittsburgh). There
will be no NERW on Monday, September 3 - but stay tuned to fybush.com
during the week for updates from the NAB Radio Show in New Orleans,
which kicks off on Wednesday, September 5. We'll be back with all the
news on Monday, September 10 - see you then!'

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

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